It has long been a part of the conventional wisdom among both social scientists and laypersons th... more It has long been a part of the conventional wisdom among both social scientists and laypersons that periods of unemployment are characterized by higher levels of prejudice and discrimination directed at immigrant groups, particularly those of a minority ethnic or racial background. Yet surprisingly little research has addressed this issue. This article presents a study of the effects of a number of socioeconomic features of Canadian cities, particularly their unemployment rates, on the attitudes toward immigrants of their native-born residents. Using data from a national study of ethnicity and multiculturalism, we estimate several regression models predicting three separate dimensions of attitude toward immigrants and including as independent variables both individual characteristics and structural characteristics of city of residence. We find no evidence of a sizeable effect of local unemployment rate on attitude toward immigrants. Of the other contextual variables included in our models, the only one consistently influencing these attitudes is rate of population growth. Of the individual level variables included in the models, educational attainment and income, along with mother tongue, exhibit the strongest and most consistent effects on the attitude dimensions.
Résumé This paper focuses on both the individual and structural determinants of Aboriginal identi... more Résumé This paper focuses on both the individual and structural determinants of Aboriginal identity in the Canadian context. The paper discusses three theoretical approaches to identity and assesses their relevance for Aboriginal people. A brief assessment of the historical conditions leading to contemporary Aboriginal identity also is presented. A detailed analysis of what Aboriginal identity means and how it has changed over the past century is then presented. Finally, a discussion on how Aboriginal people are coping and reclaiming their identity is presented and what it means for creating a healthy people. Le présent article se concentre sur les déterminants individuels et structurels de l’identité autochtone dans le contexte canadien. Il propose une discussion de trois approches théoriques de l’identité et une évaluation de leur pertinence pour les Autochtones. Il présente également une brève évaluation des conditions historiques qui ont mené à l’identité autochtone contemporain...
The international trend towards migration is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. A... more The international trend towards migration is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. As the first-wave generation of migrants age, their children and even their grandchildren are reaching adulthood having spent their entire lives in the countries their families chose long ago. International Perspectives: Integration and Inclusion is a wide-ranging exploration of this new, global reality. While many countries have been, and remain, resistant to migration, the sheer volume of people moving from one country to another is forcing public policy and perceptions to change. Migrant inclusion and integration, however, remains an issue in many locales. Insightful and timely, this volume brings together contributions from various countries and levels of the migrant experience in order to consider the ways in which states can facilitate the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities.
Building welcoming communities is as much a local project as a national one. This volume explores... more Building welcoming communities is as much a local project as a national one. This volume explores the activities of provincial and municipal governments, as well as a range of other important local societal players. Case studies of each of the provinces, as well as the territories, are included, as are chapters on the history of federal-provincial cooperation in immigration, and the development of provincial multiculturalism policies and programs. Each chapter provides an overview of immigration, settlement and diversity in the province or territory, an examination of the key players in the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities, and a discussion of specific challenges. This allows comparisons and an exploratory mapping of the range of participants and the investments - both human and financial - that have been made in the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities at the provincial level.
Students, faculty and administrators at a major Canadian university were surveyed to investigate ... more Students, faculty and administrators at a major Canadian university were surveyed to investigate the utility or "consequential validity" of student ratings of instructors. Of the 1,229 (approximately equal number of males and females) students and alumni, about half (52%) indicated that they had never used the ratings, but of those who did use it, many (47%) reported using it several times to select courses and/or instructors. The majority (84%) of faculty members (n = 357) gave favorable responses about the usefulness of student ratings for improving quality of teaching. Paradoxically, even though faculty members were positive about the student ratings, they did not generally use them to make changes in their teaching. The majority (87%) of administrators (n = 52) stated that they use the student ratings for various purposes including decisions about faculty merit and tenure. Students, faculty and administrators considered the overall course instruction to be the most use...
