RE: Assimilation of Immigrants
One issue I have, though, is with the education system. From the way history was tought when I was in school, I was struck by the way the Europeans forced themselves upon the North American continent, eradicated many natives, introduced the reservation system, attempted cultural genocide through sexual and physical abuse in residential schools, along with the imposition of Christianity in at least some schools, and participated in the Boer War as well. And let's not forget that the residential schools were common in Quebec too. And as for religion, if I'm not mistaken, Quebec still offers Catechism or ethics, and those are your two choices. Ontario still has a public Catholic school system. I was born in Canada, with some native blood on my father's side. My mother's roots go back to New France 400 years ago.
So as long as history is tought in such a light, it's obvious that many English and French Canadians such as myself will find it difficult to understand the basis of assimilation of minorities to our cultures when our own cultures are in fact foreign to the North American continent from such a historical viewpoint, not to mention that it's perceived as stolen land, taken through blood and tears. So if we wanted to develop the moral will of the people to forego multiculturalism and adopt a strict policy of assimilation instead, then it would seem to me that we'd have to change the way history would be tought in one of the following manners:
1. Not teach history prior to when French and English Canadians were already the majority, so as to give the argument that the democratic right of the majority prevails, while not having to deal with the moral dilemma of whether or not the majority is legitimate when it in fact forced itself into the position rather violently and militarily.
2. Teach a sanitized version of history void of the bloody parts, except of course when we ourselves are the valiant victims fighting to the death for freedom in Europe during WWII, so as to give a sense of pride minus any possible moral conflict with our bloody history, thus giving us the moral ground to impose the majority culture for which we so valiantly fought.
or
3. Teach the whole truth of history as it is now tought, but adding to it the philosophy that the victor has the moral right to impose his culture upon the defeated. i.e., the natives lost against the Musket, and the French lost on the plains of Abraham, and so the English now have the moral right to impose their culture.
The danger with any of these revisions of history, of course, would be the teaching of the value that might makes right, which of course could then have dangerous repercussions in otehr aspects of Canadian society.
But if the way history is tought is not changed, then certainly English and French Canadians will naturally continue to try to understand the moral implications of their history in teh world of today, thus making it difficult to understand from where exactly the right to impose our majority culture come. Until that question is clearly answered in the school system, we will continue to be hesitant about imposing our culture, as we try to understand the source of its moral authority.
Just my thoughts.
