Showing papers in "British Journal of Canadian Studies in 2003"

The nexus of identity, inuit autonomy and arctic sustainability: learning from nunavut, community and culture

Abstract: NORTHERN IDENTITY HAS TRAVELLED a long road in a brief period, compressing the journey of Inuit and their lands from autonomy to dependency to interdependency within living memory. Throughout this period Inuit identity has retained its capacity to self-define against the countervailing tensions of exploration, colonial expansion and assimilation. Fundamental aspects of the dual struggle, not only to resist forces of domination and hegemony, but also to reclaim political autonomy, have characterised home rule movements and political activity throughout the circumpolar region and have received broad critical attention. Most recently, the emergence of Nunavut as a region of public government coextensive with a legally defined region of private individual and collective rights has restored some elements of autonomy. However the issues of communities striving to restore balance in the face of recent domination are less well understood. If we wish to explore the issue of cultural survival, both as a legitimate outcome and as a wellspring of sustainability, it is necessary to both revisit this history and to examine questions of formation of Inuit identity, community and autonomy and their interaction within Nunavut. This article briefly examines the historical suppression of Inuit identity, the reclamation of identity through Inuit selfgovernment within Nunavut, and the struggles for identity and autonomy at a community and regional scale, in conjunction with the implications for Arctic sustainability, both as an objective, as well as an outcome, of Nunavut. Inuit Identity When one considers that the Inuit, the people of the Arctic, comprise some estimated 100,000 individuals in the entire world,1 it is remarkable that they have survived not only post-glacial environmental and climatic extremes, but also the grinding stones of their historical and contemporary colonial experience. Moreover, not only have Inuit survived, but increasingly they have achieved a measure of international recognition and success, both politically and culturally, which can be considered to be highly significant given their small numbers.2 What is it that enables Inuit to demonstrate such effectiveness? Here it is argued that the fact that Inuit have within living memory experienced both autonomy and dependency has given Inuit an indelible sense of identity. From this fundamental sense of identity, it is then argued that this knowledge of what it means to be Inuit, what it means to be part of a community (in both the old and new meanings of community), and what is necessary to survival, further informs concepts of sustainability within Nunavut. In the contemporary world, Inuit identity retains its capacity to self-define against the countervailing tensions of the federal state and the global economy, just as it prevailed in historical situations, as evidenced most recently by the creation of Nunavut, and earlier by the settlement of landclaims and the reshaping of the Canadian Constitution. As political and legal frameworks have increasingly endorsed human rights and multiculturalism, contemporary social science debates have recognised the challenge of 'difference' and 'diversity' (see, for example, McDowell 1995). At least one author has proposed a classification of sustainable development initiatives external to the Arctic as being 'either Environmentalists . . ., Economists, . . . or Culturalists' and then recognising as suggested opposites those initiatives arising from Arctic-based organisations (Rasmussen 1999). This is an example of a pragmatic approach, one which the present article also employs in looking to Nunavut. In addition, however it is necessary to look to identity as a fundamental source of diversity with respect to frameworks for sustainability, for it is here that the real integration of the environmental, economic and cultural arguably exists. Nunavut, community, and culture: roots and shoots In order to understand both the origin and meaning of the terms 'Nunavut', 'community', and 'culture' within the present discourse, it is necessary to look at the conceptual dimensions and historical roots of the terms as applied in the eastern Arctic. …

The Canadian 'World City' and Sustainable Downtown Revitalisation: Messages from Montreal 1962-2002

