| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 24 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
Alumni authors, clockwise from left, nathalie stephens, Vittorio Frigerio (and friend), Arash Mohtashami-Maali.
Three Glendon alumni nathalie stephens, Arash Mohtashami-Maali and Vittorio Frigerio have had their work published by Gref, the Glendon College scholarly and literary press, in its series, "Ecrits torontois" (winner of the 1995 Applied Arts Magazine Award for best book design), and they are receiving rave reviews, reports Gref publisher Professor Alain Baudot.
nathalie stephens is the author of hivernale, a poem (Gref 1995).
Born in Montreal in 1970, of a French mother (of Sephardic origin) and British father, stephens grew up in Toronto. After numerous trips to France, she began her studies at the University of Lyon II in 1988. She received her BA from York (Glendon and Atkinson), in humanities and Third World studies.
Since then, she has chosen to write full time, and has contributed to many North American magazines in both French and English. She is the author of a poetic novel (in English), This Imagined Permanence (Gutter Press, 1996), and has just published a work entitled Colette m'entends-tu?
World Literature Today's reviewer, commenting on hivernale, wrote: "In her poetry and prose she travels back and forth between two languages and cultures. The frequent repetition of the word aujourd'hui, reminiscent of Robbe-Grillet's use of maintenant (in La Jalousie), puts these poems in the phenomenological realm of the "instantanés," defined by shadow and light and, here, delicate interplay of rhythm and sound.
"The poetry of nathalie stephens enlarges our view of living in the quotidian, which it raises to the level of a discourse at once sensuous and reflective."
Arash Mohtashami-Maali is the author of La Tour du silence and Retours fables, poems (Gref 1997).
Born in Iran, Mohtashami-Maali completed part of his studies in Tehran. In 1984 he left for France, where he lived for 10 years. In 1994, after having begun his studies in medicine, he emigrated to Toronto. He received his Honours BA in French from Glendon College (1996) and is currently pursuing his master's degree in French Studies at the University of Toronto.
La Tour du silence is his first published collection of poetry, and he is already considered one of the most powerful voices in contemporary poetry, according to Gref publisher Alain Baudot. Zoroastrian cemeteries were known as "towers of silence" open-roofed buildings situated on mountain-tops where the bodies of the dead were left, their bones to be collected later. Retours fables is a collection of poems on the themes of exile and silence in exile. Some of the poems were written in one of Professor Christine Klein-Lataud's courses in stylistics.
Vittorio Frigerio is the author of a novel, La Dernière Ligne droite (Gref 1997). Frigerio was born in Switzerland and is a graduate of the École supérieure des beaux-arts in Geneva. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in many countries and founded a gallery of contemporary art before moving to Toronto in 1982. He majored in translation at Glendon (and worked for a while at the Glendon Gallery), then went on to write a doctoral thesis on Alexandre Dumas Sr. at the University of Toronto.
He is the co-founder and co-director (with Corine Renevey, another Glendon graduate and Gref's principal research assistant for several years) of the Centre for Documentation and Research on Swiss-French Literature. He has published widely here and abroad, and is a laureate of the Prix de la Ville de La Chaux-de Fonds (Switzerland) and of the literary journal [vwa].
"La Dernière Ligne droit (social and political satire, humorous science-fiction, psychological whirlwind, narrative puzzle) will soon be at least in large parts available on the Web," Baudot says.
"Literature lives, thanks to Glendon alumni!"
by David V.J. Bell
David V.J. Bell: There is 'unprecedented consensus among scientists on the need to take action now.'
Once upon a time, Canada was a world leader in the field of international environmental policy. Much of this was due to the work of Maurice Strong, who played a key role in both the 1972 Stockholm Conference and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. Canadian Jim MacNeill served as secretary general of WCED, the World Commission on Environment and Development. WCED's report, Our Common Future, also called The Brundtland Report in honour of WCED Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland), was published the same year the Ozone Treaty was signed in Montreal in 1987, and it continues to shape the discourse around sustainability.
Canadians were also pioneers of the concept of "Round Tables," and moved in the late 1980s to establish these multi-stakeholder advisory bodies at all levels of government and in every province. Canada was one of the first countries to develop a national Green Plan, an exercise completed while Lucien Bouchard was minister of the environment. This portfolio, then considered to be one of the most prestigious in Ottawa, was held by Jean Charest at the time of the Rio Conference. Canada was proud to give its support in Rio to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which called on the industrialized countries of the North to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
In its first Red Book, the Liberal Party of Canada promised to work toward even greater reductions. Red Book 2 contains a much more circumspect discussion of the issue, and begins by acknowledging that Canada will fail to meet even the Rio target. Nevertheless, the Liberals pledged to "redouble our efforts to stabilize emissions of greenhouse gases and to develop new approaches to meet targets set through international negotiations." These "new approaches" would feature broad consultation and policy innovation, including a scheme for emissions trading.
