How did Gandhi do it? page 25
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Sandra Martin Supporting the boomers As society ages, we need to look squarely at the coming social impact
ALso In this issue Terry Glavin David Crane Peter Russell The dogs of Afghanistan Stagnate or innovate? The Getting aboriginal rights right quest for new Canadian jobs
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Publications Mail Agreement #40032362 the midwestern plains Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to LRC, Circulation Dept. fiction Marian Botsford Fraser reviews The Orenda by Joseph Boyden + Jack Kirchhoff reviews PO Box 8, Station K Toronto, ON M4P 2G1 Emancipation Day by Wayne Grady poetry Kyeren Regehr + Guy Ewing + W.M. Herring + Barry Butson New from UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Memoirs and Reflections Who Is an Indian? Along a River by Roy McMurtry Race, Place, and the Politics of Indigeneity The First French-Canadian Women in the Americas ‘Roy McMurtry took the justice system by by Jan Noel edited by Maximilian C. Forte the hand and led it fearlessly out of its Along a River is a remarkable history of indifference into a commitment to fairness. This collection examines the changing roles the first French-Canadian women including In just one generation. Remarkable!’ of race and place in the politics of defining Governor’s wives, farmers, nuns, and even Rosalie Abella, Justice of the Supreme Court Indigenous identities in the Americas. smugglers during the period between the of Canada settlement of the St Lawrence Lowlands and the Victorian era.
John Fawcett’s Home in the City Cities of Oil Ginger Snaps Urban Aboriginal Housing and Living Municipalities and Petroleum by Ernest Mathijs Conditions manufacturing in Southern Ontario, edited by Alan B. Anderson This first book-length study of Canada’s 1860–1960 internationally renowned horror film Ginger Home in the City provides an in-depth by Timothy W. Cobban Snaps, which centres on two death-obsessed analysis of urban Aboriginal housing, living teenage sisters, draws a provocative connection conditions, issues, trends, and a realistic Cities of Oil documents the development between werewolves and female adolescence portrait of contemporary Aboriginal life in of the early Canadian petroleum refining and boasts a dedicated world-wide fan base. Canada. and manufacturing industry.
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Editor Bronwyn Drainie 3 Facing the Future 16 Sisters [email protected] An essay A poem Contributing EditorS Mark Lovewell, Molly Peacock, Anthony Sandra Martin Guy Ewing Westell 6 The Stuff of Nightmares 17 Brothers Associate editor A review of The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: A poem Robin Roger Our War in Afghanistan, by Graeme Smith Barry Butson Poetry Editor Terry Glavin Moira MacDougall 17 Thresholds copy editor 8 ¿Habla Usted Español? A poem Madeline Koch A review of The Story of Spanish, by Jean-Benoît W.M. Herring Online Editors Nadeau and Julie Barlow 19 Trying to Pass Diana Kuprel, Jack Mitchell, Stephen Henighan Donald Rickerd, C.M. A review of Emancipation Day, by Wayne Grady ProofReaders 9 Ethnic Cleansing, Canadian Style Jack Kirchhoff Robert Simone, Mike Lipsius, Rob Tilley, A review of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics 20 The Terror and Pity of Contact Jeannie Weese of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, by A review of The Orenda, by Joseph Boyden research James Daschuk Rob Tilley Marian Botsford Fraser Andrew Woolford Editorial Assistants Faking Your Way Through Life Prerana Das, Joshua Greenspon, Michael 11 Getting Aboriginal Rights Right 21 A review of The Deaf House, by Joanne Weber Stevens A review of Aboriginal Rights Are Not Human James Roots Design Rights: In Defence of Indigenous Struggles, by James Harbeck Peter Kulchyski, and Aboriginal Justice and 23 Stagnate or Innovate? That Is the ADVERTISING/SALES the Charter: Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Question Michael Wile Interpretation of Legal Rights, by David An essay [email protected] Milward David Crane Director, Special Projects Peter H. Russell Michael Booth 26 The Mystic versus the Politician publishers 13 Deception, Betrayal and Terrorism A review of Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography, by Alastair Cheng A review of What Lies Across the Water: The Arvind Sharma [email protected] Real Story of the Cuban Five, by Stephen Charles Blattberg Helen Walsh Kimber [email protected] Reg Whitaker 28 Biology, Culture and Economics Board of Directors A review of Human Evolution and Male John Honderich, C.M., 15 West Meets East Aggression: Debunking the Myth of Man and J. Alexander Houston, Frances Lankin, A review of Finding Japan: Early Canadian Ape, by Ann Innis Dagg and Lee Harding Jack Mintz, Trina McQueen Encounters with Asia, by Anne Shannon Walter S. DeKeseredy Advisory Council Bronwyn Best Michael Adams, Ronald G. Atkey, P.C., 31 Letters and Responses Q.C., Alan Broadbent, C.M., Chris Ellis, 16 Married Sex Alex Usher, Frédéric Bastien, Edward Drew Fagan, James Gillies, C.M., Carol Hansell, Donald Macdonald, A poem Shorter, Barry Wellman, Jack M. Mintz P.C., C.C., Susan Reisler, Grant Reuber, Kyeren Regehr O.C., Don Rickerd, C.M., Rana Sarkar, Mark Sarner, Bernard Schiff, Reed Scowen Poetry Submissions For poetry submission guidelines, please see
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2 fists ad for LRC.indd 1 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review2013-09-09 of Canada 9:01 AM Essay Facing the Future The decisions to be made about aging in Canada are both personal and public. Sandra Martin
ast November, three days before I was ’70s—everybody seemed young, thanks to the baby to harness it. Boomers, he argues, “grew up set to celebrate a significant birthday, I had boom. Now the opposite is true. determined to experience new things, break new La freak fall—aren’t they all—and broke my Statistics Canada defines the baby boom as ground, get what they wanted. They see no reason pelvis in two places. I was hurtling through city the dramatic increase in the birthrate in the two to let their chronological age determine their streets dodging vehicles and pedestrians, compos- decades between 1946 and 1965. More than mental or emotional age.” ing random sentences in my head, when I tripped 8.2 million children were born for an average of Instead of shunning boomers as doddery and on uneven pavement. I landed in an intersection 3.7 per woman. The oldest of that cohort turns 67 irrelevant slow pokes, employers need to recognize on my right side, still clutching two heavy bags of this year as the baby bulge works its way through the the wisdom, experience and institutional memory books and shoes. I was lucky. I was not run over human lifespan. In 2010, 15.3 percent of Canadians they can bring to the workplace as mentors, project by a car; I shattered a bracelet instead of my right (or 4,386,906 people) were over 65; by 2030 that managers and consultants. Unfortunately, the wrist; I did not break a hip (as I insist on reminding figure will rise to 24.1 percent (or 7,844,309 people), advertising and media worlds are dominated by all of those well meaning friends who continue to according to statistics quoted by sociologist Neena young people who