The first issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques du Canada appeared in 1969, a modest ... more The first issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques du Canada appeared in 1969, a modest research bulletin of the Research Centre for Canadian Ethnic Studies, edited by Alexander Malycky and Clive Cardinal of the Germanic and Slavic Studies Department at the University of Calgary. It appeared sporadically through the early seventies as several other bulletins, bibliographies, book reviews, and review articles. It then transformed into its current format in 1975, under the co-editorship of Drs. Alexander Malycky and Howard Palmer of the History Department, accompanied by a full editorial board represented from across Canada. For the next four years, the journal often combined one regular issue and another special issue, and presented a wide variety of multidisciplinary perspectives on ethnic groups, plus book and film reviews, ethnic documents and voices. The special issues were various: The Green Paper (1975); Ethnic Folklore (1975); Education and Ethnicity (1976); Ethnic groups in Western Canada (1977); Immigrants in the City (1977); Ethnic Radicals (1978). Often, Howard Palmer provided the introduction of regular issues, and he brought about both a fiscal stability to the journal, and scholarly connection with the wider Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, as well as the wider international scholarly community on ethnicity (See CES, 1991, XIII, no. 3, pp. 5-6). With two new co-editors by 1979, Dr. James Frideres (Sociology) and Anthony Rasporich (History), the journal moved towards the publication of three issues annually—one special and two regular issues. Its new directions taken in conjunction with its parent Canadian Ethnic Studies Association and its biennial national conferences and internal Bulletin, can be found in the editorial (vol. 12, no. 1, 1980) entitled “Some New Wine, Some New Bottles”. Some of the minor changes were already reflected in the title of the Journal, in the French change of the title from “du”
Canada has always been diverse with respect to ‘race’ and ethnicity. In 1901, only three decades ... more Canada has always been diverse with respect to ‘race’ and ethnicity. In 1901, only three decades after Confederation, the English and French comprised 57% and 31% of the Canadian population respectively (Coats 1931, 134). Thus, 12% of Canada’s population were non-French and non-British with the majority being other Europeans such as German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Russian, and many others. However, quite significantly, 25% of the non-French and non-British were racialized minorities and these included First Nations, Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks. Thus, the claims and discourse of many publications in recent decades of “the changing face of Canada” are based on an imagined early Canada being white, and English and French (deux nations). The early scholarship on Canada’s already established racial and ethnic diversity essentially had a static conceptualization of ethnicity (Burnet 1976) and this was exemplified in the work of Hughes (1943) and Porter (1965, 1975). Jean Burnet’s critique fostered in a more dynamic notion of ethnicity and conceptualized it in terms of social relations. In a special issue of the journal Sociological Focus, which examined studies in Canada, Burnet (1976) examined, through this dynamic lens, the policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework. It should be noted that this special issue also featured many other prominent sociologists who examined topics related to immigration, race and ethnicity and these included Crysdale (1976), Clairmont and Wien (1976) and Richmond (1976). That same year Palmer (1976), who was one of the early editors of Canadian Ethnic Studies, provided a comparative analysis of immigration and ethnicity in Canada and the United States. By the late
Let me begin with a brief comment about the history of democracies, their sustainability, and the... more Let me begin with a brief comment about the history of democracies, their sustainability, and the drivers of their existence. Then I shall comment on some of the questions posed to the panel. I will end with some commentary about the role of social sciences in the development of democracies and the role that government and agencies such as the World Bank play in the process. For me it seems like yesterday, but for many of you, it is so old you can't even remember it. However, it was early in 1974 that the stunning wave of the new democratic expansion in the world began. It was then that Portugal became a democracy. At that time, there were only forty democracies in the world, and they were mainly in the advanced industrial countries (Diamond 2003). There were a few other democracies scattered around the world, e.g., India, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Venezuela --but only a few. Since that time, democracy has expanded dramatically. By 1992 over half of all the countries in the world were democracies, and by 1995 just under two-thirds of the countries could be considered democracies. However, in the last decade and a half, the number has remained remarkably stable, so that today, as in 1995, only about 120 countries in the world are democratic in nature. During the same period (1974-2007) only fourteen nations became authoritarian, including countries such as Peru, Zambia, Russia, and Pakistan, and during this same period, some of these reverted to democracies, e.g., Turkey, India, Thailand (Freedom House 2003). For purposes of this paper, I define a democracy as "a system of government in which the people choose their leaders at regular intervals through free, fair, and competitive elections." Certainly this definition can be viewed as a continuum from those which are clearly democratic to those which are lacking in certain elements. In other words, it is not an "either-or" situation. It is also the case that electoral democracies can exist in countries with significant violations of human rights, massive corruption, and a weak rule of law. As such, this definition is the minimal criteria that I would suggest characterizes a democratic society. A truly, ideal democratic system requires three components: 1. democratic: enabling citizens to choose