The Myth that Canada has NO CULTURE

[George Wallace]

It upsets me to read things like this and comments that we as Canadians have no culture.  It really makes me wonder how flimsy the thought processes of the people making those comments are.

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Trudeau says Canada has no ‘core identity’
BY CANDICE MALCOLM
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 09:23 PM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 09:33 PM EDT

Who would have thought Canadian values could be so controversial?

Plenty of ink has been spilt in the past few weeks over the suddenly taboo topic of promoting Canadian values.

The consensus from Canada’s elites has been to condemn the very idea of listing our values, let alone asking newcomers to respect and adhere to them.

But a far more controversial idea about Canadian values and identity was recently proposed by our very own prime minister. And the media barely batted an eyelash.

Late last year, Justin Trudeau told the New York Times that Canada is becoming a new kind of country, not defined by our history or European national origins, but by a “pan-cultural heritage”.

“There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,” Trudeau said, concluding that he sees Canada as “the first post-national state.”

Even the New York Times called the suggestion “radical.”

Despite Trudeau’s bizarre musings, Canada has a proud history and strong traditions.

Canada has never been a homogeneous society — defined by a single race or ethnicity — but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a distinct culture and identity.

Our identity is rooted in our history, and it’s impossible to divorce the two.

Canada’s democratic values and traditions date back over 800 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta by our political ancestors.

That document helped enshrine our natural rights and freedoms, and limited the government’s ability to impose its powers.

Canada, perhaps more than any other Western country, is a living manifestation of that great document.

We live in the greatest country in the world. My biased opinion aside, the Reputation Institute ranked Canada as the most admired country in the world.

Our peaceful, free, fair and just society is the envy of the world. That is why so many people around the world want to come to Canada. They want to adopt our values.

But Trudeau takes this all for granted.

He doesn’t think there is anything special about Canadian history or traditions.

Instead, he suggests Canada is nothing but an intellectual construct and a hodgepodge of various people, from various backgrounds, who just happen to live side by side in the territory known as Canada.

Trudeau seems embarrassed, even ashamed of our Western culture and values.

Far from standing up for Canada and promoting our core principles at home and abroad, Trudeau frequently apologizes for Canada.

That’s why he feels no shame in speaking at a segregated mosque, where women and girls are forbidden from entering through the front door, or sitting in the main hall.

He can call himself a “feminist” while also tolerating the subjugation and segregation of women, when it suits his political interests.

That is also why, while in China, Trudeau told the one-party authoritarian state that Canada, too, is imperfect when it comes to human rights.

Trudeau blurred the distinction between Canada’s peaceful, free society and that of a communist dictatorship.

He equated Canada — a democratic country that always strives for peace, justice, liberty and equality — to a closed regime with a sordid history.

Trudeau is wrong when it comes to our values and our identity. And his ideas are far more controversial than the proposed vetting of newcomers.




- Malcolm is the author of Losing True North: Justin Trudeau’s Assault on Canadian Citizenship. Readers are invited to attend her Toronto book signing event, at 5:30, Friday, Sept 16. Please register at: www.LosingTrueNorth.ca 

LINK.

 

[Jed]

This premise is so in error, it is laughable.

Our rich history and the many great people of of nation are placed in a poor light and shown an immense lack of respect when statement s like this are floated by foolish individuals. How a sitting Prime Minister can buy into this type of claptrap is beyond me.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I'll tell you how the PM is buying into that claptrap: That's his old man's view on the world and Canada in particular.

Trudeau senior did not believe in nationalism of any kind, only personnel intellectual constructs and personnel views of the world. He did not recognize national symbols, national feelings or national cultures. He was also one who did the most, while in office, to erase then existing national symbols (and in particular in trying to remove any and all reference to the Crown of Canada).

I much prefer this guy's views:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/rex-murphy-on-canadian-values-1.3764922

 

[The Bread Guy]

Since seems to be an appetite in these parts to discuss Canadian values, let's check the original NYT story to see if there was anything that the Toronto Sun piece didn't have room to include ...

