Some Reflections on Canada Day 2021
The revelations around the horrors of the residential school burial grounds and the shameful past we are forced to confront are overwhelming. First nations in Canada have long been telling these stories and now there is no longer any possibility of denial. It has cast a pall over the annual celebration of our national day and hopefully forced a time of deep reflection. But this is only one aspect of a puncturing of comfortable assertions of our identity as a welcoming, tolerant and inclusive society. We are daily learning through the media of multiple forms of racism, misogyny and homophobia. Someone not here and only getting news reports might easily conclude that we live in a horrific, dystopian and hypocritical society.
Yet at the same time as my wife Eti and I have criss-crossed much of the city on foot and by bike over these past months, it has been hard not to be deeply impressed by full spectrum of humanity in every conceivable way, age, ethnicity, income, gender etc. all sharing our city, enjoying the spacers we inhabit together, our parks, our magnificent waterfront, our ravines and trails and local main streets, and each other’s company. I honestly don’t know of many (any?) places that would equal this.
Both these things are true. We live in a remarkable city and country and yet it is deeply flawed with an appalling legacy of injustices and bigotry that we still live with. How to come to terms with this. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
On June 26th Vancouver-based reporter published an article in the Toronto Star which chronicled how Canada’s citizenship study guide for newcomers has evolved from 1947 to today. It is a moving target and depending on how you look at it, progress has been rapid or depressingly slow. But it is mostly trending in one direction, seeking an expanding definition of what it means to be Canadian and an growing (if grudging) acknowledgement of first nations and the negative impacts of European settlement even as a gap remains between aspiration and reality. Below are excerpts from different versions of the guide.
1947
Prior to 1947, people living in Canada were British subjects. But that all changed at the end of the Second World War, when Paul Martin Sr., then a Liberal cabinet minister and secretary of state, visited the Canadian war cemetery in Dieppe, France. It is said that visit inspired him to create legislation that would formally recognize Canadian citizenship.
The first version of the citizenship guide boasts of Canada’s emergence from the war as a “great nation. “Her vast resources, her agricultural and industrial capacity, exercise a profound influence on world affairs,” the guide states. “Her people, drawn from every racial group, are welded into a mighty democratic force through their love of freedom, hatred of oppression, and the steadfast determination that the powers of government shall be exercised by and through the people for the common benefit of all.”
There is a lengthy recitation of the arrival of European settlers but scant mention of their interaction with Indigenous Peoples.
1964
The 1964 version of the citizenship guide highlights Canada as a “nation of immigrants.”
“All have brought with them the traditions of their various countries and cultures. They have settled in Canada, have become a part of it but, at the same time, they have contributed to the cultural diversity which is characteristic of the country,” the guide states.
The guide notes that a “very small part” of the Canadian population is composed of “native Indians and Eskimos” who had been “living here for thousands of years before the first European arrived.”
“In this sense they are the most truly Canadian of the country’s citizens.”
Despite this acknowledgment, Indigenous people are only briefly mentioned elsewhere in the guide in the context of the fur trade and “violent wars ... among the Indian tribes who had allied themselves with either French or British settlers.”
1975
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Canada, under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, formally adopted policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism.
These developments are reflected in the opening pages of the 1975 citizenship guide.
“Newcomers find it an advantage to learn at least one of these languages for their everyday use in Canada,” the guide states.
“This does not mean by any means that you have to give up your own culture and traditions, as Canada is also officially a multicultural country. Through the Canadian government’s multicultural policy you can maintain your inherited culture and share it with your fellow-Canadians. In this way, all Canada will be richer, in developing a new identity that is drawn from all parts in the world.”
1995
Pride in the different cultural and ethnic groups that live and work “together in harmony” is emphasized in the opening pages of the 1995 citizenship guide. So is the idea of equality. “We have shown how much we value this idea by having it written into the Constitution as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
For the first time, would-be Canadians are introduced to some of Canada’s symbols, including the beaver, the red-and-white maple leaf flag and the Queen as head of state.
The guide also devotes a section to the “Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.”
