Adrienne Clarkson's Belonging

Canada and the issue of racism in society has been an issue for many years. Recently, our country has created new laws or altered old ones to prevent discrimination that exists in society today. In this paper, I will argue that only through recent years Canada has tried to battle discrimination through the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedom, the modification of the Immigration Act and the creation of the Human Rights Act in Canada. First I will provide background information about discrimination, racism and prejudice. Secondly, I will discuss the creation of the Charter and Rights and Freedom and the creation help deplete discrimination towards minorities. Also, the alteration of the Immigration Act in Canada gave minorities the opportunity to be equal. Then, I will discuss the Human Rights Act and how those modifications are leading Canada in the right direction for a lesser

In a world where seven billion people can communicate in fractions of a second across the globe, share thoughts and exchange cultures, the way we choose to identity ourselves can often ‘’mark’’ us. You can often tell a lot about someone who proclaims to be Quebecois before being Canadian. And theses thing are often present in areas that have a clash of cultures, such as Québec in the former example. But the author Thomas King dives deeper into the subject with his short story Borders. King’s characters do not attach themselves to the place they were born, instead they take pride in their parents’ legacy, their heritage. By writing through the eyes of a twelve year old boy and using opposition, King displays the importance of such things and how minorities are slowly losing them.

Jocelyn Letourneau’s is a history professor that wrote the essay “Reconstructing the Canadian Identity”. The author argues that if one compares the Harper government's idea of conservatism against Trudeau’s idea of multiculturalism, the reader can infer that multiculturalism is failing and Canada should go back to its monarch roots. By bringing back symbols of monarchy, a new Canadian perspective would form. Letourneau’s essay is structured in a very well and composed matter. His arguments and connections are structured in proper format where his whole essay can be linked and understood easily by the average individual. Although Letourneau’s essay is structured in a proper format, it is without its faults. The essay contains many fallacies that give his arguments a weak perspective on the topic. Also throughout his essay, the author appears to be taking a side within his argument. His bias viewpoint makes himself, and his work uncredible to the reader.

As we all know, Canada is an immigrant country. This beautify country attract more and more people who are longing for good future. In 2011, the population of foreign-born in Canada is about 6.7 million. No matter where we are from and what background we have, from the moment we land in Canada as immigrants, there are some problems we need to face to. The commonest three problems are learning a new language, adjusting to a new life-style, and finding a suitable job.

Canada is perceived by other nations as a peace-loving and good-natured nation that values the rights of the individual above all else. This commonly held belief is a perception that has only come around as of late, and upon digging through Canadian history it quickly becomes obvious that this is not the truth. Canadian history is polluted with numerous events upon which the idea that Canada is a role model for Human Rights shows to be false. An extreme example of this disregard for Human Rights takes place at the beginning of the twentieth-century, which is the excessive prejudice and preconceived notions that were held as truths against immigrants attempting to enter Canada. Another prime example of these prejudices and improper

Prior to the Quebec Referendums, many national movements in regards to national movement which drove nationalism of French ethnicity. In order to understand what the Quebec Referendums reveal about Canadian government reveals, the context the Quebec Referendum was set needs to be understood as well as the existing strained relationship between Canadians and Quebecois. Prior to the referendums, Quebec nationalists and federalists have been dominant figures in Canadian politics. In essence, this paper explores 1) the context prior to the referendum in order to illustrate the significance of the Quebec referendum, 2) briefly discuss the referendum results and 3) tie in the following in order to exemplify what the Quebec Referendums reveal about Canadian Government. As this paper will illustrate, the referendums are multi-faceted issues and as Boucher brings up, what happen to the true Canadianism, "compromising to avoid confrontation and reaching consensus"? Unfortunately for Quebecois, in order to protect their distinct identity, they have been depicted as an insensitive tyrant by dealing with direct confrontation. On a superficial level, the Quebec Referendums reveal the Canadian government is divided amongst two distinct cultures of Quebecois and Inuit who make up a

The political parties that occupy the Canadian house of commons have changed dramatically over the past several few decades. Although none more so than the creation and evolution of the Bloc Quebecois from a small group of disillusioned parliamentary members of the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties. To go on and found the Quebecois separatist movement that would prove nearly catastrophic in the several referendums they held to succeed from the Canadian nation-state and establish themselves as their own sovereign nation. You could see how well this nationalistic party has flourished due to the level of attachment that the Quebecois people hold towards being a part of Canada, with the Quebecois often asking what does the ““attachment” or, for that matter, “identification” mean?” towards being a part of the Canadian state; when they themselves feel far more

Canada’s identity is tremendously challenging to delineate, due to encompassing a vast population of various cultures, traditions, and values spanning an enormous landmass. From various historical perspectives, Canadian identity has changed over the course of the last century - valuing discrete ideologies through various time periods. Due to various government policies and acts, as well as reformed beliefs and ideas regarding large social issues, Canada’s identity has shifted and constantly renewed its identity over the course of the past half century.