... Trudeau’s most radical argument is that Canada is becoming a new kind of state, defined not by its European history but by the multiplicity of its identities from all over the world. His embrace of a pan-cultural heritage makes him an avatar of his father’s vision. ‘‘There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,’’ he claimed. ‘‘There are shared values — openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state.’’ ...

Pretty hippy-dippy, sandal-wearing, anti-British/monarchist subversive stuff there, eh?  I sure can see how the Sun sees the PM as "embarrassed, even ashamed of our Western culture and values."  Nobody likes the media taking things out of context -- unless we like it when the media takes things out of context, right?

To further add to the debate, here's an FB post I shared this week, sharing here, too, to further feed the discussion:

Found a certificate my dad received in 1959 from the IODE when he became a Canadian citizen. Here's what they listed as "the ancient liberties of the British Peoples":
- Freedom of Speech
- Freedom of Assembly
- Free Exercise of Religion
- Free Democratic Government

Here's what they listed as Duties:
- Fear and Love of God ("Our laws do not suffer blasphemy")
- Loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen ("To Her Realm of Canada, to Her Commonwealth and to Her Empire - our laws do not suffer sedition")
- Respect for Law and Order ("Weapons are unnecessary. Our Courts provide for the righting of wrongs.")
- Respect for our Systems of Education and Government ("Our free and democratic system of government provides for changes by constitutional means.")
- The Casting Off of Old Hatreds ("Canada has set her feet upon the paths of peace, at home and among the nations of the world.")

With all the recent talk of values and measuring thereof, thought I'd share a version from almost 60 years ago. No comment offered, but sharing FYI.

I much prefer this guy's views:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/rex-murphy-on-canadian-values-1.3764922

Good one -- here's a list from that video:

-- "military values"
-- "love of the land"
-- "expanded notions of tolerance"
-- the Leafs & Kraft Dinner
-- mercy & courage seen in response to Cirillo's assassination
-- courage & stamina seen in Calgary floods/Ft. Mac fires
-- "intelligence and nerve - a rare ideal" from Trudeau Sr./Peter Lougheed
-- hospitality seen in Canada's help with 9-11
-- endurance in an ordinary Canadian as seen in Terry Fox
-- quiet character in a star like Wayne Gretzky

Feel free to mesh/mix into an agreed-to list -- or feel free to continue bashing away based on one line from a NYT article taken out of context.

 

[Jed]

Good stuff milnews.ca

Can't see how one makes the leap from Respect for Law and Order to  Wpns are unnecessary, however.


Taken from your posted values list:

- Respect for Law and Order ("Weapons are unnecessary. Our Courts provide for the righting of wrongs.")

 

[The Bread Guy]

Taken from your posted values list:

- Respect for Law and Order ("Weapons are unnecessary. Our Courts provide for the righting of wrongs.")

It maaaaaaaaaaay be that in those days, some foreigners were thought to be keen on settling things "out of court" because in the "old country" who trusts the courts/government?  ;D

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I suspect the "old country" in mind here is the American "Wild" West.

The last "gunslinger" duels in the US West were fought around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. That is only about 60 years removed from when that document was issued. And since today many Europeans still arrive in North America thinking they will see "indians" in full plumage, and the West still wild, imagine how things would have been in 1959  ;D.

 

[mariomike]

It upsets me to read things like this and comments that we as Canadians have no culture.

No culture? Like they say, we are multi-cultural! 

Anyone old enough to remember, King of Kensington?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrP8mjsmy8U

The last "gunslinger" duels in the US West were fought around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.

That's when the automobile was invented. Cars don't kill, people do! 

 

[jmt18325]

Canada is a country of immigration, and Canada's culture really is ever shifting and changing.  That isn't a bad thing in the slightest.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Canada is a country of immigration, and Canada's culture really is ever shifting and changing.  That isn't a bad thing in the slightest.