their rules in free and fair elections and to participate and express themselves in other political processes; 2. liberal: limiting the power of the state to encroach on the basic rights of the person and affirming civil liberties and minority rights; it is important to note that the treatment of minority groups is a "litmus" test for the extent to which government meets the criteria of democracy; 3. republican: providing a rule of law and good government through institutions of horizontal accountability that check and balance executive power, while holding all actors, public and private, equal before the law. This issue of accountability is universal. However, "accountability" takes on different meanings as one moves from culture to culture. In a general sense, accountability refers to the idea that individuals, groups, and organizations are responsible for their actions and how these impact upon people within their state and, more recently, people outside the political boundaries of the state. However, the condition of responsibility takes on very different meanings. The question is, to whom are you responsible? These issues need to be clarified, codified, and communicated to all constituents in society so that it is clear to everyone what their responsibility is (Rosenberg 2002). Democracy is, I would argue, a necessity for societies to survive. Amartya Sen (2001) showed that people in economic need also need a political voice. However, democracy is not a luxury that can await the arrival of general prosperity. With economic prosperity for all members of the society (not just the elite or the foreign investors), democracy tends to follow. …
Edward Hedican. IPPERWASH: The Tragic Failure of Canada's Aboriginal Policy. Toronto: Univers... more Edward Hedican. IPPERWASH: The Tragic Failure of Canada's Aboriginal Policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. 320 pp. Appendix. Bibliography. $80.00 he. $32.95 sc. $32.95 EPUB. As professor Hedican points out, this book emerged out of his desire to publish a second edition of a book on Aboriginal issues and applied Anthropology. Over time, however, the material being consulted morphed into its own right with the resultant book on the conflict at Ipperwash between the Anishinabe and non-Aboriginal people over land. Professor Hedican's central thesis is that Canada's Aboriginal policy is fundamentally flawed and his goal in this book is to provide an explanation as to how the current flawed policy emerged and then focus on the question of what we can do in the future to remedy the policy. To address these issues, Hedican presents a case study of the events that took place in Ipperwash in 1993. The manuscript begins by providing a short assessment of Aboriginal policy and provides examples of various events that have taken place, e.g., Prime Minister Harpers' apology, the creation of Nunavut, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, as indicative of Canada's Aboriginal policy. Chapter 3 focuses on the nature of Aboriginal rights but it does not articulate how Government has given up on this issue and turned it over to the courts to decide. Unfortunately, Hedican does not inform the reader regarding the manner in which the courts have shaped the issue of Aboriginal rights and how this is dictating the future of Aboriginal rights without Aboriginal people having any input. Chapter 4 provides a general discussion of "resistance and confrontation" and presents an abbreviated review of the literature on this issue. This chapter provides brief vignettes of previous conflict situations that have emerged in Canada over the years, e.g., Caledonia, Burnt Church, Lubicon Lake, but the historical context, the main actors and the unfolding of the issues are not clearly presented. In some ways it resembles the documentation presented by John Burrows in his identification of conflict situations between Aboriginal people and the Government of Canada several years ago (Borrows, 2005). The issue of resistance and conflict is a wide ranging literature and unfortunately the author does not present the various perspectives on this topic. It is only in chapter 5 (well into the second half of the book) that the author begins to discuss the Ipperwash confrontation, and this is followed by a chapter (6) on the Ipperwash Inquiry recommendations. In the end, only about 20 percent of the book focuses on Ipperwash. How the Ipperwash events reflect on Aboriginal policy (in its emergence or future) is never linked. Instead of taking the position of understanding everyday Aboriginal resistance and the reasons open revolts are so rare, he simply focuses on the Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry (2007) as his sole source of information and accepts the contents as the complete and correct interpretation of events surrounding the Ipperwash incident. …
JAMES S. FRIDERES is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Alberta. Four... more JAMES S. FRIDERES is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Alberta. Four years ago, a report on perceived discrimination by Eastern Canadian Japanese and Blacks was reported in Race (Henry, 1969). In general, he found that while Japanese Canadians seem to experience little discrimination, Blacks reported that they were subjected to a considerable amount. Unfortunately little attention was focused on possible correlates of the tendency to perceive discrimination. The present study attempts to address the same general issue but with several significant variations. It is hoped, however, that the findings presented in the present paper will serve both as an extension of Henry’s work and as a stimuli for further
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 1982
The paper analyzes eleven research projects which have focused on the issue of ethnic identity. E... more The paper analyzes eleven research projects which have focused on the issue of ethnic identity. Each study addresses the question of how important ethnicity is to the individual. The results suggest that ethnicity, as measured in the present studies, is of little importance to Canadians. Ethnicity. however, should be viewed as an adaptive response to the conditions governing the context for acquisition of scarce and desired goods! What is clear is that assertions of the universal and constant import of ethnicity to Canadians are not true.
