Thank you.
I'd like to thank both the chair and the committee for the opportunity to appear. I am before you today as an historian, and am always happy to celebrate any opportunity to discuss the heritage of our great country. I'd like to focus my comments today on the sesquicentennial celebrations in three specific areas, one of which I think is quite connected to Mr. Thorsell's comments.
The first is on 2017 as part of a nation-building process, with this caveat: let's get the history right. We sit on the cusp of a number of important celebratory events in Canadian history. As most of you know, next year is the bicentennial of the war of 1812. It has already received a fair bit of press. Two years after that marks the centennial of the beginning of the First World War which, for good or for ill, has claimed a fairly important position in Canadian history. And just over five years we shall celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, an event that created a state, not a nation.
In 1969, shortly after the centennial celebrations of 1967, Canadian historian J. M. S. Careless published his famous article “'Limited Identities' in Canada”. Among historians, at any rate, it's famous. In that work Careless argued that region, ethnicity, and class tended to be more important signifiers of identity than national patterns and attitudes. The flood of scholarship that followed, which focused on limited, not national identities, was by his own admission not as much a response to his commentary as it was to the academic climate of universities in the late 1960s and 1970s, which reflected the cultural upheaval of a country that has had its share of discontented Canadians and has teetered occasionally on the brink of dissolution.
That immense body of work, however, should not be interpreted as evidence of the lack of a national identity. Many historians, including Careless, as well as many if not most Canadians would agree that limited identities are integral to a larger national identity. Limited identities do not negate a national identity as much as they are a particular part of it. I think most of us personally are aware of our own limited identity before we are aware of a larger national one.
However, celebratory moments such as 2017 offer us opportunities to gather around an identity that can be constructed in positive, not negative, terms. I think a perfect example of this is the torch relay that predated the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver.
Creating a national identity has been an ongoing process since the Dominion of Canada came into existence on July 1, 1867. As the country has expanded geographically and in population, Canadian history attests to the number of disputes the country's inhabitants have had about what it means to be a Canadian. But Canadians have worked through their differences. I think Canadians continue to be prepared to work across differences to find the links that connect each of us to a larger, national narrative. While we may not see ourselves in the entirety of the Canadian story, we can each know where we fit into the evolving story of Canadian history. Getting the story right, then, is critical.
Consider the centennial voyageur canoe pageant, which is viewed as one of the most successful events of the 1967 centennial year. It garnered probably the most media coverage of any of the events that year. Ten teams representing eight provinces and two territories—Prince Edward Island and what was Newfoundland at the time did not participate—took part in the race, which left Rocky Mountain House in Alberta on May 24, 1967, and arrived at the Expo site in Montreal on September 4. Organizers and publicists, representing the race as re-enacting a specific nationalist historiography, portrayed the voyageurs as the founders of Canada and legitimized Canada itself as a culturally and geographically unified nation.
In the notes I'ved handed out, I refer to an excellent article by Misao Dean on this pageant, and I really encourage people to consult that article because it examines this issue in much more detail.
The re-enactment was not authentic. There was no effort to recruit first nations or a Métis team of paddlers, even though they were the majority of the voyageurs. They did participate, I will say, but in a minority on provincial teams. They were in a majority on the territorial teams, but they experienced such horrendous racism throughout the process that it was a horrific experience.
Secondly, very little was interpreted in French, and it should be noted that the Official Languages Act did not become law until 1969. That was part of it. Very little was interpreted in French, even though it was the French who had forged a unique relationship with their first nations allies in North America, a relationship that predated and was, in my opinion, more successful than the relationship established by the English in the Hudson's Bay Company with their allies.
First nations women, who served so importantly as translators and guides to European fur traders, were entirely absent from the pageant. Despite this, the spectacle was presented as the re-enactment of the founding of the nation of Canada. It had the three founding peoples. It incorporated lots of narratives on conquering the wilderness and so on.
This type of error continues. Just this week, I was asked to write an article for a magazine focusing on one of the issues that is related to the coming celebration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812. The request was to contribute a piece on pacifism. I'm going to quote to you from the request, because I think it's important. Specifically, the request was for "...a story on how Canadians developed as a nation of peacekeepers, with direct connections to the War of 1812 and Quaker pacifism during that conflict." I was shocked. This is the area of my own research. Such a connection does not exist. My response to the request was that any such piece would be anachronistic at best, and a fabrication at worst. Reading history backwards or reading into history the things that we wish had existed does nothing, in my opinion, to encourage Canadians to learn about their history or to take any pride in it.
The second thing I would like to comment on are the opportunities to connect to local history and heritage as part of a national story. Again, this seems to connect to Mr. Thorsell's comment. From a practical perspective, I'd encourage the committee to consider the value of local history to the larger national narrative. You have already heard from a number of witnesses representing large cultural groups in Canada. Large-scale productions will play a critical role in the celebration and its legacy. Don't forget the museums, however, in every town in Canada with their shoestring budgets and cadre of loyal volunteers. I sit on a couple of those museum boards. I have been struck by their important role as a place of experiential learning for young people.
In communities across Canada, thousands of school children go through these museums' doors each year and experience the history of their communities' pioneers, connecting them to the larger story of their country. In my current community, the local museums re-enact the resource history of British Columbia's Fraser Valley, weaving together the stories and heritage of the first nations, Euro-Canadians, and Indo-Canadians, all of whom are represented by the students who come through the site. My own children grew up in a community in Alberta that was deeply steeped in its francophone heritage, and they participated in wonderful programs through those local museums. Compared with the types of facilities available in Ottawa or the provincial capitals, local heritage sites and museums can appear as the poor country cousin. Their value, however, should not be overlooked. They too should be invited to the party.
Finally, I'd like to comment briefly on the importance of education programs that reflect accurately on our country's past, and the role that the digitization of archival records might play in this.
As I'm sure all of us are aware, educational programs and access to materials are critically important to encouraging Canadians across the country to be part of the larger national story and to inspire learning about our country's history. In this digital age, it seems to me that so much more can be done to make archival materials from across the country available to all Canadians. Inspiring students to learn their history in documents is possible if the documents are widely available.
As historians, we spend a lot of time in archives. When I can share some of that experience with students in a virtual capacity, history comes alive for them. I recognize that the process has already begun. The National Archives of Canada has some amazing digitization projects that have been ongoing, and some of the provincial archives have wonderful digitization projects. I think that any expansion of this would be welcome. As Mr. Thorsell says, if we want to connect our large land and the people of this land to one another, having resources available to do that would be a welcome.
Thank you.