CUPE 3906

By Jennifer Adese

On June 13, 1996, the then Governor General of Canada declared June 21 to be National Aboriginal Day (also sometimes referred to as National Aboriginal Solidarity Day), a day for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples to share their various cultural expressions with the rest of Canada.  Celebrated annually around the time of the summer solstice, National Aboriginal Day is celebrated by Indigenous peoples across what is often referred to as “Turtle Island.”

In recent years, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) has marketed the day as “an opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal people and their contributions to Canada.”  It is marketed as but one in an eleven day series that includes Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, Canadian Multiculturalism Day, and Canada Day, titled “Celebrate Canada!” aimed at celebrating the history of the Canadian nation.

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Written by Srishti Hukku

Rita Mae Brown, an influential American writer, has been quoted as saying “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness.  Think of your three best friends.  If they’re okay, then it’s you.” However, all jokes aside, the stigma associated with mental illness and the resultant discrimination prove to be an even more debilitating side effect for the mentally ill than the illness itself (Dingfelder 2009, 56-8).  A negative reception of the mentally ill has remained an unceasing societal norm.  In 2008, the Canadian Medical Association released its eighth annual national health care report card.  The findings with relation to mental health indicate that a significant portion of the Canadian population continues to stigmatize those suffering from ental illness.  Some of the most relevant findings indicate that 27% of Canadians would be fearful of being around someone with a serious mental illness and that 46% of Canadians think people use the term mental illness as an excuse for bad behavior.  Additionally, the majority of Canadians said that they would be unlikely to enter into a spousal relationship with someone who has a mental illness or hire a person with a mental illness as a lawyer, child care worker, financial advisor or family doctor (Canadian Mental Health Association 2008, 4).  It is most significant to realize that the aforementioned stigmas can manifest themselves as real barriers to appropriate care, employment opportunities and social integration.Read More

Written by Malissa Phung

On December 6, 2001 the Canadian government adopted a motion proposed by Senator Vivienne Poy to officially declare the month of May to be Asian Heritage Month in Canada.

Since 2002, in major cities across the nation, cultural festivals, art and photography exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, literary readings, theatrical performances, documentaries, and radio shows have been produced throughout the month of May to not only bring attention to the histories of marginalization and oppression of Asian migrants and their descendants but also to commemorate the achievements and contributions of Asian Canadians to Canada’s national building project.

While it is important to both remember these histories of oppression and acknowledge the marginalized labour of Asian migrants as important contributions to Canada’s economic infrastructure and national heritage,  it is equally important to not lose sight of Canada’s ongoing settler colonial policies towards Indigenous peoples and to remain vigilant of the ways in which Canadian multiculturalism disciplines and manages difference even as it openly supports such efforts to address and correct historical injustices.

As admirable as such efforts to commemorate the culture and history of Asian migrants are, recent backlash against “illegal” migrants or potential “terrorists” across the globe indicate that achieving human equality is far from being realized.  We need to be wary of the ways in which history repeats itself.  In the words of Rita Wong from her poetry collection, Monkeypuzzle, “now head taxes apply/to all immigrants/not just us”—that is, in the form of landing fees.

For more information on Asian heritage in Canada, check out the following links:

• Virtual Museum of Asian Canadian Cultural Heritage (launched by the Asian Heritage Month-Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture Inc.)
• 2010 Asian Heritage Month Festival Events in GTA (there are still exhibitions being held throughout May; most notably, Wayson Choy is delivering the 3rd Asian Heritage Lecture, “Asian Identity: Becoming Canadian” at York University on May 25)
• CBC radio and video programs
• Asian Arts Freedom School (an art-based radical Asian history and activism program for Asians/Pacific Islanders in the GTA under the age of 30.  They hold creative writing, media, and performance workshops with a heavy focus on community activism and Indigenous solidarity.  Cycle 10 of their creative writing workshop has already started and ends June 1!)