have little or no awareness of the enquire about my bone density—just fine, thank Chappell of the University of Victoria and analyst buying power of boomers. you) and good Samaritans rushed to my aid, cell Marcus Hollander, a former director of Health Arguing that there is “a shocking disconnect phones unleashed, eager to dial 911 for emergency Network, in Aging in Canada. between the actual influence of Boomers in the services. marketplace, and the perception A foolish combination of pride Unless you fall below the poverty line of that influence by marketers and shock compelled me to refuse and their ad agencies,” he quotes an ambulance. With the aid of a and are eligible for social assistance a series of polls in which boomers passerby, I reclaimed my feet and complain about being ignored and slowly stumbled the three blocks under the Canada Assistance Plan, you cites comments by Neil Gabler, a to my destination. There, adrenalin senior fellow at the Norman Lear spent, I collapsed and gratefully either pay for a place in a seniors’ home Center at the Annenberg School accepted whatever medical for Communication at University services could be summoned. or you rely on family members. of Southern California. In an My mishap was neither life- article aptly named “The Tyranny threatening nor permanent, but there is nothing Not only are we getting older, but we are also of 18–49: American Culture Held Hostage,” Gabler like hobbling about with a walker, feeling your living longer. Life expectancy is soaring. In 1981, the says that while “the culture has been fixated on bones crunch together with each hesitant step, to average Canadian died at age 76; by 2006 it was 81, an youth, it has also been hiring the young to service propel you over the precipice into the rocky terrain increase of five years in 25 years. According to recent its constituents, creating a self-perpetuating of the elderly and the infirm. I spent a couple of figures from the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, life system.” This is foolish, says Gabler, because months contemplating the inevitable and it was not expectancy is escalating rather than stabilizing. A “Americans over 50 years of age control 55 percent pretty. And that was before I read the four books 60-year-old man in 2013 will live another 27.3 years, of the discretionary income in America.” under consideration in this essay. long enough to celebrate his 87th birthday. His Instead of punching a clock until the magic As a society we are aging rapidly—no surprise female counterpart should live an additional retirement age of 65, many boomers are refusing to there. What we do about it on personal, corporate 29.4 years, or long enough to plan festivities for her call it quits. Even governments agree that 65 is too and public policy levels is ultimately up to luck, 90th birthday. That is a life span increase of at least young to retire, hence the abolition of mandatory finances, politicians and our own resourcefulness. seven years in as many calendar years. retirement in most jurisdictions in Canada. But it That is the short takeaway. The longer version For anybody juggling kids, jobs and mortgages, is not as easy as that. If you do not have to retire— offers a multiplicity of warnings, directives and there never seems enough time to catch a breath, ever—why would you, if the working conditions opportunities to plan for the future—a very long let alone contemplate old age. But the kids grow are cushy? I know several tenured professors who one. up—although some could argue that never really are hanging on to their offices and their coterie of I am surely not the only one surprised at how happens—and then what do you do with the bonus graduate students while pulling down a lucrative old everybody looks suddenly. I scrolled through time? That is the question that David Cravit, adman defined benefit pension for life. How do universities photographs posted on my high school reunion and executive vice-president of ZoomerMedia Ltd., force these people to move over and make room for website earlier this year. Who were those people poses in The New Old: How Boomers Are Changing younger, fresher academics? Hard to say, unless the with the grey hair and the pot bellies and the Everything … Again. In his breezy treatise, which working conditions become unpalatable enough to wrinkles, I wondered, until I caught a glimpse often reads like a testimonial to his boss, Moses encourage septuagenarians and octogenarians of myself in the bathroom mirror. When I was in Znaimer, the innovator and czar of all things to call it a day and do research and write books my early twenties—in the late 1960s and early zoomer, Cravit argues that boomers have destroyed in their home offices. How about revising the the traditional concept of aging. Relegate the word curriculum to have them lecture in back-to-back Sandra Martin is a senior features writer for The “seniors” to the compost, he commands, and survey courses for first-year undergraduates—and Globe and Mail and the author of Working the replace it with “zoomer,” a word Znaimer coined to hold the teaching assistants? Dead Beat: 50 Lives That Changed Canada (House define boomers with zip. I am all for working past retirement. I thrive of Anansi Press, 2012), which was reviewed in the Cravit believes zoomers represent a huge on deadline pressure and being forced to learn November 2012 issue of the LRC. and untapped potential and he is determined something new every day. Still, the older I get, the
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 3 more I long to work differently. Let others chase should concentrate the mind. kids to move out of the family nest—so the idea of fires. I want to share my skills and experience with Some of us are better at aging than others. living with them when we are too decrepit or too younger journalists and work on long and complex My mother-in-law, who was widowed at 90 after impoverished to manage on our own is alarming. projects that demand more than filing copy to 65 years of marriage, was desperately lonely, Green has researched a number of alternatives in fill the daily news hole. I no longer want to work but too independent (or stubborn) to move into The Perfect Home for a Long Life, including co-op 24/7, 365 days a year. Coincidentally, my employer, a retirement home. Her two children and their living—the thought of negotiating fridge rights driven by economics more than altruism, has families lived on the other side of the country. We makes me quake—granny flats, condos and high- started offering unpaid leave in the summer, which phoned every day, but we only visited a couple rise apartments as a means of staving off the final is a great opportunity for me to slow down, think of times a year. So she hired a roster of university move into a nursing home. about creative projects, reconnect with friends and students to visit her two or three evenings a Hedging your bets, if you can afford it, is family, and recharge for the back-to-work frenzy in week. Because she was intellectually curious and another piece of housing advice Green received September. genuinely interested in hearing about other people, from her elders. A woman Green calls Virginia As much as Cravit trumpets the resilience, she developed a coterie of substitute grandchildren. stayed as a guest in the