1918 Influenza Pandemic - Canada: Fatalities

Canada’s flu dead included soldiers who had survived the fighting overseas only to succumb to illness once in Canada and thousands of family members who welcomed them home but perished soon after their arrival.

The loss of so many Canadians had a profound social and economic impact on a country that had already suffered 60,000 war dead. The combined death toll significantly reduced the workforce. It left thousands of families without a primary wage earner and orphaned thousands of children.

In attempting to halt the spread of the disease, many local governments shut down non-essential services. Provinces imposed quarantines and protective masks were required in public places. The epidemic led directly to the formation of the federal Department of Health in 1919.

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Influenza Pandemic, 1918–1919

As the Germans unleashed their final offensive in the spring of 1918, a new enemy appeared. Influenza attacked troops on both sides of the conflict, and the Canadian army found that the disease struck its troops both in France and in camps at home with terrifying rapidity. The outbreak spread quickly to the civilian population, killing many young adults between the ages of 20 and 45. Communities rallied to provide food, bedding, fuel and care to the stricken, but the speed of the disease's spread revealed the limits of medical knowledge and contemporary communicable disease control measures. Among many Canadians, however, the loss of 50,000 young men and women to influenza in addition to the 60,000 war dead prompted demands for government action to protect future generations from similar suffering.

Faits marquants

• 1918 : La grippe espagnole fait 13 décès parmi les élèves du Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière