REDAKTIONELT - Anglo Files

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
Page 1 and 2: 2 3 Temaet for næste nummer af ENG
Page 3 and 4: 16 Inuiterne kom sejlende over Beri
Page 5 and 6: 20 percent of the population was of
Page 7: 24 25 The Immigration Act formalize
Page 11 and 12: 32 33 after the Revolution in 1917.
Page 13 and 14: 36 37 the main character and his ad
Page 15 and 16: 40 41 The Baitchopper (James Lorime
Page 17 and 18: 46 CANADA SET MED FRANSK-CANADISKE
Page 19 and 20: 50 51 a North American who is not a

REDAKTIONELT - Anglo Files

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?