3 Old Stock Canadians: Arab Settlers in Western Canada
3 Old Stock Canadians: Arab Settlers in Western Canada
Sarah Carter
Syrians have a long history in Canada. Paul Anka is perhaps the best known Canadian of Syrian ancestry. But there were others; many of whom we must consider “Old Stock Canadians.” Somewhat less well known, for example, but still very popular in his day, was “Canada’s King of the Fiddle,” Ameen “King” Ganam, born in Swift Current in 1914. He entertained from a young age in Saskatchewan and then in Edmonton starting in the 1940s, later moving to Toronto where he had his own radio program the “King Ganam Show.” Ganam was one of the first inductees into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. A 1954 article about him began
With his dark good looks, flashing brown eyes and Syrian background, King Ganam looks as if he’d be most at home dashing across the desert on an Arabian steed. But says he, the only plains he has ever dashed across are those in Southern Saskatchewan where he was born and grew up.1
The southern Saskatchewan plains where Ganam was born, and that he dashed across, were home to many Arab settlers. Most referred to themselves and were known as Syrians, meaning that they came from an area encompassing present-day Syria and Lebanon. Arab settlers from Syria/Lebanon arrived in Western Canada starting well over one hundred years ago. They settled throughout the West, but there was a significant cluster of Arabs in southern Saskatchewan on arid marginal land, in the heart of the infamous triangle that Captain John Palliser identified as an extension of the Great American Desert. Most were from eastern Lebanon and they included Muslims and Christians.2 They were generally single men, arriving on the Canadian prairies through the United States. Others arrived as families. Some filed on homesteads of 160 acres, and “proved up,” receiving title to their land and persisted for decades. Others, like thousands of would-be homesteaders, deserted or abandoned their land. Some purchased land that they farmed. Aside from farming, Arab settlers operated general stores, bakeries and cafes in towns throughout the West and some were traveling merchants, visiting the isolated farms on foot or by horse and wagon in summer, and sleigh in winter.
One example is Saleh “Charlie” and Shrefey Gader and family.3 The couple met and married in the U.S. and they went back to Syria briefly before arriving in Saskatchewan in 1912, purchasing land near Pambrun. They farmed and Charlie was a traveling salesperson of goods while also taking on any available jobs, such as picking rocks. They bought a general store in McMahon in 1924, where Charlie initiated the establishment of a school and was a trustee. Selling the store they bought land near McMahon in 1927 and here they survived the Depression and raised their twelve children, one dying in infancy. They purchased more land and machinery over the years and had a large operation by the time the couple retired to Swift Current in 1951. Their daughter reme