JGI216H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Captain Canuck, Multiculturalism In Canada, Richard Comely
11 May 2018
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Professor David Roberts Mar. 2, 2017
JGI216 LECTURE 7
MULTICULTURALISM (PT. 2) TORONTO
FIVE LENSES: the five lenses we are learning about in this class are for narrowing our analysis
and understanding some specifics about globalization’s impact on urban change
- As wools, they are not objective facts or fixed categories
- They are most useful in focusing on an argument
- Each has limitations
KEY THEMES:
1. Multiculturalism in Toronto:
- Policy history
- Aspirational idea
2. Neoliberalism
- What is neoliberalism?
- How does it interact with multiculturalism and immigration?
- SARS
MULTUCULTURALISM, IMMIGRATION, AND SARS (questions to think about)
- What are the historical roots of Canadian multiculturalism?
- What distinguishes Canadian multicultural policy from multiculturalism as an
aspirational idea?
- What did the case of SARS expose about the relationship between multiculturalism, race,
and Toronto as a global city?
THE MULTICULTURAL CITY
• In general, multiculturalism relates to communities or cities that contain multiculturalism
relates to communities or cities that contain multiple cultures
• The term can be understood as
1) Descriptive
2) Narrative of, relating to, or prescribing a norm or standard
• In Canada, we have Official multiculturalism, which falls into the Narrative category
• Narrative multiculturalism is often contrasted with assimilationism
JULY 1975: CAPTAIN CANUCK IS BORN (a cartoon series that takes place in Canada)
• In the original series, the first Captain Canuck patrols Canada in the futuristic world of
1993, where Canada “had become the most powerful country in the world”
• According to the early story line, Captain Canuck worked as a super agent for the
Canadian International Security Organization (CISO), both alone and with his sidekicks
Redcoat and Kebec
• Premise while on a camping trip with some boy scouts, Tom Evans, the first Captain
Canuck, was bathed in alien rays while trying to protect the scouts from the aliens. The
next day, everything seemed fine, other than the fact that his strength and speed had
increased significantly. Tom, a former member of the RCMP and the Canadian
International Security Organization, was accustomed to the battle of good against evil.
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Professor David Roberts Mar. 2, 2017
Now, with his newfound abilities, he would become a more effective agent for truth and
justice.
• The Geopolitical Positioning of Canada
3) The creation of Captain Canuck in 1975 by Canadian Richard Comely and his
business partner Ron Leishman was an intentionally placed political act
intended to contribute to the form and intensity of Canadian nationalism
4) Issues such as multiculturalism and bilingualism are used to contrast Captain
Canuck and Canada from Captain America and the USA
WHAT ARE WELL-KNOWN THINGS THAT SEPARATE CANADA FORM THE U.S.?
• Embracing diversity (multiculturalism)
• Healthcare
***these are things that Canadians take as a point of pride, making it a global phenomenon
THE MULTICULTURAL CITY OF TORONTO
• Relatively new (as we now know it)
• “the city has transformed, in less than a generation, from an overwhelmingly white
Christian society to a multicultural, multi-faith society”
• while commonly referred to earlier in the century as the “Belfast of the North”.
Following the 1998 municipal amalgamation, the newly-established megacity of Toronto
adopted the phrase “Diversity is our Strength” as its official motto
• However, this ignores previous diversity in Canada
5) “if Aboriginal peoples are consigned forever to an earlier space and time,
people of colour are scripted as late arrivals, coming to the shores of North
America long after much of the development has occurred”
6) “in this way, slavery, indentureship, and labour exploitation (such as the
Chinese who built the railway or the Sikhs who worked in the lumber industry
in nineteenth-century Canada) are all handily forgotten in an official national
story of European enterprise”
• although, there still was an important change to the cultural makeup of Toronto
WHITE-ONLY IMMIGRATION POLICY (from the Canadian Immigration website)
• from 1947-1957, immigration restrictions were gradually eased to admit not only
unsponsored refugees and displaced persons but ordinary immigrants from a growing
number of countries
7) this was always done with a view to preserving the fundamental character of
the Canadian population
8) access from countries other than those that belonged to the old
Commonwealth, the U.S., and Europe was severely restricted, because the
Liberals under Mackenzie King and his successor Louis St. Laurent, were not
prepared to abolish Canada’s racist immigration policy
POINTS-BASED IMMIGRATION
• in 1962, Canada adopted a points-based system for immigration based on three primary
criteria
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