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Chapter 10 | Clarence S. Bayne (continued) In some communities then, mainstream scholars and policy makers could be perceived as being more guilty of homogenizing subcultures in Canada than US trade can. When they speak of Canada’s interest or Quebec’s interests it almost always is mainstream Canada or mainstream Quebec. It almost always is based on the assumption that the shape of the indifference curves for individuals in the exchange economy are similar, concave and strongly monotone. And that the prototype is either Anglo-saxon or Francophone. They fail to take into consideration that the relevant basket of goods and services differ radically from one sub-group to the other. May be determined by both reflective and formative acculturation indicators, not just acculturation shift factors. The Doukhobors excluded clothes and British Canadian education from their market set. I think it is fair to say that there are no reference points on their indifference curve that correspond to an equivalent point on that of the average British Canadian. Order in Council 1203, Section 13, Statutes of Canada (1919) classified Doukhobors, Mennonites and Hutterites as undesirable immigrants for precisely this reason: “their peculiar customs, modes of life, and methods of holding property.” There was no possibility of trade between the two groups. The measures of social cohesion for both groups were not strictly comparable. Forcing them to adopt the same consumption behaviours as other Canadians reduced their sense of social cohesion. This is similar to the actions taken by the Canadian and provincial governments to force the Indians through a process of white acculturation by removing their children from their care and educating them in religious schools. Mainstream culture could not accept that there are many different subsets of values, beliefs, traditions, goods, environments, systems of learning that generate and sustain different core personalities and societies. There may be little or no purpose for exchange between some of these minority or subgroups and mainstream society if, as it seems, preferences are dominated by ethnic affiliation characteristics.. Using force as part of the acculturation process is destructive of the social cohesiveness of the sub-group and ultimately the larger society, even if it creates an alternative reality that satisfies the creative urges of the acculturation group to fashion a society after its own image and likeness. It is a risky experiment that requires altering the personality of persons without any knowledge of the ultimate consequences. 4. the canadian reality From a Black perspective, the reality in Canada today is that after 133 years of Confederation in a country that has been peopled by immigrants from every part of the world the dominant cultural institutions are almost entirely Anglo-Saxon or Francophone. Multiculturalism as a fundamental tenet of Nation building has won out over Anglo-conformity and Biculturalism. But the political reality and power of the concept of governance by two founding and equal peoples rule the day. Multi-culturalism has done very little to change the distribution of cultural assets and the allocation of operating funds between mainstream and minority cultural communities and institutions. This is true at the level of government funding agencies and at the level of private sector organizations. The contributions of private sector foundations to funding the arts, cultural and multicultural organizations were estimated at 58,3 $ million in 1996-1997. Of that, 1,6 $ million (2,7 %) went to multicultural and ethnic organizations. 13,8 % of this (just over a third of a percent) went to other groups that comprised of Amenian, Black, Celtic, East Indian, Multicultural, and Russian organizations. Black organizations received 100 000 $, less than 0,2 of a percentage. After 25 years of funding by Canada Council the Black Theatre Workshop receives between 20 000 $ and 30 000 $. Over the same period of time its funding from CACUM has risen at a snail crawl to 20 000 $. It has done much better from Quebec City: approximately 30 000 $-45 000 $ over the last 10 years. In Toronto, Black Theatre Canada died in the eighties in the process of negotiating support from Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council. Fountain Head has become a shell, echoing the failure of recognized Black professional actors to get professional funding. A few individual Black and ethnic artists get individual grants from various councils. But support for individual artists does not have the same social cohesive impact as creating and supporting cultural civil society agencies. In general, non-mainstream cultural institutions and practices remain essentially hidden in enclaves of Canadian society. They are seldom celebrated at the national level; or have a permanent established presence at the national level or provincial levels. The celebration Black history month by the city of Montreal is an exception. The exploitation of Carifiesta and Vues d’ Afrique (Montréal), and Caribana (Toronto) as experiments in tourism are certainly worthy of serious mention. These events, like the St Patrick day parade, may highlight the cultures of particular communities but they are not integral to the daily celebration of cultural life in these cities. For the most part, minority communities are expected to be consumers of mainstream culture. If art and cultural goods belong to the reflective rather than the formative category of goods, then the prediction of rapid growth in the representation of minority populations in the metropolitan areas of Canada is reason for concern about possible ruptures in social cohesion as a result of resistance to mainstream cultural programming. These concerns were explored in a conference held at HEC, November 1997: “Cultural Organizations of the Future.” |
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