Oldal 23 [23]
MULTICULTURALISM AS A DISCOURSE OF DISGUISE: A POSSIBLE CANADIAN SOLUTION
The Conflicts that Derailed a Good Thing
Until the late 1960’s, Canadians lived their lives, fought in the wars involving
the British Empire, and followed hockey on CBC radio. There was no need to
declare a Canadian identity. There were multiple and disparate individuals
and groups managing to work things out, arguing, complaining and grumpily
resolving issues. The discourse of the late-nineteen sixties, the Vietnam War
with participants and resistors, the student rebellions in Britain, Europe, and
North America, and the publicity surrounding the individual in the USA,
began to have journalists and others in Canada asking who we really were.”
Of course, immigrants had been coming to Canada since the late-fifteen
hundreds, but the social tensions of the sixties escalated the rising awareness
that a world was out there. The idea of Canada began to receive publicity.
(Canada finally had a national flag by 1965.) By the mid-sixties we were
acountry that valued questions, rational debate, freedom to express differences.
The existence of secure places — safety — to make mistakes, and learn from
them, such as schools, universities, libraries, academic conferences, etc., the
escalating discourses — rational maturity — about the differences between
Canada and the USA inspired some academics to more clearly address the
concept of Canada as a cultural determiner of decisions and progress. In the
academy, philosophers weighed in, though poets, novelists and journalists
had been more vocal in reflecting on Canada and the character of its diverse
peoples for previous decades.”* The field of concern for some philosophers
was the early theories written in Canada that would give insight to the claim
that there was a Canadian identity reflected in the scholarly writings of early
academics. In 1952, Professor John Irving, Victoria College, University of
Toronto, was the first to note philosophical traditions in Canada.”
After the sixties, other philosophers began to look into the question of
identity. A. B. McKillop, an intellectual historian, published A Disciplined
Intelligence: Critical Inquiry and Canadian Thought in the Victorian Era,
1979, the first major book about the philosophical/religious roots of nineteenth
century theorizing in Canada.” The Faces of Reason, published in 1981, was
followed by the Idea of Canada by Leslie Armour in 1981. Douglas Verney,
Ayn Rand published The Fountainhead, Indianapolis — New York, Bobbs-Merrill Company,
1943. The book hit a powerful trajectory in the 60’s with identity movements and the American
celebration of the individual. Although the press is no longer operative, The Fountainhead
remains a cult classic for supporters of individualism.
See the stories of Stephen Leacock and the poetry of Robert Service.
John Irving, Philosophy In Canada: A Symposium, Toronto, University of Toronto, 1952;
The Development of Philosophy in Central Canada from 1850 to 1900, Canadian Historical
Review, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Sept. 1950).
35 A. B. McKillop, A Disciplined Intelligence: Critical Inquiry and Canadian Thought in the
Victorian Era, Montreal, McGill Queen’s University, 1979.
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