The New Canadian Citizenship Study Guide

Cannuck

Time Out
Feb 2, 2006
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May I?
People always say, "Canada is a young country." Well, it's no younger than Italy which became a confederated state in 1867. No Italian would ever print a citizenship guide that only emphasized Italian history after 1867. Sorry, I have to agree with you, Anna!
Cousin Spade

Leonardo was gay and Michelangelo was a smelly pervert so nobody likes to talk about them.
 

L Gilbert

Winterized
Nov 30, 2006
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50 acres in Kootenays BC
the-brights.net
Why don't you tell me about "first" nations history then?
Btw, the topic IS about Canada and immigrants learning about it. The history of Canada is about Canada.
Yeah. Just because the place didn't have an official designation before the Brits, French, etc. came here, doesn't mean it didn't have a history. IOW, history doesn't stop at Confederation in Canada, but continues much further into the past..
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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Ottawa, ON
Life began after the Europeans came here? hhmmm I think your (paleface) history needs rewriting. :D

Hey, let's be fair here. That history section is already a few pages long. With all the Europeanized history of th last few centuries of French and English fighting over and claiming the land filling most of those pages, how could you expect them to squeeze in any more than two paragraphs on the last few thousand years of pre-Europeanized history:lol:

Let' get our priorities straight here. The Europeans came, discovered the locals, and then 'our' history began:lol:
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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Before that, the history was passed down verbally, so we don't print it. You'll have to find someone to tell you the stories.

Hmmmm.... you are aware that indigenous language do have their own script and can be translated, right?
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
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Yeah. Just because the place didn't have an official designation before the Brits, French, etc. came here, doesn't mean it didn't have a history. IOW, history doesn't stop at Confederation in Canada, but continues much further into the past..

But that's the whole question. In school, I remember studying European history going right back to the Roman Empire and beyond, right up until the Europeans discovered North America, and then and only then did North America suddenly enter the European collective consciousness.

Instead, should we not have been focusing on the Aztec and Maya Empires, trade and relations between North Americans and how they may have influenced each other (there is evidence of some similarities between Aztec and Inuit cultures for instance),Cree political structure, etc. until the people of this land discovered the European, after which the European entered the local consciousness?

So the real question is, do we define our history along ethnic lines (i.e. tracing our history back to our European roots) or geographical lines (i.e. the history of the peoples of this land going back generations,irrespective of their ethnic identity)?

If the former, then we did indeed discover the 'Indjun'. If the latter, then we discovered the European. Clearly in the first case, 'we' refers to Canadians of European descent, excluding the 'indjun'.In the second case, 'we' refers to the people of this land, including those of European descent, African descent, etc, accepting that once in Canada, we are Canadian and share a common history bound not to our hyphenated ethnic history, but the common history of our land. If you are a Canadian immigrant, then while your ethnic history might go back to Europe, your Canadian history traces its roots to the land and has nothing to do with a foreign continent.
 

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
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Ottawa, ON
Yeah. Just because the place didn't have an official designation before the Brits, French, etc. came here, doesn't mean it didn't have a history. IOW, history doesn't stop at Confederation in Canada, but continues much further into the past..

But hey, the Europeans had to give it their stamp of approval before it could be considered worthy of study.:lol:
 

gerryh

Time Out
Nov 21, 2004
25,756
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So, new Canadians, immigrants, are expected to take a 4 year course ( assuming that would even be enough to study what you all are proposing) to become Canadians? Or are you suggesting that more current Canadian history, as in since confederation, should be glossed over for a more in depth study of ancient history? \From what time do you all suggest they should be learning Canadian History before becomng Canadian? 600 years ago? 1000 years ago? 10000 years ago?
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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Vancouver Island
But that's the whole question. In school, I remember studying European history going right back to the Roman Empire and beyond, right up until the Europeans discovered North America, and then and only then did North America suddenly enter the European collective consciousness.

Instead, should we not have been focusing on the Aztec and Maya Empires, trade and relations between North Americans and how they may have influenced each other (there is evidence of some similarities between Aztec and Inuit cultures for instance),Cree political structure, etc. until the people of this land discovered the European, after which the European entered the local consciousness?

So the real question is, do we define our history along ethnic lines (i.e. tracing our history back to our European roots) or geographical lines (i.e. the history of the peoples of this land going back generations,irrespective of their ethnic identity)?

If the former, then we did indeed discover the 'Indjun'. If the latter, then we discovered the European. Clearly in the first case, 'we' refers to Canadians of European descent, excluding the 'indjun'.In the second case, 'we' refers to the people of this land, including those of European descent, African descent, etc, accepting that once in Canada, we are Canadian and share a common history bound not to our hyphenated ethnic history, but the common history of our land. If you are a Canadian immigrant, then while your ethnic history might go back to Europe, your Canadian history traces its roots to the land and has nothing to do with a foreign continent.

As I recall from school all our textbooks came from either England or US. Neither has ever been much concerned with what goes on outside their sphere of influence.
 

TenPenny

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 9, 2004
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History is generally written from a political / societal point of view.

There is not a lot of our current political structure in Canada that has come from indigenous people.

I think that's why our history books tend to be written the way they are.