Pier Perspectives Blog

A brave little boy named Peep Aljas spent his first days in Canada under quarantine. He was born in Estonia in 1941 during the first Soviet occupation. He and his mother fled to Germany in 1944, just ahead of the Russian re-occupation.

V-E Day marked the return home of Canadian service personnel and a new period of immigration to Canada. Between 1942 and 1948, 44,000 War Brides and their 22,000 children arrived in Canada, most of them through Halifax. Nearly a million postwar immigrants passed through Pier 21, including European displaced persons and political refugees. With little or no money, clothing, and documentation, they often required the assistance of volunteer service organizations before reaching their new homes.

The trauma of a long quarantine stripped a young Michael Frederiksen of his languages.

Michael left Denmark with his family and arrived in Canada in late June of 1951 while the epidemic was raging. Not long after, he contracted it.

Being quarantined at Pier 21 meant a rough start to their Canadian adventure for the Blom family.

Shelly Blom was born in the Netherlands and in the spring of 1953 her parents decided to move.

In the summer of 1940, as the blitz raged in England, Percy and Grace Blackman’s parents told them they were going to Canada. They were thrilled. They were born in Canada and their family had moved back to their parent’s country in 1938.