Discussion on Canadian Ethnic problems and multiculturalism

Abstract: The history of Canada has gone through various events, some of which produced a nightmare for the country and from which the people as well as the leaders are still trying to awake, while making sure that such events do not take place ever again. In this essay I discuss the Canadian Ethnic problems and it's multiculturalism by mainly focus on two typical examples :the aboriginal people and the Chinese who have suffered injustice through out the history in different aspects such as politics and cultural. And later ,by looking at the current situations of the Canadian ethnicity in general and going over the past decisions that the government had made, I try to suggest the possible solutions. Introduction: As we all know, Canada is a country with large immigrants. Therefore , the history of Canada is largely the history of the meeting of different cultures. As its early settlers are mostly immigrants from Central and Western Europe, European culture is playing a dominant role in Canada's culture. Since the eightieth of the twentieth century, as the number of immigrants from different parts increased significantly, the new immigrants

brought in their own culture with them as well. Thus, people are now feeling more of the tensions between those cultures and of prejudice felt among these groups toward one another. For this reason, how to deal with the relationship between the different nationalities became a big problem for the Canada government.

Looking back the history of the Canadian government in ethnic minority policy, I think that the attitudes of the government toward the minorities, especially visible minorities experienced two stages. The first one is the “ nightmare” period , ended at World War two . While the second part is the “waking up ” period , which included the rectification period during the Second World War till the 80's; and the law of equal period from the 80’s of the twentieth century until now.
The Nightmare period
1.Nightmare of the aboriginal people Given the tragic history , the native peoples have endured in Canada, the forced assimilation of aboriginal people has inflicted further pain on the suffers, which was truly a nightmare that Canada has gone through. The discrimination and the injustice that the aboriginal people has suffered extend far back into the early history of Canada. The aboriginal people in Canada who left a profound mark on the history had enjoyed their traditions before the Europeans' intrusion. As early as the mid 1800s and continued until 1970, the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children began , during which children were particularly suffered. Children were separated from their families and forcefully taken to the "Indian Residential Schools" which was intended to assimilate the children of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada

into European-Canadian society.They received European culture and thus their traditions could be eradicated by a concept of assimilation into a superior culture, which was described as cultural genocide or "killing the Indian in the child＂This was proved to be a total failure, wrong and even a shame in Canadian history. Children were prohibited from speaking their own languages or practicing their own faiths. They were often used for cheap labour and trained as farmers or domestic servants. Even worse, overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of medical care led to high rates of tuberculosis, and death rates of up to 69 percent.

This dark history placed on" the lost generation" brought the aboriginal people huge trauma in their heart and soul and even today the violence against them. Just as Toby Morantz stated :"….the adversity they faced today---they are among the poorest of Canadians having the highest suicide rates, suffering the ravages of alcoholism, and enduring great loss in terms of their cultures and language" (Toby Morantz, p 75).
2.The Nightmare of the Chinese Aboriginal people are not the only one who has suffered from the nightmare of inequality and discrimination. Evidence has shown that Asians have suffered the most intense prejudice of any group. The Chinese, though suffered from prejudice, has slowly made their way into the Canadian society since long time ago. The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway sparked the next large influx of immigrants as 17,000 Chinese came to Canada between 1881 and 1885. They did the most dangerous construction jobs, such as working with explosives. The families of the Chinese who were killed received no compensation, or even

notification of loss of life. Many of the men who lived did not have enough money to return to their families in China, and many spent years in lonely, sad and often poor condition.

In one of the most shameful episodes of its past, Canada imposed hefty head tax on all Chinese immigrants ,which is a nightmare in the history of politics. As Andrew Gyory stated :" The Chinese Exclusion act was the foremost racist law passed after the Civil War".(Andrew Gyory, p 257)Since its impact far transcended from the politics, it was truly another nightmare that the government has gone through in the history of Politics.The first federal Chinese Exclusion Act in 1885 imposed a head tax on Chinese immigrants of $50 and was eventually increased to $500 in 1903.(Peter,S.Li p. 42)Then banned their entry altogether from 1923 to 1947. Later, In 1923 the Chinese Immigration Act came into force, bringing about the almost total prohibition of Chinese immigration to Canada. Repealed in 1947, entry of Chinese remained restricted under more general rules relating to persons of "Asiatic race".
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The " Waking up "period