It's a bad thing if the culture shifts towards one that segregates women and pushes for Sharia law.

 

[MARS]

A bit of a rant from Desmond Cole at the Toronto Star, but here is his recent article nonetheless, shared IAW the Fair Dealing Provisions of the Copyright Act

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/09/15/suspicion-of-immigrants-is-a-canadian-value-cole.html

Suspicion of immigrants is a Canadian value: Cole

Conservative MP and party leadership contender Kellie Leitch doesn’t really want a conversation on Canadian values. The callous Leitch, who has been insisting lately that we consider a values test for prospective immigrants, simply wants to boost her brand by playing to racist and xenophobic fears of some Conservative party supporters. Modern conservative groups keep questioning immigrants’ values because they know their liberal political opponents, who are prone to the same prejudiced scapegoating, will struggle to condemn them.

Many have criticized Leitch’s proposal by saying it is impractical, since no one person or group can define or determine Canadian values. That’s a nice idea, but in practice we know the values our politicians attempt to sell us are a reflection of our colonial, white, British, monarchical heritage. There are such things as Canadian values, and they explain how our politicians have been peddling a fear of foreigners for the last 150 years.

Suspicion of all immigrants who are not white, or are not members of the former British Empire, is a Canadian value. Canada’s founding prime minister, John A. Macdonald, argued that Chinese immigrants to Canada were unfit to vote because they exhibited “no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations.” Macdonald didn’t need to cloak the authority of the state in the language of wanting a “conversation” about immigrants, as Leitch does today. In his time, there was no conversation to be had.

Assurances that we no longer live in the 19th century are beside the point. Every politician from Macdonald to Leitch has been able to bank on significant support by distinguishing between British or Canadian values and those of everyone else. Yes, even many newer immigrants echo these suspicions of outsiders’ customs or beliefs. They may hail from countries that our government is wary of. The pressure on these newcomers to conform — to validate the wisdom of the system that chose them, to scrutinize those who come after them — must be overwhelming.

Of course, all of this is only possible because of another fundamental Canadian value: erasure. Our modern mythology suggests that indigenous people were never here, or that if they were, their values and customs gave way to a superior British way of life. Our history books and our educational resources for prospective new Canadians have little to say about the values and traditions of indigenous people. British colonialism made outsiders of people who had been here for thousands of years, and cast their values aside.

That’s how a white man in a red coat who carries a weapon and patrols stolen land has come to symbolize the enforcement of Canadian values. We are taught to honour the force Mounties used to Anglicize this land, to view the guy in red as a symbol of honour and patriotism, no matter what despicable crimes he carries out. The values of dominance and separation enforced by the modern RCMP, and the Canadian Border Services Agency, are not universal or self-evident — they are steeped in centuries of racism, colonialism, and white supremacy.

Leitch may not win her leadership contest, but the fact her naked appeal to prejudice can still spur “debate” in this country says it all. Polls suggest a majority of Canadians agree with Leitch’s call to screen immigrants for good values. Few of us really care about the content of the questionnaire. What we care about is our very Canadian right to demand that immigrants be questioned, scrutinized, and weighed against the comfort and well-being of those already established here.

Conservatives are more likely to support the traditional dominant values openly. It was Leitch who announced a 2015 Conservative campaign proposal to create a “barbaric cultural practices hotline.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has cast himself as being far more progressive on immigration and cultural issues, had little to say about the Macarthyist snitch line — Trudeau and his party had quietly voted in favour of a Conservative law called the “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act” only four months before the election.

Maybe one day, we will be able to have genuine conversations about human values that transcend not only borders, but so many other ideological barriers we still use to divide one another. For the moment, the state and its actors keep pretending there is something especially benevolent about being Canadian, and the culture wars continue.

 

[jmt18325]

It's a bad thing if the culture shifts towards one that segregates women and pushes for Sharia law.

