REDAKTIONELT - Anglo Files

2 3 

Temaet for næste nummer af ENGELSK-MEDDELELSER bliver 

DEN NY GYMNASIEORDNING - OBLIGATORISK NIVEAU 

vurdering af forløb og eksamen 

Deadline 15/9 1990 

Vi har bedt engelsklærerne på et par gymnasier om at komme 

med deres kommentarer og meninger, men håber, at rigtig mange 

vil bidrage med deres oplevelser, tanker og erfaringer, i 

stort og småt: ekstemporalprøven (endnu engang), karakterniveau, 

historisk læsning, litteratur om teknologi og 

videnskab, osv. 

Vi mener heller ikke, at diskussionen om vores efteruddannelse 

er forbi med de indlæg, der står under debat i dette 

nummer, og vi håber også meget, at andre end fagkonsulenterne 

vil svare på brevet fra Mulernes Gymnasium, der handler om, 

hvordan vi bedst bruger de forskellige nye metoder i faget. 

God debat! 

Illustrationer: Trine Skovmand. 

DEADLINES: 15/1 - 15/3 - 15/5 - 15/9 - 15/11 

REDAKTION: 

MEDLEMSBLAD FOR ENGELSKLÆRERFORENINGEN FOR GYMNASIET OG HF REDAKTIONELT 

Elisabeth Gejl, Elverdalsvej 59, 8270 Højbjerg 

Jens Iversen, Vibevej 36, 7430 Ikast 

Lene Lundsgaard, Havndalvej 27, 9550 Mariager 

Annette J. Sauerberg, Kildegårdsvænget 34, 2900 Hellerup 

ISSN 0900-6516 

86-274380 

97-155109 

98-542226 

31-683012 

Dette temanummer er blevet til 

på initiativ af Inger Hastrup, 

Slagelse Gymnasium og forfatter 

til antologien Canada - Native 

Peoples and Immigrants (Gyldendal 

1981). Som medlem af the Nordic 

Association for Canadian Studies 

mente hun, at vi burde udnytte 

materialet fra Canada-seminaret 

på Arhus Universitet d. 11/11 

1989 med emnet Multiculturalism. 

Vi tog ideen op, og to af nummerets 

artikler er hentet derfra: 

Jean Burnets grundige redegørelse 

for multiculturalism, som det 

fungerer i Canada i dag, og Jørn 

Carlsens gennemgang af den skønlitteratur, 

der behandler emnet. 

At Canada netop nu er særdeles 

aktuelt på grund af løsrivningsbestræbelser 

fra Quebec-provinsens 

side, kan man forvisse sig 

om ved at læse Jørn Carlsens 

artikel: "Er Canada nået til en 

skillevej?" 

Baggrunden for situationen giver 

de to forfattere til Northern 

Lights (Futurum 1988), Birthe 

Nekman og Bente Lidang, i et kort 

rids over Canadas historie og 

samfundsforhold, og forfatteren 

til den anden antologi, der er på 

markedet, Canada Profile (systime 

1989), Merete Biørn, bidrager med 

nogle overvejelser over undervisningsforløb 

om Canada. 

Merete Biørn har endvidere sammen 

med Inger Hastrup fået 4 canadiske 

forfattere, der har været på 

besøg i Danmark, til at introducere 

sig selv og anbefale nogle 

canadiske værker, de mener vil 

kunne egne sig til vores elever. 

For yderligere oplysninger kan 

man henvende sig til 

Den canadiske Ambassade 

Kristen Bernikowsgade 1 

1105 København K 

33 122299 

Se i øvrigt under MØDER & KURSER. 

I dette nummer starter vi endnu 

en ny rubrik: NYT FRA BJERGET. 

Vi håber, at vi hver gang kan 

præsentere en eller to korte 

artikler, hvor universitetsfolk 

fortæller om deres forskning i 

stil med Niels Thorsen (KU) og 

Lars Ole Sauerberg (OU) i nr. 63. 

I dette nummer introducerer Jan 

Nordby Gretlund fra Odense Universitet 

os til "Southern Fiction 

Today".

14 15 

CANADAS HISTORIE OG SAMFUNDSFORHOLD 

En kort oversigt 

Birthe Nekman Bente Lidang 

Amtsgymnasiet i Solrød Hillerød Handelsskole 

Canadas befolkning 

I Canada bor der 25,3 mil. mennesker, 

hvoraf 85% bebor et smalt 

bælte på ca. 500 km langs grænsen 

til USA med de tre største byer 

Toronto (3 mil.), Montreal (2,8 

mil.) og Vancouver (1,2 mil.). 

Resten af Canada, der er det 

næststørste land i verden, er 

tyndt befolket, og 89% af landet 

er ikke permanent beboet. 

46,6% af befolkningen er af britisk 

afstamning, 28,7% af fransk 

afstamning, mens indianere og 

inuiter udgør 2%. 25% af befolkningen 

stammer fra andre europæiske 

samt asiatiske lande. 

I Quebec er størstedelen af befolkningen 

fransksprogede, men 

ellers er engelsk det mest udbredte 

sprog. Fransk-canadierne 

lever i konstant frygt for, at 

deres franske kultur og sprog 

skal forsvinde; derfor forsøger 

de såvel politisk som psykologisk 

af fremhæve deres nationale særpræg, 

hvilket bl.a. i 1969 har 

ført til indførelse af fransk som 

nationalt sprog sammen med engelsk. 

Generelt kan det siges om de øvrige 

nationaliteter, at der er og 

altid har været en tendens til, 

at de bosætter sig i samme områder 

og derved styrker sammenholdet, 

således at der mange steder 

i Canada, såvel i byerne som i 

landdistrikterne, findes befolkningsgrupper 

med markant nationalt 

særpræg. 

Indianere og inuiter 

Canadas ca. 1 mil. indianere er 

opdelt i to grupper, de registre- 

rede. Dette registreringssystem 

har sin oprindelse i den periode, 

hvor indianerne mere eller mindre 

frivilligt opgav deres jagtmarker, 

der blev opkøbt af europæerne, 

og indianerne blev samlet 

i reservater. Der findes ca. 

300.000 "status Indians", registreret 

i 560 "bands", fordelt 

på 2300 reservater, som forbundsregeringen 

er ansvarlig for 

m.h.t. penge, uddannelse og 

sociale foranstaltninger. 

Af "non-status Indians" findes 

der mellem 300.000 og 750.000. 

Denne gruppe består af indianere, 

der selv har valgt at frasige sig 

deres rettigheder og leve som 

almindelige borgere, og indianere, 

hvis forfædre har valgt 

dette til gengæld for penge eller 

landområder. 

De ca. 25.000 canadiske inuiter 

lever spredt over det arktiske 

område i ca. 50 småsamfund. De 

lever hovedsageligt af jagt og 

fiskeri, men den moderne 

teknologis indtrængen har givet 

arbejdspladser til en hel del 

inuiter. Deres levevis undergår 

stadige forandringer i takt med 

udbygningen af moderne transportog 

kommunikationsmidler. 

Sundhedsforanstaltninger, skoler 

og ændret levevis har bevirket, 

at inuiterne ikke længere lever 

som nomader, men er blevet 

fastboende. Hvilke konsekvenser, 

positive såvel som negative, den 

moderne civilisations ankomst til 

det arktiske område vil have, kan 

kun fremtiden vise os. 

Regeringsforhold 

Canada er et demokrati med en. 

forbundsregering og 10 delstater 

samt to territorier med begrænset 

selvstyre. Den britiske dronning 

er repræsenteret ved generalguvernøren, 

hvis funktioner kun er 

formelle og ceremonielle. 

Forbundsregeringen i Ottawa 

består af underhuset og senatet. 

Underhuset har 282 valgte medlemmer, 

der repræsenterer delstaterne 

i forhold til befolkningstallet. 

Senatets 104 medlemmer 

bliver udpeget af generalguvernøren 

efter råd fra premierministeren, 

og pladserne fordeles 

efter samme system som underhusets. 

Det storte politiske parti i 

underhuset danner regering, og 

dets leder bliver premierminister. 

I dag er der fire 

partier: "the Liberal Party", 

"the Progressive Conservative 

Party" (siden 1984 regeringsparti 

med Brian Mulroney som leder), 

"the New Democratic Party" og 

"the Social Credit Party". 

Forbundsregeringen tager sig af 

udenrigspolitik, forsvar, handel 

og industri, finanspolitik, 

offentlige arbejder, transport, 

skibsfart, indvandring, administration 

af "Indian Affairs", og 

forholdene i de nordlige territorier. 

Delstatsregeringerne tager 

sig af uddannelse, naturrigdomme, 

ejendomsret, borgerrettigheder 

og de kommunale institutioner. 

Områder som sundhed og 

velfærd, arbejdsløshed, lovgivning, 

landbrug og beskatning 

varetages af såvel forbundsregering 

som delstatsregeringer. 

Canadas historie 

Canada har fra de tidligste tider 

været et indvandrernes land. De 

befolkningsgrupper vi kalder de 

indfødte, the native peoples, kom 

oprindeligt fra Asien. Indianerne 

kom for ca. 30.000 år siden, idet 

de forfulgte store hjorde af 

bøfler, der krydsede Beringstrædet 

i den sidste istid, mens 

der var fast forbindelse mellem 

Asien og det nordlige Amerika, 

hvorfra de spredte sig over hele 

det amerikanske fastland.

16 

Inuiterne kom sejlende over 

Beringstrædet mellem år 15.000 og 

10.000 f.v.t., hvorefter de drog 

over det arktiske område helt til 

Grønland. 

Omkring år 1000 e.v.t. gik 

vikingerne i land i Nordamerika 

og blev således de første 

europæere, der slog sig fast ned, 

hvilket vi har bevis på efter et 

fund i 1960 af en boplads i Newfoundland. 

Tidligere mente man, 

at John Cabot, der var sendt af 

Henry VII af England, havde påbegyndt 

den europæiske kolonisation 

af Canada i 1497. Adskillige 

opdagelsesrejsende forsøgte på 

denne tid at finde Nordvestpassagen 

til Orienten, således 

franskmanden Cartier i 1534 og 

englænderen Sir Martin Frobisher 

i 1576. Nogle opdagelsesrejsende 

slog sig ned, da de opdagede de 

rige muligheder, der lå i handelen 

med skind med indianerne. 

Blandt disse var franskmanden 

Samuel de Champlain i det 

nuværende Quebec i 1608, og 

englænderen Henry Hudson i 1610. 

I kølvandet på disse og med 

udsigt til store rigdomme strømmede 

englændere og franskmænd i 

stort tal til Nordamerika i løbet 

af 1600- og 1700-tallet, med det 

resultat at der opstod lange og 

bitre magtkampe mellem franskmænd 

og englændere, der hver for sig 

blev støttet af forskellige 

indianerstammer om rettighederne 

til de givtige jagtmarker. 

I 1759 sejrede englænderne over 

franskmændene, og det franskdominerede 

New France blev en 

engelsk koloni, der dog allernådigst 

fik lov til at beholde 

en vis del af deres franske 

lovgivning. Som følge af den 

amerikanske frihedserklæring i 

1776 flyttede mere end 30.000 

britiske Loyalister nordpå til 

New France. Da disse tilflyttere 

ikke kunne acceptere at være 

underlagt fransk lovgivning, blev 

New France i 1791 delt i et 

engelskdomineret Upper Canada og 

et fransk Lower Canada, begge 

kolonier med delvis selvstyre. 

Efter krigen 1812-14 mellem 

England og USA emigrerede over 

500.000 englændere til Canada 

tilskyndet af løftet om gratis 

land, fordi England ønskede at 

styrke kolonierne i tilfælde af 

en ny krig. Hermed blev grunden 

lagt til den nuværende engelsk- 

talende befolkningsmajoritet. 

Grænsen mellem de britiske 

kolonier og USA blev i 1846 

trukket fra de store søer vestpå 

langs den 49. breddegrad til the 

Rocky Mountains. 