Abstract: THE CITY GOVERNMENTS OF CANADA's largest metropolitan centres have, in recent years, experienced some dramatic changes of civic leadership and policy agenda, as well as reductions in financial support, and reorganisations that include the controversial 'megacity' mergers in Toronto and Montreal. Nevertheless, city governments are permanent and relatively stable institutions in a 'world of flows', characterised by 'floating populations, transnational politics within national borders, and mobile configurations of technology and expertise' (Appadurai 2001: 5). In Canada, they are creations of Provincial statute with specified powers and duties to perform. Their democratic raison d'etre is to serve local electors and promote their well-being: a role that has somehow to be reconciled with the ebbs and flows of globalisation. In North America, there is a long history of 'civic boosterism'. For a century or more, Canadian city governments have fought hard to position themselves in global markets that are expected to deliver economic benefits and further enhance their competitive advantage. Over the past ten years or so, more sophisticated and subtle techniques of 'place marketing' have been developed and the goals have widened, so that the desired benefits now embrace improvements to the physical environment and amenities for disadvantaged communities, as well as well as local income and employment. In this context, a favourable international profile is considered critical to the success of strategies to revitalise downtown areas and adjacent inner city neighbourhoods as vibrant cosmopolitan centres. In the early 1990s, Metropolitan Toronto (1992) and the City of Vancouver (1992) both adopted development plans for their Central Business Districts (CBDS) expressing their intention to nurture sustainable growth, and foster the ideal of the 'liveable city' (Shaw 1995; Marshall 2001). Likewise, Ville de Montreal wanted to be a 'modern city on a human scale': Montreal must make a change in direction towards sustainable urban development. The decisions made today affect future generations and must take into account the environmental, economic and social impacts, both in the short and long term. (1992: iii-iv) The benefits would be distributed to improve 'quality of life' for all urban communities, including those in the most disadvantaged areas. With reference to the case of Montreal's central Ville-Marie District, this article discusses the changing discourse of promotion to international audiences and the emerging framework of public policy that espouses the principles of sustainable development and social equity. Raising the international profile For the past forty years, successive civic leaders of Montreal - like their counterparts in Toronto and Vancouver - have placed a very high priority, not only on competing successfully with other metropolitan centres in North America, but on attracting inward movement of capital, people and knowledge spanning all continents. Until comparatively recent times, most Canadian city governments focused their promotional efforts on luring investors with promises of hard infrastructure, tax concessions and development sites (Ward 1998). Economic growth through modernisation over-rode all other considerations. Grand civic projects that signified 'progress' were key indicators of success. Under the leadership of Mayor Jean Drapeau from the late 1950s, Ville de Montreal adopted a pragmatic approach and saw little need to consult local communities on the desirability of large-scale reconstruction in the CBD and surrounding inner-city areas to accommodate flagship commercial and public buildings. Mayor Drapeau's vision was expressed very powerfully in the 'superblock' Place Ville-Marie (1962): symbolic centrepiece of downtown modernisation and prototype for subsequent complexes. Designed by signature architect I.M. Pei, circulation was separated on three levels - pedestrian, motor traffic and rail - with shopping and offices integrated in a monolithic structure that defied the traditional street. …