Why does much of this now read like a fairy tale? Why has Canada slipped from a position of international leadership to a place near the back of the pack, committed by our Prime Minister to "doing better than the Americans" on global warming, but unable to announce our position until the day negotiations started in Kyoto? Many factors are responsible. Some of these are global in scope and origin, others are peculiarly Canadian.
Irrespective of the governing party's historic position on the ideological spectrum, most advanced industrial countries have witnessed what Susan Strange has called the Retreat of the State [Cambridge University Press, 1996]. Her principal argument is that where "states were once the masters of markets, now it is the markets which, on many crucial issues, are the masters over the governments of states." However reluctantly, governments have eschewed or conceded their leadership role on a variety of policy fronts, and have focused instead on reducing debts, tackling deficits, downsizing and deregulating.
This broad trend has been accentuated in Canada by an additional concern with the "national question" and the possibility of a pro-sovereignty vote in Quebec. Anxious to avoid criticisms from Quebec about federal-provincial jurisdictional overlap and duplication, the federal government has undertaken a policy of "harmonization" that has further shrunk its presence in the field of environment and has generally reduced environmental policy to the lowest common denominator. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has been slashed by more than one-third at both levels of government, undermining governmental capacity and forcing a reassessment of the "command and control" approach to environmental policy that was established in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is no surprise that the business community has generally applauded these developments. Business leaders have repeatedly expressed their strong preference for "voluntary measures" and "economic instruments" to deal with the instances (rare in their view) when "market forces" fail to resolve environmental problems. For their part, the media have helped to promote an incoherent approach to reporting on the environment, in which it is either ignored completely or attention is focused on the most extreme voices and most confrontational aspects of environmental issues. The general public has not been well-served by this style of reporting, and has assumed either that environmental problems are well in hand, or that any attempt to resolve them will require extreme measures and painful choices between economic and environmental imperatives.
All of these tendencies surfaced during the lead-up to Kyoto. The issue of climate change, virtually ignored by the media in the five years after the Framework Convention was signed in 1992, suddenly crashed onto the media agenda. In an attempt to cover "both sides" of the "debate," much attention was given to the climate change skeptics and critics, despite the unprecedented consensus among scientists on the need to take action now. (The scientific work underlying the Kyoto conference was undertaken over a period of many years by a body called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which involves nearly 3,000 scientists from over 100 countries. Their findings pass through a nine-step process of review and critique, including government policy reviews in each country. Consensus is the rule. This degree of intensive scrutiny has been described authoritatively as "the most elaborate ever attempted by the scientific community on a science-environmental issue.") In a desperate attempt to shift public opinion during the final weeks before Kyoto, the Coal Association of Canada, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Canadian Gas Association and (from a very different perspective), the David Suzuki Foundation all placed full-page ads in newspapers across the country.
Although Canada is of course a member of IPCC and Canadian scientists have played an important role in conducting research on climate change, the Canadian government seemed paralyzed when it came to articulating a firm position and working out the implications for implementation. The terms of the agreement that was ultimately reached in Kyoto go beyond what the provinces supported at a meeting held last fall in Regina. Yet their cooperation will be essential if Canada is to meet the new objectives. Meanwhile, the media have dropped the issue of climate change. Where do we go from here?
With the Kyoto agreement behind us, it might appear that attention has shifted from whether we should act to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to how best to achieve the reductions to which we have agreed. One cannot ignore, however, the temptation to sit back and wait for ratification by the U.S. Senate before proceeding to do anything. Some groups are encouraging precisely this response. But many compelling factors suggest a more proactive, responsible position.
First, public opinion is surprisingly supportive of action. Despite suggestions by the fossil fuel industry that economic disaster will follow from efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, polling done last summer by Environics indicated that a substantial majority of Canadians gave at least some credence to the statement that "Canada can reduce its emissions without damaging the economy, because new technologies in renewable energy and energy conservation will lead to new investment and jobs." Thirty per cent nationwide found this statement "very believable" and a further 51 per cent "somewhat believable." Only 16 per cent found it not very or not at all believable. (A similar question, asked in a U.S. poll in November, elicited 63 per cent agreement that reductions in GHG emissions could be achieved "without hurting the economy," and only 24 per cent believed that this could be done "only by hurting the economy.") Canadians appear to want action. Over 80 per cent found very (46 per cent) or somewhat (36 per cent) believable the statement, "If we take no action, Canada's economy will be significantly damaged in the long-term by climate change, because of negative impacts on industries like agriculture, fisheries and forestry."