retirement home creativity and spending power of she had chosen before putting her boomers with zip, 90 is not the new condo on the market. She was happy 65, no matter how optimistically he with the experience and moved in trumpets an end to aging. That might permanently. Gordon, another elder, be true for some of us, but most made a similar arrangement and people really do not have the energy discovered it was not to his taste. At or the desire to work full time in their 101, he found the retirement home seventies and eighties. On a practical “too depressing” because the other level, 70 is probably the new 65—at residents were “too old,” so he moved least in this decade. happily back into his apartment. Growing older would be fine if it As we get older, our living simply meant celebrating birthdays. arrangements may seem as arcane Alas, that is not the way it works. to others as they did when we were The more candles on the cake, the 20-somethings living out of backpacks fewer friends who are still around and sleeping on strangers’ floors. For to congratulate us, and the less lung example, novelist Martin Amis and his power we have to blow them out. That brother devised an unusual eldercare is the sober message sociologist and arrangement for their father, Kingsley communications specialist Lyndsay Amis, after his second wife left him. Green imparts in her bestseller, You They proposed that their father move Could Live a Long Time: Are You back in with their mother—his first Ready?, and its sequel, The Perfect Home for a Long Earlier this summer, I attended a funeral in wife—and her third husband. “Everyone else … Life: Choosing the Right Retirement Lifestyle for You. Toronto for a 99-year-old woman I will call Joan. considered the idea both bizarre and impracticable. In researching her book, Green formed a The church was packed with people of all ages. One ‘Like an Iris Murdoch novel,’” Martin Amis wrote network of 40 people between the ages of 75 and 100 of the eulogists said of the deceased: “Joan not only in his memoir, Experience. But the arrangement living in different parts of Canada and asked them asked questions; she listened to the answers.” That worked for the Amis family for 15 years until for advice on many aspects of their lives, including reminded me of my mother-in-law. The two women Kingsley died from Alzheimer’s disease—and that, finances, housing, companionship, physical and had vastly different personalities—my mother-in- rather than other people’s opinion, is what counts. mental impairments, and keeping engaged. She law was shy and reserved, while Joan was a grande As much as Cravit extols the resilience, creativity also drew on her own frustrating experience dame and a socialite—but they shared an interest and spending power of boomers with zip, and Green dealing with her elderly parents, a couple who lived in people and the world around them and it was plots strategies and delivers timely and practical in a different city and who refused to move out of paid back in affection and stimulating company of advice about how we can navigate elderland with the home they had shared for 35 years. all ages till they died. the utmost dignity and independence, neither Eventually, her mother fell out of bed, broke Green has drawn similar life lessons from her author truly confronts the public policy issue of her collarbone and was taken by ambulance to group of elders. A lot of what she says is common how we as a society should provide care for the the emergency ward of the nearest hospital. She sense, but it bears repeating because most of us elderly among us. never saw her cherished home again. Instead, she cannot force ourselves to plan ahead or to confront Green knows full well that it is primarily children resided in six different institutions over the next the inevitable. Perhaps her most important lesson who take care of their aged parents. That is what two years before Green and her siblings found is do not procrastinate. If you want an active and happened with her parents and she hopes she suitable accommodation for both their parents. By engaged old age, start preparing for it now. Inertia will have managed her old age so smoothly that refusing to make a timely and necessary decision is the bane of advanced care planning. her daughters will not face the same burden when to downsize, “they gave up control of their future,” Concentrate on the inner self as much as the she and her husband need care. But she does not Green writes about her parents. outer, she advises; consider old age your last career. go into much detail about the missing piece in If that is what happened to the Greens, a Develop younger friends, exercise, stretch your grey that equation. Not everybody manages their lives well-educated, affluent couple, with connected matter, volunteer. Do not neglect your finances, or their finances astutely. In a report on Canada’s and committed children, what fate awaits the but remember that money can buy people to care credit status released late this summer, Equifax poor and the disadvantaged? That point was for you, but that does not mean they will care Canada reported that the year-over-year debt level underscored by Green’s father during a visit to his about you. That is why you should ensure that your for people over 65 had leapt by 6.5 percent, the wife in one of those interim facilities. He looked emotional circle is as robust as your RRSP portfolio. largest increase for any age group. Some authorities around at the rows of elderly people waiting for And for heaven’s sake de-clutter, clear out the stuff suggest that retirees have only themselves to somebody to help them to the toilet and to feed you have not looked at in years and the clothes that blame because they are leading profligate lifestyles them dinner and observed: “We’re not living longer, are taking up space in the back of your closet, and by continuing to spend and borrow as they did we’re dying longer.” organize your papers and books. Delay, and your when their bank accounts were replenished with We like to imagine that we will be perfectly children—or strangers—will be forced to disperse regular paycheques, but others warn that seniors healthy until we die in our sleep or have a massive your precious belongings. are going into debt because they are depleting and deadly heart attack on the golf course, but we Speaking of children, they are the ones who their retirement savings to help support both their are far more likely to have protracted deaths after will shoulder the burden of caring for us—whether elderly parents and their underemployed offspring. several years of infirmity and ill health. Longevity that means hiring and managing others, finding If these debt levels cannot be curtailed, caring runs in Green’s family, but even she got a shock retirement facilities or taking us into their own for the elderly will turn into a crisis because there is when she consulted an online predictor and homes. Many of us despair that our grown children a yawning gap in our social service and healthcare discovered she is likely to live until she is 98, but will will never leave home—indeed, I know some umbrella, as Neena L. Chappell and Marcus J. only be healthy until she is 90. That kind of statistic couples who have downsized partly to force their Hollander argue in Aging in Canada.
