Deportation records
Some immigrants to Canada were refused entry when they arrived. Others were deported after they had lived in Canada for some time. Learn how to search for deportation records, where to look and how to access records.
On this page
Before you start
Gather information such as:
- name
- approximate year of birth
- country of birth
- place of residence in Canada
- approximate years of arrival and deportation
Places to look
Archival sources
We hold some historical government records relating to deportations dating from 1893 to the mid-1900s, but few still exist. There was no central register of deportees until the 1960s.
You can find deportation records in these archival Record Groups:
- Immigration Branch (RG76)
- Department of Citizenship and Immigration (RG26)
- Departmental of External Affairs (RG25)
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RG18)
- Department of Justice (RG13)
To search for records, follow these steps:
- Go to Advanced Collection Search.
- Select Any of these words from the top box, enter a surname and/or try keywords such as:
- Deportation or deported
- Extradition or extradited
- expulsion
- Undesirable or undesirables (a term used in the past to refer to deportees)
- insane (older records may use this term)
- Lists (for lists of individuals)
- Optional: Under Specific terms, Archival reference, enter one of the reference numbers above, for example RG76
Examples of the types of records you might find:
- L. Flett Miles, undesirable (indigent), 1909 (RG76, volume 556, file 807021, microfilm C-10638)
- Party of Bulgarians to be deported by Allan Line (lists) 1907 and 1908 (RG76, volume 484, file 745964-Allan Line, microfilm C-10418)
- Gordon Melville Sinclair - Chatham, New Brunswick - Case of Father Patrick O'Connor fighting against deportation, 1928 (RG13-A-2, volume 318, file 1928-133)
Passenger lists
- Sometimes you'll find notations showing a person was rejected on passenger lists (1865 to 1935) and border entry lists (1908 to 1935). Separate lists of rejected persons are often found in the border entry lists from 1908 to 1918.
- Some records include a notation beside a person’s name with an immigration department file number. Some of those files are related to deportation. Nearly all these files were later destroyed.
- In the passenger lists and border entry lists for the years 1925 to 1935, the reason for deportation or rejection was recorded with abbreviations that refer to the Immigration Act. A common example is the abbreviation “PC695 Sec3 ssJ.” This means that the person was refused entry under Order-in-Council PC695, Section 3, Sub-section j.
- Section 3 of the Immigration Act related to prohibited classes.
- Sub-section j referred to people who were considered likely to become a public charge.
- Sub-section T referred to those considered to be illiterate.
- For information about PC183, PC695 and PC1957, see Order-in-Council PC 1931-695, 1931.
Published sources
You can consult our Aurora catalog to find publications on this subject. Use the keywords “Canada”, “deportation” and “history”. Here is an example:
Roberts, Barbara Ann. Whence they came : deportation from Canada, 1900-1935. Ottawa: University of Ottawa, 1988.
Other sources
- Some deportation cases were mentioned in Newspapers.
- Some provincial archives might hold police or court records relating to deportation.
- Archival records or newspapers from other countries may indicate if a returning citizen was deported from another country.
- You might find references or statistics on deportations in the annual reports of the departments responsible for immigration.
Search tips
- If you don’t find any records when you search by a name, try your search without the person’s name.
- If a file title from RG76 includes the word lists, it means the file includes lists, correspondence, or other information about individual deportees.
- To find out if there is still a record for someone who was deported after 1960, contact Access to Information and Privacy at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Terminology
Rejected
Denied admission into Canada at the border or a seaport
Deported
Returned to home country after admission into Canada. People could be deported for reasons such as:
- financial, for example the person did not have money to support themselves (“vagrant” and “indigent” “likely to become a public charge” were some of the terms used in older records)
- medical, for example a physical or mental disability or illness (the term “insane” was used in many older records)
- criminal activity
- being an anarchist or a Communist agitator
Access the records
Digitized records
If you find a record of interest, there may be a digital image. Some of these are available through Collection Search. Others, particularly digitized microfilm forms, are available through Héritage.
Non-digitized records
References in Collection Search show if a record is open (access code 90) or restricted (access code 32).
If the item is restricted, you can request a copy from our Access to Information, Privacy and Personnel Records (ATIP) Branch.
For records that are not digitized and not restricted, you'll need to see them in person. If you can't visit us in person, you can order copies or hire a researcher.