Den stærkt stigende befolkning 

i kolonierne begyndte nu at kræve 

mere selvstyre. Frygten for en 

ny amerikansk revolution fik det 

britiske parlament til at 

acceptere en union, der blev 

indgået mellem de fire kolonier 

Ontario (Upper Canada), Quebec 

(Lower Canada), New Brunswick og 

Nova Scotia; hver provins fik 

deres egen regering til at styre 

indre anliggender. Således 

dannedes the Dominion of Canada 

i 1867 og kernen i nationen var 

skabt. I 1870 blev provinsen 

Manitoba dannet efter britisk 

opkøb af enorme arealer tilhørende 

the Hudson's Bay Company, 

mens resten af området blev til 

the Northwest Territories, styret 

af forbundsregeringen i hovedstaden 

Ottawa. Kolonien British 

Columbia blev provins i 1871 og 

Prince Edward Island i 1873. Da 

der i 1898 blev fundet guld i det 

nordlige Canada startede det 

berømte "Goldrush" til Klondyke, 

hvorved en udvikling blev sat i 

gang, der resulterede i dannelsen 

af the Yukon Territory, som blev 

løsrevet fra the Northwest 

Territories. The Canadian Pacific 

Railway tværs over landet stod 

færdigbygget i 1895, hvilket 

muliggjorde transport til store 

uudnyttede områder vestpå. 20 år 

senere dannedes prærieprovinserne 

Saskatchewan og Alberta, efter en 

fortsat stigende immigration nu 

også fra andre europæiske lande. 

Modvilligt, men med udsigt til 

bedre sociale forhold, sluttede 

det meget britisk loyale 

Newfoundland sig til unionen i 

1949 som provins nr. 10. 

Før første verdenskrig var Canada 

i udenrigspolitisk henseende 

stadig en britisk koloni. I 

første verdenskrig gjorde Canada 

sig internationalt bemærket ved 

en enorm indsats; en stærk nationalfølelse 

var ved at brede sig, 

copyright: The Inuit Print (National Museum of Man, Ottawa) 

17 

og kravet om fuld selvstændighed 

førte til, at Canada reelt i 1931 

blev en selvstændig nation. Selve 

den nominelle side af sagen tog 

lang tid, og først i 1982 blev 

lovgivningen endelig bragt i 

orden, således at de sidste 

rester af britisk overherredømme 

er Dronningens position som 

formelt overhoved og Canadas 

medlemskab af Commonwealth. 

* * *

18 19 

The twentieth anniversary of the 

proclamation of a policy of 

multiculturalism for Canada is 

less than two years away. At 

least one person is planning to 

observe the occasion: he intends 

to publish a book, tentatively 

entitled "Multiculturalism: The 

Other Side," devoted to arguments 

against multiculturalism. He 

telephoned the Multicultural 

History Society of Ontario to 

complain that he had found only 

one article against multiculturalism 

and to ask for assistance 

in locating more. He was given 

a list of ten or a dozen works. 

In its second decade multiculturalism 

has advanced far beyond 

what was anticipated in 1971, but 

it has by no means won general 

acceptance. 

Multiculturalism "can be defined 

as the official recognition by 

governments, expressed in legislation 

and/or in speeches and 

programs, of the many different 

origins of their present populations, 

combined with the stated 

intention to protect and assist 

those who are not members of the 

founding majority or charter 

groups." (1) In Canada it is one 

of a bundle of policies, including 

those concerning immigration, 

citizenship and human rights. The 

aim of the policies is to make 

Canada open to all on the same 

terms and to facilitate full and 

equal participation in society by 

all, whatever their race, ethnic 

origin, colour or culture. To 

that end it is considered laudable 

for all to retain cherished 

symbols of their cultural and 

linguistic heritages, and assistance 

is made available for such 

retention. Although the policies 

are not administered by a single 

department, they are similar in 

MULTICULTURALISM: THE SECOND DECADE 

af Dr. Jean Burnet, 

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Toronto 

aim and cannot be discussed in 

complete isolation from one 

another. 

Multiculturalism might seem to 

be a natural and inevitable 

policy for Canada. Its population 

was heterogeneous even before 

European contact, as the name the 

descendants of its earliest 

peoples have chosen for 

themselves implies: not the First 

Nation but the First Nations. 

There were at least fifty 

societies with at least a dozen 

languages when Europeans began 

to explore and settle the 

northern half of North America. 

The heterogeneity of the popution 

has increased with time, 

slowly during the French regime, 

more quickly under the British, 

and very quickly during the last 

century, with the opening of the 

West in early decades and the 

massive immigration and flow of 

refugees after World War II. Now 

the Canadian population is drawn 

from all parts of the world, and 

every region in the country has 

a characteristic ethnic mixture. 

The groups forming those mixtures 

frequently try to trace their 

Canadian roots to explorers or 

pioneers whose association with 

the particular groups claiming 

them is extremely tenuous. 

Similarly multiculturalism is 

sometimes given a lineage as 

lengthy as it is dubious. Canadians 

talk of traditions of ethnic 

and racial tolerance that differentiate 

them from their usual 

standard of comparison, the 

Americans. They are, however, 

more like the Americans than they 

like to admit. They have a heritage 

of slavery of both Africans 

and Amerindians. If it was more 

benign, on a smaller scale and of 

shorter` duration than American 

slavery, it was so because of 

economic and geographical conditions 

rather than moral superiority. 

Canadians have a long 

history of - broken promises to the 

First Nations, for which they are 

now being called to account, and 

of discrimination against African 

Canadians. Anti-Semitism goes 

back to the French regime, when 

Jews, along with other non-Roman 

Catholics; were rigorously 

excluded from the colony. If Jews 

were admitted under the British 

and in 1$32 achieved full rights 

of citizenship, they have 

frequently endured discrimination 

both at the gates to the country 

and inside it: Abella and 

Troper's "None Is Too Many (2) 

presents examples from the 1930s 

and 1940s that are all too 

graphic. ':Chinese, Japanese and 

South Asians - "hindoos" - met 

little tolerance. Pacifist sects 

such as the Doukhobors, Mennonites 

and Hutterites owed their 

admittance to their reputation 

as farmes, but that was not 

enough to win them acceptance 

from their neighbours; neither, 

by the way, were the British and 

Scandinavian ethnic origins and 

American experience of the 

Mormons. The people from central 

and eastern Europe - the stalwart 

peasants in sheepskin coats, 

their stout wives and numerous 

children who were considered the 

best settlers for the second-best 

land by the framer of Canada's 

first energetic immigration 

campaign, Clifford Sifton - 

encountered such epithets as 

white niggers. 

Discrimination was not only informal: 

it was built into federal 

and provincial laws and regulations 

and local by-laws. Much of 

it was direct and open. The requirement 

of 1908 that immigrants 

had to come on a continuous journey 

from their country of origin 

was a veiled attack on South 

Asians and Japanese - it was also 

used against Jews - but there was 

nothing covert about the Chinese 

Immigration (Exclusion) Act of 

1923. Restrictive covenants on 

residential areas were often 

frank in barring Jews and 

Negroes, though sometimes summer 

resorts genteelly spoke of select 

clienteles. As late as the 1940s 

a federal cabinet minister could 

assert in the House of Commons 

that Canada was for the white 

race, and Prime Minister 

Mackenzie King could opine that 

Canadians did not want to make 

a fundamental change in the 

character of the population by 

"large-scale immigration from the 

Orient." (3) Anglo-conformity was 

the aim of policy, and the discriminations 

against non-British 

and non-Europeans were coupled 

with discriminations in favour 

of British subjects. By the 1930s 

the mosaic had become a staple 

of political speeches, but it is 

difficult to find concrete 

measures that encouraged the 

maintenance of differences rather 

than assimilation. 

The mosaic was contrasted with 

the American melting pot, and 

there was a strong conviction 

that the British dealt with 

racial and ethnic relations 

better than the Americans. The 

British tradition, not discriminatory 

immigration regulations, 

was credited with the lack of 

colour problems in Canada and 

with the scarcity of immigrant 

ghettoes in Canadian cities. Now, 

when England has received many 

coloured people from its former 

colonies and has responded to 

them with prejudice and discrimination 

as vicious as that in the 

United States, it is hard to 

remember that the British used 

to claim superiority in dealing 

with race and ethnic situations 

and harder still to remember how 

they explained it. 

When Mackenzie King made his pronouncement 

in 1947 the Canadian 

population was still basically 

British: outside of Quebec 60

20 

percent of the population was of 

British ethnic origin. It is safe 

to assume that because of 

assimilation more than 60 percent 

was English Canadian in ethnic 

identity. But at the end of the 

Second World War this was about 

to change. 

The population, while it 

continued to come from the United 

Kingdom, the United States and 

continental Europe, rose remarkably 

through the post-war years. 

The first arrivals were war 

brides, displaced persons and 

those who were determined to put 

an ocean between themselves and 

once and future battlefields. 

They were quickly joined by 

others who came to take part in 

Canada's rapid economic expansion, 

either by using skills that 

Canadians did not have or by 

undertaking hard and menial jobs 

that Canadians would not perform. 

Between 1945 and 1967 the ethnic 

origins most strongly represented 

among immigrants were British, 

Italian, German, Dutch, Polish 

and Jewish; of the six origins, 

three - British, ,ferman and Dutch 

- had been among the preferred 

origins in earlier periods, and 

the other three were also 

European. 

Meanwhile the ethnic ideologies 

of the past were undergoing 

revision. The decline of Britain 

in power and prestige and the 

demographic changes in Canada 

called into question the old 

assumptions of Anglo-conformity 

and the policies related to it. 

Simultaneously the old discriminations 

became unconscionable. 

What had been considered acceptable 

expressions of anti-Semitism 

and racism in Canada and throughout 

the world changed. The 

horrors of the death camps and in 

particular the attempted genocide 

of Jews and Gypsies led to a 

revulsion against discrimination 

based on race, language, culture 

or origin. The United Nations 

emerged, and quickly began to 

give leadership in regard to 

human and cultural rights. 

In Canada the discrimininatory 

practices of the past began to 

be discarded both at the federal 

and the provincial level. The 

Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 

was repealed in 1947 and small 

numbers of immigrants from India, 

Pakistan and Ceylon were given 

admission from 1951 on. South 

Asians and Chinese were 

enfranchised in 1947 and Japanese 

in 1949. Human rights codes, fair 

employment practices and fair 

accommodation practices acts were 

adopted in province after 

province. But the immigration of 

Asians and West Indians was still 

rigorously restricted. Minister 

after minister responsible for 

immigration had to defend the 

restrictions on grounds they must 

have known to be false, such as 

inability of people from the 

Caribbean to endure the Canadian 

climate. 

It was in the 1960s that post-war 

changes became dramatically 

evident. In that decade, ethnic 

movements were occurring in many 

parts of the world, one of the 

most spectacular being the Black 

Revolution in the United States. 

Such movements formed the 

backdrop for a crisis in 

relations between English 

Canadians and French Canadians. 

The relations had never been 

easy, but heretofore they had 

hardly been desperate. Now, 

however, came in quick succession 

the death of long-time Premier 

Maurice Duplessis, the period of 

rapid state-directed economic and 

social change known as the Quiet 

Revolution, the terrorist acts 

of the FLQ, the setting up of the 

Royal Commission on Bilingualism 

and Biculturalism, Expo '67, 

General de Gaulle's cry of "Vive 

the Quebec libre," the founding 

by Rene Levesque of the Parti 

Quebecois and the Official Languages 

Act. 

While all this was going on, the 

relations to English Canadians 

and French Canadians of the 

Native Peoples and the ethnic 

groups that were not Native, 

French or British also became 

problematical. Just as the French 

Canadians of Quebec origin began 

to express their new conception 

of themselves by calling 

themselves Quebecois, the Native 

Peoples began to call themselves 

the First Nations and those who 

had been called Eskimo won 

recognition for their own name 

for themselves, Inuit. They 

established more and more 

connections with the aboriginal 

peoples of other countries, 

including the militants in the 

American Indian Movement. 

Governmental concern resulted in 

the voluminous Survey of 

Contemporary Indians of Canada, 

directed by H.B. Hawthorn and 

M.A. Tremblay, (4) in 1966 and 

1967, and a White Paper in 1969 

that proposed that the Indian Act 

be repealed, and Indians receive 

the same services as other 

Candians through the same 

channels and from the same 

government agencies as other 

Canadians. The response of the 

Indians was an angry rejection 

of the White Paper and an 

insistence that they henceforth 

be involved in the formulation 

of Indian policy. Whereas the 

Native Peoples had not been 

mentioned in the terms of 

reference of the Royal Commission 

on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 

the other ethnic groups 

had been given causal recognition. 

