The Race Question in Canada


Book Description




Dominion of Race


Book Description

How has race shaped Canada’s international encounters and its role in the world? How have the actions of politicians, diplomats, citizens, and nongovernmental organizations reflected and reinforced racial power structures in Canada? In this book, leading scholars grapple with these complex questions, destabilizing conventional understandings of Canada in the world. Dominion of Race exposes how race-thinking has informed priorities and policies, positioned Canada in the international community, and contributed to a global order rooted in racial beliefs. While the contributors reconsider familiar topics, including the Paris Peace Conference and Canada’s involvement with the United Nations, they enlarge the scope of Canada’s international history by subject, geography, and methodology. By demonstrating that race is a fundamental component of Canada and its international history, this important book calls for reengagement with the histories of those marginalized in, or excluded from, the historical record.




“Race,” Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada


Book Description

Drawing on four cases relating to race between 1914 and 1955, Walker (history, U. of Waterloo) explores the role of the Canadian Supreme Court and the law in racializing Canadian society. He demonstrates that the justices were expressing the prevailing common sense in their legal decisions, and argues that the law has created the conditions for the country's chronic racism. He projects past and current trends into the future. Co-published by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. Canadian card order number: C97-931762-2. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Comparing Canada


Book Description

Debating how Canada compares, both regionally and in relation to other countries, is a national pastime. This book examines how political scientists apply diverse comparative strategies to better understand Canadian political life. Using a variety of methods, the contributors use comparison to examine topics as diverse as Indigenous rights, Canadian voting behaviour, activist movements, climate policy, and immigrant retention. While the theoretical perspectives and kinds of questions asked vary greatly, as a whole they demonstrate how the “art of comparing” is an important strategy for understanding Canadian identity politics, political mobilization, political institutions, and public policy. Ultimately, this book establishes how adopting a more systematic comparative outlook is essential – not only to revitalize the study of Canadian politics but also to achieve a more nuanced understanding of Canada as a whole.




The Muslim Question in Canada


Book Description

To those who study the integration of immigrants in Western countries, both Muslims and Canada are seen to be exceptions to the rule. Muslims are often perceived as unable or unwilling to integrate, mostly due to their religious beliefs, and Canada is portrayed as a model for successful integration. This book addresses the intersection of these two types of exceptionalism through an empirical study of the experiences of Muslims in Canada. Replete with practical implications, the analysis shows that instead of fixating on religion, the focus should be on the economic and social challenges faced by Muslims in Canada.




Social Statistics and Ethnic Diversity


Book Description

This open access book examines the question of collecting and disseminating data on ethnicity and race in order to describe characteristics of ethnic and racial groups, identify factors of social and economic integration and implement policies to redress discrimination. It offers a global perspective on the issue by looking at race and ethnicity in a wide variety of historical, country-specific contexts, including Asia, Latin America, Europe, Oceania and North America. In addition, the book also includes analysis on the indigenous populations of the Americas. The book first offers comparative accounts of ethnic statistics. It compares and empirically tests two perspectives for understanding national ethnic enumeration practices in a global context based on national census questionnaires and population registration forms for over 200 countries between 1990 to 2006. Next, the book explores enumeration and identity politics with chapters that cover the debate on ethnic and racial statistics in France, ethnic and linguistic categories in Québec, Brazilian ethnoracial classification and affirmative action policies and the Hispanic/Latino identity and the United States census. The third, and final, part of the book examines measurement issues and competing claims. It explores such issues as the complexity of measuring diversity using Malaysia as an example, social inequalities and indigenous populations in Mexico and the demographic explosion of aboriginal populations in Canada from 1986 to 2006. Overall, the book sheds light on four main questions: should ethnic groups be counted, how should they be counted, who is and who is not counted and what are the political and economic incentives for counting. It will be of interest to all students of race, ethnicity, identity, and immigration. In addition, researchers as well as policymakers will find useful discussions and insights for a better understanding of the complexity of categorization and related political and policy challenges.




