3.1: A Nation of Nations

For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

If I had to describe the Canada that I was raised in I would say that it is a nation of nations. I never really knew just one governing body or race growing up, and I probably wouldn’t have known the difference between races had I not been taught to recognize them and their stereotypes. But this nation that I know, or should I say knew, is not what it always intended to be.

The Canadian Immigration act of 1910 states in this article, “Racism in Canadian Immigration Policy”, that the act “quite boldly gave Cabinet power to prohibit immigrants belonging to any race” (Matas, 8). Though it specifies “any race”, the act was very selective with which races they chose to exclude. Europeans were the favoured immigrants due to their ‘white’ status, while Asians were highly discriminated against. Up until the act’s abolition in 1962, several laws were made that prohibited and discriminated against different races, including head taxes and entry fees for Asians and the exclusion, deportation or containment of certain races around and during the time of the two World Wars for “political” reasons. In the Court of Appeal, J. A. McPhillips stated about unwanted immigrants that:

“In their own interests their proper place of residence is within the confines of their respective countries in the continent of Asia, not in Canada, where their customs are not in vogue and their adherence to them here only gives rise to disturbances destructive to the well being of society…” (Matas, 8).

To comprehend that a statement like this came from a law within Canada seems unfathomable to me, but probably only because I have been ignorant to the history and racism of our country. I have been fortunate enough to have grown up in a safe, supportive and fair community, but that experience had perhaps sheltered me from the facts of where we came from. Out of this statement I was particularly struck by the word “destructive”. At one time, this country generalized entire races as dangerous to our way of life. It took years for them to recognize the hypocrisy of their own actions.

Professor Paterson’s blog notes Daniel Coleman’s opinion that claims that a specific form of whiteness emerged in Canada that was developed by the influence of the British. Furthermore, that Coleman displays a lineage of Canadian whiteness that remains influential in Canadian thinking and literature to this day. I feel that Coleman’s argument is largely supported, not just by the example of the Immigration Act, but also by the Indian Act of 1876 and various other racial laws of the past century. So the question is, is white civility still a concept that society still supports and follows? Though I feel we may not see it as blatantly as we once did, I think that Coleman’s argument is still supported. Racism is still very much apparent whether or not we truly recognize it. Every single day I hear people labeled as brown, Asian, Native, black, but I never catch someone saying “look at that white girl over there”. My point is, we still put a label on people who are not white whether or not they are Canadians. So before I said that I saw Canada as a nation of nations, I still stand by that and I believe many would agree that we are a very multicultural country, however, I will add that though the presence of many cultures are welcome, “white people” are still favoured by this country.

Work Cited:

Matas, David. “Racism in Canadian immigration policy.” Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 5.2 (1985). http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/article/viewFile/21485/20160

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:1.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres 99C Jan 2015. 1 March. 2015. Web. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-3/lesson-3-1/>

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/racism-still-an-uncomfortable-truth-in-canada-duncan-mccue-1.2831066