The commissioners had been 

asked to "take into account the 

contribution made by the other 

ethnic groups to the cultural 

enrichment of Canada and the 

measures that should be taken to 

safeguard that contribution." At 

first the Commissioners, wh. 

included one Polish and one 

Ukrainian immigrant, and them 

directors of research for the 

Commission intended only to seek 

out essays on the contribution- 

of a small number of groups and 

analyses of the attitudes of a 

few other ethnic groups towards 

French-Canadian nationalism and 

separatism, especially in Montreal. 

However, the immediate and 

vehement response of the other 

ethnic groups to the Commission's 

terms of reference, the briefs 

presented at public and private 

hearings, the discussion sparked 

by the publication of Porter's 

The Vertical Mosaic in 1965, and 

the brief and almost surreptitious 

investigations carried out 

by members of the other ethnic 

groups who had obtained jobs on 

the research staff resulted in 

the devotion of Book IV of the 

Commission's report to the other 

ethnic groups. In response to 

Book IV, on 8 October 1971 the 

Liberal government proclaimed a 

policy of multiculturalism within 

a bilingual framework. 

In the House of Commons the 

policy was welcomed by the 

leaders of the Conservative, New 

Democratic and Social Credit 

parties, but outside the house 

adverse cricitism began almost 

at once. French-Canadian opinion 

leaders such as Guy Rocher and 

Claude Ryan saw it as menacing 

the more equal partnership for 

which they had been striving and 

which they felt had been brought 

within reach by the Royal Commission. 

They felt that it put all 

cultures except the British on 

an equal footing. They were not 

reconciled by the statement that 

multiculturalism was to be within 

a bilingual framework: since they 

held that culture and language 

were inseparable, they saw other 

cultures being given rights at 

the expense of the French. On the 

other hand, spokesmen for the 

other ethnic groups, especially 

Slavic groups, complained that 

multiculturalism meant little if 

they were not given resources for 

the maintenance of their languages 

and cultures comparable 

to the resources being allocated 

for official bilingualism. Porter 

21

22 

used his great prestige as 

analyst of the vertical mosaic 

to inveigh against any recognition 

by government of ethnic 

and cultural differences. To him 

ethnicity and culture were 

synonyms, and culture was either 

already mythical or quickly 

becoming so: he was explicitly 

assimilationist. 

It was apparent in the criticism 

of the policy of multiculturalism 

that it was being interpreted as 

doing what ethnic group spokesmen 

had demanded during the 1960s: 

giving support to the other 

ethnic groups for the retention 

of their cultures and languages. 

A reading of Hansard for 8 

October 1971 suggests that the 

government's intention was rather 

to increase interaction among 

ethnic groupps and to remove 

barriers to full participation 

in Canadian society. If the word 

multiculturalism seems inappropriate 

to clothe this intention, 

it was used because the Royal 

Commission on Bilingualism and 

Biculturalism and after it the 

framers of the policy of multiculturalism 

regarded ethnic and 

cultural as synonyms. Under the 

policy a programme for cultural 

retention was explicitly based 

on the assumption that security 

in one's ethnic identity made for 

acceptance of others. New though 

the word multiculturalism was, 

however, the government was not 

able to make it mean what the 

government chose it to mean. For 

scolars, journalists, spokespeople 

for ethnic groups and the 

general public it meant cultural 

and linguistic retention. 

The general public of course 

became aware of the policy only 

slowly, as it becomes aware of 

most policies other than tax 

increases. Surveys in 1973 and 

1974 revealed that only about one 

respondent in five knew about the 

federal policy of multiculturalism. 

But with the repeated 

discussion of the policy in the 

press, by both proponents and 

opponents, and the lauding of the 

policy by prominent visitors, 

including the Queen and the Pope, 

knowledge spread. 

Opinions among the public were 

no more unanimously favourable 

than among scholars, ethnic 

spokespeople and journalists. The 

letters to the editors of major 

newspapers contained many worried 

or hostile comments. Fears that 

governmental support for cultural 

differences would lead to 

balkanization or ghettoization, 

indignation that public funds 

were being used to support 

activities that had previously 

gone on without government aid 

and suspicion that the only 

motivation for the policy was a 

quest for "the ethnic vote" were 

all frequently expressed. The 

word multicultural entered into 

everyday speech, usually as a 

euphemism for ethnic, which in 

turn was, as a character in one 

of Rohinton Mistry's short 

stories explained to another, "a 

polite way of saying bloody 

foreigner" (6); but many who 

accepted a multicultural society 

had misgivings about a multicultural 

policy of government. 

Ethnic and linguistic differences 

should be maintained, they felt, 

but by the family and the ethnic 

group and not out of the public 

purse. 

The proclamation of the federal 

policy of multiculturalism was 

followed not only by the adoption 

of multiculturalism in a number 

of provinces but by several 

related measures. A new Citizenship 

Act removed the few 

remaining privileges accruing to 

British subjects. A Human Rights 

Act affirmed the principles of 

non-discrimination within the 

country. A new Immigration Act 

removed all formal discrimination 

on racial and ethnic grounds 

regarding entry.

24 25 

The Immigration Act formalized 

changes that had been effected 

in 1962 and 1967 by changes in 

regulations. Asians and Blacks 

were no longer to be singled out 

for special restrictions: 

education, training and skills 

were to be the main criteria for 

landing in Canada. The changes 

immediately increased the 

proportion of immigrants from 

Asian and Caribbean countries and 

resulted in such immigrants 

having levels of education higher 

than the native born. (7) At the 

same time the source countries 

for refugees, who were admitted 

on somewhat more humanitarian 

criteria than immigrants, shifted 

from Europe to Africa, Asia and 

central and south America. The 

Ugandan Asians who entered in 

1972 and 1973, the Tibetans who 

came in 1972 and the Indochinese 

who arrived in considerable 

numbers from 1975 to 1985 were 

conspicuous among the refugees 

who were now recognized as not 

an occasional but a regular part 

of Canada's yearly immigration. 

Book IV of the Report of the 

Royal Commission on Bilingualism 

and Biculturalism and the policy 

of multiculturalism that was 

framed in response to it had not 

been prescient enough to give 

attention to those who were 

distinguished from other 

Canadians by colour. However, 

when the end of exclusionary 

immigration regulations led to 

increases in the number of 

newcomers from Asia and the 

Caribbean an attempt was made to 

adapt the policy of multiculturalism 

to the new situation. Late 

in 1975 the minister responsible 

for multiculturalism, the Honourable 

John Munro, announced that 

in addition to its previous 

programs the Multiculturalism 

Directorate would henceforth 

concern itself with group 

understanding or the combatting 

of racial discrimination. Vehement 

protests from the advisory 

body to the Minister, the Canadian 

Consultative Council on 

Multiculturalism, prevented Mr. 

Munro from getting the support 

in cabinet that he needed to 

carry out his plans. A few years 

later, however, after many racial 

indcidents across Canada, the 

Honourable James Fleming 

succeeded in setting up a race 

relations unit within the 

Multiculturalism Directorate. 

Near the end of its second 

decade, the policy of multiculturalism 

is firmly entrenched. 

Sections of the Charter of Rights 

and Freedoms ensure, first, the 

equality of all Canadians before 

and under the law, "without 

discrimination based on race, 

national or ethnic origin, 

colour, religion...," except for 

affirmative action to remedy past 

discrimination, and, second, the 

interpretation of the Charter "in 

a manner consistent with the 

preservation and enhancement of 

the multicultural heritage of 

Canadians." There is a standing 

committee of the House of Commons 

on multiculturalism. "The world's 

first national Multiculturalism 

Act" (the quotation is from a 

newspaper advertisement for the 

Act) has been passed. A department 

of multiculturalism and 

citizenship and a heritage languages 

institute are being set 

up, and a race relations institute 

has been promised. The most 

notorious example of injustice 

to a Canadian ethnic group, the 

relocation of Japanese Canadians 

and confiscation of their 

property during World War II, 

has been acknowledged and redress 

given. The attempt to redefine 

multiculturalism in individualistic 

economic terms, notably 

in the conference held in 1986 

on the theme, "Multiculturalism 

Means Business," seems to have 

been quietly shelved, although 

the Immigrant Entrepreneur programme 

and the Immigrant Investor 

programme remain. 

Multiculturalism itself is firmly 

entrenched, in that the society 

is both more diverse and more 

equalitarian than in the past. 

In the economy immigrants are 

doing well, indeed after a few 

years somewhat better than the 

native born. Differences in occupational 

level and income among 

ethnic categories are decreasing. 

No sectors of the economy are 

British preserves, as finance and 

banking once were. The symbolic 

rich and powerful, who are not 

necessarily in fact the richest 

and most powerful, include along 

with the Bassetts, the Blacks, 

the Eatons and the Irvings such 

first-generation and second-generation 

Canadians of other than 

British origins as Thomas Bata, 

the Belzbergs, the Bronfmans, the 

Ghermezians, the Reichmans and 

Frank Stronach. In politics and 

in the public service participation 

by the non-British and non- 

French at all levels, including 

the highest, is taken for 

granted. Arts and letters have 

increased in prestige without 

excluding the non-British: Neil 

Bissoondath, Austin Clarke, Mary 

Di Michele, Joy Kogawa, Rohinton 

Mistry, Michael Ondaatje and many 

others are not ethnic writers but 

Canadian writers, honoured and 

funded by Canada Council and not 

the Writing and Publication 

programme of Multiculturalism. 

In the schools not only French 

but the non-official languages 

have found an increasing place 

and the less demeaning name, 

heritage languages; other 

cultures than the British, other 

festivals than the Christian, and 

the topic of multiculturalism 

have found their way into 

curricula. Canadian markets have 

begun to present arrays of fruit 

and vegetables from all parts of 

the world, and Canadian 

restaurants to offer a dazzling 

variety of dishes. The concept 

of a British, or English or 

Anglo-Saxon, mainstream and 

tributaries of other origins and 

the concept of a vertical mosaic 

with the British on top and all 

the others in lowly places are 

now less appropriate than in the 

past. 

The exceptions to the rosy 

picture have to do especially 

with the First Nations and the 

visible minorities. The First 

Nations are no longer excluded 

from Canadian society as in the 

past, but they have repudiated 

the assimilationist White Paper 

of 1969 

. and are slowly working 

out new accommodations. The 

variety among them in their 

histories and present situations 

makes achieving satisfactory 

positions in Canada very complicated. 

The visible minorities, 

whether old or new to Canada, 

still encounter racism. However, 

in the 1980s they are not 

relegated to as low an entrance 

status as in the past, nor are 

they confined to their entrance 

status for as long. Their 

situation is continually examined 

by commissions and committees, 

whose findings are well publicized 

if not always acted upon. 

A notable number of protests by 

members of visible minorities 

have focused on exclusion not 

from the lower ranks of economic, 

political and social structures 

but from the middle and upper 

ranks. An African-Canadian school 

teacher has, for example, complained 

of not being promoted to 

a principalship, or a South Asian 

civil servant of not being made 

an assistant deputy minister. On 

occasion also the protests have 

been based on the concept of 

proportional representation for 

the visible minorities and a 

false idea of their numbers. A 

researcher for ACTRA, for 

example, was quoted as having 

claimed at a press conference 

that members of the visible 

minorities should have one third 

of all jobs in radio, television 

and theatre, although at the time 

they constituted only four or 

five percent of the population, 

and a member of a protest group

26 

at a recent PEN conference 

expressed anger that a Canadian 

delegation of 51 contained only 

"five or seven" members of 

visible minorities, numbers that 

would be quite close to their 

proportion in the population. The 

Charter of Rights and freedoms 

and other human rights legislation, 

the dominant public 

attitudes against racism, and the 

educational levels of the 

immigrants have given the visible 

minorities the means and the 

skills that are needed to fight 

against racism. 

