Dragon by Dragon

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Canada 150 Reading List - new additions for June!

With July 1st quickly approaching, more and more articles have come out about Canada 150. I've selected a handful of the best articles, with a particular focus on those that discuss Indigenous responses to Canada 150. I particularly recommend listening to the poetry! The latest issue of Canada's History Magazine also has several excellent articles.

Academic articles

These are all accessible by searching from the SFU Library homepage.

Hayday, Matthew. “Fireworks, Folk-Dancing, and Fostering a National Identity: The Politics of Canada Day.” The Canadian Historical Review 91, no. 2 (May 27, 2010): 287–314. doi:10.1353/can.0.0317.

Rutherdale, Myra, and Jim Miller. “‘It’s Our Country’: First Nations’ Participation in the Indian Pavilion at Expo 67.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 17, no. 2 (2006): 148–73. doi:10.7202/016594ar.

Strong-Boag, Veronica. “Experts on Our Own Lives: Commemorating Canada at the Beginning of the 21st Century.” The Public Historian 31, no. 1 (February 2009): 46–68. doi:10.1525/tph.2009.31.1.46.

Manuel, Arthur. 150 Years of Canadian Colonization, 2016.“Arthur Manuel is a Secwepemc-Ktunaca activist. He discusses colonization in Canada and how this systemically impoverished Indigenous Peoples for generations. If Canada is going to renew its relationship with Indigenous Peoples it must recognize the colonial relationship it has with Indigenous Peoples. Canada must recognize that this colonial relationship gives Indigenous Peoples the right to self-determination. This will become clearer when Canada celebrates 150 years of its settler colonial relationship with Britain in 2017.”

McKenzie, Cheryl. “Indigenous Perspectives of Canada 150.” InFocus. APTN, May 17, 2017. [50-minute TV program]

“Noah Richler and Jack Granatstein Debate Canada’s History at the Great Canadian Debates.” Macdonald-Laurier Institute, March 29, 2017. [92 minutes] “Is Canada’s at-times lamentable history the engine that propelled us to a more modern, enlightened future? Can the flaws of our historical figures be explained in the context of their times? Or should we continue to feel ashamed of the calamitous chapters of our past?”

Tremonti, Anna-Maria. “What Does Canada 150 Mean for Indigenous Communities?” The Current. CBC, March 16, 2017. A podcast featuring interviews with three Indigenous community leaders

Canada: The Story of Us

“The Making of Canada: The Story Of Us | CBC Canada 2017,” April 10, 2017.

A Group of Canadian History Experts Discuss Some of the Different Perspectives on Our History | CBC Canada 2017, 2017. The CBC’s discussion of its controversial commemorative program, and a panel of historians addressing the show.

Boisvert, Yves. “In Canada, We Are All Others – Which Makes a Story of Us Impossible.” The Globe and Mail, April 12, 2017.

Doyle, John. “John Doyle: Why the Fuss about Funding We Are Canada? It’s Just Tedious TV.” The Globe and Mail, April 25, 2017.

Macpherson, Don. “Don Macpherson: The Story of Us Isn’t.” Montreal Gazette, April 21, 2017.

Szklarski, Cassandra. “Historians and Filmmakers Dissect CBC’s Maligned Doc Series ‘The Story of Us.’” Times Colonist. Accessed April 27, 2017.

Yeo, Debra. “Canada: A People’s History Returns for Canada 150 | Toronto Star.” The Toronto Star, June 9, 2017.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

A Canada 150 Reading List (part 2 - books)

If you want more in-depth discussion than you've found in articles, check out these books on commemoration, Canada 150, and reconciliation. I have not yet read all of these - this is my own reading list as well! Part 3 will be up in a couple of days. As always, suggestions and reviews are welcome.

What a peculiarly nationalist text...

Books Published For Canada 150

Gray, Charlotte. The Promise of Canada: 150 Years--People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country. 1st edition. Simon & Schuster, 2016. Available at the Vancouver and Burnaby public libraries.

Johnston, David. The Idea of Canada: Letters to a Nation. Signal, 2016. Available as a book or e-book at the Vancouver public library, or at the Burnaby public library.

Russell, Peter H. Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017. Available at the Vancouver public library.

Tait, Myra, and Kiera Ladner, eds. Surviving Canada: Indigenous Peoples Celebrate 150 Years of Betrayal. Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2017. Available at the Vancouver and Burnaby public libraries.

Urquhart, Jane. A Number of Things: Stories About Canada Told Through 50 Objects. 1st Edition edition. Toronto, Ontario: Patrick Crean Editions, 2016. Available at the Vancouver and Burnaby public libraries.

Analyses of commemoration in historical context

These texts are not specific to Canada150, but provide historical context to our celebrations. Note that most of them are written by settlers of European ancestry. I can also recommend readings on specific incidences of commemoration and representations of the past in Canadian history.

Conrad, Margaret, Gerald Friesen, Jocelyn Létourneau, D. A. Muise, Peter C. Seixas, David A. Northrup, and Kadriye Ercikan. Canadians and Their Pasts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. At SFU and BPL.

Gordon-Walker, Caitlin. Exhibiting Nation: Multicultural Nationalism (and Its Limits) in Canada’s Museums. Vancouver ; Toronto: UBC Press, 2016. SFU e-book.

Hayday, Mathew, and Raymond B. Blake, eds. Celebrating Canada: Holidays, National Days, and the Crafting of Identities. University of Toronto Press, 2016. SFU e-book and at VPL.

MacMillan, Margaret. The Uses and Abuses of History. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009. At SFU, VPL, and BPL.

Morgan, Cecilia Louise. Commemorating Canada: History, Heritage, and Memory, 1850s-1990s. Themes in Canadian History 14. Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2016. At SFU and VPL.

Neatby, Nicole, and Peter Hodgins. Settling and Unsettling Memories: Essays in Canadian Public History. Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2012. At SFU library.

Sandwell, Ruth, ed. To the Past: History Education, Public Memory, and Citizenship in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. At SFU and BPL.

Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous histories, and Decolonization

This is a small selection of the available books on this topic; I've chosen the four that I'm most excited to read this year.

Manuel, Arthur. Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2015. At SFU, VPL, and BPL.

Simpson, Leanne, ed. Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence, and Protection of Indigenous Nations. 1 edition. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2008. At SFU and VPL.

Sinclair, Murray, Chief Wilton Littlechild, and Dr Marie Wilson. What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation. Original edition. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015. Available online through SFU.

Vowel, Chelsea. Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada. HighWater Press, 2016. At SFU, VPL, and BPL.

