In present-day Canada, the history of smallpox stretches back to European contact with indigenous peoples in the 17th century. Since the aboriginal demographic had no natural immunity, smallpox devastated populations that settlers made contact with. It spread first in New France near Tadoussac in 1616 and quickly reached tribes in the Maritimes, James Bay, and Great Lakes area. It reached the west coastal regions of Canada in the 1780s. On numerous occasions, the disease was used with official sanction by British troops as a form of germ warfare to suppress indigenous populations. After the smallpox vaccine was brought to Canada in 1796 by John Clinch, more concerted efforts were made to stem the further spread of smallpox.