The views of the general public on complex issues of public policy are more significant to political than economic feasibility. On the latter point, however, 2,800 economists, including eight Nobel Prize winners, issued the following statement:
"As economists, we believe that global climate change carries with it significant environmental, economic, social, and geopolitical risks, and that preventative steps are justified. Economic studies have found that there are many potential policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for which the total benefits outweigh the costs. For the U.S. and Canada, sound economic analysis shows that there are policy options that would slow climate change without harming North American living standards, and these measures may, in fact, improve productivity in the longer run. The revenues generated from such policies can effectively be used to reduce the deficit or lower existing taxes."
Business itself is more supportive than might appear by reading only the ads from the fossil fuel sector. Increasingly, leading corporations are embracing "eco-efficiency" as part of their mission. (The most advanced are explicitly adopting a commitment to sustainability.) This is not altruism but a response to internal and external "drivers" that include pressure from financial institutions; the need to meet high international standards such as ISO 14000 in order to trade into some markets (particularly in Europe); opportunities for substantial cost-cutting for energy and waste disposal; pressure from enlightened customers, stockholders, and employees; and opportunities for market differentiation, as well as the satisfaction of "doing the right thing."
The "crisis" of climate change is depicted as a "threat" by major elements of the energy industry, but it holds out the promise of huge opportunities for the renewable energy sector and for "ESCOs" (energy service companies). Merely by renewing and upgrading for increased energy efficiency our residential and non-residential buildings, Canada can achieve a large percentage of the needed reductions in GHG emissions while providing thousands of new jobs. It is estimated that over a 10-15 year time frame, GHG emission reductions of 50 Megatonnes/year can be achieved. This constitutes nearly 10 per cent of current net Canadian emissions. The capital investment required to carry out this project ($50-75-billion) would be paid for entirely by energy cost savings, which would generate about 1-million person-years of employment, and would result in $5-10-billion annual savings in energy costs.
At the same time, the new GHG emission targets will give technological development an enormous boost. New technologies (such as the Ballard fuel cell) are already emerging as the initial wave of what some have called a "second industrial revolution," which will feature technologies that are environmentally sustainable. These technologies would enjoy a huge international market, helping make our economy much more "competitive" globally.
Another element of the business community that is leading the push for action to reduce GHG emissions is the insurance industry, which has seen its world-wide disaster losses increase from an average of $1-billion annually in the 1960s to $50-billion in the 1990s in constant dollars!
What is the role for government(s) in the post-Kyoto setting? In at least one crucial area, the federal government can lead by example by agreeing to implement green budgeting practices that will help "get the price right," remove environmentally perverse subsidies and encourage environmentally sustainable practices throughout society, particularly in the energy sector.
Economic instruments alone will not suffice, however. Enlightened leaders in all sectors need to speak out on this issue in forums that will allow public debate and increase public awareness. Climate change affects us all. We will all suffer if the problem is not addressed. More importantly, we can all contribute to the solution. There are a number of "win-win" strategies, and we can work out ways of offsetting whatever "pain" may result in some sectors by drawing on the "gains" in others. But we need to be brought together. Success will require a collaborative approach involving key stakeholders from all levels of government, working with business, labour, environmentalists, aboriginal peoples and the research community.
Is this possible? One is reminded of Kenneth Bouldings' "existence theorem": everything that exists is possible. We already have before us successful models. In 1994-95, under the auspices of the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy, a "Transportation Collaborative," involving 32 key stakeholders from the transportation sector, hammered out a strategy for reducing CO2 emissions that was formally endorsed by all but two of the participants. The elements of the strategy reinforced the objective of effecting a shift from automobiles to transit, by encouraging more compact, mixed-use development in urban areas, implementing fuller cost pricing for transportation modes, achieving better integration of transportation systems in large urban areas, and implementing transit priority measures, while at the same time encouraging the development of alternative fuels and more fuel-efficient vehicles and enhancing freight movement by improved intermodal arrangements.
More important than the substance of the strategy is the collaborative process by which it was developed. Signatories to the strategy included General Motors, the Canadian Auto Workers, Consumers Gas, Union Gas, the Sierra Club, Pollution Probe, Canadian National, Canada Transport International and many others. Despite the very different, often sharply opposed perspectives and interests each party brought to the table, as a result of the collaborative process each of them developed a larger vision and sufficient shared understanding of the nature of the problem to reach consensus on what steps were needed to tackle it.
Herein lies the recipe for a broader, country-wide initiative, as well as for similar efforts at the provincial and local levels. For the first time in nearly two decades, we are moving into a period of budget surpluses that will afford governments some fiscal breathing room. One hopes it will also encourage more positive leadership that will allow Canada to move once again to the higher ground on which we stood so proudly a few long years ago.
