This sub-series is composed of coded files from Allan J. MacEachen's Minister of Manpower and Immigration Office, and constitutes a rich research resource for that department. The early files deal with the management of a Minister's office and the Minister's department, and so are a window into how office and department operate in their own rights, and how they interact. The first 60 or so files deal with training, discipline, estimates, staff instructions and requests for employment. Particularly significant here are memoranda from the Minister to staff.
The rest of it is heavily correspondence-based, filed under subject. Correspondents are from across Canada, expressing opinions and ideas on immigration and labour. There is also much correspondence re-directed to MacEachen from other Ministers and MPs for him to answer, as well as contacts with his Deputy Ministers on policy issues. There is correspondence with provincial premiers, MPs and Senators. A particularly rich vein of material is memoranda from the Minister's staff to the Minister. There is also material on federal-provincial co-ordination of immigration and labour policy. While much correspondence is personal, there is also correspondence with entities, such as social work agencies, town and municipal administrations, boards and associations, as well as universities.
Significant political issues of the day are reflected here in the sphere of immigration, such as the Biafra Crisis and Biafran orphans, Czech refugees following the Czech Spring of 1968, the Sir George Williams riots, Ship Deserters, and especially the matter of admission of American draft dodgers to Canada. In connection with immigration, there are files on new structures raised to deal with immigration issues, such as the Immigration Appeals Board, and files on a host of sub-aspects of immigration, such as crime and illegality, medical examination, security issues, immigration criteria, displacement of Canadian labour and so on. Also, there are files that reflect Parliament's attention to immigration matters.
In addition to the above, which deal largely with matters of immigration, there are large blocks of material on employment and labour needs. Immigration was, in some measure, seen or treated as the obverse of Canadian labour needs. As with immigration, new structures were created for input on labour, such as the Canada Labour and Manpower Council and other advisory boards on labour and there are files on these organizations.
Worker training became a significant consideration at this time, manifested in the Occupational Training Act and there are files reflecting such activities in provinces and territories, as well as specialized training files for training of Indigenous People and language training for immigrants. The federal government also undertook important make-work projects, such as Winter Works, Student Summer Employment programs and specialized programs, such as the placement of handicapped and Indians in labour positions and the creation and development of these programs is documented here.
And, of course, there are files of a general nature, from individuals, social movements and labour bodies, commenting on the state of labour in that time, and the connection between labour and immigration.
