CHAPTER 13 Diversity and Politics POLS 1303D2 Winter 2011

1. CHAPTER 13Diversity and PoliticsPOLS 1303D2Winter 2011

2. The Emergence of Diversity Politics • Canada has always been a pluralistic society. • However, the group composition of Canadian society has changed significantly over time. • From ‘two nations’ or ‘two founding peoples’ to multiculturalism • Cultural diversity always had political significance, but in recent decades it has acquired the status of one of the pillars of Canadian self-image.

3. From Founding Peoples to Multiculturalism B&B Commission and the adoption of official multiculturalism in 1972 Changing patterns of immigration and a rise in the importance of ‘non-traditional’ sources of immigrants (see Figures 13.1, 13.2, and 13.3)

4. From Founding Peoples to Multiculturalism, cont’d. • Change has been experienced most strikingly in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas—magnets for new immigrants—where the new Canadians of neither British nor French ethnic origins have clustered and where the visible minority population has increased significantly in recent years.

5. Religious Demography Canada remains, even after recent waves of immigration from non-European countries, a predominantly Christian society.

6. Religious Demography, cont’d. • Figure 13.4 shows that about four out of five Canadians claim an affiliation with either the Catholic Church or a Protestant denomination. • However, Canadian society has become much more secular than it was even a couple of generations ago, and religion tends not to be a particularly important or divisive factor in politics. • Remember Dr. Bruce Matthews guest lecture in class

7. Religious Demography, cont’d. Those claiming no religious affiliation constitute the fastest growing segment of Canada’s population. People belonging to non-Christian religions continue to constitute a rather small minority, at about 6 per cent of the population. Their presence in particular cities, however, such as Sikhs and Hindus in Vancouver and Muslims in Toronto, is much greater than it is nationwide.

8. Religious and Ethnic Tolerance There is some evidence from public opinion polls suggesting that many Canadians are uneasy about intermarriage with members of certain religious communities and ethnic groups (see Figure 13.5). Tolerance is greater among younger age cohorts. The region of the country where disapproval of non-Muslim marriages to Muslims was highest was Quebec.

9. Other Forms of Diversity Sexual preferences Family configurations Ideas regarding disabilities As is true of other Western societies, Canada has become more diverse on all of these counts and changes to public policy reflect this.

10. Official Recognition and the Institutionalization of Diversity The Royal Proclamation of 1763 recognized the presence and rights of ‘the several Nations or Tribes of Indians with whom we are connected, and who live under our protection’. The Quebec Act of 1774 provided official confirmation of the status and rights of a particular segment of the population.

11. History of Group Recognition There is, therefore, a long history of recognizing diversity in Canada. Until the 1960s that recognition extended principally to the French- and English-language communities (s. 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867), the Catholic and Protestant religions for schooling purposes (s. 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867), and Aboriginal Canadians.

12. Multiculturalism A push towards greater institutionalization of diversity, beyond the scope of the traditional forms of group recognition, began in the 1960s.

13. Multiculturalism, cont’d. • The Citizenship Branch, within the Department of the Secretary of State, was at the forefront of this move. • Provincial human rights commissions • Multiculturalism was given its own minister—albeit a minister of state, which is a level down from a departmental minister—in 1972.

14. Media Portrayal of Canada The CBC, NFB, and Telefilm Canada, among other organizations, have played an important role in constructing an image of Canada that reflects and projects the changing diversity of society. Little Mosque on the Prairie is a recent example!

15. Diversity and Political Representation • Forty years ago John Porter remarked that Canada’s political elite had been slow to change, failing to reflect the increasing ethnic diversity of the country. • It was, he said, still an elite dominated by males from the two founding peoples. • However, there is significantly greater representation of women than in the past.

16. Do the founding peoples still dominate the political elites? A growing number of Canadians have mixed ethnic origins and a considerable share of the population now rejects the traditional ethnic identities, preferring to describe themselves as being of Canadian origins. Consequently, it may be more accurate to say that the political, judicial, and bureaucratic elites in Canada are dominated by persons of French, British, and Canadian origins. ‘Canadian’ here may not be just a substitute label for membership in one of the so-called founding peoples.

17. The Under-representation of Women • Women continue to be under-represented in politics, particularly in leadership positions. • See Figure 13.6 • Women account for about 30 per cent of senior management personnel in the federal public service, and their presence is no longer rare on the topmost rungs of the bureaucratic ladder. • Female representation in the judicial elite is much greater than a generation ago.