4 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada They cite alarming figures about aging acute care hospital origins. Meanwhile more and populations in Canada and to an even larger more people are living with chronic conditions. degree in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom That is why, Chappell and Hollander argue, New from and, especially, Japan where 23.1 percent of recognizing continuing care as a major component the population was 65+ in 2010, amounting to of our healthcare system is a critical first step in 29.3 million people. Unlike some experts who warn caring for older Canadians. of the “grey tsunami” and the “grey wave” that They do not offer a definitive blueprint. Instead can potentially “bankrupt” our healthcare system, they review how care is currently being provided, Chappell and Hollander argue that simply throwing make suggestions for further research and policy money at the system is not the solution. development, and call upon political leaders to Healthcare funding, as a percentage of gross initiate a public debate offering Canadians clear domestic product, only increased from 10 percent choices with transparent funding models so that we to 10.5 percent from 1992 to 2007, they say, quoting can all be part of the conversation about one of the 2011 figures from the Canadian Institute for Health most pressing issues of our time. Information. While those figures do not take into Developing a comprehensive and integrated account the economic meltdown of 2008, the auth- seniors’ strategy was the overriding message ors present a cogent case that the healthcare prob- from the annual meeting of the Canadian lem presented by the bulge Medical Association in in elderly people needs Calgary this past August. structural rather than eco- Our state-supported The organization released nomic solutions. “Past universal healthcare the results of a national choices got us into our cur- poll in which three out of rent predicament. Better system has not five respondents said they choices, more sophisti- believed that there would cated analyses and polit- expanded beyond its not be enough hospital ical will can get us out of it.” beds, long-term care Creating Space The Canada Health physician and acute and homecare services My Life and Work in Act (1982) established the to meet future demands. Indigenous Education five major principles of care hospital origins. “The anxiety Canadians Verna J. Kirkness our healthcare system: have about health care in accessibility, comprehensiveness, portability, their so-called golden years is both real and well- e compelling true story of how a Cree universality and public administration. The act also founded,” said Anna Reid, outgoing president of woman from Manitoba, whose simple imposed penalties for extra billing by doctors and the CMA. quest to teach “in a Native way,” revolu- user fees for hospital care. But these principles and More than 90 percent of those polled agreed tionized Canadian education policy and prohibitions do not apply to extended healthcare that governments should get together to develop a practice. PB • $34.95 • 978-0-88755-743-9 | E • $25 • 978-0-88755-445-2 services such as integrated long-term residential comprehensive seniors strategy and that the federal care and homecare services. That is why these government (and not just the provinces) should services are not protected from user fees and are play a significant role. “Let there be no doubt that a not portable from one province to another. Unless national strategy for seniors’ health care should be you fall below the poverty line and are eligible for a federal priority,” Reid told delegates. social assistance under the Canada Assistance We should all do our part to be productive Plan, you either pay for a place in a seniors’ home members of our social, cultural and economic or you rely on family members—many of them environment. Keep working as long as you can; stretched physically, emotionally and financially— develop new friendships while maintaining old to organize or deliver care for you. ones; plan your future so that you can control The seniors needing help now are the parents of where and how you live, and who cares for you. the baby boom generation. Typically the husband/ But at some point—and I hope it happens before father worked outside of the home and the wife/ another generation of elders is warehoused in mother was a homemaker who raised several nursing homes—society has to pitch in. children—all of them ideally sharing the duties involved in caring for their parents. That situation will change drastically because boomers will live Books Consulted Rewriting the Break Event longer than their parents and have fewer children Mennonite and Migration in to provide care. Given current economic realities, You Could Live A Long Time: Canadian Literature many of those adult children are not finding Are You Ready? Robert Zacharias lucrative or steady employment and will not be able Lyndsay Green to support their parents financially. Consequently, Thomas Allen Publishers “ e stories that remain in the wake of the early boomers will barge their way toward a violence so great it breaks and scatters death, but the middle and late boomers may once The Perfect Home for a a community are stories that must be again find themselves in the nasty shadows of the Long Life: Choosing the Right repeated. Zacharias traces the shape and older members of their cohort. Retirement Lifestyle for You function of such crisis narratives in novels Chappell and Hollander argue that adult Lyndsay Green that recount the destruction of Mennonite children are already providing far more care for Thomas Allen Publishers colonies in southern Imperial Russia. His seniors than government and they predict this can judicious study shows how literature can only increase as the population ages. “Soon we can The New Old: How the sustain communal memory, construct expect to spend more time providing care for our Boomers Are Changing ethnic identity, and serve or subvert parents than childrearing,” they say. So what is the Everything … Again national agendas.”—Julia Spicher Kasdorf, answer, if we believe that access to health care is David Cravit Pennsylvania State University, author of a fundamental right in Canada? Do we continue ECW Press e Body and the Book: Writing from a to insist that home care for elders, with their Mennonite Life myriad medical, physical and mental problems, Aging in Canada PB • $31.95 • 978-0-88755-747-7 | E • $25 • 978-0-88755-450-6 can be offset simply by tax credits and piecemeal Neena Chappell and Marcus provincial programs? Hollander Oxford University Press Our state-supported universal healthcare uofmpress.ca system has not expanded beyond its physician and
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 5 The Stuff of Nightmares A front-line journalist reflects on his coverage of the Afghan war. Terry Glavin
the NATO countries call “the war in Afghanistan” and mostly illiterate Kandahari mercenaries. The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: is exactly coterminous with an era that most of Even though Smith largely fails in the effort, Our War in Afghanistan Afghanistan has been experiencing as one of nearly his resolve to stoutly defend the project against its Graeme Smith uninterrupted peace and unparalleled progress. critics should not be taken as evidence for anything Knopf Canada Because 9/11 and its aftermath occurred at more like dishonesty, however. Much of Smith’s book is 288 pages, hardcover or less the fulcrum of the disorienting transition bracingly honest. ISBN 9780307397805 period between the analog epoch and the digital It helps that Smith is candid enough to admit age, journalism concerned with Afghanistan has up front that he should not be taken as qualified to also produced a wholly unique genre that is not talk about Afghanistan, but rather only about “the n the fiercely contested field of easy to classify. One outstanding example of this troubled south.” This admission highlights a fairly journalism, analysis and commentary about type was The Globe and Mail’s ambitious 2007 straightforward reason for the absurd ubiquity of Ithe vexing conundrum called “the war in multimedia project, “Talking to the Taliban.” misapprehensions about Afghanistan abroad in Afghanistan,” there exists a gobsmacking surfeit The six-part series—words and pictures, video western countries. of material that operates almost exactly