Raising Race Questions


Book Description

Conversations about race can be confusing, contentious, and frightening, particularly for White people. Even just asking questions about race can be scary because we are afraid of what our questions might reveal about our ignorance or bias. Raising Race Questions invites teachers to use inquiry as a way to develop sustained engagement with challenging racial questions and to do so in community so that they learn how common their questions actually are. It lays out both a process for getting to questions that lead to growth and change, as well as a vision for where engagement with race questions might lead. Race questions are not meant to lead us into a quagmire of guilt, discomfort, or isolation. Sustained race inquiry is meant to lead to anti-racist classrooms, positive racial identities, and a restoration of the wholeness of spirit and community that racism undermines. Book Features: Case studies of expert and experienced White teachers who still have questions about race. Approaches for talking about race in the K–12 classroom. Strategies for facilitating race conversations among adults. A variety of different resources useful in the teacher inquiry groups described in the book. Research with teachers, not on teachers, including written responses from each teacher whose classroom is featured in the book. “In Raising Race Questions Ali Michael is an excavator, determined to dig into every unexplored crevice of White teachers’ experiences with race in order to unearth the complex realities of racism and schooling, and a model of reflective inquiry, willing to lay herself and her assumptions bare in service to the reader's consciousness and her own. This book grew my consciousness in multiple ways, and that is the greatest gift an author can give me.” —Paul Gorski, founder, EdChange, associate professor, George Mason University “Ali Michael has a gift for getting people talking. This must-read book captures her ‘magic’ and shares useful strategies for teachers and schools working to develop their racial proficiency. As a White teacher engaged in this work, I've watched these tools help educators support one another as they make mistakes, reflect, and grow together.” —Lynn Eckerman, Teacher, Independence Charter School, Philadelphia, PA




Race and Racism


Book Description

This book brings together contributions from academic and government sectors to analyze the nature and extent of racism in Canada. Approaches ranging from sociology, cultural anthropology, demography, and psychology are represented.




Colour-Coded


Book Description

Historically Canadians have considered themselves to be more or less free of racial prejudice. Although this conception has been challenged in recent years, it has not been completely dispelled. In Colour-Coded, Constance Backhouse illustrates the tenacious hold that white supremacy had on our legal system in the first half of this century, and underscores the damaging legacy of inequality that continues today. Backhouse presents detailed narratives of six court cases, each giving evidence of blatant racism created and enforced through law. The cases focus on Aboriginal, Inuit, Chinese-Canadian, and African-Canadian individuals, taking us from the criminal prosecution of traditional Aboriginal dance to the trial of members of the 'Ku Klux Klan of Kanada.' From thousands of possibilities, Backhouse has selected studies that constitute central moments in the legal history of race in Canada. Her selection also considers a wide range of legal forums, including administrative rulings by municipal councils, criminal trials before police magistrates, and criminal and civil cases heard by the highest courts in the provinces and by the Supreme Court of Canada. The extensive and detailed documentation presented here leaves no doubt that the Canadian legal system played a dominant role in creating and preserving racial discrimination. A central message of this book is that racism is deeply embedded in Canadian history despite Canada's reputation as a raceless society. Winner of the Joseph Brant Award, presented by the Ontario Historical Society




Blackening Canada


Book Description

Focusing on the work of black, diasporic writers in Canada, particularly Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, and Tessa McWatt, Blackening Canada investigates the manner in which literature can transform conceptions of nation and diaspora. Through a consideration of literary representation, public discourse, and the language of political protest, Paul Barrett argues that Canadian multiculturalism uniquely enables black diasporic writers to transform national literature and identity. These writers seize upon the ambiguities and tensions within Canadian discourses of nation to rewrite the nation from a black, diasporic perspective, converting exclusion from the national discourse into the impetus for their creative endeavours. Within this context, Barrett suggests, debates over who counts as Canadian, the limits of tolerance, and the breaking points of Canadian multiculturalism serve not as signs of multiculturalism’s failure but as proof of both its vitality and of the unique challenges that black writing in Canada poses to multicultural politics and the nation itself.