michael sylvester wrote:
>
> OK,I agree to Canada's positive spin on immigration.However in the
> late fifties and early sixties,a group of Caribbean students staged a
> demonstration at Sir George Williams University in Montreal protesting
> attitudes and discrimination against the established academic
> community.All of those who protested were deported back to the islands
> by Canadian authorities.
No one's perfect. Canada certainly isn't. Immigrants from the Caribbean
have a "tradition" of not bothering to acquire Canadian citizenship
(we're all in the "Commonwealth," you know), and the Canadian gov't
periodically takes advantage of this to ship those they regard as
"undesirable" back to the countries of their birth. It still happens
from time to time, though not so much with simple protesters as with
gang leaders and drug dealers. This might seem reasonable to many of you
("If they aren't Canadian, why should Canada put up with their bad
behavior?), but the "rub" is that many of these deportees have lived in
Canada since they were very small children, and simply dumping them on
the mean streets of Jamaica, where they know no one, is often
effectively a death sentence.
Until the 1960s or so, Canada's immigration history more or less tracked
that of the US. A huge wave of Irish and Germans in the late 1840 and
early 1850s (actually, on a proportional basis, the Irish immigration to
Canada's cities was much greater than it was to New York and Boston).
Then Chinese, primarily on the west coast. in the 1860s and 1870s. Then
and even "huger" immigration of Italians, Greeks, and East Europeans
(many Jewish) starting in the 1880s and continuing on until the 1920s
(when the first real immigration laws started to close the borders).
In the 1960s, the first sizable immigration from the Caribbean came to
Canada -- largely (though not entirely) Hatians to Montreal, Jamaicans
to Toronto. As with previous large immigrations, things were not
entirely smooth. There were culture clashes, misunderstandings, and
simple racism. Canada was never immune to these things. (On the other
hand, Montrealers are still proud of the fact that, when Branch Rickey
decided to bring Jackie Robinson into the major leagues, he picked the
Montreal Royals as a club where he could get ready with minimal
harrassment from the general public.)
Canada still has its share of these racial/ethnic kerfuffles. There are
a few differences in the way these matters play out in Canada though.
First, race does not hold quite the unique "electrical" status in Canada
that it does in the US. It is *an* issue, but not *the* issue. No doubt
this is because Canada does not have the same history of slavery as the
US. There were slaves in early Canada, but not nearly as many and not
nearly as late. Slavery was abolished in Upper Canada (present-day
southern Ontario) in the 1790s; in Quebec somewhat later; and I'm not
sure about the Maritimes (where the destruction of Halifax's historic
"Africville" in the 1960s is still an issue of some sensitivity). In any
case, slavery was abolished (at least officially) across the entire
British Empire in the 1830s. The US held on for another
generation-and-a-half. (Indeed, if you recall your American history
class, you may remember that as long as the Civil War was officially
about "union," the British sided with the South (for the cotton). It was
only when the British threatened to run Union blockades of Confederate
ports that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Declaration, converting the
war into one officially about slavery. The British would not take the
side of slavers in a war over slavery. Second, Canada does not have a
massive, impoverished country of potential immigrants on its southern
border. Third, although Canada by no means has a perfect record on
social equity issues, on balance it is much easier to live in Canada
than it is in the US. Taxes are higher (though not as high as in
Europe), but social services are much better. It is much less likely
that you or your kids are going to starve and/or die of a preventable
disease if you lose your job in Canada than in the US. (Which is why
Canada has lower infant mortality, better education outcomes, and higher
life expectancy than the US.) Less desperate times also call for less
desperate measures. And so the violent crime rate in Canada is much
lower than in the US as well.
But, Canada is not the land of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness" It is the land of "Peace, Order, and Good Government" (or,
more recently, "Life, Liberty, and Security of the Person"). :-)
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[email protected]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
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