Critical Issues → Canadian perspective
Canadian perspective
Canadian perspective. What does it really mean? Is it the Canadian view on what is happening in the world, in Israel, and in the US, or is it only what is going on in Canada?
Through the 19th century, Canada was a frontier society. The template of Canadian society is the mosaic in which each ethnic and religious tile remains distinct. Multiculturalism, an official policy since the 1970s, has broadened the mosaics conception.
We are a country of immigrants. We always have been. We come from all over bringing with us all the planet's faiths, outlooks and styles of living.
Canadians talk proudly of tolerance and fair mindedness. Often in a tone of moral superiority. But these virtues, such as they are, are of fairly recent vintage.
In 1933, Toronto witnessed the Christie Pits riot, when local anti-Semites terrorized a Jewish baseball team in a street battle that went on all night. The next year in Montreal, all the interns at Hospital Notre-Dame in Montreal, went on strike to protest the hiring of a Jew as a colleague. The offending Jew in question had graduated first in his class at the University of Montreal but was forced to resign after a few days because, as was reported in a local French newspaper, Catholic patients would find it repugnant to be treated or touched by a Jewish Doctor.
Former Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, a well known Anti-Semite, and prime minister through the 30's and 40's, set both the agenda and the tone in Canada's Capital, Ottawa. Is it any wonder then that the door to Canada was slammed shut to Jewish immigrants before and during the War and that when asked how many Jews would be allowed into Canada after the War, a senior immigration official famously replied: "None is too many". Most regrettably the government of Canada even refused entry to a ship called the St. Louis, bearing a shipload of Jews desperate for Canada to admit them, but who instead sailed back to Europe on a voyage of the damned. This was the moment when Canada's heritage and promise were betrayed. Canadian leaders should be careful when they speak of our legendary sense of tolerance. It was not always or often the hallmark of our early history, although recent years have brought marked improvements. For example, only last May an adjudicator awarded a Jewish public servant a major human rights victory against the federal government after she complained that her workplace at the headquarters of Passport Canada was poisoned by anti-Semitism.
Canada has evolved into an imperfect but marvelous country that has provided sanctuary and opportunity to millions. But Canadians should never forget that many groups of immigrants to Canada have suffered injustice and discrimination. From the Jews to the Japanese to the Ukrainians to the Irish to the Italians to the Chinese–and many others–the streets of Canada turned out not to be paved with gold and the voyage to Canadian citizenship was often marked by sadness and despair. But times change and incremental progress continues to be made.
James Joyce wrote that "the past is consumed in the present and the present is alive only because it gives birth to the future". The Jews of Israel have already emerged as a valorous people who have made the deserts bloom and the Jews of Canada have found a home whose future is immeasurably brighter and whose values have been powerfully enriched because of their presence and their contribution to Canada and to all mankind.
We have forged a country from sea to sea to sea through our ability just to accept. It works for us like few countries in history have ever been privileged to know.
Pnina Margolese, Area Director
Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, Ontario Canada
