A Canadian Notebook #1 - Multicultural Challenge
Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 August 2009 07:28 Written by Administrator Friday, 10 July 2009 09:30
Current events in China, France, and the visit of the Emperor of Japan give us an opportunity to reflect on institutional policies that strike at the heart of multiculturalism and diversity and thus freedom, and here in Canada.
China - Rioting and Murder in Xinjiang Uygur
Urumqi, from all outward appearances, a beautiful city, has been the scene of violence, riot, blood on the streets, and what is called ethnic conflict. The military has been called in, the streets cleared and a curfew called.
The similarities between China and Canada may be stronger than the differences. We are of the same geographical size, although with less 'bully' power. China has a population of one billion, three hundred million more than Canada.
In China's north west province, Xinjiang Uygur, the ratio of population to geography is close to Canada's and about half are Muslims - Uighurs, with cultural and language links to Turkey, such that the area is also referred to as East Turkistan by groups pressuring for independence. The other half of the population, is Chinese Han.
That is the simplistic view. Reality is more complex. Add Kazakhs, Kyrgs, Mongols, Dongxiang and others to the mix.
What China is doing in the northern province and in Tibet (and would like to do in Taiwan) comes under the heading of their policy of achieving an 'harmonious society'.
In Canada, we call the 'harmony' policy, the 'unity' policy. Unity or maintaining unity is how the present prime minister, Stephen Harper, declares his basic responsibility - euphemistically called the 'unity file' - an interesting file, here and in China.
Much like Canada, Xinjiang Uygur, is multicultural. Much like Canada, the issues are seen as split - or as a duality - one side against another - or as a confrontation between Muslim Uighurs and Chinese Hans. In Canada, the conflict is seen as between French Canada (Roman Catholic) and English Canada (Protestant).
The myth here in Canada, is that English Canada is an integrated, harmonious, homogenized group when it is really diverse. Nor is Quebec as homogeneously 'French Canadian' as separatists would have us believe. For separatists and federalists in Quebec, it is homogeneous primarily for the purposes of extracting cash from Ottawa, which is not dissimilar to so-called 'English Canada'. Charging to the 'unity file' is a simple and viable solution to the problem of separation and disunity, and probably not sustainable.
What is happening in China is the result of Chinese policy. Call it structural. Chinese Han, once 4% of the population now nearly 50% in Urumqi. The Han are believed to get all the economic benefits, opportunities, incentives, job and housing. They are better educated. This is as a result of Chinese policy. The same thing is happening in Tibet.
Moreover, the Chinese population control policy has forced Uighur women to have abortions. Uighurs have been forcibly relocated from their homes to allow for urban redevelopment. Uighurs get poorer while the Han get richer.
By any other term, what is happening is ethnic cleansing. And it is happening because Xinjiang Uygur is rich in natural resources - minerals, oil, gas, because it is used for a missile and nuclear testing, and because, militarily, of its strategic location sharing borders with Pakistan, Russia, India, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan.
The strategic - big picture - the requirements and values of China and the Communist Chinese, do not match the traditional culture of peoples along the Old Silk Road and, particularly, the Muslim minority http://www.drben.net/ChinaReport/Sources/Art_Arts_Culture/Ethnic_Minorities_in_China/Islamic/Islamic_Minorities_in_China.htm of Xinjiang Uygur. The same conflict exists for the Buddhists in Tibet and the Falun Gong.
So, we are also seeing a clash of religion as well as culture and economics and the perceived need to secure borders and resources. Can the Islamic fundamentalists be far behind? This must be a major worry for the Chinese leadership.
What can we learn from this in Canada?
We are not immune to such ethnic and racist tendencies. Just this week, the Government placed restrictions to prevent visitors and immigrants from the Czech Republic (apparent concern: the Roma or gypsies?) and Mexico (apparent concern: swine flu?).
France - The French debate the banning of the Niqab and Burka
French President, Nicolas Sarkozy has declared the burka a symbol of inequality and wants it banned. The Dutch government initiated a similar debate in 2006. The Dutch were concerned that the burka was a 'national security' risk.
