After 1905 the demand for cheap labour in expanding commercial and industrial centres caused many newcomers from overseas to locate in Canadian cities. By 1907 there were large urban ghettos in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Immigrant districts such as Winnipeg's North End, were characterized by chronic overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions. Reformers warned that these ghettos were the breeding grounds of disease, ignorance, and crime.This photograph of a Winnipeg slum was taken from the "Annual Report of the Superintendent of Neglected Children for the Province of Manitoba, 1912." (F.J. Billiarde).