Just as Stephan Dedalus pointed out , "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” After World War Two, people all over the world struggled to the anti-Nazi militarism and gradually realized that racial discrimination would only bring the world tragedy . Hence, it pushed the governments to re-evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the minority policies that had been made. Meanwhile the North American hippie movement promoted the idea of the freedom and fraternity among people. Following that, the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” and “Canadian Human Rights Act” in the nineteen eighties “ensure that the principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination are followed in all areas of federal jurisdiction”. Discussion on Canadian Ethnic problems and multiculturalism The Canadian multiculturalism Act (1988) showed that multiculturalism had become a key aspect of government's national policy. Canadian Multiculturalism plays a fairly effective model role in coordinating and settling those common ethnic conflicts existing in multiethnic countries, and maintaining ethnic varieties as well. However, " One policy will not do fall all" .(Toby Morantz 79). Firstly,due to the gap between the the complicated cultural differences resulted from various source background of the immigrants and the short historic space of Multiculturalism policy , inevitably lead to difficult situations when it is implemented. Canada is composed of different ethnicities , white and black, French and English ,Europeans and the aboriginal people, Orientals and South Asians etc. The tensions between those cultures and of prejudice felt among these groups toward one another are based on the past history. The deep-rooted hatred among some of the ethnicity can be traced back to an earlier war or religious conflict. Therefore, a multicultural policy can not easily make every Canadian to become full and equal participants in Canadian society.

In addition, there are still many barriers existed between the Multiculturalism and the realities of its implementation. The history of Aboriginal groups in Canada is very deep and ancient but these groups are still facing inequalities and injustice in many aspects of life as political parties and government still do not accept their existence and facilitate them like a

usual citizen.

According to some estimates, there would be more than 50 Native American languages still spoken in Canada. Most studies on the linguistic situation of indigenous conclude that most Amerindian languages are endangered.According to the 1996 census, the majority of Aboriginal people in Canada, 67.8% reported English as their mother tongue, while 5.8% were of with French. Among Aboriginal mother tongues, the cry was the most used language (9.6%), followed Inuktitut (3.4%), the Ojibway (2.8%) and Naskapi (1.1 %). Data on mother tongues Iroquois, Mohawk do not appear much because the census on Iroquois is restricted in Quebec and Ontario and were partially counted. Given that indigenous languages’ situation, it could be described as "critical". It is probably time to find ways to allow these languages to survive and maintain some vitality. These languages should be given the benefit of legal recognition in terms of constitutional and federal legislation. After a long time for fighting, Aboriginal people have managed to succeed, at least in the Charlottetown Constitutional Accord of 1992. Paragraph of the "Canada clause" provided that "Aboriginal peoples of Canada [...] have the right to promote their languages, cultures and traditions and to ensure the integrity of their company." Therefore, it could be possible for aboriginal self-government to preserve their language and get them a status of official languages. The aboriginal people never stopped fighting for their land and rights although the rights of voice were often marginal.There are yet not any permanent solutions proposed in this regard and these groups seem to continue fighting for their rights in Canada. Cultural diversity only makes sense within a framework of common values and

beliefs that enable us to treat all people equally. And to create such a framework requires us to be a bit more intolerant and to show a bit less respect.

The discussion above suggests that racial inequality is still a significant issue in Canada, and the extent of discrimination is a point of dispute between racial groups.We can conclude that although the government has engaged in developing its own strategy to solve the issue, however, existing policy responses are still inadequate to bridge the gap.

In conclusion, I suggest that promoting the idea of intermarriage can be another solution. Many scholars in Europe and the United States believe that intermarriage may help bridging the gap between different ethnicities. Because the combination of individuals from two different cultural backgrounds is not only just the combination of two people physically and emotionally. More importantly, it created a mutual understanding of the two cultures.Still, there exists problems being questioned on the intermarriage.
Among all, I considered the one which doubted the quality of the marriage to be the most serious one . Taking it into account that the two individuals have completely different cultural background, it has reasons to doubt whether the quality of the marriage will be affected by this or not . On the other hand, the government can raise funds to support establishing more research institutions such as a national Aboriginal Children’s Institute for Research to identify key issues in Aboriginal children’s lives. Specifically, these institutions can identify the gaps in research, providing specific information on the target group in order to assist Committee with decision-making.

Conclusion Dong 8 Nowadays, as Canada’s relatively open immigration policy has provided the social conditions for more immigrants from different countries to immigrate into Canada. At the same time , it has substantially increased the racial diversity of the Canadian population. Hence, the increasing impact of racial diversity in Canada is magnified because of the concentration of minorities.That is to say, it is becoming more important for the government and its people to make joint efforts to relieve the tensions between those cultures and of prejudice felt among these groups toward one another. According to the discussion above, we can draw the conclusion that although it seems that the government has engaged in developing its own strategy of solving the issues , there are yet not any permanent solutions proposed in this regard and the minorities seem to continue fighting for their rights in Canada.

Reference
1.Andrew, G. Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act."University of North Carolina Press

2.Toby, M. Individual Rights Versus Collective Rights : The debate on the aboriginal peoples of canada . Sociological Bulletin, vol 46, no.2, 1997, pp.173-91
3. Peter,S. Li, The Chinese in Canada, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998,P.42
4.Canada apologizes for ' killing the Indian in the child", Monsters & Critics, June 11, 2008. Retrieved 2009-12-02.