{"id":270902,"date":"2020-10-06T00:47:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T04:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=270902"},"modified":"2020-10-06T01:00:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T05:00:34","slug":"canadian-citizenship-study-guide-should-tell-the-truth-about-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/06\/canadian-citizenship-study-guide-should-tell-the-truth-about-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian citizenship study guide should tell the truth about racism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Issued in 2011, the guide aims to teach prospective citizens about Canada\u2019s history, geography, culture, and political and justice systems. Disgracefully, the document whitewashes colonialism, conceals genocide, minimizes systemic racism and its inhumane consequences, and portrays these as remnants of the past even as the guide itself engages in racist discourse. (File photo: Sasan Hezarkhani\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this crucial time of confronting systemic anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, the Canadian government must take responsibility for its enduring role in propagating racism. This includes through its misleading self-portrayal in Discover Canada<\/em><\/a>, the official study guide for the test taken by Canadian citizenship applicants.<\/p>\n

Issued in 2011, the guide aims to teach prospective citizens about Canada\u2019s history, geography, culture, and political and justice systems. Disgracefully, the document whitewashes colonialism, conceals genocide, minimizes systemic racism and its inhumane consequences, and portrays these as remnants of the past even as the guide itself engages in racist discourse.<\/p>\n

We write as women faculty members at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Our perspective on these issues is borne of our shared concerns yet differing relationships to \u201cCanadian\u201d nationality. One of us is Algonquin (Timiskaming First Nation); another is a woman of African ancestry, born in \u201cCanada,\u201d surviving transatlantic enslavement; two are new-ish Canadians (white European heritage, from the United States and South Africa); another is a permanent resident from the U.S. (from Venezuela).<\/p>\n

Revising the guide<\/h2>\n

Recognizing Discover Canada<\/em>\u2019s flaws, the government set out in 2016 to remove certain offensive elements<\/a>, including the portrayal of immigrants\u2019 \u201cbarbaric cultural practices\u201d and the glorification of military exploits.<\/p>\n

A draft shared with The Canadian Press in 2017 incorporated coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission\u2019s 2015 report<\/a>, as well as discussion of discrimination against people of racialized backgrounds, people with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ people and other marginalized communities.<\/p>\n

Despite an expected 2017 release \u2014 during Canada\u2019s sesquicentennial \u2014 the new version, inexplicably, never came to light.<\/p>\n

Citizen shame<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/a>
The guide was issued by the Government of Canada in 2011.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Outrageously, Discover Canada<\/em> is still the welcome guide for new Canadians. Just a few of its shameful elements include:<\/p>\n

1) It presents a sanitized account of Indigenous Peoples, before and under colonization<\/a>. This erases the history and legacy of stolen lands and dispossession<\/a>, the upheaval of nations, cultural genocide<\/a>, broken treaties<\/a>, assimilation policies such as residential schools, police<\/a> and carceral<\/a> racism, continued heinous living conditions on reserves<\/a> and hugely inequitable health outcomes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the Royal Proclamation of 1763<\/a>, which states Indigenous people are sovereign, to the British North America Act of 1867<\/a>, there is no discussion of how the Doctrine of Discovery<\/a> shaped the nation. Discover Canada<\/em> also omits Indigenous people\u2019s resistance movements, past<\/a> and present<\/a>, that contest historical and ongoing forms of colonialism and oppression.<\/p>\n

2) The guide celebrates Upper Canada as \u201cthe first province in the Empire to move toward abolition\u201d and as a \u201csafe haven\u201d for enslaved Black people escaping the United States, but there is no mention of Canada\u2019s own history of slavery<\/a>, nor of the pervasive racist violence and human rights violations faced by African and Black Canadians. The guide\u2019s omission of the Code Noir<\/a> (1685, revised in 1789) further erases the reality of policed and enslaved African lives, which included forced religious conversion, sanctioned punishment and other brutalities.<\/p>\n

This legacy, combined with successor policies, has generated over-representation of Black and Indigenous children in foster care and Children\u2019s Aid facilities<\/a> and high rates of educational, food and housing insecurity, all generating worse health outcomes among Black Canadians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, anti-Asian racism is covered only superficially. The horrendous Komagata Maru event<\/a> is entirely overlooked. The internment of Japanese Canadians<\/a> during the Second World War is discussed fleetingly, with no mention of numbers affected (over 22,000), uncompensated liquidation of property, family separation or forced postwar relocation.<\/p>\n

The guide flags government apologies but not the racist ideologies and practices justifying such policies. This is the case with anti-Chinese discrimination, including the \u201cHead Tax<\/a>, a race-based entry fee,\u201d and more recently witnessed in hateful attacks on Asian Canadians during both the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3) Amid overwhelming, longstanding evidence of systemic police brutality targeting racialized communities<\/a>, the guide\u2019s use of the phrase, \u201cRemember, the police are there to help you.\u201d contradicts the everyday reality of policing for Black, brown and Indigenous peoples. This includes: repeated instances of violence, racial profiling and harassment against Black and Indigenous communities; the RCMP\u2019s complicity in missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls<\/a>; and grossly disproportional incarceration of Black and Indigenous populations.<\/p>\n

4) In discussing the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms<\/a>, the guide is highly selective regarding which rights are acknowledged and emphasized. While the guide repeatedly stresses the importance of religious freedom, it fails to mention equality and non-discrimination as fundamental rights. This selective presentation of key human rights protections gives prospective citizens a distorted picture of the rights afforded to Canadians.<\/p>\n

The guide also misses the opportunity to endorse key human rights protections against racism<\/a>, which are central to mitigating the effects of systemic discrimination on people\u2019s well-being, financial security, education and work aspirations.<\/p>\n

Additionally ignored are past and contemporary policies that undermine the rights of racialized migrant workers. Examples of these groups include Black migrants, who historically were only admitted as domestic workers or in other menial roles<\/a>; Filipino workers recruited to be home care aides and personal support workers<\/a>; and Latin American and Caribbean migrant farm workers today. Racialized migrants are frequently denied landed immigrant status, family reunification, provincial health coverage, unemployment benefits, workplace protections and other social entitlements and worker protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An honest guide?<\/h2>\n

In sum, a replacement citizenship guide is long overdue. A new guide should certainly further highlight working-class struggles pushing Canada\u2019s efforts in realizing rights to health, education and social security, including the role of old age security pensions in reducing poverty among seniors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even so, these measures have been markedly scaled back in recent years<\/a>, with resultant increases in poverty<\/a>. They have never fully addressed racial, class and gender inequities<\/a>.<\/p>\n