CHAPTER 8 CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND ETHNICITY

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Defining Culture
• Although we constantly live culture, it is not
  a concept that is easily defined. We are born
  into a culture, raised within a culture,
  developed and educated within a culture, work
  within a culture and experience the day-to-day
  experiences of a culture.
• Researchers have a difficult time agreeing on the
  meaning of the concept culture. Literature
  reveals that there are many different meanings
  and many different perspectives of the concept of
  culture.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Defining Culture
• According to Fox (1994), culture is a construct.
  For Fox, culture signifies the way we interpret
  and experience social life (1994 23).
• Research conducted by Karlis (1993a) presents
  culture as consisting of three attributes
• religion
• language and
• social, media and arts activities.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Canadian Culture
• Grace (2001) associates Canadian culture with
  geographical location. She posits that, despite
  our continual lament that the north is not valued
  or understood as important, indeed, essential to
  the Canadian identity, to what makes us a
  distinct imagined community, and to the
  geopolitical reality of Canada as a circumpolar
  national state, a very great deal of attention
  has in fact been paid to the North (Grace, 2001
  74).

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Canadian Culture
• Hillier (2000) argues that Canada is often
  defined according to its demographic composition
  that is, the multi-ethnic makeup of the Canadian
  population. Moreover, Hillier (2000 178) also
  describes Canada as a bilingual, bicultural
  society in stating that Canadian society is that
  of two solitudes or two nations warring within
  one bosom.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Canadian Culture
• For Matheson (1997), Canadian identity may be
  reflected through our national symbols, for
  instance, the national colors of the flag, the
  maple leaf and the beaver.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Canadian Culture
• Pierre Burton (1987) describes Canadian culture
  comparison with American culture. Burton
  (19879) states that as for culture we
  Canadians and Americans dont even speak the
  same language. You think of culture in terms of
  opera, ballet and classical music. To us, it
  covers everything from Stompin Tom Connors to
  Hockey Night in Canada. Thus Canadian culture
  expands beyond traditionally defined cultural
  activities to those activities that reflect the
  uniqueness of Canadian society.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• The Makeup of Canadian Society
• The Canadian population is comprises of many
  different ethnic groups while immigration is a
  consistent feature of the growth of Canadian
  population (Butler, 1990).
• The fifth round of the 2001 Census of Population
  released on January 21, 2003, indicates that the
  proportion of foreign-born is the highest it has
  been in seventy years as 5.4 million people or
  18.4 of the total population were born outside
  of Canada. Immigrants who came to Canada in the
  1990s came mostly from Asia and the Middle East.
  In fact, 58 were born in Asia and the Middle
  East, 20 from Europe, 11 in the Caribbean,
  Central and South America, 8 in Africa, and 3
  in the United States (Statistics Canada, 2003).

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Multiculturalism Policy and Practice
• It was not until July 21, 1988 that the Canadian
  Multiculturalism Act became law. This Act
  commits the Government of Canada to assist
  communities and institutions in bringing about
  equal access and participation for all Canadians
  in the economic, social, cultural and political
  life of the nation (Multiculturalism and
  Citizenship Canada, 1990).

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Ethnic Community Organizations
• To fulfil the leisure and cultural needs of
  ethnic community groups in Canada, Canadas
  multicultural policy allows the basis for the
  establishment of ethnic community organizations.
  Indeed, most ethnic groups in Canada have
  established their own ethnic community
  organizations.
• Ethnic community organizations are a means to
  strengthen ethnic identity in Canada (Breton,
  Reitz and Valentine, 1980) through religious
  structures (i.e., churches, synagogues, mosques,
  temples), and social centres and recreation
  facilities to address the spiritual, intellectual
  and social needs necessary to practice ethnic
  heritage.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Equal Opportunity and Recognition through Leisure
  Services
• A question that has often been raised about
  Canadas multiculturalism policy deals with the
  issue of equal opportunity and equal
  recognition. A number of factors make some
  ethnic community organizations more powerful and
  more likely to maintain ethnic community
  traditions. Size, time period in Canada,
  lobbying strength and geographical location are
  determining factors for the experience of the
  traditions of ethnic heritage.
• Although no perfect policy exists to deal with
  multi-ethnic societies, Canadas multiculturalism
  policy does at the very least encourage equal
  opportunity and recognition of ethnic groups.
  This means that all individuals of ethnic descent
  are encouraged to participate in the ethnic
  cultural traditions and leisure activities of
  their ethnic homeland. Simply knowing that their
  host nation takes a stance in support of ethnic
  diversity is often more than enough for Canadas
  ethnically diverse population to experience a
  diversity of leisure opportunities reflective of
  their ethnic homeland and Canadian culture.

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CHAPTER 8CANADIAN CULTURE, MULTICULTURALISM AND
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• Ethnicity and the Selection of Leisure and
  Recreation Activities
• Since the 1970s, research in leisure and
  ethnicity has continued to grow (Karlis, Bolla
  and Dawson, 1992 Karlis, 1990b).
• One of the first attempts to kick-start research
  in this area was a study conducted by Malpass
  (1973) positing that the total community
  included the ethnic group.
• Another study conducted by the Ontario Ministry
  of Tourism and Recreation in 1984 discussed how
  recreational services did not adequately address
  the cultural differences of society.
• A recent study of Canadian teens of South Asian
  descent reveals that leisure preference is
  determined by adherence to South Asian cultural
  traditions (Tirone, 1999/2000).
• In a study of the Greek Community of Toronto,
  Karlis (1993a) found that immigrants from Greece
  not only prefer but also tend to participate in
  leisure activities that are classified as
  Greek.
• Research by Bolla and Dawson (1990) also
  justifies the need and preference of Canadas
  ethnic populations to experience the leisure
  activities of their homeland culture.
• A study published in Canadian Ethnic Studies by
  Karlis and Dawson (1995) shows that the
  inadequate use of the concept ethnicity poses
  conceptual problems as well as programming
  problems for research on ethnic groups.
• In a study on Indo-Canadian women, Tirone and
  Shaw (1997) found that leisure was perceived as
  not important.