CKNW Editorial
for June 28, 2001

We hear a lot these days about immigration, assimilation and ethnicity. And rightly so as the government of Canada proposes to bring more people into the country to fill employment needs. I’m not on about the wisdom of such a policy – As I listen to both sides of that debate I find myself nodding in agreement at each argument. I’d like today to address the question of ethnicity, in the broadest sense of that word, and assimilation.

For a century or more the United States has been referred to as a melting pot. One Canadian wag said that Canada is not a melting pot but a tossed salad. In fact, so is the United States to a great degree. There very much remains an Irish vote, a Polish vote, a Jewish vote and a Black vote to mention but a few.

We often think of ethnicity in terms of non whites but that is a gross error. Ethnicity remains as strong in the Balkans today as it did before the Ottoman Empire. Indeed neither the Ottoman Empire or subsequent attempts to organize the Balkans into federations has changed a thing. It’s true that Islam and different forms of Christianity had their converts but as we found out to our sorrow in the last decade Serbs are Serbs, Croats are Croats, Slovenes are Slovenes and Albanians are Albanians. In spite of centuries of living, literally, side by side ethnicity not assimilation is the byword of these populations. Some European cultures when transplanted to North America, do not readily assimilate. Greeks and Jews come to mind as two communities which actively discourage marriage outside the ethnic group. Well within my lifetime both Protestants and Catholics tried to avoid inter-marriage. Though that’s much changed here, not in Northern Ireland, for example.

Non white groups tend to be even more clannish for the obvious reason that discrimination against them is easy if you’ve got eyes to see. Not only is there the usual pull of member to member there is an element of safety involved.

I suppose the best example of how ethnicity takes hold can be found in the old Soviet Union. In spite of 75 years of active and often brutal suppression, as soon as the old regime fell, Christians by the tens of thousands flocked to the churches.

Ethnicity is, of course, alive and very well in Canada. The French fact has been preserved 250 years after Quebec was abandoned by France. There is a strong Ukranian community and numerous other ethnic communities across the land. And, of course, there are the ethnic communities made up of visible minorities mostly, though by no means exclusively, in Toronto and Vancouver.

Even if Canada were to refuse to take another immigrant for three generations there would still be ethnic communities. This is the essential point.

Assimilation, if it takes place at all, does so very slowly and incompletely. Basques remain in France and Spain, Kurds remain in several countries and Gypsies roam all across Europe.

Many Canadians simply won’t accept that. They call upon all minority groups to "be Canadian" meaning that they should become like white Europeans, though just which group of Europeans isn’t clear. I suppose the hope of many is that they will become Anglicized but since Canada is no longer at Britain’s side, whate’er betide … since the word "Royal" has all but fallen into disuse and since people from UK backgrounds make up a little more than ¼ of the population it would appear that "anglicization" is a forlorn hope.

Fear underscores the feelings of many who want to see assimilation. "They’re taking us over" is the underlying feeling. And in a way these people are right – right in the sense that what they once knew as the ethnic background of their community has become subsumed in quite a different community. The expressed fear, however, is that "these people" can never become loyal Canadians. That fear, however, can be quickly laid to rest.

Canadians of all backgrounds – especially I might say, native Indians – flocked to the banner in both World Wars and Korea. Perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence of this point can be seen in America’s military during World War II when they were led by General Eisenhower, Air Force General Spaatz, and Admiral Nimitz. There is to this day a memorial in Stanley Park to Japanese Canadians who volunteered for and fought in World War I – they weren’t welcome to fight in the Second World War.

No … ethnicity remains and what changes is the culture of the country. By far the favourite take away food in Britain is Indian – in Canada and the US it’s probably pizza. A country becomes known for the flowering of various ethnic groups in our communities. Far from wanting to assimilate Chinatown, which is geographically a long way removed from where most Chinese Canadians live, we’re pulling out all the stops to preserve it.

It may be that what the government of Canada ought to have done from the start is restrict immigration to white people from the United Kingdom. I don’t think that but many, I daresay, do. Or to those of white European stock. But the obvious fact is that it did not and we have a multi cultural country.

Given that there are no other options available, why don’t we rejoice in the differences that distinguish groups of Canadians from one another? Why not revel in the fact that we have so much choice in cuisine? And that we have expressions of many ethnic groups of their cultural heritage?

I am no pollyanna. Of course there will be tensions – just as there were in great Britain in the last war with the several million Irish in their midst at a time Eire was maintaining neutrality and its president was pro German … if only on the theory that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And by no means are these tensions all initiated by the attitudes of white Canadians. We see often in the Chinese Canadian media that they and other communities know that it takes two to tango.

The fact remains that assimilation isn’t going to happen, ethnicity is a long term feature of our community and that we might just as well stop bitching and make the best of it.