Assyrian Canadians (French: Canadiens Assyriens) are Canadians of Assyrian descent or Assyrians who have Canadian citizenship. According to the 2011 census, there were 10,810 Canadians who claimed Assyrian ancestry,[2] an increase compared to the 8,650 in the 2006 Census.[3]
They are the indigenous pre-Arab and pre-Turkic people of northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeastern Syria, and northwest Iran, who speak dialects of Eastern Aramaic and are mainly Christian, although some are irreligious. Although most come from the aforementioned countries, many Assyrians have immigrated to Canada from Jordan, Georgia and Armenia as well.
The vast majority of Assyrian Canadians live in Ontario; 17,100 of the 20,000. 1,000 live in Windsor.[4]Greater Toronto Area contains the bulk of Ontario's Assyrians, especially in the communities of Brampton and Mississauga.
There, however, are very few outside of Ontario within Canada. For instance, Quebec only has 900 Assyrians, only 0.01% of its population.
History
The "Presby-Assyrians"
Battleford's News-Optimist on June 22, 1979, noted that, "The Canadian West has no greater settlement story than that of the Assyrians who landed on Canadian soil on January 1, 1903."[5][6]
Reverend Dr. Isaac Adams organized two groups of Assyrian immigrants from Urmia, one in 1903 and 1906. Unlike many other immigrant groups at the time, the settlers were composed of families and not just men. They were the first Presbyterians in the region.[6]
The Presbyterian Record, on January 1, 2008, the anniversary of the arrival of the Assyrian settlers, entitled their commemorative article: "Presby-Assyrians: they escaped persecution to form a unique community in Saskatchewan", connoting their religious and ethnic heritage.[7]
The first period of known mass-migration came just after the Assyrian genocide in the dying days of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The second and perhaps largest wave of migration into came during the Iran–Iraq War. Under the shadow of war, Saddam Hussein's al-Anfal Campaign constituted a major force for migration for Iraq's Assyrian population.
Ethno-linguistic group(s) indigenous to the Middle East with various additional/alternate self-identifications, such as Syriacs, Arameans, or Chaldeans