like that and sound files—consisted almost solely of The Pashtun people constitute only a minority strange phenomenon of particle physics known as interviews with 42 Taliban foot soldiers conducted of the Afghan people. While it afflicts only a antimatter. minority of Pashtuns, Talibanism is It is a phylum of reportage that To cling to the fashionable delusion almost exclusively a Pashtun disease. actually subtracts from the sum total Smith’s “troubled south” constitutes of knowledge on the subject. You set that negotiations with the Taliban Afghanistan’s Pashtun belt. Smith was out to read an article in a perfectly ensconced in the city of Kandahar reputable newspaper, say, The Globe will produce any stable result is to and its environs, which is to say and Mail or The Toronto Star, and Talibanism’s epicentre, for almost if you are not very careful by the be preposterously optimistic and “in the duration of his Afghan sojourn. end of it you will know less about Kandahar is not Afghanistan, not Afghanistan than when you started. denial,” Smith now concludes. even close, and that is the truth of Just the other day I came upon an it. Throughout The Dogs Are Eating occurrence of the phenomenon in the pages of The mainly by the Globe’s Afghan “fixers.” The much- Them Now, Smith struggles with the truth. He Guardian under the headline: “US drone strikes argued-about project ended up earning such agonizes over it. more deadly to Afghan civilians than manned accolades as a National Newspaper Award, an Smith is to be credited for coming clean about aircraft—adviser.” Editor & Publisher magazine EPPY award for online those times when he was less than forthright Among many necessary pieces of context the journalism and an Emmy award in the news and with the Globe’s readers for fear that he would article failed to take into account is the simple fact documentary category. undermine the upbeat “narrative” he was hoping that NATO has pretty well abandoned the use of jet The project’s unlikely impresario was the Globe’s to uphold at the time. It is precisely in the honest fighters against any “human targets,” so it would not 28-year-old Graeme Smith, a reporter whose pains that Smith takes as a journalist and a diarist be surprising that “ten times” the number of deaths meteoric career trajectory had taken him almost in this book, sometimes in spite of himself, that The resulted from drone strikes as from conventional straight from Ryerson University’s journalism Dogs Are Eating Them Now succeeds. bombing. The 2010–11 period under study was also school to a plum posting as the Globe’s Moscow One story Smith failed to report for the Globe, a time of the most intense campaign of U.S. and bureau chief, and from there to a more or less a story Smith confesses in the book to being angry NATO air strikes since the initial bombing runs of permanent assignment in Kandahar. about having let “slip away,” is the story of the 2001. Smith’s long-awaited book, The Dogs Are Eating book’s title. The incident occurred on the front Furthermore, what The Guardian left unreported Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, is mainly the lines of Operation Medusa, the 2006 turning- was the total death toll from the combined U.S., memoir of his service as the Globe’s Afghanistan point offensive that Canadian Forces led against NATO and Afghan National Army operations of all correspondent, from his arrival in 2006 to 2009. It is Taliban columns in the restive district of Panjwaii. kinds—drone strikes and conventional bombing a heartrending chronicle of his time accompanying A Canadian reconnaissance platoon had placed operations included—for that two-year period: Canadian soldiers into battle, as well as a romping Taliban corpses on a nighttime battlefield to lure it was fewer than 900 of the 5,798 reported war- tale of rattling around “outside the wire” in the enemy into the open. The corpses failed as bait, related Afghan civilian deaths. The Taliban and Kandahar on his own and roving about on various and one unnamed soldier was said to remark: “The their jihadist associates killed all the rest. You hair-raising excursions to neighbouring provinces dogs are eating them now.” would never know that from reading The Guardian and to Quetta, across the frontier in Pakistan, with Smith’s courageous foray across the border into story. Distortions of this kind have nothing to do one or two diversions in Kabul. the teeming and fetid city of Quetta, the post-2001 with the “fog of war.” Smith at first seems to come close to confessing Pakistani capital of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s An especially striking peculiarity of the “western” that the critics of his “Talking to the Taliban” Afghan emirate-in-exile, could have produced a misunderstanding of Afghanistan since 2001 is that project might have been right all along, and book all on its own. It was while he was slouching the thing the privileged and wealthy people of that the enterprise shed little useful light on the around the backstreets of Quetta disguised as cannibalistic sociopathology that shows up in most a visiting tribesman that Smith got his first and Author and journalist Terry Glavin is a columnist reporters’ lexicons as the Taliban “insurgency.” deepest insights into the criminal nexus of Pakistani with the Ottawa Citizen. Among his several books Indeed, with the benefit of five years’ hindsight, intelligence bosses, opium-industry kingpins his most recent is Come from the Shadows: The the project does seem now like nothing so much and crackpots, and Arab-financed religious Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan as a drearily repetitive collection of crudely demagogues who form the core machinery of (Douglas and McIntyre, 2011). propagandistic self-exculpations uttered by creepy Taliban barbarism.
6 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada As things turned out, it was his pursuit of drug- harmless Kandahari brigands to monstrous Afghan money corruption allegations against the Afghan prison warders in order that the poor boys might deputy interior minister and counter-narcotics be tortured with cattle prods and thumbscrews and NEW THIS FALL police general Mohammed Daoud Daoud that thrashed with cats-o’-nine-tails without cease or caused Smith to eventually leave Afghanistan. Not mercy. unwisely, Smith decided to take it seriously when What Fisher and other journalists noticed about he started getting warnings in 2009 that he was the so-called “detainee scandal” was that it relied putting himself at grave personal risk by chasing upon flimsy and scurrilous bits of “evidence” such stories. But it was Daoud who ended up and the insinuations of such sketchy characters assassinated, in 2011, allowing Smith to confidently as Richard Colvin, the pompous diplomat whose THE CROWN return for a final Afghan sojourn with The Globe flamboyant insubordinations and downright AND CANADIAN and Mail. weirdness are unaccountably overlooked in The FEDERALISM To the task of writing a book with an honestly Dogs Are Eating Them Now. Still, it is in Smith’s grounded narrative and rhetorical coherence, intensely personal accounts of his wandering and by D. Michael Smith’s efforts in The Dogs Are Eating Them Now are witnessing that this book redeems itself. Jackson not especially helpful. Here is the book’s opening It is as if to insist that the reader face the awful sentence: “We lost the war in southern Afghanistan truth of what warfare is really like that Smith retells Following Queen Elizabeth II’s and it broke my heart.” And yet in the book’s final the story of 23-year-old Private Josh Klukie, whose historic Diamond Jubilee in 2012, paragraph, we have this: “At best, we are leaving misfortune was to have stepped on a Taliban there is renewed interest in the behind an ongoing war. At worst, it’s a looming landmine. His body was sundered into several institution of the Crown in Canada and the roles of the queen, governor disaster.” pieces. “He landed in the vineyard,” one of Klukie’s general, and lieutenant governor. If the war is ongoing, it is not lost, and if a great young comrades recalls for Smith. “I had that last Author D. Michael Jackson traces the disaster looms—and evidence for that hypothesis is tourniquet on him, I grabbed him by the shoulder, story of the monarchy and the Crown not hard to muster—then it is due almost entirely I’m like, ‘This is nothing, Josh, this is nothing.’ He and shows how they are integral to to the incompetence and mendacity of the “war- just looked at me, smiled, and that was it.” Canada’s parliamentary democracy. weary” Obama White House. But any assertion that Smith contends that it was only by such “the war” has been in vain would have to explain “immersion” in the bleak madhouse of the Afghan away the overwhelming majority of consistently south that a reporter had any hope of producing pro-NATO Afghans, far beyond the blighted work that might provide lessons to inform Pashtun-belt wastelands of Smith’s troubled south, sensible international community policy toward who have been struggling with remarkable success Afghanistan. Perhaps, but it is without question a to rebuild their broken country since 2001. You method that will tend to drive the journalist a bit would also have to wholly ignore the women of crazy, even if it does produce riveting journalism, GUERRILLA NATION Afghanistan, and indeed women are almost entirely of which there is a great deal in The Dogs Are Eating My Wars In and absent from the pages of The Dogs Are Eating Them Them Now. This is an old-fashioned ripping yarn Out of Vietnam Now. of adventure and courage and intrigue, told with But then, Smith’s analytical judgement is known regret and self-doubt and tempered by an acute by Michael Maclear to be a bit eccentric. Two years ago he was properly awareness of the tale’s tragedies. The rst Western television journal- and publicly upbraided by Michael Petrou, foreign “You must get down in the dust and shit,” ist admitted into wartime North Viet- editor for Maclean’s magazine, for absurdly Smith writes. “I spent a lot of days smelling the nam, author Michael Maclear found nominating the Taliban as a potential partner in death, getting sunburns. The charred flesh of himself caught in a terrible contra- the struggle against the Islamist terrorism of al suicide bombers got stuck in the treads of my diction: Hanoi didn’t censor his re- Qaeda. In The Dogs Are Eating Them Now, however, shoes. I was shot at, bombed, rocketed, mortared, porting, but a nervous CBC distrusted Smith appears to have come around, at least to chased through narrow streets. I took photographs, him, the RCMP and the Pentagon some degree. To cling to the fashionable delusion recorded audio, filled a suitcase with leather-bound interfered, and President Nixon said that negotiations with the Taliban will produce any notebooks. I filed the material into folders on my he was “duped.” stable result is to be preposterously optimistic and computer, and later took a leave of absence from “in denial,” Smith now concludes. my job so I could sit quietly and let the echoes Apart from the “Talking to the Taliban” project, settle. I tried to pick out scenes and bits of dialogue Smith’s journalistic output from Kandahar was that might help you understand. This was a healthy most notable—some of his colleagues would say process. The nightmares faded, and I stopped PAIKIN AND THE most notorious—for its relentless pursuit of what obsessing about the tactical properties of every PREMIERS came to be called the Afghan detainee controversy. r o o m .” Much of Smith’s work for the Globe on this front The stuff of Smith’s nightmares is the substance Personal Re ections consisted of outstanding journalism, but it ended of this book. Whether or not Smith is healthier on a Half Century of up serving mainly as grist for a squalid opposition for writing The Dogs Are Eating Them Now—he Ontario Leaders campaign in Ottawa to conjure melodramatic has moved on from the Globe and now works as by Steve Paikin “war crimes” charges of the kind that Smith’s older a researcher with the International Crisis Group and longer-serving Kandahar colleague Matthew in Kabul—the rest of us are all the richer for him A rare, uniform perspective on pre- Fisher of Postmedia News at the time called having done so. miers John Robarts, Bill Davis, Frank “preposterous.” Miller, David Peterson, Bob Rae, Mike Smith marks his own preoccupations with Harris, Ernie Eves, Dalton McGuinty, torture, which began in 2007, as a kind of emotional Follow the tapestry and Kathleen Wynne from the van- turning point, the moment that he began to tage point of one of Canada’s most astute and respected journalists. “seriously doubt the nobility of the war.” And fair of our times without enough—it is not as though important stories about the horrors of Afghan dungeons were not crying out missing a thread. Available from your favourite bookseller to be told. Smith threw himself into the work. But and as ebooks. the way the Afghan detainee “scandal” was handled was sufficient to cause any reasonable person to LRC back issues seriously doubt the nobility of journalism, too. /dundurnpress | @dundurnpress | dundurn.com The point of Afghan detainee stories, for all are now available for sale at appearances, was that we had all been taken for chumps and Canadian soldiers were knowingly www.reviewcanada.ca and routinely delivering simple and otherwise
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 7 ¿Habla Usted Español? How Castillian made it to the top of the linguistic heap. Stephen Henighan
for centuries, and the Southwest was also Mexican leavened with anecdotes about word origins. The The Story of Spanish territory for decades, before English was spoken biggest surprise is that “Hispania” is Phoenician for Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow there. Early 20th-century working class Mexican “land of the rabbits.” St. Martin’s Press immigrants to the Southwest entered states already Nadeau and Barlow’s most original material 428 pages, hardcover inhabited by more than 100,000 “indigenous” comes from their fascination with the internal ISBN 9780312656027 Mexican Americans. politics of the Royal Academy, which has defined Nadeau and Barlow present Spanish as written Spanish since 1713. All Spanish-speaking important because it is widely spoken in the United countries have national academies, which approve o Canadians, Spanish is both close and States. The final chapters, which draw on their local usage and transmit new expressions to unfamiliar. The language is all around fieldwork in Arizona, are full of vivid detail, but the Madrid. Even in the United States, the Spanish Tus, yet it is less influential here than any- authors also drench the book in an assumption that on the government website, GobiernoUSA.com, where else in the western hemisphere. As Spanish’s Spanish is worth discussing because Americans adheres to the prescriptions of the North American cultural influence booms, propelled by economic are concerned about it. In fact, as they point out, Academy of the Spanish Language. While Spanglish growth in Latin America and the mounting self- Spanish is important because, with more than runs rampant in the barrios, a U.S.-flavoured formal confidence of the 52 million-strong Hispanic 460 million native speakers and official-language Spanish develops in writing. The story of Spanish is minority in the United States, Spanish is in retreat status in 20 countries, it has greater global reach exciting because it continues to unfold. The policies as an academic discipline in Canadian universi- than any language other than English. Mandarin of the academies and U.S. language legislation ties. In The Story of Spanish Montreal authors has more speakers, but is official in just one provide the narrative thread by which the authors Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow report that country; French is an official language in more illustrate these changes. 