Canadians in Cooperation and Conflict

When neighbours clash, and when they pull together

In January 1998, freezing rain coated eastern Ontario, southern Quebec and New Brunswick in thick ice. Hydro towers collapsed and millions of people lost power, some for weeks, in the middle of winter. Neighbours took in neighbours, farmers shared generators, and about 16 000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces were deployed to help. Sadly, dozens of people died in Canada during the storm.

Twelve years later, in June 2010, Toronto saw the largest mass arrest in Canadian history during protests at the G20 summit.

Canadians cooperate, and Canadians clash. Both are part of history. In this lesson you will look at examples of each and practise seeing them from different perspectives.

Conflict over jobs and money

• The cod moratorium (1992). After decades of overfishing, the northern cod stocks off Newfoundland and Labrador collapsed. On July 2, 1992, federal Fisheries Minister John Crosbie announced a moratorium. About 30 000 people lost their jobs, in what is often described as the largest layoff in Canadian history. Fishers and plant workers were angry at the federal government, which had set the catch limits, and at foreign fleets. Many communities lost young people who moved west for work (Lesson 12).
• Labour conflict. In Ontario, unions and community groups organized city-by-city Days of Action (1995–1998) against the provincial government's spending cuts, and in 1997 about 126 000 teachers walked out for two weeks to protest Bill 160, a law changing education funding and control. In 2023, more than 100 000 federal public servants went on strike. Strikes show conflict, but also cooperation among workers.
• Quebec student strike (2012). Tens of thousands of students protested a plan to raise university tuition, wearing a red square as their symbol. The provincial government passed an emergency law limiting protests; the tuition increase was cancelled after a new government was elected that fall.
• G20 Toronto (2010). Most protests were peaceful, but a small group smashed windows and burned police cars. Police then arrested about 1 100 people, many of whom had broken no law. Later reviews criticized the police for violating civil liberties.

Conflict rooted in hatred

Some conflicts come from hate. Since 1982 Canada has seen:

• antisemitic, anti-Black, Islamophobic, anti-Asian, anti-Indigenous and anti-2SLGBTQ+ incidents, from vandalism to violence;
• the École Polytechnique attack in Montreal on December 6, 1989, when 14 women were murdered in an act of anti-feminist hatred. December 6 is now the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women;
• the attack on the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City on January 29, 2017, in which six worshippers were killed; and the attack on a Muslim family in London, Ontario, on June 6, 2021, in which four members of the Afzaal family were killed;
• a rise in police-reported hate crimes, which more than doubled between 2019 and 2023 according to Statistics Canada, before levelling off in 2024.

Canadians have responded by cooperating: vigils, community support, new laws and education programs (Lesson 7). January 29 is now the National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action against Islamophobia.

Cooperation in emergencies

• Saguenay flood (1996) and Red River flood (1997): in Manitoba, about 8 500 soldiers and thousands of volunteers filled sandbags to protect Winnipeg and nearby towns in what was called the "Flood of the Century."
• Ice storm (1998): the largest peacetime deployment of the Canadian Armed Forces up to that time.
• Fort McMurray wildfire (May 2016): about 88 000 people were evacuated. Canadians donated millions of dollars through the Red Cross, and the federal government matched donations.
• Wildfires, 2023: the worst wildfire season on record in Canada; firefighters came from across Canada and from other countries.
• COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023): governments, health workers and citizens cooperated through public health measures and a mass vaccination campaign. But the pandemic also created conflict over mandates and restrictions.

The convoy and the Emergencies Act (2022)

In January and February 2022, the "Freedom Convoy" of trucks and supporters occupied downtown Ottawa for about three weeks to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions. Related blockades closed border crossings, including the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit, Canada's busiest trade crossing.

On February 14, 2022, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since it was passed in 1988. It gave police special powers, banned certain public gatherings, and allowed banks to freeze the accounts of people involved. Police cleared Ottawa within days, and the emergency was revoked on February 23.

• A public inquiry led by Justice Paul Rouleau concluded in 2023 that the government had met the legal threshold for using the Act, though he said he did so reluctantly.
• In January 2024, the Federal Court ruled that using the Act was unreasonable and that some measures violated the Charter. In January 2026, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.

People saw these events very differently: as a peaceful protest for freedom, as an illegal occupation that harmed residents and the economy, or as a test of how far governments can go in an emergency.