When you hold shares of a public corporation, you become a shareholder of that company. When that company makes a profit, it has two choices, either to keep that profit within the company for future requirements or give away some part of it to shareholders. So, when a company distributes its profit among its shareholders, the amount is termed as a dividend.
You can read more about dividends on this Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) webpage: Lines 12000 and 12010 – Taxable amount of dividends from taxable Canadian corporations
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