I decided to answer Question #2 this week, by looking at the Multiculturalism Act of 1989. I chose this piece of legislatiom because I am interesed in its intensely widespread and profound effects, which are more tangible in today’s Canadian society than ever before. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act has been and continues to be an essential component in shaping not only communal relationships, but also those Canadians share with their federal, provincial and even municipal governments.  I examined a copy of the Act as found on the Government of Canada’s website for Justice and Laws. 

The intention of the Act has been, from the beginning, to facilitate cooperation, acceptance and synergy between all citizens and residents of Canada, no matter their countries of origin, race or religion. Some of the Act’s central points include recognizing ‘the importance of preserving and enhancing the multicultural heritage of Canadians’ and noting that ‘ all Canadians, whether by birth or by choice, enjoy equal status, are entitled to the same rights, powers and privileges and are subject to the same obligations, duties and liabilities’. Essentially, the Multiculturalism Act serves to celebrate and include all racial and cultural ethnicities that reside within Canada. Equal protection and status are claimed to be offered to citizens and residents, and cross- cultural understanding and appreciation are claimed to be fostered under the Multiculturalism Act.

It is unfortunate, then, to note that not all of the points mandated by the Act have been followed. In particular, Section 1d of the Multiculturalism Policy within the Act states that it is a policy of the Government of Canada to ‘recognize the existence of communities whose members share a common origin and their historic contribution to Canadian society, and enhance their development’.

In examining the relationship between Canada’s Indigenous population and the nation’s government, it is clear that the above statement has not held true for Canada. The current state of affairs is such that growth and progress within relations appears stunted; it seems to me that there are many underlying issues surrounding the Indigenous community that are preventing progress. This leads me to question the lengths to which the Canadian government has gone (or perhaps not gone) in order to ‘enhance [the] development’ of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

Regarding Daniel Coleman’s stance on white civility, his claim that ‘White Canadian culture is obsessed and organized by its obsession, with the problem of its own civility’ (5) seems to be in line with the tumultuous relationship between Canada’s government and its Indigenous people.  While the act may have been created and put in place for the purpose of protecting and benefiting Canada’s citizens and residents, it seems that promises were made in 1989 that have not been upheld.

While it is true that in a lot of Canada, particularly in metropolitan areas like Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal, multiculturalism is embraced and celebrated, hidden violence and injustice still exists and it should not be forgotten.  The ‘the uncivil past’ is separated ‘from the civil present’ (Coleman 34), and this permits a façade of normalcy to be perpetuated in modern Canadian society.

The question I have now is: How does Canadian society move forward? How can the Multiculturalism Act be amended in a way that will truly ensure the inclusion of all Canada’s residents?

Works Cited

“Canadian Multiculturalism Act.” Justice Laws Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2015.

In his paper A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation, Matthew Sparke mentions the incident that occurred of Justice Allan MacEachern’s referral to the map of Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en territory as’ the map that roared’ (Sparke 468). Essentially, this map categorically rejected all the devices being utilized by colonizers on native land: these devices include property lines, logging roads, pipelines and general systems of colonial orientation.

McEachern dimissed the Gitxsan and Wet’swuet’en’s claims with what Sparke calls “a remarkably absolutist set of colonist claims about the extinguishment of aboriginal rights” (470). Despite the fact that McEachern dismissed the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en’s map and all its aforementioned rejections of colonial infrastructre, his use of the phrase ‘the map that roared’ belies an interesting point.

By using the word ‘roar’, McEachern invokes thoughts of a wild, untamed creature using the most primal of its instincts to lay a claim over its territory; he is thus, albeit indirectly, acknowleding that the Indigenous groups to whom the map belongs are the rightful owners of the land.

Eventually, McEachern’s judgement was overturned and a new trial was conducted, which was considered a huge victory in terms of  First Nations rights. The Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people claimed ownership and legal jurisdiction over 58,000 square kilometers of land (Sparke 470) in British Columbia. This case was one of the first of its kind, as it was concerned with geographical ownership and was facilitated by the voices of the First Nations people.

At the very beginning of this section of his piece, Sparke refers to the Atlas, and argues that the ‘template of contemporary Canada is imposed proleptically on a heterogenous past’ (468). Sparke is acknowledging that the cartography present in the Atlas  will “enable its national Canadian audience to rethink the colonial frontiers of national knowledge itself” and to “reconsider the discontinuous positions of native peoples.” The central commonality between the Atlas and the McEachern case is of course, maps. Maps are the very foundation of both geographical and national ownership, and they play an extremely important role in the defining of a nation’s identity and its history.   

Works Cited

Sparke, Matthew. “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation” “Contrapuntal Cartographies” Seattle: University of Washington.

The following is a list of ideas and quotes that I have found, while reading my classmates’ blog posts, to accurately construct a definition of home.

• Home is an amalgam of memories and feelings.
• “Home is fleeting, it moves when we do, changes when we adapt, grows when we age” (Angela Olivares).
• Home is a concept that comprises of, at least in part, family, friends and lovers.
• Home is, simply put, where you live (Kevin Sun).
• ‘“Home” is difficult to define and contains numerous emotional, psychological, and perhaps even spiritual meanings’ (Gretta Datten).
• Home ‘doesn’t necessarily have to relate to any physical space specifically’ (Hailey Froehler).
• Home is where you feel a sense of belonging; a sense of being a key that fits perfectly into a lock, a recognition of something kindred between yourself and the ground upon which you are standing.

