1

Tyler Bryan 260423688 CANS 200 Elsbeth Heaman December 22, 2011 Crisis in Canada: Failure of Unity, Equality, and Democracy The trope of crisis in in Canadian history, politics, and culture put forth by academics is profound, but not inevitable. Crisis can be defined as the way the Canadian public views the unity of Canada, the democratic nature of its political institutions, and the mosaic culture that treats minority rights with respect as well as how the international realm views Canada through how it is presented throughout the world. There has never been a unified Canada, the golden age of parliament has been replaced with judicial supremacy and executive dominance over representation in the House of Commons and has been dubbed a democratic deficit, minority rights is something that has hardly been respected and conveniently overlooked due to tarnishing a reputation built by the state and corporations, and the failure of popular Canadian history being portrayed as a founding of Canada myth overlooks the role of Native peoples in Canadian history. Fragmentation of culture and history, the useless role of Parliament (the only elected body in Canadian Politics), and repression of minority groups and culture are facts avoided by the state-invented myths of unity, culture, and history. Canada is in the process of becoming and defining the problems is a hard task. Crisis is therefore the separation of perception from reality, the way things are compared to the way the public expects them to be to

add up to the myths presented and thus the trope of crisis can be verified as a legitimate concern in academic circles. Canada can be fixed, but must require institutional reform and the indoctrination of future generations not already framed in the state fueled narrative. First, the unity of Canada must be addressed. There has never been a unified Canada and as Daniel Francis points out in National Dreams, the unity was exaggerated through myths such as railroad construction which were voiced at the time of confederation by politicians such as John A. Macdonald to promote unity. Francis calls our sense of identity as a consensual hallucination1 which history attempts to forg[e] a livable consensus2 rather than actually remembering what happened. The CPR as unity is unfounded but is enforced by photo-ops of the last spike for nation building. The truth is that the railway was built chiefly on the backs on Chinese coolie labour, using land obtained for almost nothing from the Indians and capital raised for the most part in Britain.3 This is one example of a story that informs modern identity and nationality that is part of the crisis of separation of perception from reality. Taking the constitution home is another example of the crisis of unity. Trudeau was dedicated to bring the constitution home because of his own interests in creating a Charter of rights and Freedoms as well as increasing pressure from the Quebec liberation front in 1970 leading to the October crisis.4 The October crisis encapsulates the lack of unity in Canada pitting radical members Quebecs Parti Qubcois against the government. Internal terrorist operations took place during the October Crisis such as kidnapping a cabinet minister to further their aims. The repatriation of the constitution was met with considerable hostility and disagreement especially among British
1. Daniel Francis, National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1997), 10. 2. Ibid, 12. 3. Ibid, 15. 4. Elsbeth Heaman, The Sixties and the Rights Revolution (lecture, McGill University, Montreal, QC, October 17, 2011).

Columbia and Alberta looking for control over their natural resources. In fact, the constitution was brought home without Quebecs signature which has ramifications for separatists today. Historically, the disagreement between Catholics and Protestants, English and French has always been present. Thus, unity does not exist in Canada and never has and serves as another example of perception and myth overpowering reality. Second, the democratic nature of Canadas political institutions must also be addressed. This is a case of democratic deficit. Canadas democracy serves as a model throughout the world although it is not a fully functional democracy as thought by most citizens. The golden age of parliament has long been over, and arguably has never existed. What is seen in Canadas political institutions is not parliamentary supremacy, but rather executive supremacy coupled with increasing judicial supremacy because of the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.5 The House of Commons, the only elected body in Parliament, is arguably useless and does not represent voters preferences and individual Members of Parliament are subject to strict partisan politics which includes adherence to strict party discipline which is a cause of the adversarialist nature of the Canadian political culture. The Prime Minister has power to set the debate time in the House of Commons and decide on the conclusion of the debate despite the actual conclusion. As Trimble and Arscott mention in their article, Still Counting, Feminist or not, female legislators contimue to be looked to for strong support in matterse affecting equality of women, regardless of their partisanship or their commitment to the humanity of all people.6 Thus, womens representation in parliament poses an interesting dilemma: if they do get more seats, this does not necessarily mean that they will gain influence and have an impact on policy.
5. Richard Schultz, Political Institutions (lecture, McGill University, Montreal, QC, October 31, 2011). 6. Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott, Counting Matters: The Numbers Game and Womens Political Power, Still Counting: Women in Politics across Canada (Peterborough: Broadview, 2003), 41.

The lack of representation of women in politics also highlights the social meanings about womens palace in Canadian society.7 Theory and reality do not seem to correlate in the representation of women, or elected MPs having a chance to have an impact on policy. Democracy is strongly centralized. Another flawed aspect of the political system is the electoral system that is not Proportional Representation (PR), but rather the Single Member Plurality (SMP) system coupled with the first past the post system. This leads to constituencies in rural areas having more voting power than urban voters as well as false majorities that can end up leading the country with fewer than 40% of the popular vote. This is the case of the Harper government. Mandate from the people as Harper put it, is not an accurate statement in this kind of democracy. Judicial Activism through the impact of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is taking the role of policy making, calling into question the role of courts in political debates. For example, in the Chaoulli v. Quebec the court ruled that he couldnt open a private medicine practice, and when appealed to the Supreme Court, it was ruled as violating the Charter of Rights and freedoms, not in accordance with legislators in Quebec.8 This case we eventually defeated due to collective rights having precedence over individual rights. Arguably this is a more democratic means through the distribution of rights to individuals through the Charter, but the Supreme Court is also appointed by the Prime Minister. Perception of how the political culture of Canada does not coincide with the reality and deficiencies of the institutions that Canadians respect.