Near as I can make out, the terms niqab and burka are used interchangeably in the west to mean a garment that covers a woman from head to toe allowing for a narrow slit for seeing.
What do we think in Canada? We have had earlier debates about allowing Sikhs in the RCMP to wear the turban, Muslim dress for girls on the soccer field, and allowing boys to be wearing the kirpan - a Sikh ceremonial knife. The debate on the turban has gone so far as to suggest the federal government subsidize development of turban-helmets for motorcycles.
What should we in Canada legislate? By being intolerant of the turban, the niqab, the kirpan and other cultural or religious symbols, do we move toward or move away from toleration of diversity, let alone from the celebration of diversity to which Prism of the Heart aspires?
Readers may be aware the Canadian Government banned First Nations potlatch (an occasion of gift giving, perhaps raising a totem pole, dance, feasting) ceremonies from 1884 to 1951. The government and the peoples of Canada failed to notice the resemblance between potlatch and potluck - the typical Presbyterian potluck dinner - a more restrained (perhaps) western-Christian affair, sometimes mixed with a strawberry social, (never a dance) and a silent auction (in my experience).
Emperor and Empress of Japan Visit Canada
Then and now.
I can only imagine what lies beyond the thinking, feelings and lives of this charming, graceful and dutiful couple who have dedicated their lives to duty and to their homeland after the devastating consequences of the Emperor's father, Hirohito, and the Allied response to Japan in World War II.
Here is what the Emperor said of the hopes for his visit to Canada:
"...we hope to deepen our understanding of our country, where those who have lived here for generations and those who moved here from various countries recognize and respect their mutual cultures and strive to create harmoniously the Canada that is today...."
Key phrases to think about: 'recognize and respect their mutual cultures'; 'create harmoniously'; 'the Canada that is today'.
'the Canada that is today'.
We are not the Canada of yesterday, nor are we the Canada of tomorrow. The Canadian journey seems to be away from fear and intolerance and toward transformation to a new beginning, and that takes us into new territory.
The past includes (this list being a small sample):
Chinese Head Tax - a racial policy and means of controlling immigration and the population's ethnic mix.
Ukrainian W.W.I work and internment camps.
The internment, like other internments, whether by native reservations and Christian schools, or later, Japanese citizens was clearly well organized Canadian government policy. See the map below.
Japanese W.W.11 internment camps and seizure of property.
Turning back Sikh immigrants on the ship 'Komagata Maru' in 1914. Note the media over-reaction.
It is interesting to note that while the government has officially apologized for this incident (Stephen Harper), the media has not apologized for their incendiary reporting of it.
For more information read:
Sikh Pioneers http://www.sikhpioneers.org/koma.html
Abuse of First Nations children in Christian schools.
The War Measures Act (WMA), used to intern Ukrainians and Japanese, was used in response to the 1970 FLQ crises in which a series of bombings (95+) in Quebec was followed by the kidnap of James Cross, the British Trade Commissioner, and the kidnap and murder of the Deputy Quebec Premier, Pierre Laporte.
Over the CBC national network, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced a moment of of grave crises to national unity and freedom.
Martial law was established, the military arrived, nearly 500 individuals were rounded up and jailed at 4 a.m. on October 16.
Of the nearly 500, only a few were charged, and none convicted.
Parliament voted - Conservatives and Liberals - for enactment of the War Measures Act after an invitation from the Quebec provincial government. Only Tommy Douglas, the CCF (now NDP) leader and his party, voted against the enactment which briefly suspended democracy and human rights in Quebec.
Subsequently, police located, captured, jailed, or hastily exiled 27 terrorists to Cuba. James Cross was released after negotiations. In later years, a number of the terrorists returned to live normal lives in Quebec, some of them as government employees - an example perhaps for Guantanamo and the eventual rehabilitation of Islamic terrorists.
In Canada, in 1970, eh!
Between 1956 and 1976, a mere 20 years, Quebec politically went from government by an oppressive, closeted, conservative, catholic regime headed by Maurice Duplessis, through the Quiet Revolution lead by the Liberal, Jean Lesage (in a cultural and linguistic, secular renaissance), into the terrorism of the FLQ which the War Measures Act effectively ended in 1970, and then six years later a separatist government.