Reprinted with permission from CanadaWatch, a publication of the York University Centre for Public Law and Public Policy and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies; volume 6 no.1. (For subscription information, call 736-5499.) David V.J. Bell is director, York Centre for Applied Sustainability and professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies.
'Whiz-bang' multimedia modules, and electronic plagiarism detector were highlights of Active Learning with Technology Day
by John Dwyer
Once again, the annual Active Learning with Technology (ALT) Day, on Feb. 16, was a signal success. Jointly sponsored by York's Instructional Technology Centre and the Centre for the Support of Teaching, ALT has become a showcase for teacher-driven initiatives using technology to enhance student learning.
This year's format demonstrated three electronic course templates, ranging from straightforward electronic classrooms to high-tech teaching modules. Suzanne MacDonald and one of her students demonstrated the power of the Internet for linking course units and assignments to educationally rich zoological and museum web sites. In MacDonald's course on animal behaviour, a single click on a unit on Tamarin monkeys leads students to specialized resources and information, including sound and video materials.
Faculty of Environmental studies professor Grant Sheng brought along two of his student collaborators "because they are much better at using computers than I am." The truly remarkable feature of Sheng's template is a design that reinforces course goals and pedagogical interaction. The template allows York teachers to simply plug in the information that will help students to achieve course goals and provides electronic opportunities for student collaboration. Since all course marking takes place electronically, Sheng's students and teaching assistants can speed up feedback, eliminate common communication problems and misunderstandings, and devote more time and resources to sophisticated teaching and learning issues.
Sheng's template contains many interesting educational features, not the least of which is an elec-tronic feature that discourages plagiarism. "Having electronic copy not only improves the feedback process," says Sheng, "it also allows university teachers to deploy word searches that would be time consuming, if not impossible, with traditional assignments." Essays can be compared over several tutorials and even over several years.
The Cultech Collaborative Research Group demonstrated several whiz-bang multimedia modules to show the educational potential of animation and video integrated with classroom teaching. York professor Dalton Kehoe uses a seamless web of video, cartoons and presentation programs in his popular lectures on human communications. Members of the audience had the opportunity to view multimedia teaching at its finest, as Kehoe moved effortlessly between cartoons and videos, demonstrating the intricacies of human interaction.
ALT day concluded on just the right note -- with a debate on student learning led by the students themselves. Student Zahir Jaffer left quite an impression when he described how he had benefited from electronic collaboration on T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. "I know a lot about electronic communication that I passed on to the group," said Jaffer. But they taught me how deep and exciting poetry can be."
Escott Reid's plan for a 'National College' was always more dream than reality
On April 24, 1992, my wife Carla (née Gringorten, a York-Glendon alumna 1967 a member of the "lost generation") and I attended a dinner given at the Lester B. Pearson building in Ottawa to celebrate Escott Reid's "long life and his extraordina[r]y contribution to Canadian foreign policy and to public education" ("Behind the Headlines", Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Vol. 50, No. 1, autumn 1992. Here are excerpts of H. S. Harris's speech for the occasion (Harris was then Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at York, and had been Academic Dean of Glendon from 1967 to 1969):
"It seemed that almost as soon as his appointment as first principal for the new college to be created on the Glendon campus of York University was confirmed, Escott arrived on campus brandishing his plan for a "National College." ...
My own attitude to the Reid plan was gently (but silently) sceptical and ironic. I came to York in 1962 at the beginning of its third year; and in that year I witnessed a relatively major upheaval in the small faculty, occasioned by the news that there was to be a big new campus, and not just a small university on the Glendon site, with high standards, high ideals, and a new model of integrated studies in its curriculum. ... Now it appeared that a dream inspired by Robert Hutchins was to be replaced by a more distinctively Canadian vision. "We shall see what we shall see," I thought.
What we saw in Escott's time was academic teacup-storms within, and the looming threat of an economic hurricane from outside. The foundation-stone of the Reid plan was that all students should study both recognized national languages for two years and (ideally) be able thereafter to take specialized courses in their chosen field, given in their second language. ...
The economic horizon was bleak. Ontario had only recently adopted a policy of funding all of its universities by applying a formula to enrolments; and liberal arts programs received only one "basic income unit" per student.... Universities could put their formula-income into privileged experiments if they liked; but who could suppose that a large Faculty of Arts would long be content to generate income for the maintenance of a small college that was completely independent of it?...
In the first years we limped along, taking in the "overflow" from the Faculty of Arts applications; then we established a unilingual stream in which the students were not obliged to meet the second language requirement. Pundits in the University administration spoke of moving the Glendon experiment to the big campus, and although rumours that Glendon was to be sold were always stoutly denied, there was one occasion when potential customers turned up to view the property! Whether we should survive, and for how long, was always in question.
