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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. 21°