18. Explaining Under-representation Historically, the influence of social learning, reinforced by the sexual division of labour in society, particularly in the family and the workplace, combined to limit both female expectations and opportunities when it came to participation in politics.

19. Explaining Underrepresentation, cont’d. • Significant and even, in some respects, dramatic changes have taken place over the last two generations in terms of female participation in higher education, higher paying professions, and even in the household division of labour. • However, a participation gap remains

20. Phases in the Women’s Movement: I Early struggles involved women winning the right to vote, legislation to protect women who were increasingly working in industrial settings, and some changes to laws that denied women full adult personhood in matters of property.

21. Phase I, cont’d. • The mainstream arena of the women’s movement was represented by organizations like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the National Council of Women of Canada, and the Federated Women’s Institutes. • Politically moderate organizations in terms of both their goals and their strategies for attaining them.

22. Phase I, cont’d. • The goals of social feminism were fundamentally conservative, aimed at protecting women and the family from the corrosive influences of the industrial age. • Nellie McClung and most other leaders of the early women’s movement wanted to put the role of women on a more secure material footing. • The political tactics employed by mainstream women’s groups hardly ever strayed beyond the familiar bounds of accepted practice.

23. Phase I, cont’d Women achieved the right to vote between 1916 (Manitoba) and 1940 (Quebec), and federally in 1917–18. The right to hold public office came to women more slowly and unevenly than the right to vote. Persons case, 1929,http://sen.parl.gc.ca/ckenny/persons.htm

24. Phases in the Women’s Movement: Phase II: After Voting Rights • Those who spearheaded the fight for women’s suffrage believed—wrongly, as it turned out—that the vote would be the tool that women would use to change the world. • However, little changed between the 1920s and the 1960s. • This was largely due to the nature of early feminism. • The mainstream arena of the women’s movement was essentially conservative. • Far from wanting to break down traditional gender roles, social feminists wanted to protect the social values and family structure on which these roles rested.

25. Phase II, cont’d. The party system and societal attitudes were also obstacles to change. However, the seeds of change had been sown and included sexual liberation made possible by new contraceptive technology, the increasing secular character of society, and women’s increasing participation in the labour force (see Figure 13.7).

26. Phases in the Women’s Movement: Phase III: ‘The Personal is Political’ Sexism’ was coined in the 1960s as a label for behaviour that treated males and females unequally for no better reason than their sex. Sexism in its numerous forms and wherever it took place was the target of the phase of the women’s movement that emerged during these years. The slogan of the modern women’s movement was ‘the personal is political’, indicating that previously off-limits topics like male–female relations in marriage, sexual relations in the workplace, and so on were considered to be matters requiring both changed attitudes and new laws.

27. Phase III, cont’d. The modern women’s movement was both inspired and aided by the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the general climate of challenge to the ‘Establishment’ and its values that characterized Western societies during these years. The organizations that had traditionally been voices for women—the National Council of Canadian Women, women’s teacher and nursing associations, and others—were pushed aside by groups such as NACSW, CARAL, and LEAF (see Appendix 1).

28. Phase III, cont’d: Strategies for Influence • Particularly during the 1980s, women’s organizations, led by NACSW, often resorted to very public and sometimes confrontational strategies intended to generate media coverage of their issues and demands. • Such strategies have been much less common since the 1990s • Litigation has proven to be one of the most successful strategies, particularly since the Charter took effect (see www.leaf.ca).

29. Achievements S.28 of the Charter Many court rulings have eliminated the differential treatment of individuals based on sex, or in some other way have been viewed as extending the rights of women (e.g., the sexual consent ruling in Ewanchuk, 1999). Pay-equity laws Decision-making structures of government have been changed in ways that institutionalize sensitivity to gender issues.

30. Social Conditions of Women Undeniable and significant advances have been made, such as greater participation of females in higher education and greater representation of females in ‘non-traditional’ occupations and professions. Attitudes have changed (see Table 13.2), however, there are still some signs of ‘stickiness’ in gender attitudes and behaviour.

31. Social Conditions of Women, cont’d. • The 2001 Canadian census reported that women were twice as likely as men to say that they spent 15 hours or more each week on housework and almost twice as likely as men to say that they spent at least 15 hours per week on unpaid child care.

32. Social Conditions of Women, cont’d. Le plus ça change, le plus c’est la même chose? The earnings gap between males and females remains significant. Women are much more likely to be poor than are men. Very few women hold positions of influence at the top rungs of Canada’s corporate ladder.