But Escott never wavered in his faith; and for my part, I learned something about the relevance of a dream to political reality. In those early Trudeau years it was our commitment to bilingualism that saved us. Having served its turn as the launching pad for a big university, that marvellous little campus at Glendon could, subject to testamentary restrictions, have been sold for a great price; or it might have become the University's law school, or any of half a dozen other things. Any other kind of "educational experiment" could have been moved to the larger campus where it could be left to sink or swim.
But this bilingual experiment needed its isolation, in a way so obvious that it could not be denied; and the accusation of deliberate murder was politically too embarrassing to be risked. "Escott's folly" had to die by itself, and it certainly came close to doing that. For in his time it was always more dream than reality, more hope than experiment. ...
Since Escott's time, we have added a Department of Psychology ... ; Spanish has arrived among our language programs; and computer science and even some mathematics courses are now offered. The important thing, however, has not been additions and novelties but the gradual emergence of the original project into reality. The 'unilingual' stream has now been wound up; the francophone intake ... is fairly steady. All departments now offer a respectable proportion of courses in French. Some of the original faculty have moved from the status of "passive bilingualism" to active teaching in French; and no one is hired now [in 1992] who is not functionally bilingual. ... We are well on the way to becoming an image of the nation and what is politically more important of the province. More than anyone else, Escott Reid is responsible for this. In the long list of his noteworthy achievements, Glendon College may be almost the last. But it is by no means the least; and I hope it may prove to have the longest life of them all."
Non canimus surdis?
Alain Baudot, MSRC/FRSC
Gref, Glendon College
Applications are being accepted for the 1998-99 position of Graduate Teaching Associate in the Centre for the Support of Teaching. Applications should be postmarked by Monday, March 30, 1998. For information, call 736-5754.
Neil Bissoondath arrived in Canada in 1973 as a student at York.
The following is excerpted from an essay entitled, "Indo-Caribbean Canadians," and is taken from a book of literary essays, book reviews and interviews entitled, From Pillar to Post: The Indo-Caribbean Diaspora, by York English professor Frank Birbal-singh (TSAR Publications). Used by permission.
Indo-Caribbean Canadians, that is to say Indians who migrated to Canada from the Caribbean, came mainly from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Some came from other Caribbean territories like Jamaica, which are also anglophone; and a few others may have come from the Dutch-speaking Caribbean territory of Surinam. Why the ancestors of these immigrants first left India for the Caribbean in 1838, or why, after more than one-and-a-half centuries of residence in the Caribbean, so many of them should move to Canada is not the concern of this essay. Suffice to say that economic factors were strong in bringing Indians to the Caribbean in the first place, and again, one-hundred-and-fifty years later, in inducing them to leave. Also by the 1960s and '70s, Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trinidadians felt alienated, not only by economic factors and social marginalization in a predominantly creole environment, but by mounting political tensions between themselves and their Afro-Caribbean countrymen. At any rate, whatever their real motives, this essay begins with the fact that Indo-Caribbean immigrants arrived in Canada in a huge exodus during the 1970s and '80s.
It is not possible to give the exact number of Indo-Caribbeans currently living in Canada because the relatively recent classification of "Indo-Caribbean" has not yet been adopted by Statistics Canada, which still identifies Caribbean immigrants solely by their country of origin.... [However] the current Indo-Caribbean population of Canada can be estimated at about 100,000 in round figures. ... Although small numbers of these immigrants may be found in such provinces as Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, most settled in Ontario, and predominantly in the greater Toronto area where they are noticeable in more suburban areas such as Scarborough and Mississauga.
Classifying Caribbean immigrants only by their territory of origin not only creates a problem in determining the exact number of Indo-Caribbean immigrants in Canada: it exacerbates a psychological dilemma for these immigrants. In the first place, when Indo-Guyanese or Indo-Trinidadians are classified simply as Guyanese or Trinidadians, they are perceived in Canada as Afro-Caribbean, for the simple reason that most Caribbean people are African in origin, and terms such as "Caribbean" or "West Indian" are almost universally regarded as signifying black or African descent. In the second place, Indo-Caribbeans are now considered as "South Asian" in Canada, a term that in its unique Canadian usage refers to people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, as well as from the Caribbean, East Africa and Fiji. In both cases, whether Indo-Caribbeans are called West Indians or South Asians, they face an equal dilemma; for, on the one hand, they are not wholly Caribbean (West Indian) in the sense that they do not originate from Africa; neither are they wholly South Asian since they do not generally speak South Asian languages, although they may retain other features of South Asian culture.
