Practice by chapter
Who We Are: practice quiz on Canada’s peoples
A ten-question set taken only from the second chapter of the guide, with the right answer shown after each click. Under the quiz, the names and dates that are easy to mix up.
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Practice questions written by Radif Partners from the facts of the official guide. Not the official test.
The Who We Are chapter of Discover Canada describes the peoples that make up the country, and 15 of the 150 questions in our bank are drawn from it. The core idea is three founding peoples: Aboriginal, French and British. The test then checks that you can split the term Aboriginal peoples into its three groups (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), that you know Inuit means "the people" in Inuktitut, and that the Métis form a people in their own right, with both Aboriginal and European forebears. Dates come next: the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the expulsion of the Acadians between 1755 and 1763, the federal apology of 2008 to former residential school students, and the House of Commons motion of 2006 recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. Add one rule about languages, New Brunswick being the only officially bilingual province, and you hold most of the answers. Every point counts when 15 correct answers out of 20 are needed.
Questions, counts and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How questions and dates are built
The three founding peoples
Discover Canada builds this chapter around a simple frame: Aboriginal peoples, who were here first, then the French and the British, who brought languages, laws and institutions. Questions rarely ask you to explain the frame; they ask you to recognize it among distractors that add or remove a people. Our bank holds 15 questions on this chapter, enough for one full practice set and part of a second.
Aboriginal peoples are thought to descend from people who crossed from Asia many thousands of years ago. The Royal Proclamation issued by King George III in 1763 first guaranteed their territorial rights. From the 1800s to the 1980s, many Aboriginal children were sent to residential schools designed to assimilate them, where they suffered hardship and abuse; the Government of Canada formally apologized in 2008.
| Date | Event in the chapter |
|---|---|
| 1604 | French colonists begin settling in today’s Maritimes (ancestors of the Acadians) |
| 1755 to 1763 | Great Upheaval: deportation of the Acadians |
| 1763 | Royal Proclamation of King George III |
| 1780s | Black Loyalists arrive from the American colonies |
| 1970s | the term First Nations comes into use; Asia becomes the main source of immigrants |
| 2006 | House of Commons recognizes the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada |
| 2008 | formal apology to former residential school students |
Names that are easy to confuse
Inuit and Inuktitut. Inuit is the people, Inuktitut the language; in that language Inuit means "the people". Acadians and Québécois. Acadians descend from French settlers in the Maritimes and lived through the Great Upheaval; most Québécois descend from about 8,500 French settlers of the 1600s and 1700s. Métis and First Nations. The Métis are not a First Nation but a distinct people with both Aboriginal and European roots. Bilingual province or bilingual country? English and French are official at the federal level everywhere; among the provinces, only New Brunswick is officially bilingual. Most Francophones live in Quebec, with large communities in Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba.
Diversity and religion
English-speaking Canada was shaped mostly by settlers from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Asia has been the leading source of newcomers since the 1970s. Catholics form the largest religious group, while the number of people with other faiths, or none, is growing. The guide also notes that governments have long worked with faith communities to run schools and hospitals and to resettle refugees, and that gay and lesbian Canadians enjoy the full protection of the law, including access to civil marriage. In the 1780s, Black Loyalists, free people and escaped slaves, came from the American colonies, where slavery was still legal.
Before and after this chapter
The previous chapter, Rights and Responsibilities, sets out the Charter that protects these communities. The next one, Canada’s History, tells how they met, from the first explorers to Confederation. Browse every question of the chapter in the question bank, or mix all chapters in a timed mock test. Facts summarized from Discover Canada.