Wilderness and the Canadian Mind

Abstract: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES TRADITIONALLY TAKE one of several forms.1 Some review the activities and achievements of the Association or Society over the period of office. This approach would not be difficult here, given the outstanding contributions which our great Association continues to make to the field in Canadian Studies. On the other hand, Presidents of Societies involved with Science or Technology may take the opportunity to present the results of their own latest researches within the discipline. Alternatively Presidential addresses might take a more philosophical and reflective view of the development of their particular subject over the President's career in it. There is clearly no single prescription, and indeed Presidents of bacs have often been Presidents of other Associations and Societies in their own specialist disciplines, and have usually adopted different styles when addressing different bodies. The present Address builds on some elements from each of these diverse approaches. The central concern is with Wilderness, which is a tangible natural entity, existing out there in the real world. It can be visited, and evokes in visitors a range of feelings from awe to fear. Yet wilderness is much more than this; it is also a perception, a concept, and an inspiration. Or rather, it forms a complex of perceptions, concepts and inspirations, and leads Warecki (2000) to note: 'Wilderness ideas are a tangle of unresolved contradictions.' The author's long-standing commitment to Canada has been through the discipline of geography, specifically in the sub-disciplines of physical geography (qua environmental studies/sciences) and natural resource studies. It is a journey which has visited the forests of Vancouver Island, the alpine meadows of Kananaskis, the prairie farms of Saskatchewan, the Northern tundras of Rankin Inlet, the Mackenzie Valley and Devon Island, and the farms of southern Ontario and Quebec. However, engagement over the years with annual conferences, colloquia, forums and visiting lectures on Canada, continue to reinforce the conviction that the strength of Canadian Studies lies in its multidisciplinary format. This is the attraction for both faculty and for students. The two academic institutions with which the writer is associated in Yorkshire, namely the University of Leeds and York St John College, both offer multidisciplinary courses on Canada which recruit very well. A major part of their appeal lies in the multidisciplinarity of the courses. Although both are convened by geographers and registered as geography courses, each covers material from history, literature and culture, as one would expect from their subtitle - Environment, People, Culture. Perceptions of Canada among non-Canadians have been polled recently among both faculty and students, including those who have completed the Canadian Studies course in the University of Leeds, and some who have not. The results are revealing of the major 'strengths' or positive values by which Canada is viewed by outsiders, and are shown in Figure 1. The three major images point to multiculturalism and the way in which Canadian society deals with it, to the environment and its beauty and conservation, and to Canada's role in the world. Thus environment and wilderness rank among the 'big issues'. Some readers will be disappointed that their own personal love ranks lower in the list, or not at all; the writer's predilection for Oscar Peterson and Angela Hewitt will be mirrored in many hearts and minds, but not unfortunately in the 'league tables'! What is wilderness? The cultural identity of Canada owes much to 'the wilderness.' It is a central theme in Canadian cinema, conservation, history, literature, livelihoods, music, painting and recreation. Popular images of wilderness abound on television screens, in newspaper supplements, and in travel brochures. Words to express such images might be: 'cold', 'forbidding', 'home of wild animals', 'magnificent sights', 'mysterious', and 'unknown'. …

Urban regeneration rationalties and quality of life: comparative notes from toronto, montreal and vancouver

Abstract: NOTIONS OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND LIVEABILITY have for several decades pervaded representations of the Canadian urban experience offered by metropolitan authorities across the country. In a state that has targeted both inward investment and immigration as pivotal sources of economic growth, this might be seen as no more than boosterist rhetoric, and successful at that: in Toronto and Montreal over 40 per cent of the population is now foreign-born, 25 per cent in Montreal - a demographic influx generating economic opportunities and enriching urban cultures. Yet Canadian municipal authorities have more recently portrayed a quality of life in jeopardy, as voiced on their behalf, above all, by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). According to this national body, poverty is becoming concentrated in large urban communities, exacerbated by lower levels of government assistance to low-income families than other parts of the country. Added to income inequalities, metropolitan authorities also face higher than average crime rates, homelessness and drug abuse, giving rise to fears that Canada may face the type of urban decay commonly associated with her southern neighbour (FCM 2001). It is not difficult to attribute instrumental political motives to this crisis rhetoric. Since the election of the Liberal government at the federal level in 1993, metropolitan authorities have suffered substantial cuts in national (and also provincial) transfer payments; yet also faced growing capital investment needs to meet expanded responsibilities for environmental management, public transportation and social housing. At the same time, their capacities to generate revenue remain tightly circumscribed by provincial legislation and regulations. In 1996 FCM launched a Quality of Life Reporting System (QOLRS) with the explicit intention of graphically demonstrating the social and economic conditions within Canadian cities; FCM employed the findings in its first report to lobby the federal government for an annual budget commitment of $3 billion for ten years towards an intergovernmental Quality of Life Infrastructure Programme (FCM 1999a; 1999b). QOLRS provided an unprecedented collection of local data from sixteen municipal and regional governments (growing to eighteen for its second report in 2001) across eight themes - population resources, community affordability, quality of employment, quality of housing, and community - stress, health, safety and participation (FCM 2001: 12); this information has afforded FCM the opportunity to quantify and standardise the traditionally nebulous concept of quality of life, reinforcing the claim of municipal governments as politically legitimate champions of well-being for their communities. Acknowledging the national backdrop of municipal government concern over a growing investment deficit in urban governance, this article addresses the articulation of quality of life objectives within the current urban regeneration rationalities of three Canadian municipal (city) authorities - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. All three cities have pursued strategies to assist disadvantaged areas, selecting regulatory practices informed by quality of life norms and measures. Identifying in these regeneration discourses an ideological subscription to 'advanced liberalism' - the formulation and implementation of political-policy objectives according to norms of competition, active responsibility and performance accountability (Rose 1996), this article teases out the particular role afforded to quality of life and liveability in the reasoning of city planning officials as elicited in interviews in Toronto (September 2001), Montreal (September 2001) and Vancouver (June-July 2002). This brief (necessarily selective) survey, which relays some initial findings from a wider research project on social and economic regeneration in Canadian and uk cities (Evans at al. 2002), highlights three thematic areas in which quality of life informs official urban revitalisation discourses: i) the spatial allocation of livelihood (economic) and life quality (socio-environmental) benefits; ii) the construction of neighbourhood communities as actively responsible for regeneration practices; and iii) the emerging use of quality of life indicators as measures of policy success. …

