What are the ties that bind for Canadians?

Is it our shared appreciation of multiculturalism, civility and human rights? As Canada approaches 150 years of Confederation, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation is releasing a collection of 150 unique stories that illustrate the ties that bind.

Thestar.com
Sept. 16, 2015
By Nicholas Keung

Is it our shared appreciation of multiculturalism? Our embraced civility? Or our cherished human rights? What is it that binds Canadians of all stripes and colours together?

As Canada approaches 150 years of Confederation and becomes a microcosm of the global village, its blossoming ethnocultural diversity is both a strength and challenge for its future - something that can make or break the country if not accompanied by respect and understanding.

“Our shared civility is not just a myth. We value human rights, equity and multiculturalism. They are all part of our Canadian identity,” said Anita Bromberg, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

In order to heighten awareness, understanding and respect for these Canadian values and traditions, the foundation has launched Our Canada Project to highlight milestones in Canada’s history, from Confederation to the present, as part of the country’s Sesquicentennial in 2017.

One of the many initiatives is Canada 150, a collection of unique stories - to be released once a week for 150 weeks - that celebrate and promote these Canadian qualities.

“Our ultimate goal is to pass on these stories from generation to generation and from community to community,” said Bromberg, whose foundation was launched in 1997 as part of Ottawa’s redress agreement with the Japanese Canadian community over their internment during the Second World War.

“Celebrating diversity is more than coming together, watching each other doing dances and eating (ethnic) food. We need to build deeper conversations that lead to deeper understanding of one another. What we have in common is what binds us together.”

Canada 150 has already posted dozens of essays, including those submitted by GTA residents Michael Adams, Sid Ikeda and Marina Nemat. The project is accepting submissions.

Other Our Canada projects include cross-Canada symposia and workshops on diversity and inclusion, as well as Youth Canada cafes and a national video competition to engage young people in dialogues about Canadian values and identity.

Michael Adams: ‘Multiculturalism is in our DNA’

Growing up in the 1950s, Michael Adams wondered why “God Save the Queen” was played every morning over the school PA system and the Canadian Red Ensign was hoisted everywhere.

At Thistletown Collegiate Institute in Rexdale, he proposed to his principal to consider replacing “God Save the Queen” with “O Canada.” He succeeded partially and the school decided to play both songs, on alternating days.

As co-founder and president of the Environics research and communications groups, Adams has continued his interest in Canadian identity.

“When I went to school, the minority kid was the Italian kid. Now I go back to school, the minority kid is the Anglo-Saxon kid. To me, it’s just astounding how this has happened,” said Adams, author of Unlikely Utopia: The Surprising Triumph of Canadian Pluralism.

“Multiculturalism is in our DNA. It started out as a way to celebrate our differences and became an ideology of inclusion ... The whole idea of it is it’s pluralism with integration.”

Excerpt from “O Canada and the Maple Leaf,” by Michael Adams

“Although having our own flag and anthem is popular today, at the time not everybody embraced the change. The Progressive Conservatives under former prime minister John Diefenbaker disliked the idea of a distinctly Canadian flag that excluded the Union Jack.

“Many Canadians are comfortable with retaining the symbols we have inherited, and become comfortable with, however anachronistic. Others are interested in reshaping our symbols to reflect current realities and hopes for the future.

“This tension between tradition and change is an abiding feature of our social life; in my own life as a Canadian, I was very much marked by our school principal’s response to the emergence of this tension in his jurisdiction: respectful consultation and going halfway (the Canadian way) for the time being.

Marina Nemat: ‘We are not a different species’

A native of Iran, Marina Nemat was arrested at 16 and held in a political prison in Tehran for two years, two months and 12 days, after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

“I came from Tehran. This is Planet Canada. At the same time, we are not a different species. At the end of the day, we have a lot in common,” said Nemat, who came to Canada in 1991 with her husband and toddler son, Michael. “What’s important is to acknowledge we all have the right to dignity.”

Nemat is a published writer and recipient of numerous awards, including the European Parliament’s 2007 Human Dignity Award.

Excerpt from “Planet Canada,” by Marina Nemat

“I had gone to the park, now I was at the store, and no one had sworn at me. I had not been beaten up or arrested - or both - for not wearing a hijab or for any other reason.

“I knew that our life in Canada would not be a fairy tale. Fairy tales entail a certain kind of innocence that I had lost at 16 and, since then, I had not believed in ‘happily ever after.’ But here, we could hope and work hard for a better life.

“I was like Dorothy at the beginning of her journey. The difference was I knew that the wizard, no matter how powerful he was, could not take me back home. My home didn’t want me any longer. But, nevertheless, I had a journey ahead of me and had to discover a way to belong in Emerald City.”

Sid Ikeda: ‘A peaceful, strong country through our diversity’

Sid Ikeda’s grandfather left Japan in 1895 for Canada and settled in British Columbia. In the 1940s, his family, like many other Canadians of Japanese background, was forced to go to an internment camp. They were taken to a horse racing stable in Vancouver’s Hastings Park until housing could be built for the internees.

After the war was over in 1945, the family was offered the option to be deported to Japan or move east of the Rockies. His family chose to move to Toronto, where Ikeda sold newspapers, washed dishes and worked on a tobacco farm to support his family.

“We are all from diverse countries, but we all work together with the focus of doing something that’s beneficial to the Canadian people. Our focus should be what we do in Canada,” Ikeda said.

“The idea is to focus on the positive side, working together toward bringing a unified country. It’s proven all over the world that we are a peaceful, strong country through our diversity.”

Excerpt from “Fostering Unity Among Japanese Canadians,” by Sid Ikeda

“While Canada was thought to be a land of promise and opportunity, life became difficult for my family during the Second World War. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy on Dec. 7, 1941, was the beginning of turmoil for Japanese Canadians.

“We were considered a threat to national security, and government forces took young men over the age of 18, including my father, to road camps. Soon after, the rest of my family was forced to leave our lives behind.

“I have devoted my life to volunteering my expertise and to fostering unity and mutual support among the Japanese Canadian community, to raising the status of Japanese Canadians within the Canadian multicultural mosaic and to the betterment of Japan-Canada relations.”