In this context the debates in 

the House of Commons and in the 

newspapers concerning the bill 

to establish a department of 

citizenship and multiculturalism 

have been of interest. No one 

questions that diversity of 

population is characteristic of 

Canada and also desirable: to do 

so given Canada's current low 

birthrates would be to question 

the desirability of a large and 

stable or increasing population, 

and in spite of growing 

environmental concerns population 

decline is still looked upon with 

dismay. However, many, including 

intended beneficiaries of the 

policy, question the necessity 

of a separate department of 

government of multiculturalism, 

seeing it as having to do only 

with concerns of the non-British 

and non-French and therefore as 

being divisive, patronizing and - 

NOTES: 

1. Freda Hawkins, Critical Years in Immigration: 

Canada and Australia Compared 

(Montreal: McGill - Queen's University 

Press, 1989), p. 214. 

2. Abella, I., and H. Troper, None is Too 

Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 

1933-1948. (Toronto: Lester and Orpen 

Dennys, 1982). 

at a time when attention is 

focused on budget deficits and 

impending new taxes - 

unnecessarily expensive:- 

The prospective author of 

"Multiculturalism: The Other 

Side" then has 'a ildmber of 

arguments against multicultur 

alism to present, and considerable 

numbers of peoplo ready to 

accept the arguments. - Nonethe- 

less, if it is seen as_ having to 

do with group understanding and 

the combatting of raciSlp on the 

one hand and the celebrating of 

all Canadian heritages, including 

English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, 

French and First Nations as well 

as those of other ethnic groups 

on the other hand, the policy of 

multiculturalism is fully defensible. 

Whatever administrative 

arrangements are proposed and 

however crass the motives are of 

those who propose them, in a 

polyethnic, multilingual and 

multiracial population- such as 

Canada's to give symbolic recognition 

to diversity, tb monitor 

relations between .groups and on 

occasion intervene. constructively 

and to assist people to maintain 

a proud sense of history, are not 

ignoble goals. The policy of 

multiculturalism near the end of 

its second decade is still 

necessary and by no means 

obsolete. 

* * * 

3. House of Commons, Debates (May 1, 

1947), reprinted in Palmer, Immigration 

and the Rise of Multiculturalism, 

p. 61. 

4. H.B. Hawthorn, ed., A survey of the 

contemporary Indians of Canada, 2 

vols. (Ottawa, Queen's Printer, 1966, 

1967). 

S. Royal Commission on Bilingualism and 

Biculturalism, Appendix I, Terms of 

Reference, Report, Book I (Ottawa: 

Queen's Printer, 1967). 

6. Rohinton Mistry, Tales from Firozsha 

Baag (Markham, Ontario: Penguin 

Books, 1987), p. 160. 

27 

7. In Ontario in 1981, of Philippine immigrants 

73.6 per cent had some 

post-secondary education and of Indo- 

Pakistani immigrants 60.5 had some 

post-secondary education, whereas the 

figure for Ontario residents of British 

descent was 36.3. The Globe and 

Mail, 24 January 1986.

28 

ASPECTS OF MULTICULTURALISM IN THE LITERATURE OF THE CANADIAN WEST 

JØRN CARLSEN 

Lektor, Engelsk Institut, 

Aarhus Universitet 

The Canadian West is one of 

Canada's distinct regions. The 

three provinces of Manitoba, 

Saskatchewan and Alberta are all 

located between the same parallels, 

49 -600, all three stand 

on the U.S. border and have their 

northern boundary in an arctic 

climate. Despite geographical 

differences - you find, e.g., the 

flattest prairie in Manitoba and 

the breathtaking Rocky Mountains 

in Alberta - they are referred 

to as the Prairie provinces, and 

between them they stand for 

Canadian farming, they constitute 

the breadbasket of the world. 

Historically they belong together, 

as well. Their modern territories 

were part of Rupert's 

Land where the Hudson's Bay Company 

traded with the Indians and 

in actual fact ruled until 1870 

when the newly established Canada 

acquired the huge area and Manitoba 

became the fifth province to 

join the Federation. (Manitoba = 

the Winnipeg area was then not 

much bigger than a stamp.) In 

1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan 

joined the Federation, and in 

1912 Manitoba was given its 

present size. By then Canada had 

already for more than thirty 

years (and in particular after 

the completion of CPR's transcon- 

tinental railway in 1886) 

competed vigorously with the U.S. 

to attract European immigrants 

to settle the Canadian West. 

After World War I (1921) the U.S. 

introduced an immigration quota 

system and from then on Canada 

became the final destination for 

thousands of European emigrants. 

The Candian West was where the 

Canadian Government and the CPR 

wanted the newcomers to settle. 

Well, the settlers in Western 

Canada did not arrive at a 

frontier in the American sense 

of the word (it was not a 

Frederick Jackson Turner frontier 

with its impact on American democratic 

institutions back east). 

Since 1873 the North West Mounted 

Police had policed the area and 

land surveyors had cast their 

network on all arable land. The 

Indians had signed treaties with 

the Government and were by now 

largely confined to their 

reserves. The Metis nation that 

rebelled in 1870 under Louis Riel 

(the Red River Rebellion) and 

again in 1884 (the North West 

Rebellion) had been pacified and 

deprived of land and pride. 

Up to the time when the West was 

granted provincial status, and 

long after, the West was run by 

Ottawa as the British would run 

one of their colonies (even more 

efficiently). Political and 

financial power was concentrated 

in the more populous East. The 

West, the historiography of the 

West, was seen from an eastern 

or central Canadian perspective, 

the West was decidedly on the 

periphery. 

As regards demography, the West 

was distincly a region in its own 

right. The first settlers were 

Canadians from Ontario and Nova 

Scotia (Grove, Fruits of the 

Earth) and immigrants from 

Britain and the U.S., i.e. the 

language spoken was like the 

language in the other provinces 

apart from Quebec. Quebeckers 

were never attracted to the West 

which they were the first to 

explore. 

From about 1901 to 1931 the West 

increased its population 6-fold, 

from 400,000 to 2.4 million (in 

1986: 4.46 million). Especially 

Continental European immigration 

changed the population pattern 

of the West for ever. All of a 

sudden close to 50% of the 

population had a non-Anglo-Saxon 

background. 

Winnipeg was often referred to 

as "Little Europe". According to 

Gerald Friesen, "To descend from 

the train at the CPR station in 

Winnipeg was to enter an 

international bazaar" (p. 243). 

A babel of languages and foreign 

faces and dresses. However, 

behind it all ruled a social 

reality and fact. In order for 

somebody to be accepted in the 

wider community a British- 

Canadian norm had to be mastered. 

To begin with only the British 

or English knew the laws of the 

new land; they knew the rules of 

politics and social intercourse 

that constituted the British- 

Canadian norm. They were a 

"repository of wisdom" (Friesen) 

when it came to creating the 

institutions of the new society 

- trade unions, school boards, 

political parties, etc. 

Assimilation with the British- 

Canadian norm was expected by the 

authorities and also wanted by 

most of the immigrants. In most 

cases, public conformity to an 

29 

Anglo-Canadian norm was the rule, 

apart from certain religious 

groups and other visible 

immigrants like the Slays and 

Jews, for instance (who stuck out 

against an Anglo-Protestant 

norm). In private the other 

categories of immigrants from 

Western Europe would often make 

family-centred efforts to retain 

their language and culture and 

"instil in their children an 

awareness and pride in their 

national heritage" (Icelanders). 

If we turn to literature, it has 

often been pointed out that 

Canada, according to Frye, has 

experienced a verbal explosion 

from the '60s and onwards. What 

Frye refers to is the increase 

of serious literature, an 

increase mainly inspired by the 

newly established Canada Council 

(1959). As we know from Canadian 

histories of literature (Carl F. 

Klinck), some serious literature 

was always produced in Canada 

even though "real" literature per 

definition came out of England. 

However, when it comes to popular 

literature, pulp literature or 

formulaic literature, millions 

of copies were printed, distributed, 

and read in Canada from 

the late 19th century onwards. 

In prairie and pioneer literature 

of the so-called "sunshine 

school", sentimental and adventurous 

romances (Nellie McClung, 

Robert Stead, Ralph Connor, 

Arthur Stringer), the whole 

cultural universe was informed 

by British-Canadian or WASP 

ideals concerning the appearance 

of the society. These ideals were 

conservative and static and 

exactly the kind of literary 

product you would expect to come 

out of a society steeped in 

Frye's "Garrison Mentality". That 

kind of society demanded assimilation 

of its newcomers. This is 

clearly reflected in Ralph Connor's 

(Rev. Charles Gordon) 

didactic but exceedingly popular 

novels. (He sold more than 31 

mil. copies). The Foreigner

30 

(1909) is a good example of Rev. 

Gordon at work. A Galician, a 

person from the Habsburg province 

of Galicia (today in Poland), is 

the main character. Up to World 

War II it carried very bad 

connotations in the Canadian 

West, it came to cover all Slays, 

i.e. Poles and, in particular, 

Ukrainians. In Margaret 

Laurence's Manawaka they lived 

apart from the Presbyterian 

Scots, they lived not up but down 

on the other side of the CPR 

tracks (A Jest of God, p. 63). 

Galician indicated the lowest 

possible status in the immigrant 

hierarchy. (Aksel Sandemose 

describes the Galicians in his 

emigrant trilogy, Nybyggerne i 

Canada (Ross Dane), 1928; En 

Sjomann går i land, 1932; and 

September, 1939.) Gordon makes 

such'a Galician from Winnipeg the 

main character of his novel. The 

book is about the hard job of 

divesting a person of his crude 

and primitive heritage and 

transform him to an imitation of 

a Presbyterian Scot. In the 

process, he gives up family, 

language and religion and becomes 

a Canadian. 

It should be said at this point 

that these Galicians/Ukrainians 

who settled across the prairies 

were not at all eager to comply 

with British-Canadian norms. On 

the whole they opposed assimilation 

and they, more than any 

other ethnic group, are responsible 

for the official adoption 

of today's bilingual-multicultural 

definition of Canadian 

society. Ukrainian assoociations 

and groups managed to stick 

together; they have been 

acculturated but not fully 

assimilated. Newspapers appear 

in Ukrainian, literature is being 

written in Ukrainian. There are 

centres for Ukrainian Studies at 

universities in Alberta and 

Saskatchewan. 

Mother used to say "Don't play with 

those Galician youngsters". How odd that 

seems now. They weren't Galicians - 

they were Ukrainian, but that didn't 

trouble my mother. She said Galician 

or Bohunk. So did I, I suppose. She 

needn't have worried. They were 

raw-boned kids whose scorn was almost 

tangible. They would never have wanted 

to play with us. 

(Margaret Laurence, A Jest 

of God (1966), p. 63) 

The attitude towards assimilation 

was different in the 

Icelandic immigrants who arrived 

a little earlier than the first 

wave of "Galicians", i.e. in the 

1870s. (To see all this in 

perspective, the first Danish 

settlement in Canada was 

established in New Brunswick in 

1872 and eventually given its 

present-day name: New Denmark.) 

The Icelanders settled around 

Gimli on the western shore of 

Lake Winnipeg. A fine literary 

document records in fiction, how 

the Icelanders struggled and 

fought in the new land. Laura 

Goodman Salverson's novel The 

Viking Heart appeared in 1923 

and must have been one of the 

first fictions about the 

Canadian West that did not deal 

exclusively with English- speaking 

immigrants (The Foreigner 

I have mentioned already). 

Salverson is very much aware of 

her national heritage, she is 

proud of her forefathers, the 

Vikings. She is, however, 

surprised that this noble 

heritage has no cash value in 

Manitoba, or in Canada for that 

matter. We follow over two 

generations the slow accommodation 

to a British-Canadian 

norm; they become a part of 

their new country without losing 

their identity. Salverson 

discusses the problems of 

assimilation: 

"Of all peoples we are perhaps the most 

readily assimilated. We have in all ages 

quickly taken on the ways and speech 

of whatever land we migrated to, but 

the traits of Norse blood are as strong 

to-day as ever. In Brittany, in Normandy, 

are the fair descendants of the old 

Vikings. I have read that the singular 

beauty of the Breton women - a beauty 

of form rather than face, is the 

unmistakable proof of their Norse blood. 

