Studying Globalization in Canada: Some Keywords
Y. Rachel Zhou and William D. Coleman, McMaster University
Introduction
When examined in the context of the South-North Dialogue, our choice of keywords for Canada focuses on dimensions of the country's economic, social, and political structures that have undergone significant change in the contemporary period of globalization. Immigration is a long-standing part of Canada's participation in globalizing currents. Europeans arrived in the territory beginning in the sixteenth century and gradually displaced indigenous peoples. Large waves of Europeans continued to arrive in significant numbers, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The source of Canadian immigrants changed radically, however, in the late 1960s and increasing numbers of persons arrived in Canada from Asia, Latin America, and Africa, while those from Europe declined. These changes in the cultural composition and geographical origins of new arrivals to the country led the Government of Canada to recast the country as a multicultural one and thus began policy development on multiculturalism, our second keyword. The concept of multiculturalism and policies reflecting it have become increasingly common as more and more states experience a growth in the cultural diversity of their citizens in the contemporary global era.
Our next two keywords are social care and autonomy. The globalization of concepts of human rights, which began after the Second World War, brought changes to Canada's constitution in the form of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. In this respect, the Constitution provides legal support for notions of personal or individual autonomy based on human rights. At the same time, Canada shares a border and many economic ties with the country hosting the strongest economy on the earth, the United States — the same country that has promoted neo-liberal globalization with uncommon intensity for over two decades. In dealing with this situation, Canada has given up parts of its collective autonomy in free trade agreements with the United States. In following in the footsteps of US-led neo-liberalism, Canadian governments have also reduced the public character of social care policies, turning to the private sector to address gaps in funding and service. These policy changes, in turn, have placed limits on the individual autonomy of more socially vulnerable Canadians as they cope with widening income gaps and growing poverty in the neo-liberal era.
Since the arrival of Europeans in what is now called Canada, and the subsequent exploitation of beaver, lumber, fishing stocks, minerals, hydro-electricity and petroleum for sale on world commodity markets, the Canadian landscapes and seascapes have changed significantly. Where this exploitation is particularly intense — fish stocks, petroleum, forestry — the natural environments of other living beings are degraded. This long-standing feature of Canada, environmental degradation, is our fifth keyword because these processes have intensified further as corporations have engaged more actively in global commodity markets. And as the intensity of this degradation has risen, so too has the destruction of indigenous peoples' lands, ocean and lake spaces, and cultures. Gradually, over the past thirty years, indigenous peoples in Canada have learned how indigenous peoples everywhere face very similar threats to their ways of living. In learning these things, being indigenous or indigeneity becomes a signifier for mutual support across the world. Since indigenous peoples in Canada have been leaders in building these global networks, we choose indigeneity as our sixth keyword.
Immigration
The demographics of Canada as a nation have been shaped by continuing immigration. Europe was the primary source of immigrants to Canada before the 1970s. The introduction of the Immigration Point System in 1967 facilitated the entry of skilled immigrants from non-European countries. As a result, the number of visible minorities has been growing and the ethnic and cultural composition of Canadian society has been changing (Figure 1). Yet, this immigration policy is coming under criticism for its neo-liberal orientation — that is, it favours those immigrants who have "human capital" and/or financial capital to succeed in the present knowledge-based economy. The migration of skilled workers from developing countries to Canada also has had profound impacts on the socio-economic development of the former, and Canada is a home for refugees who are victims of military conflict, political instability, and/or environmental deterioration around the world. In recent years, it has been observed that immigrants to Canada, driven by the domestic job market or international economy, may continue to travel between and beyond Canada and their home countries. This phenomenon has not received adequate attention from scholars, however.
The images in Figures 2 and 3 show different faces of immigration to Canada. Figure 2 is a photograph from the National Archives of Canada. Taken in 1886, it shows Chinese immigrant workers who helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway and their camp. Figure 3 is a photograph of a vendor at the 6th Annual Hamilton Mardi Gras Carnival.
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| Figure 1: Region of Birth of Recent Immigrants to Canada, 1971-2006 |
(Source: Statistics Canada)
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| Figure 2: Chinese Labourers who Built the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the Nineteenth Century |
(Source: National Archives of Canada)
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| Figure 3: Vendor at the Caribbean Carnival Festival in Hamilton |
(Photo credit: Rachel Zhou,
transnationalmoments.com)
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism as a national policy was adopted in 1971 in Canada and formalized in law in 1988. During the past decades it has evolved from a policy response to the "bicultural" reality concerning Canadians of British and French descent to a mature institutional mechanism to promote cultural diversity and social cohesion in a plural society. Different from the model of "melting pot" in the United States which emphasizes cultural assimilation, multiculturalism legitimizes and supports the coexistence of multiple ethnic groups, cultures, and languages in Canadian society. For instance, the government will provide supports for minority celebrations, folk arts, and mass media (in minority languages) and accepts traditional dress in schools and the military.