“When Europeans arrived in what is now Canada, they began to make agreements, or treaties, with Aboriginal Peoples. The treaty making process meant that Aboriginal people gave up their title to lands in exchange for certain rights and benefits. Most of the agreements included reserving pieces of land to be used only by Aboriginal Peoples. These pieces of land are called ‘reserves,’” the guide states.
“Today, Aboriginal groups and the Canadian government continue to negotiate new agreements for land and the recognition of other rights. Aboriginal Peoples in Canada are working to keep their unique cultures and languages alive. They are trying to regain control over decisions that affect their lives — in other words, to become self-governed. Aboriginal Peoples continue to play an active role in building the future of Canada.”
2000-2002
At the start of the 21st century, the citizenship guide’s opening pages highlight Canada’s “genius” for compromise and coexistence and for being a peaceful nation.
“Canadian history and traditions have created a country where our values include tolerance and respect for cultural differences, and a commitment to social justice,” the guide states. In the 2002 version, the word “tolerance” is dropped.
A nod is given to the millions of immigrants who have helped build the country. Indigenous people are said to constitute an important part of the country’s population and are described as “working to protect and promote their languages, cultures and traditions and acquire self-government.”
2009-2012
Newcomers are told they “must” learn about Canada’s history, symbols, democratic institutions and geography. The guide also impresses upon would-be citizens the idea of “shared traditions, identities and values.”
Language reinforcing “the equality of women and men” is introduced for the first time.
“In Canada, men and women are equal under the law,” the guide states. “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, ‘honour killings,’ female genital mutilation or other gender-based violence. Those guilty of these crimes are severely punished under Canada’s criminal laws.”
For the first time, the guide touches on how the arrival of European traders, missionaries, soldiers and colonists “changed the native way of life forever.”
“Large numbers of Aboriginals died of European diseases to which they lacked immunity. However, Aboriginals and Europeans formed strong economic and military bonds in the first 200 years of coexistence, which laid the foundations of Canada.”
There is a passing reference to how treaties “were not always fully respected.” A paragraph is devoted to how the government “placed” Indigenous children in residential schools.
“The schools were poorly funded and inflicted hardship on the students; some students were physically abused,” the guide states. “Aboriginal languages and cultural practices were mostly prohibited. In 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to the former students.”
The guide includes a list of notable Canadians behind great discoveries and inventions.
They are all men.
Coming next
The current version hasn’t been updated in more than a decade, drawing criticism for using outdated terminology and leaving out or sanitizing darker moments of Canada’s past, including attempts to forcibly assimilate Indigenous Peoples.
In 2015, one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s “calls to action” included that the information kit for newcomers “reflect a more inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, including information about the Treaties and the history of residential schools.”
The current guide includes only one paragraph on residential schools.
The federal government now says it expects to roll out later this year a revamped study guide that will present a more “honest” portrait of the country’s past and present.
The guide will include a section outlining the government’s attempts to compel Indigenous Peoples to adopt European customs through policies “designed to end Indigenous ways of life, languages and spiritual beliefs.”
The new guide will also touch on (among other injustices) the history of slavery in Canada and the Underground Railroad; discrimination against Chinese immigrants through the head tax; the Komagata Maru incident that saw more than 350 South Asian migrants denied entry to Canada; the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War; the demolition of Africville, a community of Black Canadians in Halifax, in the 1960s; and Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women.
It will also include an acknowledgment of the existence of systemic racism and efforts to combat it, as well as new information on a variety of historically under-represented groups, such as Francophones, women, Black Canadians, the LGBTQ2 community and Canadians with disabilities.
It is hardly surprising that this multi-generational journey has been slow and bumpy. The privileges enjoyed by what was a largely white relatively homogeneous patriarchal majority are not given up easily. As the demographics shift occurs it is also not surprising that some elements of that dominant group are fearful and uncertain about their role in a vastly different country and sometimes react to the loss of unquestioned assumptions of superiority with resistance from micro-aggressions to actual violence. But this backlash only means we need to redouble our efforts.
This Canada Day is clearly not a time for self-congratulation, rather a moment for soul searching and a renewed commitment to acknowledge our failings and act to address the undeniable challenges in making our world more equitable and inclusive. I feel privileged to be here and able to strive to make our shared aspirations a reality.
This sequence of images from the citizenship guides gives some sense of the shifting landscape.