In England the Norman characteristic is 

still unsubmerged. So will it be with us 

here. Our children will be Canadians but 

our Norse nature will remain unchanged." 

(Laura Goodman Salverson, 

The Viking Heart, p. 111) 

Many other quotations could be 

offered to show that the 

Icelanders were not as readily 

accepted in the new society as 

they had expected. 

Throughout the book it is clear 

that the Icelanders want to be 

Canadians in public, they want 

to take part in the nationbuilding 

which is going on. In 

private they nurse and nurture 

their Norse heritage, however. 

The next generation can be said 

to contribute people to the 

elite. Balder Fjalsted becomes 

a well-known violinist in the 

metropolis. Thor Lindal becomes 

a medical doctor and proves that 

he has become a real Canadian 

when he volunteers to fight in 

World War I for his' country in 

its support of Britain against 

Germany. Like more than 60,000 

other Canadians, Thor pays with 

his life. 

Other Nordic emigrants went to 

Canada. The Scandinavians belonged 

to the group of preferred 

immigrants from Europe who on a 

scale of preference came immediately 

after the British. Like 

the Icelanders, they were very 

quick to assimilate and the 

second generation soon lost their 

native language. 

This is typical of Danish 

immigrants. In most of the Danish 

settlements the church language 

was changed to English in the 

thirties, an indication of intermarriage 

and mobility. It may be 

of interest to the Danes in the 

audience that the cultural and 

national centre of the settlement 

was always the church. In the 

U.S. and Canada we find the same 

schism between "Inner Mission" 

(nicknamed "The Holy Danes") and 

the Grundtvigians ("The Happy 

Danes"). The Inner Mission was 

in favour of cultural assimilation, 

whereas the Grundtvigians 

were strongly in favour of 

preserving the Danish language 

and culture abroad. (The Dalum 

settlement in Wayne, Alberta, was 

founded in 1917, and in 1921 

Dalum Højskole was established. 

Rev. Rasmussen preached both in 

Danish and in English until he 

retired in 1955.) 

The Scandinavians were not the 

only ethnic groups who were quick 

to assimilate. Numerous Germans 

emigrated to Canada during the 

first half of this century and 

in most cases they conformed to 

the British-Canadian norm. The 

two world wars were also responsible 

for that. Only Germanspeaking 

religious groups and 

settlements like the Hutterites 

and the Mennonites refused tb 

adapt to the norm of the Canadian 

society. I draw your attention 

to the Mennonites whose settlement 

on the prairies has been 

recorded in two novels by Rudy 

Wiebe, himself a Mennonite. His 

first novel, Peace Shall Destroy 

Many (1962) shows how difficult 

it is to keep language (low 

German) and religion intact from 

and unpolluted by the surrounding 

society. (The Mennonites date 

back to the 16th-Century Anabaptists, 

an extreme evangelical 

wing of the Reformation, who were 

turned out of the Netherlands and 

eventually found refuge in 

Russia. From here these good 

farmers were evicted, especially 

31

32 33 

after the Revolution in 1917. 

Today there are 90,000 Mennonites 

in Canada.) Wiebe's book offers 

insight into the fundamentalist 

views of a Mennonite congregation 

in rural Saskatchewan. The 

time is 1944, during World War 

II, when many young people in the 

semi-autonomous communities found 

it ever more difficult to oppose 

e.g. conscription (we can't let 

others fight for us). Wiebe asks 

a more disturbing question 

through his book: Can a community 

withdraw from the rest of the 

world? Accept the refuge offered 

by one's new country and then 

reject military service? The 

young Thom Wiene in Peace Shall 

Destroy Many is faced with the 

questions of national loyalty and 

religious principle. Thom's 

problem is how to break the 

self-imposed isolation of the 

Mennonites without destroying 

what is valuable in Mennonite 

community life. Rudy Wiebe, who 

was attacked by fundamentalist 

Mennonites after the appearance 

of his novel, is personally a 

good example of someone who is 

still a declared Mennonite but 

who has nevertheless made 

adjustments and is now in public 

integrated in Canadian society. 

(The great majority of the 

190,000 Mennonites have learned 

to adapt to a wider Canadian 

environment.) In Wiebe's first 

novel themes appear that he would 

return to again and again. The 

fact that Canada, through the 

Indians, has a history before the 

arrival of the Europeans. That 

after all the Indians you see 

around, often poverty-stricken, 

represent this millenia-old 

history of the country. In The 

Temptations of Big Bear Wiebe not 

only brought the Indian back for 

consideration in serious literature, 

but also gave him his 

rightful place in the history of 

the Canadian West. It is also in 

Peace Shall Destroy Many that 

Wiebe introduces the Metis, or 

half-breeds, for the first time. 

By the Mennonites they are re- 

garded as inferior outsiders and 

dangerous in so far as they 

adhere to other values that are 

attractive especially to young 

Mennonites who react against the 

fundamentalist principles of 

their elders. In a later book, 

The Scorched Wood People (1977), 

Wiebe wrote the story of the 

Metis and the Riel rebellions in 

1870 and 1884. In 1885 Sir John 

A. MacDonald had been very 

simplistic in his attitude 

towards the Metis when he said: 

If they are Indians, they go with 

the tribe; if they are 

half-breeds, they are whites. The 

Metis never saw it in such simple 

terms; especially after the 

rebellions they had legends and 

myths that gave them a specific 

identity. 

Writers and historians of Western 

Canada have helped to revalue the 

role of the Metis in the West and 

underline the unfair treatment 

they received from the Federal 

Government. In socioeconomic 

terms, these once proud warlords 

and buffalo hunters of the 

prairie came to occupy the lowest 

rung on the social ladder. 

Let us return to Margaret 

Laurence, the unique chronicler 

of prairie life from about 1930 

to 1970. In her Manawaka cycle 

we are introduced to the Tonnere 

family who live in a shack down 

by the Wachakwa river. In the 

social hierarchy of that town 

they are at the bottom. Among 

themselves they know who they 

are, their forefathers fought 

with Riel at Batoche. All odds 

are against them, however, in a 

society where the British- 

Canadian norm is the only 

acceptable one. 

In "The Loons", one of the short 

stories in A Bird in the House, 

Laurence, with her usual 

precision, offers a portrait of 

a young Metis girl/woman, 

Piquette, seen through the eyes 

of Vanessa Macleod. The Metis 

children who speak a mixture of 

Cree and French at home are bound 

to be chronic losers in a school 

system exclusively operating in 

English. Vanessa is in the same 

class as the older Piquette who 

has already failed several grades 

due to no interest in school work 

and frequent treatments at the 

hospital for bone tuberculosis 

which has left her with a limping 

walk. She exists for Vanessa 

"only as a vague embarrassing 

presence". It creates quite a 

stir in the Macleod family when 

Vanessa's father, a medical 

doctor, suggests that they invite 

Piquette to spend the summer with 

them in their cottage up north. 

The reason is that Piquette's 

health needs such a stay and that 

Dr. Macleod is a decent human 

being who is far from the 

prejudices, social as well as 

racial, which the rest of the 

family cherish in varying 

degrees. On the surface the stay 

at Diamond Lake is not a success. 

It is only later on that an older 

and more mature Vanessa (the 

narrator) becomes aware of the 

significance of that summer with 

Plaquette who was too old to 

play, who was far from Vanessa's 

idea of a real Indian (which was 

formed by reading Pauline Johnson 

and Longfellow), and who seemed 

to have no intimate knowledge of 

nature. For Vanessa it was the 

last summer with her father who 

died of pneumonia the following 

winter. Together they heard the 

plaintive, still mocking cry of 

the loons, a sound closely 

related to untouched nature. When 

Vanessa returns years later to 

a touristified Lake Wapakata (it 

has been renamed), the loons have 

long since disappeared. Piquette 

has also disappeared; she left 

school, married young a white 

man, was left with two kids. She 

returned to the shack by the 

river, and one evening after she 

had been drinking a lot the shack 

caught fire and she and the 

children never got out. 

In her last novels, The Diviners 

(1974), Margaret Laurence tells 

the story of Jules Tonnere (or 

Skinner) who is Piquette's 

brother. The novel form offers 

space for a more elaborate treatment 

of the Metis as an ethnic 

minority. As you will remember, 

Morag is the protagonist; like 

Margaret Laurence she is a writer 

who is struggling to write The 

Diviners while reliving her 

earlier life in a series of 

memorybank-instalments. She is 

an orphan who is being raised by 

Christie and Prin. Christie is 

the garbage collector in 

Manawaka. Socially she is half 

way up the hill - she is of 

Scottish descent. Prin is 

English, so by birth they belong 

to one of the founding nations. 

Jules and Piquete Tonnere are in 

Morag's class in school. 

The Tonneres (there are an awful lot 

of them) are called those breeds, 

meaning halfbreeds. They are part 

Indian, part French, from away back. 

They are mysterious. People in 

Manawaka talk about them but they 

don't talk to them. Lazarus makes 

homebrew down there in the shack in 

the Wachakwa valley, and is often 

arrested on Saturday nights. Morag 

knows. She has heard. They are dirty, 

and unmentionable. 

(The Diviners, p. 69) 

Later, when they sing "The Maple 

Leaf Forever", Morag notices 

that although he sings quite 

well (dirty songs and cowboy 

songs) Skinner is not singing 

now. "He comes from nowhere. He 

isn't anybody. She (Morag) stops 

singing, not knowing why. Then 

she feels silly about stopping, 

so sings again" (p. 70). 

First young Morag is unconsciously 

attracted to Skinner, 

then she gives in to him physically 

shortly before he leaves

34 

for Europe as a soldier. He seems 

to represent some of the 

archetypal qualities that Western 

civilization has lost. 

Their paths separate. Morag goes 

to university and eventually 

marries her English, very English 

teacher, Brooke. It is when he 

tries to form her, in a sense 

colonize her, that she rebels and 

conveniently meets Jules (a bar 

room singer) with whom she becomes 

pregnant. Morag leaves 

Brooke and settles in Vancouver 

to give birth to her child, 

Pique. A life with Jules is 

impossible, it is never 

attempted. They are, after all, 

too får from one another, 

socially and in terms of 

education. Symbolically, the 

Scottish-Canadian Morag and the 

Metis Jules Tonnere, both with 

their myths and legends, 

constitute through Pique the new 

Canada. 

* * * 

I forbindelse med dette temahæfte 

om Canada skrev vi til de canadiske 

forfattere, som har været på 

besøg på vores skoler, for at 

bede dem foreslå noget canadisk 

litteratur, som ville egne sig 

til vores elever. Vi bad dem også 

give en kort introduktion af sig 

selv og deres værker. Hermed følger 

de svar, vi fik: 

CANADISKE FORFATTERES LÆSEFORSLAG 

Ved Merete Biørn (Nørre Gymnasium) og Inger Hastrup (Slagelse Gymnasium) 

Valgardson, W.D. (b. 1939). William 

Dempsey Valgardson was born in Winnipeg, 

but spent most of his childhood in 

Gimli, Man. He served as chairman of 

the English department of Cottey College 

in Neyada, Missouri, from 1970 to 1974, 

before returning to Canada to join the 

creative-writing faculty of the University 

of Victoria, Victoria, B.C. 

Valgardson is the author of a novel, 

Gentle Sinners (1980), a collection of 

poetry, In the gutting shed (1976); and 

three collections of short stories: Bloodflowers 

(1973), God is not a fish inspector 

(1975), and Red dust (1978). 

The two Canadian books I'd recommend 

for your students are: 

1) any of Bill Kinsella's Indian 

stories. His Indian stories revolve 

around two teenagers, Silas 

Ermineskin and Frank Fencepost. 

They are going to a community 

college but their homes are on a 

reserve. Because they are teenagers, 

because they are Indian, 

because the stories range from 

tragic to humorous, because they 

are distinctively Western Canadian, 

I think your students would 

enjoy them. There would be no 

mistaking them for American 

stories. 

2) my second choice is any book 

of stories by Alice Munroe. Her 

stories represent women, Ontario, 

35 

middle class Canada and are 

startlingly different from Bill 

Kinsella's stories. They are 

urbane and urban, sophisticated, 

delicate. A book like Lives of 

Girls and Women (I think that's 

the title) would help Danish 

teenagers relate to life in 

Canada. 