Indo-Caribbeans therefore face a predicament in private or public social gatherings, for example, when they may be addressed in a South Asian language, or be expected to show familiarity with aspects of South Asian culture of which they are ignorant. This predicament is worse because there is no physical dissimilarity between Indo-Caribbeans and South Asians: both groups share an identical racial origin. But race alone does not make Indo-Caribbean Canadians South Asian, any more than their ethnicity shared Caribbean speech habits and Caribbean culture makes them African.
If Indo-Caribbean Canadian authors are to be believed, this issue of identity is one of the most important factors that influence Indo-Caribbeans living in Canada. Indo-Caribbean immigrants have made probably their most distinctive impact in Canada through their contribution to literature. Neil Bissoondath, the major Indo-Caribbean writer in Canada today, first arrived in 1973 as a student at York University in Toronto. After graduation, he went on to write stories and novels set both in Canada and his native Trinidad. His story, "Insecurity," which appears in his first published volume, Digging Up the Mountains and other Stories, describes frightening conditions on a fictional Caribbean island. This is especially true for Indian shop-keepers like Alistair Ramgoolam, who has taken the precaution of sending one of his sons to live in Toronto and is preparing to send up another son as a student. As a businessman, Ramgoolam is successful, but his thoughts betray disillusionment and fear:
"The island of his birth, on which he has grown up and made his fortune, was transformed by a process of mind into a kind of temporary home ... He could hope for death here but his grandchildren, maybe even his children, would continue the emigration which his grandfather had started in India, and during which the island had proved, in the end, to be nothing more than a stopover."
Whether or not Ramgoolam's feelings are typical of Indo-Caribbeans who migrated to Canada, his family reflect typical motives of Indo-Caribbean migration: firstly, educational and economic opportunity, and by the 1970s and '80s, disillusionment, anxiety, fear, and an increasingly desperate need for safe refuge.
In a later volume, On the Eve of Uncertain Tomorrows, Bissoondath also has a story, "Security," that forms a sequel to "Insecurity." In "Security," Alistair Ramgoolam is living with his family in Toronto, having escaped the harassment and panic of life in Trinidad. He no longer gets threatening telephone calls late at night, nor does he hear of the mysterious death of his close business associates and consequent police inaction over their cases. But although the sources of his Trinidadian insecurity are removed, Ramgoolam is far from secure in Toronto. His struggles to find employment are one thing; boredom of apartment living is another. What is worse is his dismay over the secular mores of an urban, industrial metropolis, which appear frankly as barbaric to a devout (vegetarian) Hindu like himself. He regards his sons as: "Barbarians, everyone of them. Stuffin' themselves in restaurants with steak and hotdogs and hamburgers."
Ramgoolam's disquiet coincides with the feelings of older Indo-Caribbean immigrants, especially those who come from a rural background and are more traditional; but his greatest worry is his sense of alienation:
"It was from this loneliness, this sense of abandonment, that emerged Mr. Ramgoolam's deepest worry: would his sons do for him after his death all that he had done for his parents after theirs? Would they and, beyond this, could they, in this country fulfill their cremation duties, feed his hungry and wandering soul, have themselves ritually shaved beside a river, dispatch his soul to wherever with the final farewell ceremony? He feared they would not, feared they had grown too far from him and from the past that was his."
The irony of the story's title is evident in the acute spiritual torment that afflicts Ramgoolam. The irony for Indo-Caribbean Canadians is that while they have escaped from the psychological insecurity caused by political instability, marginalization, lack of opportunity and inter-ethnic tension at home, coming to Canada has brought its own insecurity caused by urban-industrial alienation, race and colour prejudice, impersonal, secular mores, and the hectic pace and pressure of modern city living.
Bissoondath's report on Indo-Caribbean experience is corroborated by the work of another Indo-Caribbean Canadian writer Cyril Dabydeen. Dabydeen has written fiction, poetry and criticism, and has edited anthologies of immigrant writing. His titles include Goatsong, 1977 (poems), Elephants Make Good Stepladders, 1982 (poems); To Monkey Jungle, 1988 (stories); Dark Swirl, 1989 (novel); and A Shapely Fire, 1987 (anthology). Like Bissoondath, Dabydeen portrays feelings of displacement, marginalization, anonymity and alienation that affect most Indo-Caribbean Canadians. In particular, Dabydeen provides a frank appraisal of racism encountered by "coloured" or non-white immigrants in Canada. His poem, "Citizenship," records the experience of a non-white immigrant who is about to receive Canadian citizenship:
Walking along
heading for the Citizenship Court
Kent Street/Ottawa
I have been here seven years
Yet the same question
Where do you come from?
