Racism & MultiCulturalism
Vancouver, as most large
Canadian Cities, has a wide variety of racial and cultural
groups. This is much more noticeable than in most American
Cities. In fact, a higher proportion of Vancouverites were 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
to Vancouver will be 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 Vancouverites 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
the URL of a web site, representing those opinions http://www.canadafirst.net/. (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.
You may encounter some resentment towards yourself as a visitor in some areas of BC. In Williams Lake in Central BC, in summer 2008, 2 European tourists in an RV were assaulted by 10 Indian Youths & their RV vandalized. The Tribal Council was so appalled, they put the tourists up in a Hotel for 3 days & paid for all repairs.
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. You can visit a
native longhouse at Mission in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver. XA:YTEM: A cultural, historic and spiritual
First Nations site
As a matter of interest, here is an entry form Canada Visa"s blog on Racism. Link