3) I do not know if you can get 

it in paperback (the other two 

you can) but Smith and other 

events - tales of the chilcotin 

by Paul St. Pierre would give 

your students a good look at the 

Canadian cowboy life of the 

Cariboo, a huge area in British 

Columbia where cattle ranching 

is a way of life. There are, 

however, unlike the Texas of 

Hollywood, real cowboys. No phony 

six-shooter cowboys. 

4) I know it is terribly immodest 

but I'd recommend any of my books 

of short stories or my novel. 

They are all taught extensively 

in Canada. I travel a great deal 

visiting high schools, speaking 

to students. Teachers tell me 

that the stories cause a great 

deal of debate. I would think 

that these fictions with their 

Icelandic immigrant background 

would be ideal vehicles for 

Scandinavian students who 

probably have relatives in North 

America, who might wonder about 

the immigration experience and 

its effects, about the multicultural 

character of Canada. Gentle 

Sinners is a novel about a 

teenage boy who runs away from 

his Lutheran fundamentalist 

parents, finds refuge with his 

uncle and his uncle's Indian 

friend, comes in contact with 

other ethnic groups, becomes his 

own person before returning to 

live with his parents for a year. 

Students would, I think, relate

36 37 

the main character and his 

adventures. 

Janice Kulyk Keefer was born in Toronto 

in 1952; she received her doctorate in 

modern English literature in 1983, from 

the University of Sussex, England. She 

has been living in Nova Scotia for the 

past eight years and now makes her 

home in Annapolis Royal. Her first book, 

The Paris Napoli Express, a collection 

of fiction, was published by Oberon Press 

in 1986. A collection of poetry, White 

of the Lesser Angels, also appeared in 

1986 and a new book of short stories, 

Transfigurations, in 1987; both are 

published by Ragweed Press. She has 

published numerous articles on and 

reviews of contemporary Canadian 

writing and her study of Canadian 

Maritime fiction, Under Eastern Eyes, 

released by University of Toronto Press 

in the fall of 1987, was nominated for 

a Governor-General's award that year. 

Her novel, Constellations, (Random 

House) was published in 1988, and a 

critical work, Reading Mavis Gallant 

(Oxford University Press) in 1989. Her 

latest book of short fiction, Travelling 

Ladies, will be published by Random 

House in the spring of 1990. She is 

currently working on a novel. 

The texts I'd recommend (though, 

whether they're readily available 

is another matter!) are: 

Short fiction 

Al Pittman's The Boughwolfer 

(Breakwater Press, St. John's, 

Nfld, ISBN 0-919519-62-8) 

These are easy-to-read, amusing 

and illuminating 'coming of age' 

stories set in Newfoundland, 

which is a refreshingly 

'different' part of Canada. 

Poetry 

Bronwen Wallace's The Stubborn 

Particulars of Grace 

(McClelland & Stewart, 

ISBN 0-7710-8790-x) 

Poetry that is 'real', down to 

earth, accessible, moving and ac- 

complished. She's a 'humane 

feminist' - her poetry is for men 

& women and is quite discursive 

in nature - conversational. 

As far as novels are concerned, 

Marion Quedvan's The Butterfly 

Chair (available in paperback 

from Virago) is a challenging 

work, beautifully written: The 

account of a womån's coming to 

terms with the guilt and 

hostility she feels towards a 

violent father. 

I'm afraid I'm just not up on 

Canadian Drama, but John Grey's 

work is powerful & accessible. 

There's one about a Nova Scotia 

rock & roll band that would 

probably amuse your students (He 

wrote Billy Bishop Goes to War) 

Kent Thompson is a fiction writer, radio 

playwright, broadcaster, sometime actor, 

teacher, editor, and frequent commentator 

on the arts. He has published four 

novels, three collections of short stories, 

and the usual slim chapbooks of poetry. 

He has held a Canada Council Senior 

Arts Grant, and was the 1982-83 

Canadian Exchange Writing Fellow in 

Scotland. He is currently the Atlantic 

Representative on the National Council 

of the Writers' Union of Canada. He is 

Professor of English at the University 

of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where 

he has taught since 1966. He has been 

both Editor and Fiction Editor of the 

literary periodical, The Fiddlehead. He 

is now co-editor of the Macmillan Anthology 

of Canadian Literature. In 1984 

he created and directed the play, Victoria's 

Return, at King's Landing. He is 

the originator of the so-called "postcard 

story" (a form of the very short story). 

With the painter Ken Tolmie, he is 

working on The Biography of a Painting. 

He is the editor of the anthology of 

very short fiction, Open Windows, and 

the recent anthology of fiction written 

by Canadians in and about foreign countries, 

Engaged Elsewhere. His new novel, 

playing in the dark, will appear in the 

Spring of 1990. 

Books: 

The Tenants Were Corrie and 

Tennie 

(Macmillan, Toronto and St. Martin's 

Press, New York), 1973. 

Across from the Floral Park 

(St. Martin's, New York), 1974. 

Shacking Up 

(Oberon, Ottawa), 1980. 

Married Love 

(Goose Lane, Fredericton), 1988. 

playing in the dark 

(Quarry, Kingston), 1990. 

Shotgun and Other Stories 


A Local Hanging and Other Stories 


Leaping up/Sliding Away 


(ed.) 

Stories from Atlantic Canada 

(Macmillan, Toronto), 1973. 

(ed.) 

Open Windows 


(ed.) 

Engaged Elsewhere 


A short novel? A book? My own, 

of course, with perhaps a recommendation 

for Open Windows, with 

its essay on the current wave of 

interest in very short fiction. 

But heaven knows I should be able 

to think of others: I was this 

year one of the (notorious) 

jurors for the Governor-General's 

Award for Fiction. Notorious because 

we did not put the Big Name 

Writer on the Short List. Instead 

we chose Ann Copeland (The Golden 

Thread), Helen Weinzweg (A View 

from the Roof), and Paul Quarrington 

(Whale Music). But there 

were many other very good books 

of fiction published last year 

and the uproar was in many ways 

a reflection of an ignorance of 

what has been happening in Canadian 

writing and publishing in 

the last ten years. For one 

thing, all that Canada Council 

support for writers and publishers 

has begun to pay off, so that 

there are fine writers from coast 

to coast, and they are publishing 

in the small local presses, which 

began (with Canada Council help) 

as regional publishers (local 

histories and cookbooks) but have 

evolved into Quality publishers 

--- while the big Toronto 

publishers have tried to find and 

publish best-sellers. So, off the 

top of my head I'd recommend 

Michael Carin's The Neutron 

Picasso and Leona Gom's Zero 

Avenue. 

Not surprisingly, some of the 

best work being done in Canada 

is in the short story: Bill 

Gaston's Deep Cove Stories, Barry 

Dempster's Writing Home, Margaret 

Hollingsworth's Smiling Under 

Water, Lesley Krueger's Hard 

Travel, Cynthia Holz's Home 

Again, Katherine Govier's Before 

and After, Ann Diamond's 

Snakebite, and Susan Kerslake's 

Blind Date. 

Of course I am especially 

committed to the current wave of 

interest in the very short story, 

not least of all because, for the 

only time in my life, I have been 

ahead of a movement instead of 

behind it. (I began writing my 

own version of the very short 

story --- the so-called "postcard 

story," the year I was Writer in 

Residence in Edinburgh, and in 

fact wrote a couple of them 

during my trip to Denmark.) This 

interest in the very short story 

is, I think, world-wide --perhaps 

for some of the reasons 

I suggest in my Afterword to Open 

Windows.

T O ° - ~ KENT THOMPSON 

~ ~ o Y ? > y ~ n 720 Albert Street 

Y ~° 0 

~c ~ y øE cis Fredericton, 

New Brunswick Canada 

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2 u! .t- ° d~ N C ~ N c ~ 

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~ j c E E 

~ 

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~ 

— ~ m s 

å a) ro ro.o c 

d3 N ° H 

L E5 E~rEm2c ' a) 

c y m o° _cc-- p QNQ ~ C' m E m fn ~ O Y 

01 ~ N al E a) .n ~+ N y C C Z, L 0 3 

J a>3'=C~a> 3 0 0 

d o 

0a c m-0 d o ° 

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p a) a) O N c d>. >, Y m L v! 

c`a) .(3 o_ m - m c ~ v a > ) 3 H ø ro ~ o r 

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0.~. O C) T C) T O ~ a3'V O'C O>.E O 

2 'N.~ E~ E ~ ø m ø °a ~ ca ~ 3 cn 2 

My evaluation of any prose 

fiction is, I suppose, that of 

an "aesthete" --- a term which 

has unhappy connotations, but 

which I'll claim anyway. What it 

means in practice is that I value 

most highly that work which uses 

literary skills to engage the 

reader successfully. Almost 

always this will mean that the 

writer will demand the participation 

of the reader, and will 

in fact be writing within the 

reader's responses --- "in the 

reader's head," as it were. 

Therefore, other aspects of 

fiction are to my mind 

interesting and useful, but not 

so important. For example, a work 

might have a great cultural value 

because it speaks of a particular 

national or regional historical 

event, or it might be a portrait 

of a certain kind of person or 

a certain place --- and therefore 

be of value to a psychologist or 

sociologist. But the subject matter 

of the fiction is not so 

important to me as its excellence. 

Anyway, here are the publishers 

of the works I've mentioned. 

Ann Copeland, The Golden Thread 

(Harper Collins, Toronto) 

Helen Weinzweig, A View from the 

Roof (Goose Lane, Fredericton) 

Paul Quarrington, Whale Music 

(Doubleday, Toronto) 

Michael Carin, 

The Neutron Picasso 

(Deneau Gaudet, Toronto) 

Leona Gom, Zero Avenue 

(Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver) 

Bill Gaston, Deep, Cove Stories 

(Oolichan Books, Lantzville, BC) 

Barry Dempster, Writing Home 

(Oberon, Ottawa) 

Margaret Hollingsworth, 

Smiling Under Water 

(Lazara, Vancouver) 

Lesley Krueger, Hard Travel 

(Oberon, Ottawa) 

Katherine Govier, 

Before and After 

(Viking, Toronto) 

Cynthia Holz, Home Again 

(Random House, Toronto) 

Ann Diamond, Snakebite 

(Cormorant Books, Dunvegan, 

Ontario) 

Susan Kerslake, Blind Date 

(Pottersfield Press, 

Porters Lake, N.S.) 

Silver Donald Cameron (July, 1989) 

39 

One of Canada's most versatile professional 

writers, Silver Donald Cameron 

writes books and magazine articles as 

well as scripts for film, TV and radio. 

Four of his 45 radio dramas have been 

ACTRA Award finalists. Many have been 

produced in France, New Zealand, Yugoslavia 

and Ireland, and The Sisters was 

Canada's 1980 entry for the Prix Italia. 

His stage play The Prophet at Tantramar, 

on Leon Trotsky's 1917 internment 

in Nova Scotia, was produced in 1988 

by The Ship's Company Theatre. 

He has put lished eight books: 

Faces of Leacock 

(Ryerson, 1967)(literary study) 

Conversations With Canadian Novelists 

(Macmillian, 1973)(interviews) 

The Education of Everett Richardson 

(McClelland and Stewart, 1977) 

(labour history) 

Seasons in the Rain 

(McClelland and Stewart, 1978)(essays) 

Dragon Lady (McClelland and Stewart, 

1980; Seal, 1981)(novel)

40 41 

The Baitchopper 

(James Lorimer, 1982) 

(young adult novel) 

Schooner: Bluenose and Bluenose II 

(Seal, 1984)(social history) 

Outhouses of the West 

(Nimbus, 1988)(photos by Sherman Hines) 

Silver Donald Cameron studied at the 

University of British Columbia and the 

University of California, and holds a 

Ph.D. from the University of London, 

England. He taught at Da!house University, 

U.B.C. and the University of New 

Brunswick, and was Writer-in-Residence 

at the University College of Cape Breton 

(1978-80), the University of Prince 

Edward Island (1985-86) and the Nova 

Scotia College of Art and Design (1987- 

88.) 