Just for Fun

Fun fact: A surprising number of cookbooks turn up in the search results for "Canada 150" on Amazon. None of them have anything to do with Canada 150.

Covello, Paul, and Leor Boshi. Canada 150 Colouring Book. Collins, 2016. No drawing in library books! But you can buy your own copy.

Sherk, Lawrence C., and Ian Coutts. 150 Years of Canadian Beer Labels. Victoria, BC: TouchWood Editions, 2016. At VPL and BPL.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

A Canada 150 Reading List (part 1 - news articles and blog posts)

This summer, I'll be teaching a community service learning course, FASS 250, in which students will critically engage with the Canada 150 events in the BC Lower Mainland through volunteer work, guest presentations, and seminar discussions. The items included here are optional readings for the course. This list is current as of April 24, 2017. I anticipate many updates through the spring and summer! Comments with suggestions of other resources are very welcome. I am also preparing lists of books, films, and podcasts relating to this topic.

Image courtesy of Rethink Red Deer site, and chosen for its comedic value.

General Discussions of Canada 150

Cameron, Duncan. “It’s Been 150 Years of Canadian Politics. What Comes Next?” Rabble, January 3, 2017. “Whatever the public relations designs for marking this 150th year, it should also allow for extended critical reflection on what history has to suggest for Canadian politics today.”

Couture, Christa. “Canada Is Celebrating 150 Years Of… What, Exactly? | CBC Canada 2017,” January 1, 2017. Questioning how we determine the age of a country.

Crawford, Blair. “Immigrants Are Most Excited about Canada 150 Celebrations; Quebecers — Not so Much.” The Ottawa Citizen; Ottawa, Ont., January 6, 2017. “The newest Canadians are the ones most pumped up to celebrate the country’s sesquicentennial in 2017.”

Everett-green, Robert. “Montreal Can Count on a Double Payout, Sharing a Birthday with Canada.” The Globe and Mail, January 9, 2017. “Canada 150 is also Montreal 375, as anyone who lives here can’t fail to know. In public discourse, the two fêtes are like paired runners in a three-legged race: One can’t appear without the other.”

Hayday, Mathew. “Debate over Celebrating Canada’s 150th May Just Be a Sign We’re a Healthy Democracy.” Ottawa Citizen, February 20, 2017. How should we interpret dissent surrounding Canada150?

Krashinsky Robertson, Susan. “Tchotchkes and T-Shirts: Selling Canada 150: From Hudson’s Bay to Roots, the Sesquicentennial and Its Appetite for Celebratory Souvenirs Is Being Seen as a Profit-Driver for Brands.” The Globe and Mail. March 3, 2017. Commodification of Canada150.

Levesque, Lia. “PQ Launches Alternative Canada 150 Campaign.” The Globe and Mail, January 7, 2017. “The “Other 150” campaign isn’t designed to derail Ottawa’s party, but will “put holes” in the official narrative and highlight Quebec’s history and importance.”

Meloney, Nic. “Tying Mi’kmaq-Acadian Celebration to Canada 150 Brings Mixed Feelings.” CBC News, March 21, 2017. “The man behind this summer's celebration of the "historic relationship" between Acadians and the Mi'kmaq says the event is intended to mark reconciliation efforts as Canada celebrates its 150th birthday.”

Peace, Thomas. “Canadians and Their Pasts on the Road to Confederation.” ActiveHistory.ca, January 20, 2014. A discussion of the Canadians and their Pasts book, situating the Canada150 celebrations within the political context of the Harper government.

Historians Respond to Canada150

Dummit, Christopher. “Canada 150: What’s to Celebrate?” ActiveHistory.ca, April 21, 2017. “But celebrations of the nation state often seem intrinsically troublesome – something [historians] study rather than take part in.” This discussion of the disjuncture between historians and Canadians more broadly is the subject of some controversy in the field.

Eidinger, Andrea. “Inconvenient Pasts: The Charlottetown Conference of 1864.” Unwritten Histories, January 24, 2017. “In reading through these discussions myself, I was often struck by the disparity between the official histories, like, for instance, the #Canada150 campaign, and academic interpretations of the past. The former was so relentlessly positive, and the latter so critical, that it almost seemed as if they were talking about two entirely different events.”

Eidinger, Andrea. “Why Does Canada150 Give Canadian Historians a Headache?” Unwritten Histories, March 14, 2017. “I can tell you that no, most historians aren’t killjoys, nor do we hate Canada. But there are very important reasons why Canada150 is a very problematic campaign.”

Martinborough, Alex. “Cutting Through the Fog: Public Memory and Confederation.” Acadiensis, January 30, 2017. “Though coming to an agreement on a system that brought four, and eventually ten, provinces together was a significant accomplishment, neither the British North America Act nor its authors should be celebrated without reservation. Canada150 presents historians, and the broader Canadian public, a unique opportunity to consider how we discuss and commemorate our past.”

Vowles, Andrew. “Perspectives on Canada 150: Do We All Have Reason to Celebrate?” Campus News, February 21, 2017. “University of Guelph professor Kim Anderson says many Canadians have reason to throw themselves a 150th birthday party in 2017— even if only to celebrate the perennial anti-fact of not being American, particularly in the new Trump era. But they also need to acknowledge ongoing injustices involving the country’s indigenous people.”

Zeller Thomas, Christa. “Birthing a Dominion.” ActiveHistory.ca, January 8, 2015. “Did Canada’s Confederation women give birth to the new dominion in 1867?”

Indigenous Responses to Canada150

note: in separating "Indigenous responses" from "historians' responses" I do not wish to imply that historians are never Indigenous, nor Indigenous peoples historians. However, it is notable that the historians who have publicly written about Canada150 are thus far predominantly settlers of European origin.
Baird, Daniel. “The Alternative Realism of Kent Monkman.” Thewalrus.ca, February 7, 2017. “Monkman’s alter ego was inspired by the nineteenth-century American artist George Catlin, who sometimes painted himself into his portraits of Native Americans. “I wanted to create an artistic persona that could rival that of Catlin,” said Monkman. “So [Miss Chief] was created to reverse the gaze. She looks back at the European settlers.” Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, for Monkman, is a symbol of resilience.”

Coyle, Jim. “150th Anniversary Lays Bare Anger of Indigenous Canadians Not Invited to First Party | Toronto Star.” Thestar.com, April 1, 2017. “Confederation was less about beginnings for First Nations than it was their intended death knell. There may not be much to celebrate, but at least a conversation has begun.”

Dacosta, Jamaias. “The Audacity of Canada 150; a Lie Designed To Erase Our Legacy of Genocide.” Torontoist, April 25, 2017. “Indigenous people are tired of explaining why Canada's history is nothing to celebrate.”