It has long been a part of the conventional wisdom among both social scientists and laypersons th... more It has long been a part of the conventional wisdom among both social scientists and laypersons that periods of unemployment are characterized by higher levels of prejudice and discrimination directed at immigrant groups, particularly those of a minority ethnic or racial background. Yet surprisingly little research has addressed this issue. This article presents a study of the effects of a number of socioeconomic features of Canadian cities, particularly their unemployment rates, on the attitudes toward immigrants of their native-born residents. Using data from a national study of ethnicity and multiculturalism, we estimate several regression models predicting three separate dimensions of attitude toward immigrants and including as independent variables both individual characteristics and structural characteristics of city of residence. We find no evidence of a sizeable effect of local unemployment rate on attitude toward immigrants. Of the other contextual variables included in our models, the only one consistently influencing these attitudes is rate of population growth. Of the individual level variables included in the models, educational attainment and income, along with mother tongue, exhibit the strongest and most consistent effects on the attitude dimensions.
Résumé This paper focuses on both the individual and structural determinants of Aboriginal identi... more Résumé This paper focuses on both the individual and structural determinants of Aboriginal identity in the Canadian context. The paper discusses three theoretical approaches to identity and assesses their relevance for Aboriginal people. A brief assessment of the historical conditions leading to contemporary Aboriginal identity also is presented. A detailed analysis of what Aboriginal identity means and how it has changed over the past century is then presented. Finally, a discussion on how Aboriginal people are coping and reclaiming their identity is presented and what it means for creating a healthy people. Le présent article se concentre sur les déterminants individuels et structurels de l’identité autochtone dans le contexte canadien. Il propose une discussion de trois approches théoriques de l’identité et une évaluation de leur pertinence pour les Autochtones. Il présente également une brève évaluation des conditions historiques qui ont mené à l’identité autochtone contemporain...
The international trend towards migration is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. A... more The international trend towards migration is growing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. As the first-wave generation of migrants age, their children and even their grandchildren are reaching adulthood having spent their entire lives in the countries their families chose long ago. International Perspectives: Integration and Inclusion is a wide-ranging exploration of this new, global reality. While many countries have been, and remain, resistant to migration, the sheer volume of people moving from one country to another is forcing public policy and perceptions to change. Migrant inclusion and integration, however, remains an issue in many locales. Insightful and timely, this volume brings together contributions from various countries and levels of the migrant experience in order to consider the ways in which states can facilitate the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities.
Building welcoming communities is as much a local project as a national one. This volume explores... more Building welcoming communities is as much a local project as a national one. This volume explores the activities of provincial and municipal governments, as well as a range of other important local societal players. Case studies of each of the provinces, as well as the territories, are included, as are chapters on the history of federal-provincial cooperation in immigration, and the development of provincial multiculturalism policies and programs. Each chapter provides an overview of immigration, settlement and diversity in the province or territory, an examination of the key players in the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities, and a discussion of specific challenges. This allows comparisons and an exploratory mapping of the range of participants and the investments - both human and financial - that have been made in the integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities at the provincial level.
Students, faculty and administrators at a major Canadian university were surveyed to investigate ... more Students, faculty and administrators at a major Canadian university were surveyed to investigate the utility or "consequential validity" of student ratings of instructors. Of the 1,229 (approximately equal number of males and females) students and alumni, about half (52%) indicated that they had never used the ratings, but of those who did use it, many (47%) reported using it several times to select courses and/or instructors. The majority (84%) of faculty members (n = 357) gave favorable responses about the usefulness of student ratings for improving quality of teaching. Paradoxically, even though faculty members were positive about the student ratings, they did not generally use them to make changes in their teaching. The majority (87%) of administrators (n = 52) stated that they use the student ratings for various purposes including decisions about faculty merit and tenure. Students, faculty and administrators considered the overall course instruction to be the most use...