He provides communications consulting 

services to government and corporate 

clients through his own company, Paper 

Tigers Enterprises Ltd. 

You're obviously aware of such 

well-known Canadian writers as 

Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, 

Mordecai Richler, Robertson 

Davies, Farley Mowat and Timothy 

Findlet, so I thought I should 

concentrate on a few favourites 

of mine who are less likely to 

have come to your attention. 

John Newlove has alwas been my 

favourite among the Canadian 

poets of my own generation, and I 

love the way the two poems (1) 

appropriate native mythologies 

to address the realities and concerns 

of more recent migrants to 

this territory. "The Double-Headed 

Snake" also evokes a certain 

duality in the Canadian view of 

things, a sense that everything 

has its price and that many 

choices are simultaneously right 

and wrong. It's almost a Jungian 

outlook as opposed to a Freudian 

outlook in the States, and I 

discussed it at some length with 

Robert Kroetsch and Robertson 

Davies in Conversations with 

Canadian Novelists. 

Alastair MacLeod has written two 

books of short stories -- The 

Lost Salt Gift of Blood and As 

Birds Bring Forth the Sun. He 

writes with glacial slowness, 

publishing about one story a 

year. But his work is magnificent: 

complex, beautifullycrafted 

stories set in my beloved 

Cape Breton. I find them too 

powerful and too moving to be 

read in large doses, and I can 

only read them one at a time. 

"The Boat" (2) has been made into 

a one-man stage play, usually 

presented by the actor Robbie 

O'Neill, and also into a short 

film, which may be helpful from 

a teaching perspective. 

Harold Horwood is clearly the 

leading writer of his generation 

in Newfoundland. I admire both 

his novels and his non-ficiton, 

but I have published the opinion 

that The Foxes of Beachy Cove (3) 

- a book of natural history plus 

much more - is the only work in 

Canadian literature which I am 

sure is a masterpiece. By 

"masterpiece," I mean simply that 

the book meets the significant 

challenges which it sets for 

itself so completely that I 

cannot imagine an improvement. 

The Foxes is less than 200 pages 

long, and it's crammed with 

information, but the reader 

hardly notices that fact because 

the books flows so smoothly, is 

written so beautifully, and 

communicates so powerfully its 

vision of the nature of Nature. 

The book is about people, too, 

and about their conduct in the 

context of the natural world -and 

all these factors are welded 

together in a marvellous little 

book. 

1. The Pride and The Double- 

Headed Snake 

(Jown Newlove: The Fat Man, 

Selected Poems 1962-72, 

McClelland and Stewart, 1977, 

p. 48 and p. 67) 

2. Alastair MacLeod: The Lost 

Salt Gift of Blood 

(McClelland and Stewart, 

New Canadian Library) 

3. Published by Paperjacks, 

A division of General Publishing 

Co., Ltd., Don Mills, Ontario. 

CANADISKE BOGHANDLERE 

I kataloget "Canadian Studies 

1990, Recent titles and selected 

basic books", som udgives i et 

samarbejde mellem Association for 

the Export of Canadian Books, 

Canadian Book Publishers' Council, 

Association of Canadian Publishers 

of Association des editeurs 

findes angivet følgende 

boghandlere, som vil være i stand 

til at levere canadiske bogtitler, 

også til udlandet: 

Albert Britnell Book Shop Ltd. 

765 Yonge Street 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

M4W 2G6 

Tel: (416)924-3321 

FAX: (416)924-3383 

Contact: C. Keen 

TERMS: Individuals should prepay 

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Tel: (514)932-5093 

Contact: Judith Mappin 

TERMS: Individuals may use VISA, 

Mastercard or Proforma Invoice. 

Libraries and bookstores pay in 

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Longhouse Book Shop Ltd. 

497 Bloor Street West 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

M5S IY2 

Tel: (416)921-9995 

FAX: (416)921-8614 

Contact: Susan Sandler 

TERMS: Individuals should prepay 

in Canadian funds, plus postage. 

VISA or Mastercard accepted. Discount 

schedule for institutions 

available upon request. Over 

25,000 Canadian titles on all 

subjects in stock. Single and/or 

quantity orders are welcomed. 

John Coutts Library Services Ltd. 

6900 Kinsmen Court 

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada 

I2E 7E7 

Tel: (416)356-6382 (Collect) 

(416)364-9919 (Toronto) 

FAX: (416)356-5064 

Contact: Keith Schmiedl 

Serves university, research, 

public and special libraries. 

Firm orders, approval plans, slip 

notification service, and continuations. 

TERMS: Discounts according to 

publishers' discounts. Charge for 

postal and handling. Payment in 

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* * *

44 45 

Fra 1968 til 1984 blev Canada 

regeret af den liberale premierminister 

Pierre Trudeau. Ingen 

leder af en betydningsfuld vestlig 

industrination har siddet 

længere ved magten end han - for 

omverdenen var han en charismatisk 

leder; han var det befolkningsrige 

østlige Canadas mand. 

Trudeau var dog ikke særlig populær 

i Quebec, selvom han var født 

der, og selvom provinsen Quebec 

netop da han var føderalregeringens 

leder fik gennemført sin 

"stille revolution" og fik sikret 

det franske sprog, ved at Canada 

officielt blev erklæret tosproget 

(1969). I sin sidste regeringsperiode 

kunne han ikke vise sig i 

det vestlige Canada (især Alberta) 

uden at blive tilsvinet med 

rådne æg og tomater. Trudeau stod 

for en stærk centralregering, der 

gjorde hvad den kunne for at begrænse 

de 10 provinsers magt. Det 

skal her nævnes at de canadiske 

provinser har større magtbeføjelser 

end f.eks. de amerikanske 

forbundsstater har det 

overfor Washington. Trudeaus 

uafhængige udenrigspolitik og 

generelt antiamerikanske holdning 

vandt ham dog mange tilhængere 

på tværs af partiskel i Canada. 

I 1984 vandt den konservative 

Brian Mulroney over Trudeaus 

efterfølger John Turner med det 

største flertal nogen sinde i 

canadisk historie. Igen i 1983 

vandt Mulroney en ny 4 års 

periode som landets premierminister. 

Dette valgs vigtigste 

emne var en indirekte godkendelse 

af en frihandelsaftale med USA 

som Mulroney gik stærkt ind for. 

Trods store valgsejre står 

Mulroney i dag som en af Canadas 

mest omstridte ledere nogensinde. 

Frihandelsaftalen med USA blev 

gennemført. Hermed er begyndelsen 

ER CANADA NÅET TIL EN SKILLEVEJ? 

Jørn Carlsen 

gjort til et nordamerikansk 

fællesmarked, hvor nedbrydning 

af told og andre restriktioner 

mellem de to lande vil være 

tilendebragt i løbet af 10 år. 

Dette har skabt uro og forstærket 

kløften mellem forretningslivet 

og kulturlivet i bredeste for- 

stand. Kulturarbejderne frygter 

således at den canadiske kultur 

vil blive opslugt af den amerikanske, 

når der f.eks. ikke mere 

kan gives støtte til specifikt 

canadiske kulturprojekter, således 

som tilfældet er i dag, hvor 

den canadiske stat yder stor 

støtte til canadisk kultur via 

f.eks. Canada Council. 

Frihandelsaftalen med USA ses af 

mange som et alvorligt anslag mod 

den canadiske velfærdsstat; mange 

frygter endnu mere arbejdsløshed 

og forøget gældssætning over for 

udlandet. 

Som om det ikke er nok har Canada 

fået et forfatningsproblem som 

truer med at opløse selve den 

canadiske stat. 

Brian Mulroney har sat al sin 

prestige ind på at få provinserne 

til at ratificere den såkaldte 

Meech Lake aftale. Den går i 

korthed ud på, at for at få 

Quebec til at underskrive den 

canadiske forfatning (hvad Quebec 

endnu ikke har gjort) så skal de 

andre 9 provinser akceptere at 

Quebec er en provins af en særlig 

egenart ("a distinct society") 

med ret til at tage særlige 

midler i brug for at værne om 

dette (f.eks. sproglove). 

I juni 1987 fik Brian Mulroney på 

et møde ved Meech Lake nær Ottawa 

provinsernes førsteministre til 

at akceptere dette. Han ønskede 

en gang for alle at cementere den 

canadiske enhed, få Quebec ind i 

folden og gjorde det ved at love 

yderligere selvstændighed til 

provinserne på en række områder. 

Nu er den aftalte tid, juni 1990, 

kommet for en ratifikation i 

provinsregeringerne; men i den 

forløbne tid har nogle provinser 

skiftet regering og hermed 

holdning, således agter Manitoba, 

New Brunswick og Newfoundland 

ikke at ratificere uden at der 

bliver fundet et kompromis med 

hensyn til Quebec som "distinct 

society". Det påpeges her, at de 

særlige love der skal sikre 

fransk sprog og kultur strider 

mod individets frie ret, som er 

nedfældet i Canadian Charter of 

Rights and Freedoms fra 1982. Den 

seneste sproglov, som er kommet 

i form af et forbud mod skiltning 

på engelsk i Quebec, har fået 

store dele af det engelsktalende 

Canada til at stejle. Blandt 

disse er den generelle holdning, 

at Quebec er blevet forkælet af 

en lang række politikere født i 

Quebec, blandt dem Brian Mulroney 

og Pierre Trudeau. 

Det skal dog nævnes, at Pierre 

Trudeau igen er trådt ind på den 

offentlige arena ved i skrift og 

tale at vende sig ikke blot mod 

frihandelsaftalen med USA, som 

han mener er en "monstrous 

swindle", og som vil ødelægge 

Canada økonomisk og kulturelt, 

men også mod Meech Lake aftalen. 

Denne aftale, mener han, vil føre 

til en farlig svækkelse af 

føderalregeringen med opløsning 

af Canada til følge. Hvor vi end 

vender os for øjeblikket synes 

opløsningen at true. I Quebec er 

løsrivelsespartiet (Parti Quebecois) 

igen i fremgang, og har 

ved de nylige provinsvalg vundet 

over 40% af stemmerne. 

Canada står i sandhed i en uhyre 

vanskelig situation. Man må håbe 

at besindige kræfter får reddet 

denne civiliserede statsdannelse 

på det nordamerikanske kontinent. 

* * * 

rrizirF 90

46 

CANADA SET MED FRANSK-CANADISKE ØJNE 

Virginie Tremblay, 18-årig AFS-udvekslingsstudent, skriver følgende 

om sin provins Quebec og sit syn på den aktuelle situation: 

Quebec er meget forskellig fra 

de andre provinser i Canada. Mentaliteten 

er mere åben, fri og 

ikke så konservativ som engelsk 

Canada (og USA). 

Det sociale system er veludviklet 

(f.eks. er Quebec en af de to 

provinser, som har offentlig 

sygeforsikring). Quebec er også 

den provins i Canada, som betaler 

mest skat, og vi har derfor et 

godt social system. 

Quebec er kunstnernes provins: 

teateret er meget originalt og 

alternativt, og det gælder også 

de andre former for kunst. 

Quebecs økonomi er velfungerende, 

og ifølge en engelsktalende økonom 

skulle Canada tage Quebec som 

forbillede, hvis det vil forbedre 

sin økonomi. 

Jeg føler mig 100% Quebecoise; 

jeg føler intet fællesskab med 

englænderne, slet ikke kulturelt 

og heller ikke, fordi vi bor i 

samme land. Jeg kender danskere 

bedre (efter 9 måneder her), end 

jeg kender engelsk-canadiere. 

(Det er også fordi landet er så 

stort, at folk er forskellige 

overalt, også i de engelske 

provinser.) 

Men det, jeg synes er det mest 

irriterende, er, at de få 

engelsktalende i Quebec vil have, 

at hele Quebec skal være engelsk: 

skoler, sproget, skilte, priser 

osv.. Vi siger i Quebec, at for 

dem, der vil tale engelsk, er der 

Ontario lige ved siden af. De har 

9 provinser (8 minus inuitterritoriet), 

hvor de kan tale 

engelsk, så hvorfor skal de være 

i Quebec, hvor 86% taler fransk? 

Jeg håber, at Quebec bliver 

selvstændig så snart som muligt, 

for at vi kan klare os på vores 

egen måde, efter vores egen 

kultur og tradition. 

