Working site on citizenship and multiculturalism issues.
2013/10/05 Leave a comment
One of my former files, and one of the more interesting organizations as it brought together experts, educators and policy makers.
2013/09/28 Leave a comment
Good overview of some of the criticism from the various communities on how their particular historical experience is portrayed in Canada’s national human rights museum in Winnipeg, opening next year. There is no way to satisfy any or all of the groups completely, given the nature of their experience and the understandable strong feelings that each of them have on how it is depicted.
And to further complicate matters, each group looks at their experience both in the particular sense, as well as making comparisons with how other groups are portrayed (or not).
However, one positive outcome (hopefully) will be more discussion about the historical experiences of these communities, and improve awareness.
2013/09/23 Leave a comment
Worth noting, as this was the first major historical recognition initiative by the Canadian government, and important acknowledgement of historical wrongs. Read Obasan by Joy Kogawa to understand the internment and related experience. US government also made comparable acknowledgement.
2013/08/10 Leave a comment
Nice story on the history of the US apology for Japanese Wartime Internment. Canada took a similar approach to its apology, also in 1988. With a nice closing statement:
“There is a saying in Japanese culture, ‘kodomo no tame ni,’ which means, ‘for the sake of the children.’ And for us running this campaign, that had much to do with it,” he (Tateishi) says. “It’s the legacy we’re handing down to them and to the nation to say that, ‘You can make this mistake, but you also have to correct it — and by correcting it, hopefully not repeat it again.’ “
From Wrong To Right: A U.S. Apology For Japanese Internment : Code Switch : NPR.
2013/07/01 Leave a comment
Another example of Quebec-centric thinking and almost wishfulness. While the Harper government has emphasized the British heritage and connection, it has also assiduously tended to the multicultural reality of Canada through extensive outreach and programs like Historical Recognition for a number of communities. The immigrant identity is also the multicultural identity, which was always about integrating the diverse communities and histories of Canada into a common civic identity.
Multiculturalism died, and Harper replaced it with “royalization” – The Globe and Mail.
2013/06/11 Leave a comment
Historical recognition at the Banff Cave and Basin site – community versus broader narratives.
Controversy dogs exhibit on First World War internment – The Globe and Mail.
2013/02/25 Leave a comment
Tom Flanagan on historical recognition:
Three practical conclusions …..
First, financial compensation should only be offered when the laws of the past as they then existed were broken. Sexual abuse is and always was a crime, but persuading unwed mothers to surrender their babies for adoption was a widely accepted social policy.
Second, financial compensation may be owed to victims of personal injury, but not to their heirs. Pain and suffering are terrible things, but they end with the victims’ death. Paying money to ethnic kinfolk does nothing for the victims’ suffering. It is part of the tragic legacy of history from which we can learn but which we cannot erase.
Third, recognition of what we now see as past wrongs can be in order, but apologies ring false unless they are made by those who actually committed the injustice. You apologize to people when you’ve been mean or thoughtless, but what good does it do for those who run contemporary governments to apologize for the actions of people in past centuries who acted in good faith under the law as it then was?
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Multicultural Meanderings 