Elliott, Alicia. “#Resistance150: Christi Belcourt on Indigenous History, Resilience and Resurgence | CBC Canada 2017,” February 22, 2017. “I don't want to label Indigenous resistance as being "#Resistance150" but I'm excited to see what people do this year.” [make sure to watch the videos embedded in this post!]

Huron, Deborah. “Will Reconciliation’s Shit-Disturbing Sister Crash the Canada 150 Party?” Ricochet. Accessed April 10, 2017. “The official celebrations won’t be able to hide the country's contradictions.”

Gehl, Lynn. “Celebrating Canada’s 150th: Featuring the Desecration of an Indigenous Sacred Place.” MUSKRAT Magazine, March 16, 2017. Which land uses do we celebrate as we celebrate Canada150?
Lee, Erica Violet, and Hayden King. “The Wigwam Conspiracy: Why Are Canada 150’s Indigenous People Stuck in Time?,” March 30, 2017. “In the midst of a party celebrating Canadian civilization, Indigenous peoples appear as static stereotypes.”

McMahon, Ryan. “Here’s What Indigenous Nationhood Could Look Like in Canada—in the Year 2167.” Vice, March 9, 2017. Comedian and filmmaker on his visions for an Indigenous future.
MacDonald, Nancy. “How Indigenous People Are Rebranding Canada 150.” Macleans.ca, March 13, 2017. “The Canada 150 birthday celebrations could stand to be more inclusive of the Aboriginal experience. Vancouver is trying to make that happen.”

Mahoney, Katherine. “The Roadblock to Reconciliation: Canada’s Origin Story Is False.” The Globe and Mail, May 10, 2016. “Recognition that indigenous peoples were founders of the nation must be acknowledged in a formal, legal way. Only then will there be a solid foundation for Canada to reconcile its past and lay the foundation for a new relationship with its first peoples.”

Moran, Ry. “Reconciling Canada’s 150th: Why 2017 Should Start with Tears: Opinion | CBC Canada 2017,” December 20, 2016. "How will this celebration of Canada's history reconcile with the history experienced by Indigenous peoples in this coming year? Will this be a turning point in our national journey towards reconciliation or will this be a celebration of the status quo?"

Obomsawin, Alanis. “For 150 Years, People Have Been Told Lies about Canada’s History.” TIFF, March 27, 2017. “For 150 years, people have been told lies about the history of this country. Lies about the people, about the land.”

Ostroff, Joshua. “‘Colonization Road’ Is A Film. It’s Also An Actual Road Because Canada.” The Huffington Post, October 23, 2016. “At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I'm offended that people want to throw Canada a birthday party," says Anishinaabe/Métis comedian and activist Ryan McMahon. "I want to go to the birthday party and spill red wine all over the white carpet.”

Ostroff, Joshua. “Buffy Sainte-Marie On Why Canada Needs To Decolonize.” The Huffington Post. Accessed April 10, 2017. “Decolonizing doesn't hurt anybody. It's exactly what everybody needs to do...My motto is stay calm and decolonize.”

Palmater, Pamela. “Canada 150 Is a Celebration of Indigenous Genocide.” NOW Magazine, March 29, 2017. “Perhaps Canada should cancel its celebrations and undertake the hard work necessary to make amends.”

Sayers, Judith. “What I Choose to Celebrate on This Day Called ‘Canada Day.’” CBC News, July 1, 2016. “Mostly, I celebrate the fighting spirit that lies within First Nations peoples across Canada. The spirit that never lets us stop restoring what was once ours, for rebuilding our nations and way of life… On this day that is called "Canada Day," I am refusing to be negative and repeat the same message I have been giving for too long because it hasn't worked.”

Sumanac-Johnson, Deana. “Telling Their Stories or Opting out: Indigenous Artists on Canada 150.” The National - CBC Television; Toronto, February 7, 2017. “As Canada 150 celebrations extol the glory of Canada's past and present, one group of artists is not so quick to join the party. Indigenous artists view the sesquicentennial with mixed feelings, with some using it as a platform to tell their peoples' side of the story, and others opting to boycott the celebrations altogether.”

“Resistance vs Resiliency: UNB Elder to Serve as Canada 150 Ambassador.” CBC News, April 5, 2017. “Many First Nations people are boycotting Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation celebrations this year, but Imelda Perley, an elder in residence at the University of New Brunswick, has agreed to take on the role of ambassador for Canada 150.”

Satire and Comedy

Duarte Speil, Jacob. “75% of Canada 150 Budget Spent on Hiding Worst Parts of National History.” The Beaverton, April 23, 2017.

Petrie, Ned. “Original Fathers of Confederation Announce Canada 150 Reunion Tour | CBC Comedy,” April 20, 2017.

Skye, Courtney. “First Nations Decline Invite to Canada 150 Event, Cite Onerous Task of Washing Hair during Boil Water Advisory | CBC Comedy,” January 5, 2017.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Clickbait

This morning, while listening to the radio, my mother called me to ask, "Leah, what's 'clickbait'?" So I explained that it's a headline to tease someone into clicking a link, only to find that there's nothing particularly interesting on the webpage.

This afternoon in the Archives of Ontario, looking at microfilmed education files, I'm finding the clickbait of the early twentieth century. I could write a satirical conference paper pretending to draw out matters of substance from the most hideously dull, yet enticingly-titled, letters that I’ve found. We've all seen them: the files that are merely cover letters for other documents, acknowledgements of having received a package, and so forth, that somehow get their own individual file and a title for what the file would have been, if only it included the actual document, the actual package. The file that cruelly masquerades as a matter of substance and entices us to look inside (or scroll for ten minutes through a poorly labeled microfilm reel) only to find... “I beg sir to acknowledge the receipt of your favour of the fourth instant regarding [super exciting issue!] and will give it due consideration.” and...nothing more.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Truth and Reconciliation, Canadian Mass Media, and Arguments about Genocide

Since arriving home from the Congress for the Social Sciences and Humanities this Friday, I've been trying (perhaps in vain) to catch up with the extensive media coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission closing activities. This weekend, the coverage ramped up a bit, with weekend papers giving opinion pieces, including some strong articles in the Globe and Mail and a variety of less astute writing elsewhere. I planned on writing a field guide of sorts, noting who was saying what about the TRC. Then I realized that the extent of the coverage meant that I could either give a review, or merely a series of links; I chose the former. Perhaps in future days I will read and write more. I hope to read beyond the mainstream media as well, because Indigenous blogs are of course a critical source for learning more about the TRC and its implications.