I'm identifiable
I'm different
These lines would strike a chord of recognition in most immigrants who belong to so-called visible minorities in Canada; for skin colour is an inescapable badge of foreignness which stimulates stereotypical reactions from a largely white, host community. Still, it is notable how little anger or resentment there is in the poem. The degree of racism is mild and it invokes a response that is equally mild. ...
It would be ironic and perhaps tragic if, having emigrated from the Caribbean in order to evade marginalization, alienation and insecurity, Indo-Caribbean immigrants now run a risk of further marginalization in Canada by being classified as "South Asian." To be grouped with South Asians whose numbers are much greater, and whose cultures are significantly different, may indeed threaten the survival of Indo-Caribbean Canadians by swallowing their culture into a larger group identity that erases its special features and renders them invisible. ...
Whether most younger Indo-Caribbean Canadians become assimilated or not, it is difficult to predict the fate of the Indo-Caribbean disaspora in Canada. What is evident is that Indo-Caribbean Canadians have prospered in a materialistic sense; but this prosperity is accompanied by feelings of psychic disorientation which might justify a general description of the community as being in a condition of "insecure security."
| How are York students financing their education? 17 Undergrads tell all | ||||||
| There has been much discussion in the news media of late about student indebtedness. With that in mind, recently a Gazette work-study student conducted a small, informal (and entirely unscientific) survey of York students to see how they are financing their education. We share the results on these two pages for the interest of our readers, but make no claim that these 17 York undergraduates constitute a representative sample. | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Name: Jen Nguyen Age: 20 Program: Science Year: 1st How are you financing your education? With a full scholarship. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Neil McCoy
Age: 20 Program: Math & Commerce Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? My parents pay for my education. Will you be in debt? Only if my parents are. | Name: Beth Anne Barban
Age: 19 Program: Anthropology and Environmental Studies Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? OSAP and summer jobs. Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $55,000 | Name: Benjamin Valido
Age: 21 Program: Arts Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? By working and with assistance from my parents. Will you be in debt? For now, no, unless the situation changes. | Name: Rachel Swartz
Age: 20 Program: English & Education Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? My parents' savings funds, my own money and scholarships. Will you be in debt? Hopefully, not. | Name: Fuad M.
Age: 22 Program: Biology Year: 4th How are you financing your education? By working and with support from a parent. Will you be in debt? No | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Name: Prabhjot Brar
Age: 20 Program: Business Year: 1st How are you financing your education? By working. Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $6,000 | Name: Matt Fitzpatrick
Age: 23 Program: Science Year: 4th How are you financing your education? I work throughout the year. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Deborah Halioua
Age: 19 Program: Kinesiology Year: 1st How are you financing your education? OSAP and a part-time job. Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $ 5,000 | Name: Brian Levine
Age: 21 Program: Undecided Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? My mother works at York and so my education is paid for. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Amit Whanna
Age: 21 Program: Political Science & Mass Communications Year: 4th How are you financing your education? Part-time employment. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Ian Gordon
Age: 21 Program: Economics Year: 3rd How are you financing your education? With a part-time job on campus and summer employment. Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $ 600 | |
|
|
|
|
| ||
| Name: Adam Thompson
Age: 23 Program: Geography, Canadian Studies Year: 5th How are you financing your education? With help from my parents, part-time jobs and bursaries. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Sonia Donel
Age: 19 Program: Law & Society Year: 2nd How are you financing your education? My parents pay for my education. Will you be in debt? No | Name: Vidal Chavannes
Age: 23 Program: History & Education Year: 5th How are you financing your education? Part-time work, Canada Student Loans, OSAP. Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $10,000 | Name: Rachel Shor
Age: 22 Program: Sociology, Education Year: 5th How are you financing your education? Part-time jobs, summer jobs, University bursaries, parental contribution and private loans. (As an international student, I don't qualify for OSAP.) Will you be in debt? Yes Approximately, how much? $ 8-10,000 U.S. | Name: Darnel Johnson
Age: 22 Program: Biology Year: 3rd How are you financing your education? With a part-time job. Will you be in debt? No | ||
Stéphane Dion
The best way to ensure that Quebec remains a part of Canada is to insist on clarity in discourse and debate and dissemination of the facts, federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Stéphane Dion informed a public meeting in the Moot Court room at Osgoode Hall Law School on March 1.
"The way we will secure unity ... can be summed up in one word: "clarity," Dion said. "We must speak about the issues frankly."
Dion was at the University at the request of the John White Society. His topic was, "The Quebec Reference."
To counter the Parti Quebecois's campaign on behalf of a sovereign Quebec, and to ensure the rest of Canada is informed about all of the related issues, "it is important that the federal government say the same thing in English and in French" [and in each of the provinces], he said.