The first issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques du Canada appeared in 1969, a modest ... more The first issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques du Canada appeared in 1969, a modest research bulletin of the Research Centre for Canadian Ethnic Studies, edited by Alexander Malycky and Clive Cardinal of the Germanic and Slavic Studies Department at the University of Calgary. It appeared sporadically through the early seventies as several other bulletins, bibliographies, book reviews, and review articles. It then transformed into its current format in 1975, under the co-editorship of Drs. Alexander Malycky and Howard Palmer of the History Department, accompanied by a full editorial board represented from across Canada. For the next four years, the journal often combined one regular issue and another special issue, and presented a wide variety of multidisciplinary perspectives on ethnic groups, plus book and film reviews, ethnic documents and voices. The special issues were various: The Green Paper (1975); Ethnic Folklore (1975); Education and Ethnicity (1976); Ethnic groups in Western Canada (1977); Immigrants in the City (1977); Ethnic Radicals (1978). Often, Howard Palmer provided the introduction of regular issues, and he brought about both a fiscal stability to the journal, and scholarly connection with the wider Canadian Ethnic Studies Association, as well as the wider international scholarly community on ethnicity (See CES, 1991, XIII, no. 3, pp. 5-6). With two new co-editors by 1979, Dr. James Frideres (Sociology) and Anthony Rasporich (History), the journal moved towards the publication of three issues annually—one special and two regular issues. Its new directions taken in conjunction with its parent Canadian Ethnic Studies Association and its biennial national conferences and internal Bulletin, can be found in the editorial (vol. 12, no. 1, 1980) entitled “Some New Wine, Some New Bottles”. Some of the minor changes were already reflected in the title of the Journal, in the French change of the title from “du”
Canada has always been diverse with respect to ‘race’ and ethnicity. In 1901, only three decades ... more Canada has always been diverse with respect to ‘race’ and ethnicity. In 1901, only three decades after Confederation, the English and French comprised 57% and 31% of the Canadian population respectively (Coats 1931, 134). Thus, 12% of Canada’s population were non-French and non-British with the majority being other Europeans such as German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Russian, and many others. However, quite significantly, 25% of the non-French and non-British were racialized minorities and these included First Nations, Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks. Thus, the claims and discourse of many publications in recent decades of “the changing face of Canada” are based on an imagined early Canada being white, and English and French (deux nations). The early scholarship on Canada’s already established racial and ethnic diversity essentially had a static conceptualization of ethnicity (Burnet 1976) and this was exemplified in the work of Hughes (1943) and Porter (1965, 1975). Jean Burnet’s critique fostered in a more dynamic notion of ethnicity and conceptualized it in terms of social relations. In a special issue of the journal Sociological Focus, which examined studies in Canada, Burnet (1976) examined, through this dynamic lens, the policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework. It should be noted that this special issue also featured many other prominent sociologists who examined topics related to immigration, race and ethnicity and these included Crysdale (1976), Clairmont and Wien (1976) and Richmond (1976). That same year Palmer (1976), who was one of the early editors of Canadian Ethnic Studies, provided a comparative analysis of immigration and ethnicity in Canada and the United States. By the late
Let me begin with a brief comment about the history of democracies, their sustainability, and the... more Let me begin with a brief comment about the history of democracies, their sustainability, and the drivers of their existence. Then I shall comment on some of the questions posed to the panel. I will end with some commentary about the role of social sciences in the development of democracies and the role that government and agencies such as the World Bank play in the process. For me it seems like yesterday, but for many of you, it is so old you can't even remember it. However, it was early in 1974 that the stunning wave of the new democratic expansion in the world began. It was then that Portugal became a democracy. At that time, there were only forty democracies in the world, and they were mainly in the advanced industrial countries (Diamond 2003). There were a few other democracies scattered around the world, e.g., India, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Venezuela --but only a few. Since that time, democracy has expanded dramatically. By 1992 over half of all the countries in the world were democracies, and by 1995 just under two-thirds of the countries could be considered democracies. However, in the last decade and a half, the number has remained remarkably stable, so that today, as in 1995, only about 120 countries in the world are democratic in nature. During the same period (1974-2007) only fourteen nations became authoritarian, including countries such as Peru, Zambia, Russia, and Pakistan, and during this same period, some of these reverted to democracies, e.g., Turkey, India, Thailand (Freedom House 2003). For purposes of this paper, I define a democracy as "a system of government in which the people choose their leaders at regular intervals through free, fair, and competitive elections." Certainly this definition can be viewed as a continuum from those which are clearly democratic to those which are lacking in certain elements. In other words, it is not an "either-or" situation. It is also the case that electoral democracies can exist in countries with significant violations of human rights, massive corruption, and a weak rule of law. As such, this definition is the minimal criteria that I would suggest characterizes a democratic society. A truly, ideal democratic system requires three components: 1. democratic: enabling citizens to choose their rules in free and fair elections