I'll start with the lowest-hanging fruit: Conrad Black, of all people, argued in the National Post that Canada's treatment of Aboriginal people, though shameful, wasn't genocide. Black starts with an assertion that I would agree with - that all countries founded on immigration could be accused of cultural genocide, of either the indigenous peoples or the arrivals. Yes, indeed we can; but just because we've all been committing cultural genocide, to various degrees, doesn't make it any better. Black continues with the sorts of apologist arguments that frankly don't deserve to be quoted, alleging a primitive population that was unfortunately assimilated through violence that, in Black's opinion, does not constitute genocide. He argues this by John A. Macdonald's policies to those of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, who certainly terrorized people in different ways. If you click the link (which I don't endorse, if that's not already clear!), save yourself from the horrific comments.

At the moment that I'm writing this, the Sunday night panel on CBC's The National are debating whether or not this was a genocide. Jonathan Kay, from The Walrus and John Moore, host of Newstalk 1010 (both white men) are the regular panelists; tonight, they were joined by Dawn Lavell-Harvard from the Native Women's Association of Canada for a discussion of stereotypes about Aboriginal people. Kay made an argument that was relatively similar to that of Conrad Black, that because residential schools ≠ Hitler that they were not genocide. Lavell-Harvard unsurprisingly disagreed. Wendy Mesley, hosting, said to her arguing commentators that it wouldn't be possible for their panel to resolve whether residential schools were genocide. I generally respect Mesley, but resent her simply saying that the panel could not resolve the issue; indeed, it's not their role, after years of extensive research by the TRC. The TRC's publication What We have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation (PDF) notes in its second paragraph that residential schools were a component of a policy of cultural genocide. The report goes on to distinguish physical, cultural, and reproductive genocide, instantly refuting the arguments of those who dismiss statements of genocide by contrasting residential schools with Nazi concentration camps. When the TRC has taken this much time to consult survivors, to comb through documents - who are these journalists, who are Canadians at large, to persist in debating whether or not this is a genocide? Is it not time to put this argument to rest?

Doug Saunders, international affairs columnist for the Globe, notes the challenges of applying the term "genocide" to something that happened in Canada: the term "cultural genocide" itself was previously merely "an activist slogan and academic obscurity" (for the record, I'm inclined to disagree with that assertion - but since I move in academic circles, I'm not the person to make that argument); it's a label we link to the Holocaust in Germany; unlike other acts of cultural genocide, this affected a smaller percentage of the population. But he makes several comparisons to international events that should help Canadians to understand that, yes, it happened here just like it did elsewhere, in particular showing parallels between the Ukrainian Holodomor and Canadian policy. I've read several other articles today that I'd recommend, but regarding ideas about genocide, the Saunders piece is a pre-requisite for anyone who needs to be persuaded (or who is trying to persuade others) that yes, the TRC's accusations of genocide is more than reasonable in an international context.

The TRC and CHA - some thoughts on an opportunity lost

This year's Canadian Historical Association (CHA) annual meeting ran from May 31st to June 3rd; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) closing activities spanned the same dates. Though both events were located in Ottawa, I am struck by how little interchange there was between the two. Where we could have had an event that was cohesive and powerful, instead the week felt fragmented and disengaged.

In panels about Aboriginal issues, presenters or audience members referred to the report and media coverage but, troublingly, none of the CHA sessions were specifically in dialogue with the TRC activities. While the TRC offered a livestream for those unable to attend in person, the University of Ottawa wifi was unable to cope with the influx of Congress attendees, much less with people streaming an hour or so of proceedings. There was no space available for people to watch a stream with a wired internet connection, in a group, with space for dialogue; no group transportation between the two events.

I think, also, of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE). Their keynote brought in Bolivia's Vice Minister of Decolonization, Félix Cárdenas Aguilar, to speak on decolonizing education. However, only a handful of papers (which I did not attend, not being registered for the CSSE) considered the history of indigenous education, passing up a valuable opportunity for sessions that engaged with the TRC. From my cursory reading of the CSSE programme, I saw a number of papers on Indigenous pedagogies and decolonization, and on the challenges of northern reserve education, to give a couple of examples. But so much appears to be missing: where was the panel on the Truth and Reconciliation commission? If the CHA is large, the CSSE is gargantuan - getting lost in a list of sessions is hard to avoid. In contrast to the CHA, which noted that particular sessions on Aboriginal history were part of a sponsored mini-conference, papers on Indigenous education in the CSSE proceedings were scattered about, so that there was no coherent way to find them and attend them.

The Congress as a whole offered two events that dovetailed with the TRC proceedings: May 30th saw Murray Sinclair in a standing-room-only Big Thinking lecture, entitled "What do we do about the legacy of Indian residential schools?" followed by a youth panel discussion on Reconciliation and the Academy. This featured an impressive pair of pre-teen presenters, both youth leaders in Ottawa, alongside more well-known speakers such as Cindy Blackstock, Tracy Coates, Imam Zijad Delic, and moderator Waubgeshig Rice. Both of these were well-attended and informative. But in the Congress programme, these were the only two sessions I saw on reconciliation. There were likely a few here and there in the programmes for various associations - but how to find them? We have such an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue at Congress, and for engaging with major debates, issues, etc. - so while I had a great time at the conference this year, and thoroughly enjoyed (though exhausted) myself, I left with a nagging sense of disappointment.

CSSE sessions on indigenous people, history, and education:
(this list is partially for my own notes, so that I remember to contact these scholars - or for whoever actually reads my blog who wants this info for their own purposes. Note that it's likely that I've missed a few entries that would be of interest for me, and that I haven't listed panels that aren't about history or reconciliation)

Julie Vaudrin-Charette (Ottawa); Getting Credit for White Settler Colonialism: A Historiography of Indigenous Education Policy in Canada

A Textual Analysis of Post-Secondary Funding in Indian Affairs Annual Reports: 1947 - 1990. Josephine Steeves (Saskatchewan)

Witnessing residential school testimonial texts as self study in the preparation of future teachers: Disrupting colonial futurist logics in education. Lisa Taylor (Bishop's)

Working in Tandem: Federal-Provincial Collaboration in Indigenous Education, 1901-1951
Helen Raptis (Victoria)

Using re-storying as a pedagogical tool to examine the Indian residential school experience with young non-Indigenous students: an exploration into notions of identity and societal responsibility. Daniela Bascunan (Toronto) (roundtable)

Addressing Truth and Reconciliation: Curriculum, Non-Aboriginal Teachers, and Public Education

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook (Ottawa), Jesse Butler (Ottawa), Ferne McFadden (Ottawa), Julie Vaudrin-Charette (Ottawa) (symposium)

Engaging difficult conversations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous preservice teachers: Taking up historical responsibilities through Story and Literature. Lisa Taylor (Bishop's), Curran Jacobs (Bishop's)

The complexities of youth civic engagement in decolonizing territories and post-colonial nations: The challenges for Tikkun--Pedagogies of repair and reconciliation. Yvette Daniel (Windsor), Lisa Korteweg (Lakehead), Heather Koller (Lakehead), Frances Cachon (Windsor), Erwin Selimos (Windsor), Ereblir Kadriu (University of Pristhina), Janet Tower (Grand Rapids Community College), Nombuso Dlamini (York), Cynthia Kwakyewah (York)

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Adventures in Archives...And Emergency Rooms

Ottawa hates me. This is, right now, all that I can conclude.