As a whole, that isn't happening.  Even with the Muslim population at 8% in Toronto that isn't happening.  The mosque that Trudeau visited is only segregated during prayer time, as is Muslim tradition.  As long as they aren't breaking any laws, this tradition is protected by our Constitution, as is gender disparity in the Catholic church.

 

[The Bread Guy]

"Suspicion of immigrants is a Canadian value: Cole"

Or biased until proven racist?

 

[Jed]

A bit of a rant from Desmond Cole at the Toronto Star, but here is his recent article nonetheless, shared IAW the Fair Dealing Provisions of the Copyright Act

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/09/15/suspicion-of-immigrants-is-a-canadian-value-cole.html

:grouphug: Kumbya my love kumbaya ...

 

[Kirkhill]

I'll tell you how the PM is buying into that claptrap: That's his old man's view on the world and Canada in particular.

Trudeau senior did not believe in nationalism of any kind, only personnel intellectual constructs and personnel views of the world. He did not recognize national symbols, national feelings or national cultures. He was also one who did the most, while in office, to erase then existing national symbols (and in particular in trying to remove any and all reference to the Crown of Canada).

I much prefer this guy's views:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/rex-murphy-on-canadian-values-1.3764922

:goodpost:

 

[Kirkhill]

As a whole, that isn't happening.  Even with the Muslim population at 8% in Toronto that isn't happening.  The mosque that Trudeau visited is only segregated during prayer time, as is Muslim tradition.  As long as they aren't breaking any laws, this tradition is protected by our Constitution, as is gender disparity in the Catholic church.

Alberta appeal court rules judges can overturn ‘unfair’ church edicts after man shunned by Jehovah’s Witnesses

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/religion/alberta-appeal-court-rules-judges-can-overturn-unfair-church-edicts

 

[George Wallace]

Canada is a country of immigration, and Canada's culture really is ever shifting and changing.  That isn't a bad thing in the slightest.

Yes and No.  Cultures naturally evolve over time.  We have created a culture in Canada, that some fail to acknowledge, which we in doing so also want to protect it from such changes as this:

It's a bad thing if the culture shifts towards one that segregates women and pushes for Sharia law.

Unfortunately, in creating our "culture of understanding, tolerance and equality" we have naively fallen into a trap thinking that all the world's cultures would be just as accepting.  We have written a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with which some less than ethical and less than moral elements have been able to use as a "tool" to bring their less than desirable traits to some form of 'legality'/acceptance in our society. 

 

[George Wallace]

A bit of a rant from Desmond Cole at the Toronto Star, but here is his recent article nonetheless, shared IAW the Fair Dealing Provisions of the Copyright Act

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/09/15/suspicion-of-immigrants-is-a-canadian-value-cole.html

Interesting that he seems to equate our Mounties history in the West to the US Army's history in the West, in the building of our two nations.  Two vastly different histories and two vastly different methods of dealing with the natives.

 

[Jarnhamar]

As a whole, that isn't happening.  Even with the Muslim population at 8% in Toronto that isn't happening.  The mosque that Trudeau visited is only segregated during prayer time, as is Muslim tradition.  As long as they aren't breaking any laws, this tradition is protected by our Constitution, as is gender disparity in the Catholic church.

I find it's the optics of it.  It's basically supporting segregation in the defense that it's a religious thing. Lets face it  like Islam is hardly renown for women's rights, there's larger ramifications.
The Prime Minister wouldn't go smile and rub shoulders at an event where first Nations or Black Canadians are shoved in a back room as a part of some tradition, because this is religious doesn't make it acceptable. We need to emphasis separation of state and church, not overlook it. 

I would go so far as to suggest putting up cameras in churches and mosques to avoid what's going on in the video I posted above.

 

[Jarnhamar]

[quote author=George Wallace]
We have written a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with which some less than ethical and less than moral elements have been able to use as a "tool" to bring their less than desirable traits to some form of 'legality'/acceptance in our society.
[/quote]
Basically having our ROEs used against us.