‘Multicultural’ Canada : A Product of Organized Forgetting

Hello Readers! It seems like its been quite a while since I last posted and I’m looking forward to be writing my blog post this week!

Over the past few weeks our ASTU class has been really focusing on the topic of remembering. I find this topic to be rather interesting, especially when it comes to national collective memory.

This past week Canada, among many other nations, observed Remembrance Day to commemorate the lives of the many veterans who’ve served our nations.

The following is an excerpt from the Government of Canada’s Veterans Week Website:

“However you choose to remember Canada’s Veterans, be sure to share it with everyone you know. Together, it is our duty to pass on our gratitude and keep their legacy and memories alive. This Veterans’ Week, Remember Them.”

After studying the topic of National Memory it really amazes me on what we remember on the macro scale. Why are some events erased from national memory while others are remembered?

Canada has a global reputation for being a multicultural nation composed of diverse ethnicities; however, why are people unaware of the many racist policies Canada implemented throughout its history and the adversities many ‘Canadians’ had to go through?

The answer to that, I think, is organized forgetting. Canada wants to move forward and erase such events from its national history however I think Canada has a huge responsibility to make sure its citizens are aware of the past actions that happened on Canadian soil.

This week we are analyzing the literary text Obasan by Joy Kogawa. The novel goes into great detail to portray the several adversities that Japanese Canadians had to suffer during World War II. After reading Obasan, I was intrigued when I realized how little we covered topics such as ‘enemy alien’ internment in our British Columbia public education curriculum. We literally spent one day analyzing the treatment of Japanese Canadians alongside other enemy alien groups such as the Ukrainians in Social Studies 11.

This really made me think of Remembrance Day and those who we are expected to remember. Although, I think its important to commemorate the soldiers who fought abroad and at home to protect our nation, I think that we are missing an important group that we should honour, the discriminated Canadians who lost their ‘lives’ as a product of racial policies.

Remembrance Day is almost observed in a positive light to honour the soldiers for our freedom today but I feel like we owe a moment of silence to the many displaced Canadians who suffered from racial policies. Of course in a global context, we should really think about all the innocent lives lost as a product of the global war.

In ASTU Class we were watching a video that addressed the politics of apology, redress. In the video we watched as former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney formally apologizes for the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II and offers compensation to those who were affected. Although I think it is a great that Canada formally acknowledged the unfortunate events and compensated the victims, I don’t think it does enough in terms of national memory.

I strongly feel that our educational system needs a reform so that students are aware of the true history of the nation we live in and how its shaped the Canada we live in today.

Although our education system doesn’t teach us in depth of some of the negative events in Canadian history, I am thankful that we live in a nation where our literature isn’t heavily mediated by the Government. I am glad that we have access to a variety of literature including Obasan that allows us to learn extensively of such events even though we are presently unable to study such events at school.

So next time before we tell everyone how proud we are to be in such a multicultural and welcoming country we should think about the past and perhaps it will better explain how Canada got to become the diverse nation it is today.

No matter how hard Canada tries, there are some events that can’t be ignored and hidden; Whether it is the internment of Japanese Canadians and other enemy aliens, the assimilation of aboriginals in the residential school system, the Chinese head tax system, the denial of Jewish refugees entry into Canada during WWII, the returning of a ship full of Indians in the Komagata Maru, or any other racial policy, we have a due diligence to recognize that these events existed and contributed to the history of the nation we are proud to boast about today.

Until next time…

Kaveel