I'm finally back in the archives. Yes, back. For the past two weeks, I've been too sick to eat more than the occasional morsel, or even drink much for some of that time. Lots of pain. Several trips to the hospital. I'll spare the details. For two weeks, the time I've spent in the archives has been minimal, which is supremely disappointing! It's a saga that's distinctly not fun, and I'm still not feeling quite up to standard, but I'm going to get back to work as best I can. I suppose this goes to show the old adage about best laid plans. Fortunately, I do have the opportunity to come back to Ottawa in the summer, and can finish up some of these boxes then.

One heartening thing I have found, however, is that the archives are not as soulless as one might imagine. The security guards whom I'd chatted with on breaks asked me if I was alright and how I was doing, welcoming me back. The archivists and privacy analysts are being understanding of my adjusted time frame. So it's not all bad - just disappointing.

Next step, two conferences and a few more days in the archives.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Adventures in Archives...and Airbnb

This has been an unusual week. I last posted at the close of my second day in the archives. Since then, I've spent a good many long days there, and scanned and photographed more things than I'd care to count. Some highlights have included materials from the Junior Red Cross, and the notes for an educational psychology research project in 1950 - particularly exciting for me also because my mother is in that field, and when I went home for the weekend, I shared the files I'd found. She'd administered those same tests and was able to give context for the psychology side of things.

Almost every day, I find something that makes me laugh. An awkward typo, asking for "poets" rather than "posts" to build a fence. A letter with a cigarette burn. A political cartoon inserted between two far more serious documents. The documents I've found haven't quite made me cry yet, and I'm not so sure that's a good thing. In the past two days, I've been looking at a box of restricted material about health in the Sudbury area (a district which included a large chunk of northern Ontario). A mother writes in from a sanatorium, asking to be transferred to the same facility as her son. A bureaucrat denies her request. Two children write letters to their mother in a sanatorium; the mother forwards the letters to the Department of Indian Affairs, concerned that her daughters are being mistreated by their father and stepmother while she is away.

This week, the archives have been the consistent thing that holds me together. I've had to change accommodation, after my Airbnb rental turned out to be quite disastrous. I've been itching to write it down, and lack a better place to put it, so here goes.

The place looked great in the descriptions and photographs on the Airbnb website. Queer-friendly household, vegetarian, rabbinical student who collects books. They sounded like my kind of people. When I got there, though, the place was in a bit of a shambles. When I arrived on Sunday, I found that the room I'd rented lacked a dresser, so I couldn't put my stuff away, and it was so tiny that with open suitcases on the floor, I really couldn't walk. The host had large piles of her stuff in the corner, so I couldn't even push my stuff out of the way. Despite the description saying that the host was fastidious about cleaning, that turned out not to be the case - dishes everywhere, hair everywhere. Both women who lived there have very long hair, and said hair went everywhere possible - in my bed, all over the kitchen and bathroom. I can cope with a bit of hair, though, or a few dishes in the sink; I'm hardly a neat-nik.

After remembering that the ad for the room showed a picture of a dresser, I looked again at the Airbnb listing. That's when I realized that I wasn't just awkwardly feeling out of place in a new space - the room wasn't at all like the one in the photographs! It took little time for me to realize that I was living in an entirely different place. They had taken photos in their previous home, then moved to a different apartment in the same neighbourhood. Since I'd decided against previous places because of the lack of either a dresser or desk, or because the room didn't have much floor space, it was frustrating to find myself suddenly in a place that I would have turned down had I known what it actually looked like. The bedroom was small, and I didn't feel like I could hang out in the living room very much, because my host had rented her own bedroom, and was sleeping on her sofa for the month. Airbnb, when I told them about it, let me know that I'd be eligible for a full refund if I had to leave the place.

The other thing that I didn't know about in advance is that my host runs a minyan out of her home, regularly having prayer and study groups in her living room.

On my second day in the flat, I texted a good friend: "I am moderately concerned that my airbnb hosts want to convert me to more Jewish than I am." It turns out that I was on to something. On my third evening there, they invited me to the Torah study they hold regularly in their living room. I'm generally up for learning something new, so I went. That week's reading was Emor, from Leviticus, and indeed it was interesting stuff. Most of the study group ended up being tangents from the text, which was good, because the text is obviously far more religious than I am comfortable with. My host seemed to figure out, perhaps just from my body language, which parts of the discussion resonated with me - so she offered to lend me particular Jewish texts to talk about various issues. At the conclusion of the Torah study, I felt like I'd learned a lot, and figured I'd go back the following week. I realized later in the evening that something just didn't feel right, though, about this. I've always felt comfortable in how I practice Judaism (generally in my case, it is a culture, rather than a religion, and I am absolutely fine with that). The Torah group made me feel like there was something wrong with what I have been happily doing all my life, and that I need to prioritize doing more, and being more visible. Each of my hosts covered their heads with a kippah, and wore long sleeves and long skirts. In their home, I felt naked, wearing the shorts that I usually do during a heat wave. When they prayed before meals, I felt like I should be doing something, too. It is disconcerting to me, now, that I felt compelled to change something about myself, after just a couple of days - and that I continue thinking about them, six days after leaving their home. My host's roommate, who converted to Judaism quite recently, is preparing a course for Jews who have been out of touch with Judaism and wish to reconnect. We chatted a lot about queer issues, and politics - particularly the Alberta election - but ultimately, every conversation made its way, somehow, to religion. Would I consider a female God? A gender-neutral one?

Following the Torah study, I asked my host if she could please move her piles of stuff out of the corner of the room, and set up some sort of a dresser so that I could unpack; it's so hard to feel at home in a place while living out of a suitcase. I'd arrived while she was out of town, and her room-mate had said she'd look into it, but obviously the two women hadn't communicated about the dresser yet. Yes, she said, of course she'd do this, right away while I was at the archives the next day.

