Canada had no laws against it, but it was still heavily stigmatised. I'm MĆ©tis, which is a whole ethnicity and culture based on a specific type of mixed union, and we literally couldn't live in most places without being forced to leave. Many of my ancestors were recorded as basically being on the move constantly, because nowhere was accepting for long. And yeah, they kept records and tabs back when it had to be done on paper. We were barely considered a type of Canadian until the 90s.
Rather, we were the unwanted mutts of their nationbuilding, that "got to" squat on government land, hide in parks and mountains, and live in the ten foot wide land clearances where a road was to go. The latter were called MĆ©tis Road Allowance communities, and existed from around 1900-1960 in shantytowns and shacks, ploughed over for the highway and rail system. Then, they took all of the kids they could find, and either adopted them to white families, and/or forced them into residential schools until 1996.
My ancestors worked building the railroads in the mountains of Alberta and BC, and lied their asses off to anyone asking about their ethnicity, because fuck that. I only found out when I was 17, because it was safe for me to be told who I was then.
It was kept from my dad growing up. He was told Irish and Sicilian, but no. MĆ©tis, his mother adopted to Sicilian Canadians, his dad's family just relying on a marry-in for the Irish bit.
Tracing the lines back is so fucking complex and painful.
It was never illegal, but the results of those marriages (living people!) sure weren't.
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