Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1872-1979 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
1.1 m of textual records
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William (Bill) Janzen (1943-) enrolled in the University of Carleton's political science PhD program in the early 1970s. He collected documents that show the interactions between the Canadian federal and provincial governments and three minority religious groups -- Mennonites, Hutterites, and Doukhobors. In the fall of 1981 he successfully defended his 750-page thesis entitled "The Limits of Liberty in Canada: The Experience of the Mennonites, Hutterites, and Doukhobors". By this same time he was working for Mennonite Central Committee Canada (MCC) in the Ottawa office, advocating for Mennonite concerns with the Canadian government. Limits on Liberty: the Experience of Mennonite, Hutterite and Doukhobor communities in Canada, a new version of his thesis, was published in 1990. Janzen's research led him to examine the major communications between these groups and Canadian governments. Through his studies and publications, Bill Janzen showed how governments have responded on the issues of communal landholding, separate education of their children, exemption from military service, and the modification in welfare-state matters, in order to explore the political culture and institutions that shaped the responses and to account for the limited liberties that were given.
Repository
Archival history
This material was collected by Bill Janzen in the late 1970s from 4 main sources: The Public Archives of Canada, PAC (now known as Library and Archives Canada); the Benjamin B. Janz fonds at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Winnipeg (CMBS); Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization fonds held at the Mennonite Heritage Centre (MHC); and the Saskatchewan Archives Board. They were deposited at the Mennonite Heritage Centre by Janzen in 1998. In 2006 Janzen donated 2 other documents which were added to the collection and in 2020 the MCC News Service articles by Janzen regarding Old Colony Mennonites was added.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
William Janzen
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The documents show the interactions between the Canadian government and three minority religious groups -- Mennonites, Hutterites, and Doukhobors. The materials document the issues of communal landholding, special arrangements for the education of their children, exemption from military service, and modification in welfare-state matters. From these materials Janzen identified the underlying patterns in the government's responses.
Mennonites, Hutterites and Doukhobors are three minority protestant groups with origins in 16th Century Europe, that believed in separation from "the world" or general society. All three groups had a connection with Russia (former Soviet Union) and immigrated to Canada in the late 1800s-mid 1900s after securing some special privileges related to religion, education, and military exemptions from the Canadian government. These groups, sometime classified as Christian sects, settled in group settings in Western Canada, were agrarian based and believed in pacifism and non violence. Each group negotiated with the federal and provincial governments in order to practice their religion as they saw fit. The groups had some similar issues such as conscientious objection and alternative service during times of war. Other issues affected the groups differently. These included education, land settlement and use, and freedom from paying some taxes or contributing to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The documents included private and government correspondence, reports, articles, essays, and newspaper clippings; and, both primary and secondary documentation on all these issues. Almost all the materials are photocopies.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English, some German and a small amount of Russian.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Inventory file list
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Created by by Conrad Stoesz, December 21, 2005, updated March 17, 2006, and August 24, 2020.