I arrived home that evening after a long day in the archives. Nothing at all had changed in my room, and my host made no mention about it. I realized that if she hadn't done anything about it by then, odds are that she wouldn't - and perhaps she never had any intention to. When I first arrived, I'd asked my host's room-mate about locking the doors at night, because I really don't feel safe sleeping when the doors are unlocked. She agreed to, but every night thereafter, I had to do it - and if they put out the trash or something after I'd already locked the front door, they didn't lock it again. The bathroom had no curtain or frosting on the window, and while getting out of the shower, I noticed a person in a window across the backyards. Obviously that sort of thing creeped me out, but I realized that I felt even more uncomfortable with the people who were in the home than the people who were outside of it. I can be an anxious person at times, but I normally have things under control. In this home, I was beginning to panic. It was clear that I had to move. Officially, the reason for the move was the lack of a dresser; of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

While packing my belongings, late at night, my host got up from the sofa to use the washroom, and confusedly wandered into my bedroom. Already on edge, I was really unable to handle having an unexpected person stumble in the door. She muttered a bit, then left. I finished packing, and slept terribly. Fortunately, a good friend of mine lives in Ottawa, and was happy to rent me her apartment while she spent time with her boyfriend out of town. In the morning, I took a taxi to her place.

I spent the weekend at my mother's home in Toronto. When I described my hosts to her, she mused that this sounded a bit like a cult. I looked up the rabbinical program that my host had trained in, and it certainly sounds fringey - something along the lines of Hassidic Judaism, combined with Buddhism, and elements of various other spiritual practices, taking a feminist sort of approach. I googled the name of the group, adding the word "cult" to my search. While no list of cult-like religions is infallible, the presence of this group on such a list was enough to make me feel that I'd dodged a bullet by leaving.

At present, my host is messaging me insisting that she will not give a refund. Airbnb has already refunded my money for the nights I didn't stay, and I will not be bullied into giving any of that back. All in all, I probably lost a day of good archive work to dealing with this situation, and found myself even more stressed than I would normally be during a research trip. Worn down, today I took a two-hour nap after breakfast, and I'm hoping that I'm not getting sick.

Now, back to the archives.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Sometimes, all you can do is imagine.

Today I spent some time reading death inquiry reports from two residential schools in Ontario. Nothing that I saw today was particularly surprising, but the documents do weigh on me. Over a period of ten years, ten kids died at one school, and twelve at the other. Each report listed the name of the child; the cause of death; what sorts of medical care was done for the child; whether the local doctor evaluated the death as having been preventable. For every single one of these reports, the doctor determined that the school staff had done everything they could. I can’t time travel—and am not qualified to give a medical opinion even if I were there—but I am skeptical. At any rate, it does say what they may have thought about prevention: one a child had tubercular meningitis, little could be done, but there was no comment in any report about preventing the disease from having taken hold in the first place.

Often what strikes me the most is what remains unsaid in the records I read. The children and families have little voice, here, and I am still grappling with how to address this in my thesis. In this group of death reports, a principal notes that the mother of one small child came to the school to offer her comfort in her final days; a chief wrote to the Department of Indian Affairs to complain that often, communities learned of children’s deaths second-hand, as the school was not reliable about contacting parents. Following this letter, the principal forwarded brief notes to each family, notifying them of his regret and the funeral arrangements for the child. If the parents responded, their letters were not kept in the file.

The report that sits with me the most tonight pertains to a little girl named Doris. Despite policies that children were not to be at a residential school until the age of seven, there are a great many cases of children attending the schools younger than that. The report noted that Doris, who passed away late one November, had turned four the previous March. Four. A handful of words on a page describe and rationalize the final days of a small child.

With no words to tell the rest of the story, my imagination tries to fill in the blanks. For the sake of preserving myself for a month of long days in the archives, I cannot let it - but at the same time, I don’t feel right turning that side of my mind off.

At the end of day two in the LAC microfilm room, this is where I’m at.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Ottawa

Here I am, in a cafe a few blocks from the archives in Ottawa, waiting for my breakfast. It’s been a slow start to the morning as I get my bearings in a new city, but I’m hoping to be in the reading room by 11 AM. I flew into Toronto last week, and spent a few days catching up with my family before coming here late yesterday. While there, I worked for two days at the Archives of Ontario, mostly looking at microfilms. So far, I haven’t seen anything groundbreaking, but there was an interesting file from the Sociological Committee regarding research on Aboriginal communities in the 1880s, and a file of correspondence on the Bear Island school in the Temagami area, where the provincial and federal governments cooperated to form a reserve school (this sort of cooperation is not particularly common, from what I’ve seen so far).

Dealing with privacy issues wasn’t as complicated as I’d anticipated. There was a good deal of bureaucracy, but shortly before I left for Ontario, a consultant called me from LAC to discuss my needs. I’d initially submitted a regular access to information request, as this was the only option given on the LAC website for gaining access to restricted files. It turns out that, for researchers, there is also an option called 8(2)(j), which lets me access many restricted files, provided that I safeguard the confidentiality of personal information. To get this access approved, I had to submit a formal request outlining how I would protect the information I received, and how I would anonymize it for eventual publication. Storing information on an encrypted and locked external hard drive, and assigning pseudonyms if I refer to an individual case in my writing, was sufficient. On the train yesterday, I received an email approving my request. This was far faster than a regular ATIP request, and it cost me nothing (for an ATIP request, I would have had to pay for the archivists’ time, in excess of five hours, to review the files - and that would have added up quite significantly, since I have a great many files to review!).

Breakfast now eaten, here I go!

***

12 hours later...

My first day at the archives was fun, though overwhelming. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the impact of the recent cuts to LAC. Four years ago, when I was last here, I came in and straight away got to speak with an archivist about my needs. Fortunately, this time, I am more independent in my research, because I would have had to make an appointment in advance in order to speak with anyone. Even to submit a request for documents and get a self-serve copy request form approved took a lengthy wait. Four years ago, there was a cafeteria. This time, there are merely vending machines, and I was glad to find a coffee shop just two blocks away. Unfortunately, it is closed on weekends. After 4 PM, there isn't a soul to help out. I don't expect research support in the evening opening hours, but I'm certainly glad that I know how to run a microfilm machine.

The overwhelming part is considering the sheer volume of files I plan to consult. I got through a few microfilm reels today, but there are so, so many more that I have yet to look at. If reels were available through interlibrary loan (as they were until the year before I started my PhD program) I'd be less concerned, but I only have a month to spend in Ottawa this summer. I have many more files to consult in Toronto and Sault Ste Marie in July and August, so more work in Ottawa will have to wait until perhaps the end of the summer, but more likely Christmas, or reading week. That's frustrating.