"Vive le Quebec Libre!" 

* * * 

Forlaget Futurum Informerer Forlaget Futurum 

Gammel Landevej 41, Tødsø 

Futurum Nyt er udkommet! 

7900 Nykøbing Mors 

Tlf.: 97 72 55 66 

»Futurum Nyt« er kommet til DIN skole! 

36 sider med masser af gode tilbud, bl.a. den nye SUPER-RABAT liste, 

elektroniske ordbøger og mange nye titler. Hvis du ikke har fået dit 

eksemplar, tag telefonen og ring til os: 22 97725566. 

Northern tights 

I »Futurum Nyt« kan du selvfølgelig 

læse om vores gode 

Canada titler: »Bodily Harme, 

»Winners. og ikke mindst 

»Northern Lightse! Vi sender dem 

gerne til gennemsyn. 

Northern Lights 

»A Constellation of Canadian Literature« 

In selecting material for this new national anthology, Birthe Nekman 

has placed great emphasis on choosing texts that are in some way 

distinctively Canadian and on selecting material of literary quality and 

clarity. 

The short story, drama, poetry and non-fiction are all represented here. 

In this book you will meet the Canadian Indians, the Inuit, the people of 

the outback and the modern cosmopolitan Canadians. The authors 

represented here are Margaret Atwood, Leona Gom, Harold Horwood, 

Margaret Laurence, Wilfred Pelletier, Al Purdy, George Ryga, 

W.D.Valgardson and Dale Zieroth. 

Introduction about the geography, people, history and government of 

Canada. Many questions and working suggestions. Appendices with 

notes on the authors and further reading. Glossary with stress 

markings on the same pages as the text. Clear typography. Good quality 

paper. Most of the texts can be used from: 1.g./HF fællesfag 

»... en tiltalende og lødig boge HW Gymnasieskolen. 

Remember to ring if you need more copies of »Futurum Nyt«!

48 

MERETE BIØRN 

Nørre Gymnasium 

Der er mange gode grunde til at 

beskæftige sig med Canada i 

undervisningen: det er en del af 

"Anglo-America", landet har dybe 

europæiske rødder, der findes en 

Figur a 

"CANADA IN THE CLASSROOM" 

selvstændig, internationalt anerkendt 

litteratur - og nu er det 

oven i købet et bekendtgørelseskrav, 

at der skal læses tekster 

fra andre engelsktalende områder 

end England og USA. 

Konflikter og problemer i Irland 

og Sydafrika har traditionelt leveret 

stof til forløb, når engelsklærerne 

kastede et blik ud i 

verden, Australien er nu også 

blevet et kendt land på vores 

kulturelle landkort, så hvorfor 

ikke også Canada? 

Her står man som underviser med 

det første problem. Hvordan kan 

man vække elevernes interesse og/ 

eller skabe et behov for at få 

noget at vide om Canada? Landets 

eget identitetsproblem kan være 

en hemsko. Hvor meget appel er 

der i en definition, som man 

undertiden møder, "a Canadian is 

NATIONAL 

1974 

NATIONAL 

1974 

Figur b 

Violent Deaths per 100,000 Population 

INDIAN 

1976 

MOTOR VEHICLE 

3.0 : 

POISONING, 

OVERDOSE 

INDIAN 

1976 

NATIONAL INDIAN 

1974 1976 

12.1 

SUICIDES 

14.9 

30.1 


1974 

1976 

23.6 

Source: Communications Branch, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. 

3.5 

1777%%%~i 

BURNS & FIRE 


1974 1976 

FIRØ 

21.4 


1974 91.3 1976 

OTHER

50 51 

a North American who is not a US 

citizen"? Så er der mere slagkraft 

i en definition den tidligere 

canadiske ambassadør i Danmark 

formulerede i et radiointerview 

i 1986 (GLOBUS, sendt 10/5 

1986) med et lån fra forfatteren 

Pierre Berton: "A Canadian is 

someone who can make love in a 

canoe". Prøver man at diskutere, 

hvad der ligger bag et sådant 

udsagn (radioudsendelsen foreslår 

"Canadians have to be fairly 

agile, you have to have a sense 

of balance, to have a sense of 

accommodation, a spirit of 

compromise and tolerance") er der 

åbnet for temaer som forskelle og 

ligheder mellem USA og Canada, fx 

melting pot teorien overfor 

mosaic ideologien, og kulturmøder 

(native peoples and white settlers, 

English Canada and French 

Canada, immigrant groups). Så 

sent som i april 1990 skrev The 

Washington Post under titlen "One 

Canada - Or Several?": "Canada is 

a paradox. Serene and civilized, 

Alex Colville: "Horse and Train" 

it teeters perennially on the 

brink of a bitter break up". 

Nu er det normalt ikke de mere 

politiske aspekter, der først 

fænger hos eleverne, selv om et 

kort som "Canada - distribution 

of population" (figur a) og 

spørgsmålet "Hvorfor ser befolkningsfordelingen 

sådan ud?" godt 

kan blive starten til nogle gode 

iagttagelser og dermed skabe en 

interesse. 

I min egen undervisning har jeg 

ofte startet ved deres interesse 

for det mere eksotiske. Vi har 

fx. læst nogle indianer- og 

Inuitfortællinger, undertiden 

sammenlignet dem med vore traditionelle 

eventyr, prøvet at finde 

de specielle "kulturmarkører" i 

teksterne. For at perspektivere 

til nutiden har jeg vist en 

transparent med "Violent Deaths 

per 100,000 Population" (figur b) 

og bedt eleverne overveje, hvilken 

baggrund der kunne være for 

disse tal, og dermed er der ofte 

dannet baggrund for et tema om 

"myter og virkelighed", "kulturmøder 

på godt og ondt", "minoriteter 

i et moderne samfund" eller 

hvordan man nu vælger at formulere 

sig. 

Den nye gymnasiebekendtgørelses 

krav om emnelæsning har nok gjort 

os mere bevidste om at definere 

"titler" til vores forløb. I forbindelse 

med et forfatterbesøg, 

hvor vi bl.a. læste digtet Alex 

Colville fra Janice Kulyk Keefers 

samling, White of the Lesser 

Angels (se digt + Colville illustrationer), 

formulerede vi temaet 

"The spirit of the people 

expressed through the arts". 

Dette gav os lejlighed til at 

kigge nærmere på canadisk kunst 

- særlig naturligvis på den også 

internationalt kendte Alex Col- 

Alex Colville 

This metaphysics of detail: 

each blade of rain; 

a wire gate awry; cracks 

in joist or trouser leg or face; 

a ruler, interrupted 

by a gun. 

We are not reliably at home 

in our interpreted world. 

Vacated faces and slammed backs, 

stillness that forms like cataracts: 

binoculars trained on sheets of snow. 

We are obliquely here, 

outlined in foreign light. 

No opening, no end— 

only the track averted moonlight stains 

as train and horse's excised eyes 

always unstoppably slowly 

smash. 

Janice Kulyk Keefer 

fra White of the Lesser Angels 

‘\~\\\\\\\\~~~\\ 

ville, som ofte siges at repræsentere 

"Maritime Realism" - samtidig 

med at vi læste et antal 

noveller og digte i forsøget på 

at afdække "the spirit of the 

people". 

I tidens løb har jeg flere gange 

haft lejlighed til at beskæftige 

mig med Canada i undervisningen, 

både i form af tværfaglige forløb 

(historie, geografi, engelsk, 

fransk), områdestudier (en kombination 

af samfundsfag og geografi 

i samarbejde med 1 å 2 sprogfag) 

og - hvad der jo er nemmere at 

praktisere i hverdagen - parallellæsning 

og som emne alene i 

engelsk. Her vil jeg kort 

skitsere et forløb med en 2ns: 

Vi begyndte med en "introduktionsperiode", 

hvor vi læste 

tekster, der introducerede cana- 

Alex Colville "Paci1ique" (19h7 )

52 53 

diske temaer (de fleste af disse 

findes i dag i tekstantologien 

Canada Profile ved Merete Biørn, 

systime 1989). Desuden er der me- 

FAMILY 

CULTURAL 

BACKGROUND 

OWN 24 

EXPERIENCE 

Vi mente, at den omverden, man 

levede i, ikke kunne undgå at 

påvirke det enkelte individ, og 

da det i denne fase lykkedes os 

at komme i forbindelse med en 

high school i Vancouver, og der 

begyndte en brevveksling, udarbejdede 

eleverne et spørgeskema 

- som de også selv besvarede for 

senere at kunne lave mere præcise 

sammenligninger. Spørgsmålene 

samlede sig om temaer som Place 

of birth/immigration, residential 

environment, transport, housing 

conditions, language, parents' 

age, marital status and education, 

holidays, sparetime jobs, 

travel activities, school day, 

subjects, students' influence on 

school work, sparetime activities, 

interest in politics, media 

consumption, and religion. 

Som supplement hertil så vi nogle 

film lånt hos Den canadiske 

Ambassade og hos Statens Filmcentral 

(En bredt orienterende film 

om landet, en forfatterpræsentation 

og en præsentation af en 

THE LOCAL 

ENVIRONMENT 

4. 

"THE 

YOUNG 

PERSON- 

MEDIA 

get passende i Gravers Pedersen 

m.fl. Engelsk Grammatik med 

Synonymer - øvelseshæfte 2 en 

oversættelse, "Canada", som vi 

gav os i kast med. 

THE 

LANDSCAPE 

4- HISTORY 

.GOVERNMENT 

POLICY 

indvandrergruppe. Jeg nævner ingen 

titler her, da der undertiden 

sker en udskiftning af de film, 

det er muligt at hjemlåne.) 

Desuden blev klassen inddelt i 

grupper, som hver fik sit skoleradiobånd 

(SKOLERADIOEN udsendte 

i 1981 et hæfte 'Canada" samt 3 

udsendelser (The Discovery of 

Canada, The Difficulties of 

sharing an Elephant's Bed, What 

is Canadian Literature). I 1985 

udsendtes 'Canada Past and 

Present' 1-2,) med forståelsesspørgsmål. 

Hver gruppe skulle så 

samle information på denne måde, 

som den skulle videregive 

skriftligt i stikordsform til 

resten af klassen. 

Med denne baggrund valgte 

eleverne så - enkeltvis eller i 

grupper - at arbejde med et af 

følgende temaer: 

The Question of "The Canadian 

Identity" 

Man and Nature in Canada 

The Two Cultures 

Minorities: Indians and Inuit 

Immigrant Life 

Living conditions in different 

regions, past and present. 

Canada - media and politics 

Alle disse temaer er gode Canadatemaer, 

som rigeligt havde kunnet 

stå alene. Nogle af dem er naturligvis 

nemmere at belyse ved 

hjælp af litterære tekster end 

andre, men der kan være god hjælp 

at hente, hvis man - evt. ved at 

subskribere - har lejlighed til 

at få fat i canadiske tidsskrifter 

som MacLean's eller 

Saturday Night. En del af de 

tekster, der blev benyttet i 

denne del af vores Canada-tema, 

findes også i bogen Canada 

Profile. 

Det stadige spørgsmål når man vil 

arbejde med et nyt tema er selvfølgelig: 

Hvor får jeg materialer 

fra? Ud over hvad jeg allerede 

har nævnt af film, bånd og tekstmuligheder, 

kom der sidste år 

endnu en tekstantologi Northern 

Lights ved Birthe Nekman (Futurum 

1989), Ellen Bick-Meier har for 

Bibliotekscentralen udarbejdet 

en folder med titler på canadiske 

bøger oversat til dansk og 

Statsbiblioteket i Århus er 

begyndt at udsende en serie af 

vejledninger i litteratursøgning 

om Canada og canadisk skønlitteratur 

på engelsk. Hvis man selv 

ønsker at holde sig orienteret 

om canadisk litteratur, kan man 

fx. læse tidsskriftet Books in 

Canada, som udkommer 9 gange om 

arm 

Hvad enten man ønsker at kaste 

sig ud i et større Canada-tema, 

eller man blot har lyst til at 

snuse lidt til nogle gode og 

spændende canadiske forfatterskaber, 

kan jeg kun anbefale 

forehavendet.

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