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Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of
Citizenship is a new 62-page booklet, which Canada’s
minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism
says is more reflective of Canada’s history and values.
“The new study guide will be the basis of the citizenship
test as of March 2010,” said minister Jason Kenney, who
formally released the guide on November 12.
The guide replaces one called A Look at Canada – a
42-page guide released under the Liberal government
in 1997 which gave more attention to Canada’s diverse
geographic regions and environmental sustainability. The
new guide includes more information about Canadian
history, diverse cultural traditions, the military, monarchy,
commerce, purported values and symbols of Canada, and
the rights and responsibilities of Canadians. Both guides
have detailed information about how Canadian governments
are structured and judicial processes.
“The test will not change dramatically” Kenney said,
adding it will remain multiple choice and straightforward.
“We see this as something that can unite the country,”
Kenney said in a 30-minute telephone conference with
various Canadian media. The guide will also be directed
towards native-born Canadians, he said, for them to gain
a deeper knowledge of Canada and sense of their responsibilities.
“The guide is in the same spirit as books of values published
by Australia, Britain, Germany, and even Quebec,”
said Stephan Reichhold, executive director of la Table de
concertation des organismes au service des personnes
réfugiées et immigrantes, an umbrella organization for
immigrant and refugee agencies in Quebec.
“There’s this idea that immigrants don’t respect the laws
and values of the society they immigrate to,” Reichhold
explained. Intitiatives like this guidebook, he said, are
more to reassure the population that the government is
making efforts to do something about that threat. In reality,
Reichhold said, “It’s very unlikely that an immigrant
comes here and doesn’t know about the values of the
society.”
One value outlined early in the guide is equality
between men and women under the law. The phrase following
that - “Canada’s openness and generosity do not
extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal
abuse, ‘honour killings,’ female genital mutilation, or other
gender-based violence” - has earned criticism and praise
from different commentators in the country.
In another section, titled “Great Canadian discoveries
and inventions,” ten men and their accomplishments are
outlined, while no women are mentioned.
The historical section of the new guide is far more
expansive than the previous guide. It includes past conflicts
over land and resources, and historical acts of discriminination
in Canada such as placing Aboriginal kids
in residential schools, the disenfranchisement of various
groups, and the internment of Austro-Hungarians during
the First World War and of Japanese Canadians during
the Second World War.
Minister Kenney said the guide details the eliminination
of discrimination in Canadian immigration policies.
It discusses the head tax placed on Chinese immigrants
after the national railway was completed, and the refusal
to allow Jewish refugees into Canada during the First
World War.
The guide also details how slavery was abolished
in Canada 1833
The document was authored within the Ministry of
Citizenship and Immigration, with contributions from a
variety of Canadian historians and other figures, inlcuding
former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and her
husband, author John Raulston Saul.
Copies of the guide can be found through the ministry’s
website at www.cic.gc.ca, or can be ordered by calling
1-888-242-2100.