and to participate and express themselves in other political processes; 2. liberal: limiting the power of the state to encroach on the basic rights of the person and affirming civil liberties and minority rights; it is important to note that the treatment of minority groups is a "litmus" test for the extent to which government meets the criteria of democracy; 3. republican: providing a rule of law and good government through institutions of horizontal accountability that check and balance executive power, while holding all actors, public and private, equal before the law. This issue of accountability is universal. However, "accountability" takes on different meanings as one moves from culture to culture. In a general sense, accountability refers to the idea that individuals, groups, and organizations are responsible for their actions and how these impact upon people within their state and, more recently, people outside the political boundaries of the state. However, the condition of responsibility takes on very different meanings. The question is, to whom are you responsible? These issues need to be clarified, codified, and communicated to all constituents in society so that it is clear to everyone what their responsibility is (Rosenberg 2002). Democracy is, I would argue, a necessity for societies to survive. Amartya Sen (2001) showed that people in economic need also need a political voice. However, democracy is not a luxury that can await the arrival of general prosperity. With economic prosperity for all members of the society (not just the elite or the foreign investors), democracy tends to follow. …
Edward Hedican. IPPERWASH: The Tragic Failure of Canada's Aboriginal Policy. Toronto: Univers... more Edward Hedican. IPPERWASH: The Tragic Failure of Canada's Aboriginal Policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. 320 pp. Appendix. Bibliography. $80.00 he. $32.95 sc. $32.95 EPUB. As professor Hedican points out, this book emerged out of his desire to publish a second edition of a book on Aboriginal issues and applied Anthropology. Over time, however, the material being consulted morphed into its own right with the resultant book on the conflict at Ipperwash between the Anishinabe and non-Aboriginal people over land. Professor Hedican's central thesis is that Canada's Aboriginal policy is fundamentally flawed and his goal in this book is to provide an explanation as to how the current flawed policy emerged and then focus on the question of what we can do in the future to remedy the policy. To address these issues, Hedican presents a case study of the events that took place in Ipperwash in 1993. The manuscript begins by providing a short assessment of Aboriginal policy and provides examples of various events that have taken place, e.g., Prime Minister Harpers' apology, the creation of Nunavut, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, as indicative of Canada's Aboriginal policy. Chapter 3 focuses on the nature of Aboriginal rights but it does not articulate how Government has given up on this issue and turned it over to the courts to decide. Unfortunately, Hedican does not inform the reader regarding the manner in which the courts have shaped the issue of Aboriginal rights and how this is dictating the future of Aboriginal rights without Aboriginal people having any input. Chapter 4 provides a general discussion of "resistance and confrontation" and presents an abbreviated review of the literature on this issue. This chapter provides brief vignettes of previous conflict situations that have emerged in Canada over the years, e.g., Caledonia, Burnt Church, Lubicon Lake, but the historical context, the main actors and the unfolding of the issues are not clearly presented. In some ways it resembles the documentation presented by John Burrows in his identification of conflict situations between Aboriginal people and the Government of Canada several years ago (Borrows, 2005). The issue of resistance and conflict is a wide ranging literature and unfortunately the author does not present the various perspectives on this topic. It is only in chapter 5 (well into the second half of the book) that the author begins to discuss the Ipperwash confrontation, and this is followed by a chapter (6) on the Ipperwash Inquiry recommendations. In the end, only about 20 percent of the book focuses on Ipperwash. How the Ipperwash events reflect on Aboriginal policy (in its emergence or future) is never linked. Instead of taking the position of understanding everyday Aboriginal resistance and the reasons open revolts are so rare, he simply focuses on the Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry (2007) as his sole source of information and accepts the contents as the complete and correct interpretation of events surrounding the Ipperwash incident. …
JAMES S. FRIDERES is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Alberta. Four... more JAMES S. FRIDERES is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary, Alberta. Four years ago, a report on perceived discrimination by Eastern Canadian Japanese and Blacks was reported in Race (Henry, 1969). In general, he found that while Japanese Canadians seem to experience little discrimination, Blacks reported that they were subjected to a considerable amount. Unfortunately little attention was focused on possible correlates of the tendency to perceive discrimination. The present study attempts to address the same general issue but with several significant variations. It is hoped, however, that the findings presented in the present paper will serve both as an extension of Henry’s work and as a stimuli for further
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 1982
The paper analyzes eleven research projects which have focused on the issue of ethnic identity. E... more The paper analyzes eleven research projects which have focused on the issue of ethnic identity. Each study addresses the question of how important ethnicity is to the individual. The results suggest that ethnicity, as measured in the present studies, is of little importance to Canadians. Ethnicity. however, should be viewed as an adaptive response to the conditions governing the context for acquisition of scarce and desired goods! What is clear is that assertions of the universal and constant import of ethnicity to Canadians are not true.
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