6.4 million Americans study Spanish, as do 5 mil- countries but has less than one third as many native The most conspicuous weakness of The Story lion Brazilians, 2.1 million French and half a million speakers as Spanish. The global influence wielded of Spanish is its unreliability on literary topics. Germans. Universities such as Arizona State enroll by Hispanic cultures, particularly in areas such as Nadeau and Barlow devote chapters to the two squads of students in degrees in Hispanic literature popular music, literature and, increasingly, mass summits of Hispanic literary achievement: or linguistics. In Canada, the 1994 implementa- media and communications, is second only to that the 17th-century Golden Age, when Miguel de tion of the North American Free Trade Agreement of English. Nadeau and Barlow’s account of how Cervantes’s Don Quixote was published and Madrid was supposed to elevate Spanish to this academic this influence grew, which hops from linguistics to hosted the greatest theatre culture the world has big league. Canadians such as myself, who were history to literary criticism to sociological analysis, known, and the boom of the Spanish American teaching the discipline at universities overseas, is concise and readable. novel in the 1960s, which produced writers such as were lured home to handle the anticipated increase Hispanic culture is successful because Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and in demand. In fact, since Canada embraced free throughout history it has demonstrated the Carlos Fuentes. The chapter on the boom suffers trade with the U.S. and Mexico, with their com- 21st-century virtue of adaptability. More phonetic from muddled information, notably a confused bined population of more than 150 million Spanish and grammatically regular than English or French, account of magic realism. In the Golden Age speakers, Simon Fraser University, Carleton the language is easy to learn, particularly in the chapter, the authors omit important figures and University and McMaster University have abolished early stages. Although Spanish is spoken in a sniff that considering Pedro Calderón de la Barca their undergraduate Spanish degrees. Today, at multitude of national variants, the prejudices to be Shakespeare’s equal is “a bit of a stretch.” In half a dozen other Canadian universities, Spanish against other people’s accents that can sour fact, many critics regard Calderón, a more prolific, degree programs are fighting for their survival. transnational interaction in English or French are imaginative, philosophically profound playwright Written for a U.S. audience, The Story of Spanish uncommon in the Hispanic world. While Hispanic than Shakespeare, and a far greater innovator in the does not address Canada. A table included in cultures have produced their share of intransigent use of the stage, to be the Bard’s superior. Elsewhere the book puts the tally of native speakers here at ideologies, speakers of the language have always we are told that Romanticism “arrived late in Latin 909,000, a figure promoted by Hispanic-Canadian mingled, cooperated and procreated with people America, in the 1870s.” But Romanticism reached lobby groups but that most specialists judge who were racially and culturally different from Argentina in 1830, via France, more than a decade to be about twice the actual number. Canada’s themselves. before it arrived in Spain. By 1870, Latin American Hispanic community, whose roots lie in the flight Nadeau and Barlow trace this protean propensity Romanticism was finished. Nadeau and Barlow go of educated Chileans and Argentinians from the to the court of King Alfonso X, a formidable on to confuse late 19th-century Spanish American right-wing dictatorships of the 1970s, is strikingly intellectual who ruled Castile from 1252 to 1284. modernismo with the unrelated movement of different from that of the United States, where the Working in an environment in which Arabic had Anglo-American Modernism. Their coverage most influential Spanish speakers are the ultra- been the dominant tongue of most of the Iberian of language is better, although tighter editing would conservative Miami Cubans. Furthermore, the U.S. peninsula for the previous 500 years, Alfonso have removed occasional misspellings. The book’s South and West belonged to the Spanish empire refined the Castilian language by turning his U.S. orientation means that no attention is given court into a translation workshop where books to Spanish in the Philippines (where 2 to 3 million were translated among Arabic, Latin, Hebrew speakers remain) or in Africa. The latter omission Stephen Henighan, professor of Hispanic studies at and Castilian. In addition to polishing written is surprising given current academic enthusiasm the University of Guelph, is the author of a dozen Castilian, this project required cooperation among for the literature of Equatorial Guinea, Africa’s books of fiction and criticism. His recent books the Christians, Muslims and Jews who made up only officially Spanish-speaking country, and the include A Green Reef: The Impact of Climate Alfonso’s “brain trust”—a term Nadeau and Barlow recent journalistic attention paid to the fledgling Change (Linda Leith Publishing, 2013), Sandino’s borrow without attribution from Carlos Fuentes’s Saharawi Republic in Western Sahara, much of Nation: Ernesto Cardenal and Sergio Ramírez description of Alfonso’s court in The Buried whose leadership, educated in Cuba or Spain, uses Writing Nicaragua, 1940–2012 (McGill-Queen’s Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. Spanish as a lingua franca and emerging co-official University Press, 2014) and his translation of the Drawing on Mexican linguist Antonio Alatorre, the language. Spanish may yet extend its brand of Angolan writer Ondjaki’s novel Granma Nineteen authors trace the development of Spanish in clear, cultural adaptability to new territories—even if and the Soviet’s Secret (Biblioasis, 2014). non-technical language. The linguistic history is Canada chooses not to notice.
8 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Ethnic Cleansing, Canadian Style Many myths are cleared away in this sober historical analysis. Andrew Woolford
attempting to reconstruct the Clearing the Plains: Disease, massive loss of life among and Politics of Starvation and emergence of unprecedented the Loss of Aboriginal Life government controls over James Daschuk indigenous peoples in Canada. University of Regina Press For the indigenous peoples 318 pages, hardcover of the plains, the loss of long- ISBN 9780889772960 relied-upon food such as bison and the spread of devastating sicknesses were not simply his past summer, natural occurrences free from Ian Mosby published human control, nor were they Tan article in Histoire evidence of inferior indigenous Sociale/Social History in which racial stock—a comforting story he discussed some surprising whites often told themselves to documents he found while feel absolved of responsibility. researching Canadian nutrition However, they also were not in policy. The documents detailed all cases weapons mobilized government-sponsored bio by European settlers to exact medical and nutritional experi- their will. Instead, the roles mentation on indigenous chil- played by animals, food, dren at six Canadian residential disease and hunger shift across schools, as well as in Northern time and space, and their Manitoban indigenous communities. Soon after an article in The Globe and Mail where he outlined effects on specific indigenous groups depended CBC Radio reported on the story, debate about findings from his book Clearing the Plains: Disease, upon numerous social, historical and economic Canada’s historic treatment of indigenous peoples Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, conditions. was ignited. At that time, the Truth and Reconcilia- including its primary contention that after 1869 With respect to disease, in some circumstances, tion Commission of Canada had entered its final starvation and the spread of disease were used the interactions between humans and pathogens year after four years of hearing survivors’ testi- deliberately to make room for non-indigenous were quite haphazard. The first five chapters of mony about the violence and degradation suffered settlement on the northern plains. In concluding Clearing the Plains discuss disease and health in in Canadian Indian residential schools. But the his article, Daschuk writes: “As the skeletons in our this region from as early as 200 BCE—long before thought of malnourished children used as test sub- collective closet are exposed to the light, through the arrival of Europeans—up to 1869 CE and the jects for vitamin supplements, as well as fortified the work of Dr. Mosby and others, perhaps we will consolidation of Canada’s control over the West. flour that caused anemia, struck a particular chord come to understand the uncomfortable truths that Daschuk dispenses with the myth that North with the public. It is in this context that, alongside modern Canada is founded upon—ethnic cleans- America was a disease-free place prior to the the revelation that the Canadian Museum for ing and genocide—and push our leaders and arrival of Europeans, and he identifies tuberculosis Human Rights will not refer to settler colonialism ourselves to make a nation we can be proud to call epidemics that preceded