Fortunately, there are many, many needles in what seems like a haystack of files. Today, I read regulations about school inspections, a few school inspection reports, correspondence about medical matters in residential schools, and instructions from the Department of Indian Affairs to school staff regarding the procedures to be followed, administratively, in case of the death of a student. I've found a fair number of files that will undoubtedly be useful for me - and there are hundreds more, waiting.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Where am I?

For nearly a year, this blog has been nearly silent. My post-comps world got off to a slow start, but as of the end of February, I am a PhD candidate and ready to start my research.

During my prospectus defence, my supervisor - knowing that I thrive on metaphors - suggested one for helping to keep my work manageable. Think of a stone that you lift up, she said; underneath it are many different types of bugs. You might want to know where every single one of them are going, but that’s not feasible. You can only follow one or two bugs at a time.

“One bug at a time” has been a sort of motto as I’ve waded through catalogues of files, trying to decide what, when, where, and how I will read this summer. And so I have playfully subdivided my list of primary documents that I have yet to read into “bugs” - categories, really - so that the list does not become too overwhelming. That’s not precisely what she was suggesting in this metaphor, but I do feel that it’s in the same spirit.

I’ll be spending this summer in archives in Toronto and Ottawa. At the beginning of the month, I sent out privacy requests for swaths of files; I have yet to gain access to any of them. Fortunately, I have a few hundred non-restricted documents to pore over first. Some of these are online, so they’re a good place to start while I’m in BC. In a sense, I’m alternating between two bugs right now - the Department of Indian Affairs annual reports (I am tweeting snippets of these, sporadically, at @DIAreports) when internet access is not reliable, and various letters and memoranda from the Red Series when I do have a good connection and can view digitized image files.

Yesterday, I read a handful of letters pertaining to custody issues in the Northern Superintendency. One of the files I reviewed was quite lengthy, and also troubling. A little boy had gone to live in the home of a white settler in a village near his reserve. This settler had pulled the child out of school, in favour of tutoring him privately. I hope that I am seeing euphemisms where none exist, but to me, the Indian Agent’s condemnation of the man sounded like an allegation of sexual abuse. In any case, the man was deemed an unfit guardian, and the Department of Indian Affairs sent the child to the Shingwauk school, a significant distance from their home. Notably, there was another residential school far closer to the reserve; this was one of thousands of cases where interdenominational rivalry severed a family. The child’s family was neither absent nor deemed unfit by any of the officials involved in deciding his fate; the Department of Indian Affairs objected to a settler man adopting the child because the man was a "very peculiar sort of a fellow” - they made scant mention, however, of the boy’s mother and grandparents who were raising him.

Today, I read still more files where the fate of a child was decided by white officials, far away. The files are full of words, yet blank when it comes to what I feel matters so much - the children themselves. In one case, the adults argue over jurisdiction, and whose responsibility it is to pay for the costs of a child’s maintenance in a reformatory, but behind all this documentation is an eleven-year-old who has been sentenced to five years in an alien environment, as punishment for misbehaving and running away from a residential school. In another file, the Department swiftly agreed to pay for the transportation of a little girl who was to travel to Toronto to have her foot amputated; for the surgery, she spent two months away from home. While my research is on policy, I am aching to see how children responded to the politicking that severed them from their homes, severed their limbs. From the thousands of pages of microfilm, spanning decades, I hope we have not severed the children.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

The Orpheus choir, and the "End of Innocence"

I am usually reluctant to attend Remembrance Day proceedings. I am not merely jaded, but also skeptical of the commemorative impetus behind many official ceremonies that, in my opinion, celebrates war, rather condemning it. However, while visiting Toronto last month, I had the opportunity to attend the Orpheus Choir’s Remembrance Day concert, “The End of Innocence.” The choir’s slogan is “expect something different” and my sister, a choir member, had told me how the concert would involve a multimedia presentation and dramatic readings in addition to the music. So many Remembrance Day observances feel faded out after years of repetition, but this, as promised, was different – a poignant recognition of the day, and also among the most memorable and evocative concerts of my adult life.

The performance was impeccable. It was less a commemoration than a story of the First World War through image, drama, and music, mourning the end of the “age of innocence” by using music to create a wrinkle in time between the audience and the dramatized primary sources. Sandwiched between a prelude and postlude were images, music, and texts that juxtaposed consonance and dissonance, moving through the emotions of the period. The musical, visual, and textual selections of Robert Cooper, Joan Nicks, and Mary Barr braided together perfectly. For example, Edward Moroney’s “King and Country,” a medley of popular music from the period, reflected the upbeat mood following the armistice – and that is when the visuals moved from black and white images of the war to brightly coloured movie posters. Stratford Festival actors Bethany Jillard and Mike Shara executed a narration comprised of a series of letters and diary entries from the war – clearly selected after extensive research.

At times, the concert felt like it was a single piece, perhaps an oratorio with several composers, rather than a more traditional choral concert. Most of the characters lived in the narration; however, at one point, a young man rose from the chorus for a solo in Howard Goodall’s “Do Not Stand At My Grave.” Scarcely older than the soldiers who died in the war, the lyrics took on the air of his letter home to a family for whom he could never have truly died; most families could never have afforded to visit a grave overseas. Instead, their loved ones disappeared into the mud of an unknown place. How real could death be, without a tangible body? The chorus was a canvas for these sorts of characters; at times, the choir sat or knelt, with the book lights they used to see their music only slightly illuminating their faces. From my pew at the back of the church, they looked like they were praying.

After this praise, it may seem peculiar that my main criticism of the concert is actually its very premise: was World War One really the end of the “age of innocence”? This is, certainly, the assumption of the Canadian public – what we have been taught in high school history classes for generations, and what people during the war (to my knowledge) declared. Notably, however, we repeatedly make such assumptions that our era is exceptional. The program noted the Ottawa attack, just a few weeks previously, and I immediately thought about how the CBC portrayed that shooting as an unprecedented change. Given the colonial violence through which Canada was founded, the idea that Canada ever had its innocence is a tremendous erasure of history. Perhaps each successive war has been chipping away at “innocence” – in which case, since it did not exist in the first place, we are left with an ever-expanding vacuum.

