Canada adopts a points-based immigration system
Race is formally removed as a factor in who can immigrate
Quick facts
- Order-in-Council
- 16 August 1967
- Criteria
- Education, skills, age, language, employment prospects
- Excluded factors
- Race, colour, national origin
- Effect
- Sharp rise in immigration from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Latin America
What happened
In 1967, following criticism of a 1966 White Paper on immigration, the federal government replaced its immigration selection criteria with a points system formalized in an Order-in-Council dated 16 August 1967 and put into administrative effect that autumn. Under the new rules, prospective independent immigrants were assessed on factors including education, occupational skills, age, employment prospects, and ability in English or French, with race, colour, and national origin explicitly excluded as criteria. This followed two decades of postwar immigration that had still generally favoured applicants from the United States, Britain, and other European countries, alongside episodes like the 1956 arrival of roughly 30,000 Hungarian refugees after the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Why it matters
The points system produced an immediate and lasting shift in the countries of origin of immigrants to Canada, with sharp increases in immigration from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and set the framework, still recognizable in Canadian immigration law today, that formally separated admission from race or ethnicity for the first time.
How we know
The 1967 Order-in-Council establishing the points system survives in federal regulatory records and is documented directly by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 and the Canadian Encyclopedia's immigration policy history.
Sources
- Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Immigration Regulations, Order-in-Council PC 1967-1616, 1967 · Primary source (author-declared)pier21.ca · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The Canadian Encyclopedia. Immigration Policy in Canada · Reputable sourcethecanadianencyclopedia.ca · The domain "thecanadianencyclopedia.ca" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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