I found myself nodding in agreement as I read all the pieces I have quoted above. I think that Angela, Kevin, Gretta and Hailey have captured the essence of home by acknowledging that it cannot be captured.

I believe, like them, that it is difficult for many people to pin down exactly where they think home is. To test this, I asked a few friends and family members what home meant to them. Some of the responses I got included:

• ‘Home is my backyard in the summer. In the winter too, but it’s more of an igloo than a home then.’
• ‘Home is the beach in Karachi, in Vancouver, in Brighton, in Sydney.’
• ‘Home is hookah and cards.’
• ‘Home is my parents. And my dog.’
• ‘Home is my camera and something to point it at.’
• ‘Home is wherever family is.’
• ‘Home is food and my bed.’

These people are all getting at the same idea that my classmates and I believe in- that home is what you make it, home is the people you love, the activities you enjoy and the feeling that you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere because you’re right at home where you are. (See what I did there?)

Ending off with a song that is unrivalled in its relevance to this post: Home. (I prefer this cover to the original)

Works Cited

Datten, Gretta. “Assignment 2:2”. Liberal Leaning Literary Landscapes Labryritnhinely Lined with Liminal Loops of Logic and Legend. UBC Blogs, 3 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Froehler, Hailey. “The Ambiguity of ‘Home’.” English 470A. UBC Blogs, 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Olivares, Angela. “Assignment 2:3- Homeward Bound”. ENG 470. UBC Blogs, 8 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Sun, Kevin. “Where I Live”. Many Homes, One Earth. UBC Blogs, 5 June 2015. Web. 8 June 2015.

Home is Lahore, the pearl of the Punjab, my birthplace. Home is the sound the leaves make when the breeze rushes through them; it is the stillness in the air before the monsoon laves the land. Home is my cousins, home is Pakola, home is endless novels, bought from Readings, devoured on lazy afternoons as the ceiling fan stirs the hot air around the room. Home is my grandmother’s roast chicken, it is lemon tarts and chicken patties from Shezan, it is the best steak I’ve ever tasted at Café Zouk. Home is the nehr (canal), it is Badshahi Masjid, it is Model Town and Defense and Lahore Cantt. Home is cursing the country’s so- called leaders as you drown in a thick layer of sweat, waiting for the power to come back on. Home is the stories my aunts share, the stories the earth tells as you sit on the porch.

Home is Dubai, with its shimmering skyscrapers and warm weather. Home is returning to the apartment on a humid night, covered in a fine layer of sand. Home is central air conditioning, countless icy drinks and never, ever opening the windows during the summer months. Home is the friends I’ve had for almost fifteen years, home is them coming over the morning after I’ve landed and our traditional dinner at Nando’s or Pizza Hut. Home is us sharing everything we couldn’t say over text, or Facebook, or Skype. Home is lying on my queen- sized bed with my friends who are closer than sisters, noting how we’ve changed over the last 10 months since we saw each other. Home is my parents. Home is my dad’s famous buttered egg, my mom’s biryani and her curry and ‘chunky chicken’, it is the blue- tiled kitchen and the sound of the lock turning in the front door. It is our fax machine turning on after our home phone rings thrice, even though I’ve told my parents a million times that this is the 21^st century and nobody uses fax anymore. Home is watching the news with my dad and taking naps with my mom in the afternoons. Home is the stories the photos of Dubai tell, the way the desert has been transformed into an oasis.

Home is Oakville, it is wooden floors and the fireplace. Home is hating high school but loving the friends I’ve made, it is Tim Horton’s and Lakeshore and kebab rolls from Silver Spoon. Home is endless hours spent on the brown suede couch, putting my feet on the edge of the coffee table even though my mom has told me not to. Home is not wanting to get out of bed in the morning because I know the floor is going to be so cold. Home is the Edward Cullen poster on my closet door, watching me as I sleep. Home is my best friend living next door. It is the afternoons spent in her basement, her dog lying in my lap, a Disney film providing background noise to our endless chatter. Home is nights spent overthinking conversations and texts and jokes. Home is feeling as though, at sixteen, I’ve experienced every emotion on the spectrum. It is sleeping in my mom’s bed, too scared to sleep in my own, because Mal’akh from The Lost Symbol haunts my dreams. Home is the stories the town tells, the suburban comfort that we were so privileged to experience.

Home is Vancouver. Home is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, it is sunsets at Wreck Beach and English Bay and Spanish Banks. Home is the chicken platter at Al Basha and the Pineapple Freeze at Booster Juice. Home is staying up till 4am with my friends, doing nothing in particular. It is turning off my shrieking alarm in the morning, deciding to give myself the day off. Home is UBC, it is mapping out every inch of this sprawling campus with my own two feet. Home is the rain that just keeps on coming. Home is where I realized that English was my true passion, it is where I left behind my dreams of a degree in Biology. Home is where I’ve planned out my future. Home is the stories the city tells about its past, the pride Vancouver takes in its heritage.

In my twenty years of life, I’ve realized that home is not a house. Home is the people you love, it is the moments you cherish, and it is the places you’ll never forget. Home is a feeling.

Works Cited

“Lahore.” Punjab Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Pakola Ice Cream Soda.” Mehran Bottlers (PVT) Limited. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Shezan Sweets N Bakers.” Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Welcome to Cafe Zouk.” Cafe Zouk. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Lahore Canal.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Badshahi Mosque, Lahore.” Sacred Destinations. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

“Zachary Solomon.” The Dan Brown Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.

Al Basha. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2015.