1975 | Demonstration held the racist deportation of students.

In 1859, construction workers building houses at the corner of Rue Metcalfe and Boulevard de Maisonneuve unearthed remnants of skeletons, fire pits, tools, pottery, longhouse posts, and other evidence of an Iroquoian village formerly being located on the site. At this time, leading Canadian scientist and geologist William Dawson was the director of McGill College, responsible for developing the school into a major educational institution. Dawson examined this site – now referred to as Dawson Site – and concluded that it once held the village of Hochelaga. He published his findings the following year and many were quick to pronounce his conclusions correct so as to satisfy the intrigue surrounding Hochelaga’s enigmatic disappearance.

The Committee Against Racism (CAR) led a demonstration protesting student deportations and Canadian immigration policy. After the implementation of bill C-55, which imposed strong immigration restrictions, a number of students from so-called developing countries were deported often without a chance to appeal. At the beginning of the December of 1975, 13 students had been deported from Montreal. CAR’s demonstration came specifically in response to two Guyanese members of the committee being threatened with a deportation order. The specific charges against the two students were vague. One, Rasheed Sattar, was charged with having insufficient funds to support himself while studying in Montreal. Sattar was able to show Immigration officers a bank manager’s statement attesting that he had enough money to live in Montreal for a year, which was normally all that is needed for a student visa. However, one of the officers felt that Sattar was being “immoral” for leaving his wife and children in Guyana to complete a one year course at a Montreal technical school. CAR also believed that several Indian, Chinese, and Caribbean students at McGill had been threatened by the Immigration department and some deported.