Most of the ethnic groups that have different value and belief systems in Canada are immigrants, and the process in which they become detach from their homeland and integrate into the Canadian society makes them feel different sense of their identity. In other words, the heterogeneous essence of the new society, and the inherent characteristic of the identity which is not constant and immutable, rather it is subject to dramatic variation across time and place make the ethnic identification even more important. This ethnic identification generates a sense of belonging in a diverse society. Moreover, the issues of power and identity in Canadian context show that how ethnic groups fit within the social stratification system. It seems that different

From the years of 1945-2000, Canada changed and developed as a country. These changes had both negative and positive effects, and were quite controversial. With a global crisis at hand, Canada found itself involved in international conflicts like they’ve never experienced before. Meanwhile, Canada was also dogged with internal issues, which were both political and economic, as it changed society. Canada was faced with problems of immigration, multiculturalism, Quebec separatism, as well as regionalism. This made Canada’s society change drastically. With Canada’s changes came the development of Canada’s national identity. Canadians began to view their country differently, and Canada’s identity took ahold of a new meaning.

Life is hard when you are forced to move to a new country, and follow the rules of a new culture. As a person growing up in Canada I am thankful my parents moved here, but hearing their stories of struggle makes me feel sorry, and lucky that I didn’t have to go through the same. Being a first generation Canadian, I think that Canada does make it hard to adapt, but at the same time, they are very accepting of other cultures. As Canada continues to become a cultural mosaic, and different races, beliefs, and cultures live together as one, some may feel left behind. The stories Why My Mother Can’t Speak English by Garry Engkant, and Growing up Native by Carol Geddes show a mix of hardships and acceptances that people from different cultures go through to adapt to European/Canadian cultures that have been present in the past, and are present now. I feel as a whole, Canada does a good job at preaching multiculturalism and inclusion, and doing things to help immigrants, but there are many cases in which people still feel left behind in the past, and now, because this is a culture in which communicating “our way” makes things easier, unfortunately.

In E. Jones’s essay, Canadian identity, ze talks explains logical, ethical, and practical reasons for and against canada forming a national identity. She gave a lot of information intended to help her audience come to there own conclusion about forming a national identity.

Mackey, Razack and Poulter bring up the issues of a falsely constructed national identity in their article’s arguments. Settling Differences: Managing and Representing People and Land in the Canadian National Project states that “identity is formed in the ‘simultaneous vectors of similarity, continuality, and difference’” (Charbram and Fregoso, 1990: 206, as quoted by Mackey 2002: 24) – that certain characteristics and attributes from each identity is what relates or differentiates one identity from the next. These identities are either rooted in the lands history or appropriated from other groups, but never displays the full progression of coming to be. Rather, they display a discourse where only specific accounts of history are included in

I am a married heterosexual 39 year-old Korean-Canadian middle class woman with two children, who immigrated to Canada at the age of 12. The identities that have been the most salient and influential in determining my life trajectories and my values have been my gender, age, race, religion, and class identities. Immigrating to Canada had a significant impact on my identity development. I felt like an outsider who was ‘fresh off the boat’ at school and felt a sense of inferiority compared to the kids who were born in Canada. Although I became a Canadian citizen within three years, it took me awhile to embrace the Canadian identity and felt like I belonged in Canada.

Firstly, second-generation immigrants do not feel connected to their homeland; instead their identity is tied to the place they were born. In a study conducted with Canadian-born Chinese (CBC) young adults, researchers claim: “migration involves constituting a sense of belonging in a new place while maintaining ties to the place of origin” (Kobayashi and Preston 235). This was concluded after many participants articulated a contested sense of belonging. When the old culture is abandoned, most often by second-generation immigrants, they do not connect to their cultural origins. Likewise, when the new