Home  Features Life in Canada The truth about racism in Canada
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The truth about racism in Canada |
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By Paul Beddows » Most large Canadian cities have a wide variety of
racial and cultural groups. This is much more noticeable than in most
American cities. In fact, in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver, a
higher proportion of the population was born outside of the
country, than is the case in New York, generally considered the most
multicultural city in North America.
While Caucasians are still in the majority, most visitors are
immediately struck by its high population of Asians, and people of East
Indian extraction. On the other hand, the Black African and Hispanic
populations are much less than any American city.
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Canada is probably the
most racially tolerant country in the world. Unfortunately, however,
racism does raise its ugly head from time to time.
We used to be quite smug about not being a racist society, especially
in the 50's and 60's when we saw what was going on in the United
States. The truth of the matter, however, was that we did not have any
minority groups of a sufficient size to be racist against.
With the large influx of immigrants from India and surrounding
countries in the 70's and 80's, it became apparent that certain
sections of Canadians are as racist as anyone. The only difference is
that we seem to become more tolerant to the second generation as they
assimilate.
This is most evidenced by the Chinese who were brought in to build the
railroad in the 1800's. The Chinese have exercised considerable
influence over Vancouver's development, and are largely responsible for
the appearance and flavour of the city today. A recent Time magazine
article referred to Vancouver as Asia's newest capital.
There is little evidence of any racism toward this group in Vancouver
today, in fact most Caucasians don't even think of the Chinese as a
different racial group, they have been a part of the landscape here for
so long. There is a high rate of Caucasian-Chinese intermarriage and
integration.
Oddly enough, some of the racist attitudes towards the new Chinese
immigrants from Hong Kong come from the older established Chinese
community. One can only hope, that the same trend will occur with the
East Indian population as time goes on.
Canada, unlike the United States, has had an official policy of
multiculturalism for years. This means that immigrants are allowed,
even encouraged to maintain their culture. They are, however, requested
to leave the politics of their homeland behind. This policy has helped
give Canada its reputation for tolerance and it has certainly made our
cities far more interesting places than they used to be.
It has not come without its problems, however. There has been a
backlash against the cost of providing English as a second language in
schools. There have also been a couple of incidents where schools run
by a particular ethnic group have been used as training grounds for
political battles back home, and even one incident where a terrorist
was sheltered in such a school.
The ideal, as envisioned by our policy of multiculturalism, is that
immigrants integrate themselves fully into Canadian society, while
contributing the positive aspects of their culture, to our society.
Whether the Canadian policy of multiculturalism is working or not, is a
matter of some debate. Many people feel we should take the "melting
pot" attitude of the United States, where people are discouraged from
maintaining their original culture and are expected to assimilate
themselves entirely into the American culture. There is something to be
said for both points of view, and the ideal probably lies somewhere
between the two.
Racially motivated violence is rare in Canada, but it does occur. We
have had our share of high profile racists, such as Franz Zundel. We
also have had white supremacist groups appear from time to time. There
was a recent incident of a murder by skinheads, of a member of the
Indo-Canadian community.
Some Canadians strongly disagree with our immigration policy. In the interest of balancing opinion, here is one website representing those opinions. (Warning, you may find this site offensive)
Native Indians:
The Native Indians are a special case. Canada's treatment of its
aboriginal people has been shameful. I guess we can take some
consultation in the fact that Australia was worse. aboriginals there,
were not even classified as human until the 60's.
Canada had an official policy of destroying native culture and
re-educating their children during the early part of the century.
Children were taken away from their parents and placed in residential
schools, where their culture was essential stripped from them. It was a
kind of cultural genocide.
Today the government is trying to redress some of these wrongs by
compensating the natives in the form of large land grants,
self-government, etc. At the risk of sounding racist, I'm going to say
that I have mixed feelings about this. I have some problems with any
group in Canada being singled out for special treatment on the basis of
race. They tried this in South Africa, it was called "apartheid". On
the other hand, though, this might be the only way to restore native
culture.
There are also many cases of aboriginal people who are still alive who
were abused, especially through the residential school system, and
these individuals certainly deserve compensation. The native community,
on the whole, is an economically disadvantaged one, and the Canadian
government has been largely responsible for this. They obviously should
do something, but I have some doubts about the approach being taken.
The money should be used to encourage restoration of native culture and
providing educational opportunities, not just straight handouts.
The test case for government compensation will be the recent treaty
with the Nishga nation of northern BC. Hopefully the money and land
compensation grants will be used wisely for every ones benefit within
the native communities, and hopefully help restore the richness of
native culture and traditions.
I have had several people e-mail me, asking how they might visit Indian
villages, etc. Canada is not like Africa or the Amazon Basin, most
natives are indistinguishable from the rest of the Canadian populace.
Don't expect to visit Canada and see native Indians (they prefer to be
referred to as aboriginals, by the way) in native dress. Western movies
over the years, have seriously distorted the facts of native culture.
The movie image of the ruthless savage Indian scalping hapless settlers
is a distortion. Most of the genocide was in fact the other way around,
and with a few exceptions, most North American Indian tribes were
peaceful nomads.
There are sometimes exhibitions of native dancing, but you may not have
an opportunity to witness or participate in any native ceremonies,
unless you know someone within the aboriginal community. Traditional
aboriginal ceremonies, such as Sweat-Lodges, Potlatches, etc. are not
generally available to outsiders.
About the author: Paul
Beddows was born in the UK and immigrated with his parents to Canada in
1957. He spends a lot of time travelling and has been to about 50
countries over the last 30 years. Paul publishes a popular website on travel to Vancouver.
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