Last year, I was a teaching assistant for History 102, Canada since Confederation. For the lecture on the First World War, the professor set up a slide show of photographs of some of the most gruesome parts of trench warfare: men with parts of their faces missing, severed limbs in the mud, that sort of thing. For the second half of the two-hour lecture period, he read a memoir (I have unfortunately forgotten the name or author) about life in the trenches. It was emotionally overwhelming, seeing those photographs while hearing about the experiences of a man, younger than our students, who faced a reality where he would be killed if he did not kill other men, often at close range. Neither the memoir nor the photographs spared any details – appropriately, since the goal of the lesson was to instill the horror of war in the minds of a group of young adults who, almost invariably, had only seen such images in video game animations. This was the most effective lecture about a war that I'd ever seen. However, in the tutorial following that lecture, some of my students reported having had nightmares. At least two had exited the lecture hall in tears. I wondered afterwards how to create a balance, showing students the horrors of war, but without so horrifying them that they might be reluctant to study history further.

My students comprise a very different demographic from the Orpheus choir members or audience. The audience for this concert was overwhelmingly white middle-aged people or seniors, seated in an Anglican church in an exclusive neighbourhood – this is standard for the Toronto choral scene. This group was very clearly moved, and I wish I could see how the young, multicultural students whom I have taught might react to such a concert. Most of my students are unversed in classical music, which might be the ticket to bringing the power of both war and peace into their understandings of history.

Just over a month later, the notes and images of this concert have not faded from my mind. Usually, I attend a choral concert expecting just that – a concert. In this case, I indeed experienced something different: a service, a haunting, a lesson, a reverie, and a collective fear of death and celebration of life.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Post-secondary class privilege: an open letter to Margaret Wente

Dear Margaret Wente,
In a recent column in the Globe and Mail, you argued that the affordability crisis in post-secondary education, in which Canadian students pay high tuition fees and thus take on significant debt, is a "myth." In a nutshell, your argument is that, because half of all students graduate without any debt whatsoever, the debt crisis is not real. You make this argument by citing the misleading perspective of Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates:

“In net terms, Canadians pay zero tuition,” Mr. Usher says. “We’ve got free university and we don’t even know it.” So much for the affordability crisis.

In net terms. The trouble is that for many Canadian students, the net is irrelevant. Even Usher himself acknowledges that there are tremendous inequalities in this "net zero" tuition, and that it does not mean that Canadians are going to school for free. For the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the affordability crisis is not a "net" matter so much as an equity issue. "Eduflation," their portmanteau to describe the disproportionate increase of tuition in relation to income, disproportionately affects middle- and low-income families. Ms. Wente, your analytical oversight is in misinterpreting the net to be representative of a general experience, and mentioning inequalities but dismissing them as a paltry matter because they average out.
Nearly half of students approaching university age in Canada, you claim, have RESPs. By extension, however, over half of that demographic does not have this. If you throw a party and give cake to just under half the guests, regardless of the average amount of cake distributed being satisfactory, your guests will be disappointed. Or, for a more visual representation, consider this image, which has been making rounds for some time on social media. While the net height of the boxes in relation to the height of the children enables the net child to see over the fence, it is plainly apparent that there is a significant practical difference in their experiences:

Three children stand on boxes in front of a fence, trying to watch a baseball game. In the "equality" frame, the three each stands on a box, and the tallest has a clear view while the shortest cannot see at all. In the "equity" frame, the tallest stands on the ground, while the shortest stands on two boxes, and all three can watch the game."

Equity vs. Equality

RESPs help students whose parents have money to invest in their education. For those students, it's a great resource. The trouble is that it is not a universal - not even close. The same issue goes for scholarship money, which you note has increased significantly since the 1990s. "Merit" is not exclusively a facet of innate academic ability, but also a reflection of a lifetime of the advantages students gain from privilege. My work as a teaching assistant during my PhD has introduced me to a number of undergraduate students from various backgrounds, hammering home the ongoing impact of my own privilege.

As an undergraduate student, I was comfortably within the upper middle class. My sister and I benefited from significant privileges due to our economic background, and our mother's position as a university faculty member, and these outgrowths of our privilege continue to help me through my graduate career. Many of my students clearly lack these advantages. My intention here is not to boast about my current position or achievements; indeed, while I worked hard to get what I did, from an equity perspective I certainly would not say that I deserve it. In essence, I climbed an academic ladder that less privileged peers were holding up. The merit-based awards I used to support my education are the product of my class privilege.

From early childhood, we had access to whatever resources we needed to do well in school. When the school didn't have enough textbooks for every student (not uncommon in Ontario schools during and since the Mike Harris years), my family could afford to purchase our own copies. Rather than working part-time and during the summers through high school, my sister and I could volunteer, or participate in leadership programs at overnight camp – the sort of experiences that impress scholarship judges.

With a parent already enmeshed in the world of post-secondary education, I knew the importance of applying for scholarships. In grade twelve, I spent several hours each week crafting applications and personal statements, which my mother proofread for me, encouraging me not to undersell myself. This writing skill was instrumental for my later graduate school and funding applications. Being part of a university family had another advantage in familiarizing me with academic norms: visiting office hours was natural to me as an undergraduate, after a childhood of trotting around a university department on school PD days, and I was intimidated only by the gruffest of professors. Many of my students will only come to office hours when they are already desperate, and lose the advantage of having cultivated an academic relationship throughout the semester.

My mother could afford to let me live at home, rent-free, which meant that while I worked full-time during each summer as an undergraduate, I worked only limited hours part-time during the school year, and could scale back my hours when my academic work necessitated it. I earned very good grades as an undergraduate, helping me win ongoing scholarships and funding my graduate education. I was obsessive about my academic work not just because of my personality, but also because I could afford to be. I've had students fail to hand in a paper on time because their work schedule interfered, or doze off in class after working a night shift. Some of my students work full-time to support their families, alongside a full course load. Merit-based awards can snowball - winning one means having less financial need and therefore less need to work to offset educational costs, and being able to get the grades needed for more awards. These awards meant that my student debt was relatively low, so I could pay it off while living under my mother’s roof during a gap year.

Ms. Wente, I, like you, benefit from significant privilege. The economic and social advantages of being upper middle class through childhood and adolescence meant that student debt was a navigable obstacle rather than a crisis for me. That does not mean that it is not a crisis for those who are struggling to pay it off, or who fear the costs of higher education so much that they do not pursue it in the first place. In essence, try telling the child who cannot see over the fence that the sight-lines are just fine.

In your autobiography, you say that "a stint of manual labour gives children of the middle class a first-hand taste of how the other half lives." I would like to respectfully suggest that you take a taste of how so many of today's undergraduates live. At my university, Student Services estimates costs of tuition and living expenses at $7675 for the average domestic undergraduate. Try covering those costs for four years, working at or barely above minimum wage, and still getting good enough grades to win the scholarships you mention. Try doing all of this without drawing on any savings or family resources. Try this without taking on a penny of debt, and then get back to me.

Sincerely,

Privileged and Angry in Vancouver