The impact of the WMA was immediate, shocking and, in retrospect, resulted in an oppressive overkill. Fortunately for Canadians, it was done by a prime minister from Quebec - Pierre Trudeau, whose editorship of Cite Libre helped bring about the Quiet Revolution.
The question asked in the cartoon (left) is "Did the enactment of the War Measures bring Quebecers closer to separation?
In 1976, Rene Levesque, a former Liberal minister in the Lesage cabinet, became Quebec's first separatist premier.
Two failed separation referendums followed (the last one, a squeaker). Meanwhile, in response to the separatist pressure, the Government of Canada in 1982 introduced a new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a new constitution.
Quebec has not yet ratified the constitution.
In 1990, the federal government failed to get enough provincial support from Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba to decentralize government power and to recognize Quebec as a Distinct Society.
The attempt to assuage Quebec sovereignty and keep the province in the fold, caused Stephen Harper in 2006 to lead the House of Commons in a vote recognizing Quebec as a "'nation' within a 'united' Canada".
We may think all this silly or nonsense, but seriously, it represents an effort to maintain the country together and to recognize and support diversity within the country.
Other countries that have failed to demonstrate Canadian-type flexibility have broken up amidst violence and bloodshed. We have seen horrific killing and maiming. Families have been uprooted. Hospitals, water supplies and all the infrastructure of civilized life have been bombed. Cities, and city people, especially, suffer suffer when multiculturalism fails.
Canada plays an international lead in preserving stability and freedoms and peace amidst diversity, enabling minority rights and freedoms. Not an easy task.
Incidentally, (as an aside) to me the face in the cartoon bears a clever resemblance to the separatist premier, Rene Levesque, who was an inveterate smoker seen most often with a cigarette dangling from is mouth. Q is the cigarette.
From the past, let us consider two present issues:
First Nations unemployment, poverty, housing, health issues.
and,
Canada's environment record http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/10/18/environment-can051018.html and our behavior as government, corporations and individuals - failure to implement the Kyoto Accord despite signing it and having one of the worst ecological footprints of all developed nations.
But also, let us not forget some of the good things:
Support for American blacks escaping the American Civil War in the Underground Railroad. See:
Ohio History Central http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1483
and,
let us consider the Canada Pension, Canada Health, Education, and other social benefits that have been expanded upon since the mid 1950's.
'recognize and respect their mutual cultures'
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - 1981 http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/
The Apology to First Nations http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/11/pm-statement.html made by the Government of Canada, and the increasing number of treaty settlements. Apologies to Sikh and Japanese peoples for our past transgressions.
'create harmoniously'
The Chinese Communist government's policy of harmony and the Emperor's comment lead me to ask "Is democracy an harmonious process or in its very nature, does it require occasional cacacaphone?" Is debate a requirement for democracy? Does the noise tell us democracy is alive and well?
How can we all sing in harmony from the same song sheet - especially if we're singing different songs, at different times, for different reasons - and have different vocal cultures, capabilities, training and so on? Harmony? Is it a requirement? And if so, how do we achieve it - in groups and individually?
Summary
What all this information tells me is how difficult and complex and precious just LIVING in a 'multicultural-diverse' domain is.
The past is full of failures not only in Canada - failures such as the Holocaust, the Tutsi-Hutu murders in Rwanda, the Kulaks in Russia, the Kurds in Iran, the Armenians in Turkey, apartheid in South Africa, the Spanish Inquisition, Beirut, Kosova, Sarajevo, Belfast, the Mumbai bombings, and so on.
But Canada seems to be making progress.
Today's big social justice atrocity may be our relationship with Mother Earth - the soil, the sea, the lakes, the rivers, the air, the trees - we are the 'Great Exploiters' - and Canada is among the worst of developed nations. What we have to decide is - Is this our issue? - and if so what are we going to do about it - individually - beyond blaming governments and corporations.
All these issues are issues of respect for diversity.