Whose heritage is it anyway? reconciling the 'national' and the universal in quebec city

Abstract: Heritage is by definition an inheritance from the past destined for the future. It is a product of the present purposefully developed in response to current demands for it, and shaped by that market. It follows that the past is a quarry of possibilities from which selection occurs not only or even principally by chance survival but by deliberate choice (Ashworth 1994: 1).

Forest product procurement: the influence of european corporate environmental procurement on forestry practice in british columbia, canada

Abstract: THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES HOW, in Europe, the development of partnerships between environmental NGOs and business has led to 'green' corporate demand for the procurement of certified wood and paper products that has made a significant contribution to the 'greening' of forestry practices in British Columbia. 'Green' in this article refers to policies and practices that improve care and sensitivity to the environment and promotes sustainability. The article examines the environmental NGO confrontation with wood product retailers in the UK that led to environmental NGO/business partnerships in Europe to secure environmental procurement of wood and paper products. Documented is the forest certification debate that led to the establishment of the environmental NGO/business partnership in the global Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard and the 'buyers' groups' such as the WWF 95+ Group in the UK. This examination looks at the forest 'sustainability' measures taking place in BC; the reaction of the BC forest industry to proposed forest certification (the global FSC system in particular); the influence in BC of green buyers' groups in Europe; and the reaction in BC to a boycott of BC forest products in Europe as the result of an international campaign against existing and proposed forestry practices in part of the BC temperate rain forest (the Great Bear Rainforest). The article concludes with highlights of the globalisation of environmental procurement within the networks of one industrial sector and its implications for BC. These include the influence of an environmentally sophisticated regional market, with its unique drivers for green corporate customer demand, on global forest product procurement and forest practice. Also included is the role of environmental NGOs in successful confrontation with business which led to a positive partnership with business to help achieve forest sustainability. The proven use of a market mechanism to contribute to sustainable forest management in BC is also highlighted. Forest product certification and procurement Forest product certification and green forest product procurement came about in the late 1980s because certain sectors of the public, government, business and environmental NGOs were concerned about the perceived destruction of global tropical rainforests, temperate forests and temperate rainforests. There was also concern about industrial forestry practice such as clear felling and use of monoculture forest plantations. These concerns occurred at a time when environmental NGOs (such as WWF, Greenpeace, foe, Rainforest Alliance) were initiating campaigns to protect the quantity and the quality of world's forests. The environmental NGOs were particularly dissatisfied with international and national government commitments and legislation and industry's Good Practice Codes, most of which failed to protect forests or ensure quality through sustainable management. There was also some consumer demand for sustainable wood products at a time when there was consumer dissatisfaction with wood product green labelling. Labels were not trusted, since they were regarded as being inconsistent, lacking both credibility and independence. In particular the 'chains of custody' of wood products were not clear. Furthermore there was some corporate interest in forest certification and certified wood products. The result of this interest was the founding of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1993 as an international non-profit organisation of diverse members from environmental and social groups, the timber trade and the forestry profession from around the world. As a response to this interest competing forest certification schemes were developed - in Europe, Pan European Forest Certification; in Canada, the National Sustainable Forest Management System (SFM); and in the United States, the Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI). The process of forest certification is concerned with the definition and validation of a sustainable forest. …