"In a democracy, we must have information." The enemy of those who are fighting to keep Quebec within Canada is "confusion," said Dion. Previous federal governments have not been frank enough to ask tough questions, he indicated.
"There is no Plan A or Plan B," Dion said, alluding to media reports of the government's alternative plans for ensuring that, if there is to be another referendum on sovereignty, a majority of Quebecers will vote against secession from Canada. "The plan for me is clarity for everything."
The Chretien government's decision to ask the Supreme Court to rule on whether Quebec has the legal right of self-determination, has met with objections from many federalists, Dion acknowledged, but it is important for Quebecers to know that "there is no right of secession in a democracy. It has never been done."
That is why the Chretien government believes the Supreme Court's answer to the question will be no, Dion said.
Quebecers must understand fully the implications of secession, said Dion. "To not challenge the myth about the democratic legitimacy of secession is just as important as to not challenge the economic realities of secession.
"The more people understand the concrete facts, the better."
In seceding, Quebec would not only be removing itself from Canada, it would face the problem of having to remove Canada from Quebec, said Dion.
"How will Quebec push Canada out?" he asked. "Canada could ignore a declaration of independence. It's a recipe for a terrible mess."
Canadians have to ask themselves three questions, he said. "What is Canada? What is the place of Quebec within Canada? How can we [permit ourselves to] break up Canada?
"We must think: Why is Canada great? It is because we have learned together to respect each other. Canada is one of the countries where acceptance of racial diversity is highest," said Dion. "Here, we are more tolerant, more open-minded than the others."
At the beginning of federation, the French and English people who had settled in Canada had to learn to help, respect and accept each other, he said. "They had to invent their own Canada."
There is a need now for all Canadians to act together to improve the country, said Dion. "If we ask ourselves, 'What is Quebec within Canada?' [the answer is] 'Something that is good for all Canadians.' Why? It will help us to deal with diversity.
"That is why the Calgary declaration is something we [as a government] fully support," he said. The declaration, which was formulated by the provincial premiers minus Premier Bouchard, declares a profound respect for equality of all persons, including aboriginals, and recognizes the unique character of Quebec society, said Dion.
According to the polls, 65 per cent of people in every Canadian province approve of the Calgary declaration, he noted. "Recognition of Quebec is compatible with Canadian values."
In contemplating the breakup of Canada, he said, "it is difficult to match democracy and secession. Process is a problem. The democratic consequences of secession are most important. Democracy meets the rule of law."
Would the citizens of Quebec have a legal obligation to obey a provincial government that would set aside the Canadian constitution?, he asked.
In the last referendum, many Quebers voted for solidarity, but not to leave Canada, Dion said. "Most Quebecers want to stay in Canada."
What is the federal government doing to end the seemingly endless cycle of referendums?, one audience member asked. "We must clarify the roles between governments. For the first time, citizens in a democracy would lose their citizenship without [wishing it]," Dion replied.
"I'm saying to them [Quebecers]: 'Canada is a great country. We will try to improve it.'"
When asked what his government's response would be if Montreal chose to remain in Canada if Quebec opted to secede, Dion responded: "Canada will have the right to not consent to secession if the border question is not settled."
Those federalists who disagree with the government decision to put the question of Quebec's right of self-determination to the Supreme Court are wrong, he said. The government has a responsibility, in this and other ways, to spell out the ramifications of a referendum vote in favour of sovereignty.
"We must speak about this now quietly, politely but frankly."
The Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties) invites applications and nominations for the position of Academic Director of the Centre for the Support of Teaching, a unit that provides a broad range of services to teaching and learning. This will be a three-year academic appointment commencing July 1, 1998.
The Academic Director will work with individuals, departments and administrative units at York in assessing needs, and in designing and providing programs to meet the needs in the general area of teaching and learning in higher education. In consultation with the Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties) and the Academic Advisory Board, the Academic Director will develop general policy guidelines for the CST. The Academic Director will also be responsible for motivating instructors to become involved in pedagogical training and research.
The successful candidate must hold a tenured faculty position at York and be able to ensure that academic standards are sought and maintained in the service and programs offered by the Centre for the Support of Teaching. This person should be acquainted with issues in pedagogy and research, and have a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching. In addition, the individual should have sound administrative skills and be able to pursue innovative program designs in collaboration with other central agencies, such as the Instructional Technology Centre, Computing and Communications Services, and the Computer-Assisted Writing Centre.
Applications and nominations should be forwarded to Lorna Houston, Office of the Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties), S945C Ross Building, no later than March 31, 1998. Applications/nominations should include a current curriculum vitae, two or three letters of support addressing the individual's credentials for this position, and a signed statement of the applicant's/nominee's interest in the position.