A photograph of Baltej Singh Dhillon, the first Sikh officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to be allowed to wear a turban instead of the traditional Stetson, has become an iconic image of multiculturalism as national policy. A second image of multiculturalism is offered by the Holy Days and Holiday Calendar of the Peel District School Board. The calendar is part of the school board's "Faith Forward" program, the goal of which is to embrace and support the wide diversity of faiths and cultures represented by the staff and students of the board. It shows important dates in twelve world religions throughout the school year.
Multiculturalism is viewed to be helpful for protecting minority cultures and developing its members' cultural identities. However, major criticisms leveled at multiculturalism include its simplification of the notion of culture, its pragmatic purpose related to electoral politics, and its lack of attention to systematic discrimination against ethnic minorities.
Social care
The comprehensive social welfare system in Canada was developed from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s. For example, the universal health care that Canadians take pride in was part of this system. The welfare system has played a significant role in protecting Canadians from various risks such as unemployment, aging, and illness. Since the 1980s, like many Western welfare states, Canada has witnessed various forms of welfare restructuring, such as cuts in social spending, restricting citizens' eligibility to access welfare programs, and decentralization of welfare provision. Neo-liberal globalization has not only constrained the ability of the state to provide for its citizens but has also created some new welfare problems such as erosion of full employment and the emergence of the "working poor." The increasing diversity of the Canadian population has also generated questions about the sensitivity of welfare delivery, and equity in access to welfare resources. Meanwhile, it has been observed that various non-state actors such as NGOs, communities, and transnational corporations have become integral to the social welfare system in the context of the so-called "crisis of the welfare state."
A photograph found on the website of the Canadian Information Centre for International Medical Graduates presents a utopian image of the Canadian health care system. It shows a young male physician sitting at the bedside of female patient in a neck brace. His hand rests on top of hers in a gesture of caring. A female nurse with a chart also stands by the bed. The patient smiles brightly at her two health care providers, confidant in her care. In contrast, this Cox & Forkum editorial cartoon offers a sardonic comment on social care and Canada's health care system. It depicts a long queue of patients lying in hospital beds — a queue that disappears into the distance. A doctor wheels one of the beds away from the line. The patient in the bed has died. The doctor quips to the patient next in line "Look on the bright side. You're one spot closer." Figure 4 offers a second commentary on social care in Canada and the individuals who are seen as having "slipped through the cracks in the system."
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| Figure 4: Homelessness in Toronto |
(Photo credit: Gary Dumbrill,
mykodachrome.com)
Autonomy
Autonomy is commonly conceptualized in two ways. First, it refers to the situation of individual persons and to their capacity to shape the conditions under which they live (Held 1995). Individual autonomy thus means being able to formulate aims and beliefs about how to achieve one's choices, seek out ways to participate in social life in pursuit of these choices, and evaluate one's success through self-reflection based on empirical evidence and phenomenological experience in working toward these aims. The term is also used in connection with collective bodies — nation-states, minority groups within states, indigenous peoples, and religious movements being common examples. In this collective sense, autonomy usually means something closer to the Greek roots of the word, autos (self) and nomos (law), meaning the capacity to give oneself laws.
Collective autonomy has been a central concern to Canada ever since it was constituted as a Dominion of the British Empire. The collective sense of the term, however, has also had relevance to the French-speaking minority based in Quebec, but also found outside that province. Subject to discrimination by Anglophone elites, the francophone majority in Quebec developed a strong sense of nationalism in the nineteenth century. Like many minority groups under globalization, this nationalism grew into a movement for autonomy or "sovereignty association" in relation to Canada. A montage of images associated with Quebec nationalism accompany the recording of "Gens du Pays," the hymne national of Quebec, found on YouTube. This performance is by the song's composer, Gilles Vigneault, himself a strong nationalist and indépendantiste.
Notions of individual autonomy became more prominent in Canada with the entrenchment of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian constitution in 1982.
