SOCI 475 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ukrainian Canadians, Visible Minority, Young Country
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Important Note:
Jan, 10th, Wed
Topic four and Topic 10 have switched weeks
-Week four we will be going to a seminar on Ethnic Match
Proposal:
-Half page of the idea and 6 academic references for paper proposal
Introduction: Canadian Ethnic Studies
Historical Overview:
John Porter and the Vertical Mosaic - Looks at social class and power in Canada
● Following this multiculturalism came out in Canada - from the BNA act there became the
recognition of two groups and from here you can expand to more
● Post 1945 - B + B (Dualistic) Commission in the 1960s - a document which was a royal
commission
○ Resulted from the rise of military separatism - FLQ a violent group
● From this other groups saw that they were not represented and spoke up to the
Canadian Government which created another book in this report called the contribution
of the other ethnic groups (volume 4 in the b+b report)
Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
● 1985 it is placed in
● Liberal democratic societies that are becoming increasingly diverse and how do you deal
with this? In CA it is the CoRF
○ Section 2 - Fundamental freedoms
■ Freedom of religion, thought, belief, opinion
○ Section 15: The Equality Section
■
■ Every individual is equal in and before the law based on - sex, age, race,
origin etc. in the public sphere
■ This allows fighting against racism - this represents the goal of integration
○ Section 27 - only found in CA
■ Multicultural heritage section
■ Everything is interpreted with the preservation and enhancement of the
charter
○ Maximum participation vs cultural retention - the two objectives
Racism
● Large spectrum *
Lecture: Jan, 17th, 2018
Reading Review:
Burnet and Palmer:
● Showing that many different groups and people have a piece in this country
Thompson/Weinfeld Article:
● Immigration argument
○ That Canada could take more non-white immigrants, during the time of “fear of
racism discourse”
○ Avoiding bringing in immigrants because they were trying to avoid racism
● Cardozo and Pendakur:
○ 1967- history and background of visible minority migration and look at the impact
on labour force, milestones,
○ Section 27- multicultural section of the charter
● Racism and the failure of integration
○ Places such as mall that are strictly chinese and we see the failure of integration
here
Lecture: Jan, 24th, 2018
Reading Review:
Peter:
● Challenges the discourse on racism
○ “Failure of integration” - coded words for racism?
● Academics misuse terms such as visible minorities
● Social distance - how sociologist measure who are your best friends and how close you
are with them
3rd:
Conclusion is:
● Racism in sask. The main object of racism is first nations peoples
● Primarily about racism in different domains such as on the bus etc.
● Literature on intersectionality ** good for paper
Wein Argument:
Cultural Identity:
● Canada is a young country with a weaker cultural identity, culture is fragile and new so
we have more room for multiculturalism
● Not surprising Canada had evolved into multiculturalism because of the young history vs
places such as Europe.
● Was founded my two groups not just one
Paper * Metropolis studies - We have 5 in Canada and each generates its own research
*Making sure to understand and keep the differences between CA and US visible minority group
in mind
Lecture: Jan, 30th, 2018
Diagram Explanation:(Handout in class today)
● Diagram in the middle of the paper in the triangle - (Internal Dimension) Broken into
three different parts (Leaders, Voluntary Organizations, Group Members)
○ This diagram can be applied to other groups (ethnic, religious) in Canada.
● Around the Triangle is the environment of the Ethnic Polity (the external stuff)
○ At the top we have the Government - which ethnic politics have a relationship
with
■ Ethnic Brokers, Ethnic Lobbies, Bloc Voting, Ethnic Candidates
○ Ethnic Media - Radio stations, TV programs
○ Ties of Travel, Kin, culture, politics from the homeland
○ Other pressure groups or voluntary organizations
○ Mainstream Majority groups ie. In Canada the Enligh and the French
■ The degree of segregation
● Ex. of a foreign policy issue for Ukraine - a large worry for Ukrainian Canadians but
many other Canadians do not care much about this issue.
Reading Review:
Burnet and Palmer:
● Lots of information - very historical
● Their idea for this comes from Breton and he coined the term - Institutional
Completeness
○ He wrote an article on how different immigrant groups have different degrees on
institutional completeness
■ This begins with mutual aid societies
○ Immigrants can immigrate into Canada but also into their community.
● The authors talk about their characteristics and how easy they can “blend” into the
majority group or if they are a visible minority group or have a religious group you can
form together as a group.
○ Racism can persist because you
Weinfeld:
● The Jewish Polity is very institutionally complete and this is mainly because they have a
lot of experience as a Diaspora group in all kinds of conditions.
● They are also “othered” in many areas and this forces you to form your own groups.
● The Jewish group is also interesting because it is sustained by voluntary taxation - this is
a high degree of this group and they fund to sustain themselves.
● The Jewish polity is often seen as a model for other minority groups in Canada.
● There are some conflicts within in - are they democratic? Etc. There are competing kinds
of organizations.
Aoun:
On the Muslim and Arab communities in Canada:
● Not an article so much on the groups themselves it is mainly about the role of the
communities.
○ He explains the main weaknesses of the communities as lobbies
○ He takes the view of what would make this group a more effective lobby group.
● There is a Canadian Arab federation which is very important.
● This is a very young community so it does take time for it to develop and get integrated
and become more sophisticated.
● This article had quite a harsh tone - unusual that he was blaming his own people for their
situation
How far do you want to go in creating these self segregating associations?
● Is this a good thing to have - their own sporting groups, newspapers, radio broadcasts
Document Summary
Topic four and topic 10 have switched weeks. Week four we will be going to a seminar on ethnic match. Half page of the idea and 6 academic references for paper proposal. John porter and the vertical mosaic - looks at social class and power in canada. Following this multiculturalism came out in canada - from the bna act there became the recognition of two groups and from here you can expand to more. Post 1945 - b + b (dualistic) commission in the 1960s - a document which was a royal commission. Resulted from the rise of military separatism - flq a violent group. From this other groups saw that they were not represented and spoke up to the. Canadian government which created another book in this report called the contribution of the other ethnic groups (volume 4 in the b+b report) Canadian constitution and the charter of rights and freedoms.