Conceptualising community: policy implications for Atlantic Canada

Abstract: ZYGMUNT BAUMAN'S IMPRESSIVE WORK on community asserts that: Words have meanings: some words, however, also have a 'feel'. The word 'community' is one of them. It feels good: whatever the word 'community' may mean, it is good 'to have a community', to be 'in a community.' Company or society can be bad; but not the community. Community, we feel, is always a good thing. (Bauman 2001:1) Bauman (2001) begins his book 'Welcome to elusive community', and it is. As a concept, community is slippery, difficult to pin down and deeply frustrating. Yet Anthony Cohen has pointed out 'the remarkable hold that the idea of community exerts over both the intellectual and popular mind' (1985: 7). He goes on: 'the concept of community has been one of the most compelling and attractive themes in modern social science, and at the same time one of the most elusive to define'. Cohen has suggested that it may indeed be this quality of the word, its very vagueness and elasticity, which has led it to be declared by academics in recent years to be no longer relevant. Yet, surely this is the quality that has proved to be an advantage rather than a disadvantage in our fast-growing, complex and globalising world. Being able to use words to mean different things to different groups of people at different times may prove useful. This has allowed the word 'community', in particular, to be of use to governments struggling to find ways to glue together individuals, groups, regions and nations. In 1983 Lee and Newby were able to devise three broad definitions of what community was: community as 'geographical expression' (bounded locality), as 'local social system' (a set of social relations taking place in a locality, a network of interrelationships and the content of these relationships) and, finally, as 'identity' and commonality among a group of individuals (p. 57). More recently, in attempting to analyse the concept of community and to operationalise it, Elizabeth Frazer suggested it was made up of 'network density, relationship complexity, smallness of membership [and] confinement to locality' (1999: 56). All these variations on a theme continue to be intensely relevant and pertinent into the twenty-first century. Bauman adds the notion that community, when interpreted as the negotiation of meaning, promises enormous pleasures. It holds out the possibility that: [C]ommunity is a 'warm' place, a cosy and comfortable place . . . In here, in the community, we can relax - we are safe, there are no dangers looming in the dark corners . . . In a community, we all understand each other well, we may trust what we hear, we are safe most of the time and hardly ever puzzled or taken aback. We are never strangers to each other . . . Our duty, purely and simply, is to help each other, and so our right, purely and simply, is to expect that the help we need will be forthcoming. (2001: 1-2) Charles Taylor argues convincingly against the idea that the individual is independent of society, supporting the view that 'the individual is constituted by the language and culture which can only be maintained and renewed in the communities he is part of ' (1985: 8). He goes on: [T]he community is not simply an aggregation of individuals; nor is it simply a casual interaction between the two. The community is also constitutive of the individual, in a sense that the self-interpretations which define him are drawn from the interchange which community carries on. A human being alone is an impossibility, not just de facto, but as it were de jure. (1985: 8) Community then is, as Cohen (1985) points out, used in a way to indicate that members of a group of people have something in common, something that binds them. At the same time, this very thing also ensures that they have qualities in common which separates them from others. So community is very much a living and relational concept. It marks out boundaries between groups who, for whatever reason, perceive themselves to be different from others. …