Indigeneity
Over the past twenty years, Canada has seen the development of a global indigenous identity. This notion of "indigeneity" has been transformative for many aboriginal communities in Canada and thus has had a major impact on Canadian political, social, and cultural life. Such an identity is based on an attachment that all participants share to some form of subsistence economy, to a territory or homeland that predates the arrival of settlers and surveyors, to a spiritual system that predates the arrival of missionaries, and to a language that expresses everything that is important and distinct about their place in the universe. Most importantly, they share the destruction and loss of these things. Some of this destruction has come at the hands of nation-state policies (Niezen 2003, 87) such as:
- assimilative state education which has led to a loss of language, culture, and traditional knowledge;
- loss of a subsistence economy due to resource development, which has undermined severely a culture and set of political institutions very closely tied to the land;
- state abrogation of treaties, which has led to further losses of land and to rapacious resource development on those lands.
Over the past thirty years, beginning with the International NGO Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples in the Americas in 1977 under the auspices of the Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination begun in 1973, this identity has earned increasing institutionalization within the UN System, culminating in the creation of a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in December 2000 and finally a UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These developments, in turn, have triggered the growth of consciousness about being "indigenous" well beyond the Americas — the starting point of these processes. Canada has refused to sign the UN Declaration.
As an image of indigeneity we chose the Two Row Wampum treaty belt (Figure 5). The pattern of the belt consists of two rows of purple wampum beads against a background of white beads. The purple beads signify the courses of two vessels — a Haudenosaunee canoe and a European ship — traveling down the river of life together, parallel but never touching. The three white stripes denote peace and friendship. This wampum records the meaning of the treaty, which declared peaceful coexistence between the Haudenosaunee and Dutch settlers in what is now upstate New York. The Two Row Wampum Belt says:
This symbolizes the agreement under which the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee welcomed the white peoples to their lands. 'We will not be like father and son, but like brothers. These two rows will symbolize vessels, travelling down the same river together. One will be for the Original People, their laws, their customs, and the other for the European people and their laws and customs. We will each travel the river together, but each in our own boat. And neither of us will try to steer the other's vessel.
The agreement has been kept by the Iroquois/Haudenosaunee to this date.
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| Figure 5: Two Row Wampum Belt |
Another image of indigeniety emerges in the words of Beverly Jacobs, Hodinoso:ni, President of the Native Women's Association of Canada, in a statement made to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations, 17 May 2006:
We know that we are all related and that what impacts one Indigenous person impacts all Indigenous peoples. We currently live in a world that has been drastically impacted by decisions made centuries ago such as the papal bulls issued by the Vatican and the doctrine of discovery. We are continuing to reel from the theft of our lands, resources, identities, bodies and spirits. Despite the pain and suffering we also continue to express our prayers to live with one another in peace and in a good way, with respect for all life, especially for the life givers, the Indigenous women.
Environmental Degradation
Since its formation, Canada's economy has been highly dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. It has participated in the global economy through the sale of these resources around the world. With this exploitation has come degradation of physical landscapes and the health of people living in those landscapes. With the intensification of demand for such resources under contemporary globalization, this degradation has occurred more rapidly. At the same time, the use of those natural resources in Canada and in other parts of the world has led to increased global warming and rapid change in the environment in northern parts of Canada as the Arctic ice begins to melt at an accelerating rate.
A photograph by Jiri Rezac presents a distressing image of environmental degradation. It is an aerial view of the tar sands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The left hand side of the photo shows the verdant, untouched boreal forest before mining operations began. The right hand side shows the same site after the forest and soil were stripped to get to the deposits below. It now resembles a lunar landscape.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Globalization Studies Research Capacity: List of Relevant Canada Research Chairs Download Excel spreadsheet
Appendix 2: List of Globalization/Global Studies Research Centers in Canada
Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria
Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia
Centre for Global Political Economy, Simon Fraser University
School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University
Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, University of Manitoba
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
North-South Institute, Ottawa, Ontario
Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto
Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario
Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa
Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University
Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité au Québec (CRIDAQ), Université du Québec à Montréal
Chaire de recherche du Canada en Mondialisation, Citoyenneté et Démocratie, Université du Québec à Montréal
Centre d’études et de Recherches Internationales (CÉRIUM), Université de Montréal
Centre de Recherche Interuniversitaire sur la Mondialisation et le Travail (CRIMT), Université de Montréal
Works Cited
Held, David. 1995. Democracy and the global order: From the modern state to cosmopolitan governance. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Niezen, Ronald. 2003. The origins of Indigenism: Human rights and the politics of identity. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.