for its role in enhancing Italy's presence on the world stage, most Italians in Canada did not harbour any ill will against Canada and few remained committed followers of the fascist ideology. In 1990, former prime minister Brian Mulroney apologized for the war internment of Italian Canadians to a Toronto meeting of the National Congress of Italian Canadians. In May 2009, Massimo Pacetti introduced bill C-302, an "Act to recognize the injustice that was done to persons of Italian origin through their "enemy alien" designation and internment during the Second World War, and to provide for restitution and promote education on Italian Canadian history [worth $2.5 million]", which was passed by the House of Commons on April 28, 2010; Canada Post was also to issue a commemorative postage stamp commemorating the internment of Italian Canadian citizens, however, Bill C-302 did not pass through the necessary stages to become law. In 2021, prime minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the war internment of Italian Canadians, in the House of Commons. A second wave occurred after World War II when Italians, especially from the Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Campania, Calabria, and Sicily regions, left the war-impoverished country for opportunities in a young and growing country. A small number of Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians also immigrated to Canada during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, leaving their homelands, which were lost to Italy and annexed to Yugoslavia after the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947. Between the early 1950s and the mid-1960s, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Italians immigrated to Canada each year. Between 1946 and 1967, more than 90 percent of Italian immigrants took advantage of the sponsorship system whereby they were admitted into Canada if sponsored by relatives residing in Canada that would assume the financial responsibility for them during their settlement period. In the late 1960s, the Italian economy experienced a period of growth and recovery, removing one of the primary incentives for emigration. In 1967, the sponsorship system was restricted, instead basing immigrant selection on labour-market considerations, also decreasing the influx of Italian immigration. 90 percent of the Italians who immigrated to Canada after World War II remained in Canada, and decades after that period, the community still had fluency in the Italian language. Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia was an influential port of Italian immigration between 1928 until it ceased operations in 1971, where 471,940 individuals came to Canada from