7. Linda Trimble and Jane Arscott, Counting Matters: The Numbers Game and Womens Political Power, Still Counting: Women in Politics Across Canada (Peterborough: Broadview, 2003), 40. 8. Antonia Maioni and Christopher Manfredi, When the Charter trumphs health care a collision of Canadian icons, Policy Options/Options Politiques (September 2005), 52-56.

Thirdly, Canada as an accepting society, a diverse society, as a cultural mosaic that favours the rights of minorities and equality must be brought under scrutiny. Historically and into the present day, native groups were and are repressed, stripped of their culture and language, made to live on reserves, and indoctrinated within the residential school system with Western values, causing them to lose their sense of identity to conform to the Canadian state. Native groups are among the poorest of Canadians having the highest suicide rates, suffering the ravages of alcoholism, and enduring great loss in terms of their culture and language.9 They still fight for their right to be recognized as Quebec is recognized, as people with full rights to selfdetermination as proclaimed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.10 The Oka crisis brought up some of the concerns of Native groups outside of Montreal and resulted in a western style standoff.11 This was the result of further subjugation and a need to build a municipal golf course on reserve land. After the crisis in a typical Ottawa fashion a commission was setup called RCAP which encapsulates the problems of western style governance on the communities through the concept of a Nation when advocating for native selfgovernance: the nation is a western concept; it does not conform to Innu Practice of living in small family settlements on the land.12 Numerous native groups only know kinship, small groups, and consensus and the concept of building a nation is asking Indian societies to reconstitute themselves both psychologically and physically.13 This commission thus shows the discrepancies and the cultural differences that are not taken into account when providing this 50 million dollar report. This report also brought up questions of individual rights as a type of
9. Toby Morantz, Individual Rights versus Collective Rights: The Debate on the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, in Pariyaram M. Chacko, Tribal Communities and Social Change (New Delhi: Sage, 2005), 75. 10. Ibid, 65. 11. Ibid, 65. 12. Ibid, 77. 13. Ibid, 79.

exclusion for the minorities. Chief Ovide explains: individual rights protect the majority, not the minority.14 This is because collective rights tend to protect culture and language, as is the case for Quebecs distinct society and individual rights does not. But there is discrepancy between what constitutes a democracy in the sense that Quebec is a distinct society and enjoys different benefits such as protection of language and identity although as Coyne states: there could be no distinctions between citizens in a democracy. Thus there are discrepancies between the equality of the cultural mosaic, while Quebec enjoys special benefits as a minority group, Native communities do not, unless the subject themselves into a more western standard of nation. The Canadian states vision failed because theory did not meet with more complicated reality. Canada is in fact a cultural mosaic, albeit an unfair one, but needs the help of the state for certain cultures to survive by enforcing language laws such as Bill 101. This law enacted helped the Qubcois culture survive at the expense of integrating new citizens without any choice into French-only schools, stripping them of the culture and denying them access to English schools in pursuit of not losing the French language and culture. In the Movie The Children of Bill 101, Courtney, a child of Bill 101, stated that: the major impact of Bill 101 on me was that I lost my sense of identity.15 This points to the continued effort as a historical fact of assimilation within immigration policy of specific cultures and language groups. The fact that ethnic biased immigration ended, this a new policy uses assimilation instead. Although it made some feel like they were being stripped of their culture, others felt the benefits, and as Courtney states again: I feel like a Montrealer, with strong Jamaican roots. I feel that I have earned my place here by my

14. Ibid, 76. 15. Elsbeth Heaman, The World in Canada: film "Les enfants de la loi 101" (lecture plus movie, McGill University, Montreal, QC, December 2, 2011).

experiences with Law 10116, thus showing that preserving Qubcois identity has had some positive impact. In Conclusion, the trope of crisis in in Canadian history, politics, and culture put forth by academics is profound, but not inevitable. The failure of Canadian history is a failure that overlooks the role of Native peoples in Canadian history. There has never been a unified Canada, this vision is only presented in myths. Canadas Parliament is failed and the golden age of parliament has been replaced with judicial supremacy and executive dominance over representation in the House of Commons which has been dubbed the democratic deficit. This does not mean democratic principles are not upheld although they may have to be decided in the court, which may actually have a beneficial role, in policy outcomes favouring minorities when politicians are afraid to do so. Fragmentation of culture and history and repression of minority groups into poverty are facts avoided by the state-invented myths of unity, representation, history and equality. Crisis is therefore the separation of perception from reality, the way things are compared to the way the public expects them to be. The trope of crisis can be verified as a legitimate concern in academic circles, but it does not mean Canada is in any immediate danger, and can be fixed by institutional change and the indoctrination of future generations not already framed in state fueled narratives.

16. Ibid.