Columbus. However, in this country as genocide (although it will seek home.” bison-hunting indigenous peoples on the plains to spark discussion about the applicability of this Clearing the Plains, however, is not a book that were largely untouched by pre-contact epidemics. term), scholars and activists provoked a debate places charges of genocide or ethnic cleansing front Indeed, these peoples flourished. They were some about genocide in Canada. This group included and centre. In fact, Daschuk rarely mentions either of the tallest people in the world, whose health former Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of these terms in his overview of the intersections of would only be compromised with the arrival of Phil Fontaine, who called upon Ottawa to recognize disease, starvation, politics and death on the European-borne diseases. At the forefront was Canada as the sixth official genocide, alongside the Canadian plains, although the term “ethnocide” smallpox, although measles and influenza also took Holocaust, Srebrenica, the Armenian genocide, the is mentioned in the media release for the book. their toll. Trade patterns brought smallpox from Rwandan genocide and the Holodomor. Daschuk’s main objective is instead to “identify one community to the next, but it was not equally James Daschuk joined this discussion through the roots of the current health disparity between destructive for all indigenous peoples. For example, the indigenous and mainstream populations in eastern groups who engaged in the nascent Andrew Woolford is a professor of sociology at western Canada.” This gap in health outcomes fur trade with Europeans, and who developed the University of Manitoba. He is co-editor of the is not of recent vintage, according to Daschuk. It immunity through this early exposure, were able forthcoming Colonial Genocide and Indigenous has historical roots in the policies and practices of to take advantage of emerging trade opportunities North America (Duke University Press, 2014) and Canada toward indigenous peoples. But it is also when the disease ravaged those living further west. is currently preparing a manuscript titled “‘This part of a complicated history. Others engaged in processes of ethnogenesis, Benevolent Experiment’: Indigenous Boarding The loss of traditional indigenous food sources merging with other groups ravaged by illness. Schools, Genocide and Redress in the U.S. and and the introduction of European diseases are In short, Daschuk identifies a confluence of C a n a d a .” two issues that require careful parsing when factors that contributed to the initial, often-catas-
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 9 trophic spread of disease across the plains—the held the soldiers in one place for a sufficient period failures of the crown’s treaty commitment to peculiar transmission patterns of smallpox, the to ensure that they would not be carriers of disease provide assistance in the case of a widespread networks of trade forged around the acquisition, to indigenous and burgeoning settler populations. famine on the plains.” Rather than live up to its preparation and sale of furs, and the introduction Likewise, the 1849 California Gold Rush increased treaty promises, the Tory government under John of new technologies, such as horses and steam- travel throughout the continent and, subsequently, A. Macdonald used starvation to its advantage to boats—that expedited travel and made the further provoked animosities, resource depletion and control indigenous nations, imposing on them spread of disease possible. In Daschuk’s rendering illness. policies of pacification to ensure the unobstructed of this era of Canadian history, there is no agent Daschuk locates a watershed shift from the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and or set of agents held solely or largely responsible unintended consequences of the pre-treaty era using threats of hunger to pressure those who had for the deaths of many indigenous people, either to the more interventionist policies that followed not signed treaties to come to the table and to through acts of commission or omission. There is after the treaty period and the push for European confine indigenous peoples to their reserves. also no uniform pattern, as Daschuk takes great settlement on the plains. It is at this stage that one Indian residential schools only added further care to show the diversity of indigenous groups who sees in Daschuk’s book the active “clearing” of instances of malnourishment and crowding, struggle in different ways, and with different resour- the plains, as suggested by the title. The treaties creating ideal spaces for disease to spread among ces at their disposal, to resist (and in some cases themselves are part of this process. Although indigenous children. As well, in the name of fiscal even thrive) in the face of mul- restraint (and to line the pockets of tiple epidemics. To his credit, the Daschuk dispenses with the myth that corrupt politicians such as Edgar author treats indigenous groups Dewdney, the Indian commissioner as distinct entities and not part North America was a disease-free place for the North-West Territories), of a homogenous mass. food aid was kept to a minimum, What is curious, however, prior to the arrival of Europeans, and and when it arrived it was too is that Daschuk describes the often tainted and itself a danger to destructive spread of smallpox as, he identifies tuberculosis epidemics that indigenous health. And then the for the most part, “organic,” and completion of the railway brought thereby risks over-naturalizing preceded Columbus. more settlement, and new diseases the processes he describes in such as measles, to the plains. What such careful and complex detail. A more evocative conceived by indigenous peoples on the plains as a Daschuk refers to as the “demographic nadir” of term might be the one used by historical means of survival in the midst of a rapidly changing the indigenous population on the plains, occurred anthropologist and archeologist Robbie Ethridge to world, for the Dominion the treaties were a means in 1889–90 when “the confluence of coercive describe the dangerous mix of unstable chiefdoms, to contend with indigenous peoples who were dominion policies that abetted the rise of disease an emergent capitalist system defined by the slave perceived as obstacles to settlement. Nonetheless, meant that Indians were not only punished after and fur trades, disease and inter-tribal warfare that indigenous groups used their leverage to negotiate the [1885] rebellion; in many cases, they were was exacerbated by the introduction of deadly new for treaty concessions that they felt would benefit punished to death.” technologies in the late 16th- to early 18th-century their communities. In this respect, Treaty 6 Based on the historical narrative recounted in American South: the shatter zone. A shatter zone included promises for “extra assistance in their Daschuk’s book, it is no surprise that Canadian emerges when multiple destructive forces combine conversion to agriculture, protection from famine health scientists experimented on malnourished to form a toxic admixture, and this is certainly an and pestilence, and inclusion of the ‘medicine indigenous children and adults in the 1940s. apt description of the situation on the plains prior chest’,” with the latter term left undefined as to what By that time, indigenous hunger had long been to increased European settlement. As Daschuk it entailed. Daschuk rests his harshest criticisms of a component of Canadian policies of social recounts, “by 1821, the Canadian northwest was the clearing of the plains on the lack of fulfillment engineering. More importantly, the skeletons of in social, demographic, and environmental crisis. of treaty promises. In making the treaties, the genocide in Canada’s closet—that is, the purposive Harsh climatic conditions compounded by the federal government recognized that indigenous attempted destruction of indigenous groups— eruption of Mount Tambora [in Indonesia], along ways of life were about to change radically, and it are evidenced in Daschuk’s book, as politicians with catastrophic disease episodes, created severe promised to help ease this transition. But rather used a diversity of strategies, ranging from conditions for the physical environment and than assist indigenous peoples, the government forced assimilation to impoverished isolation to people of the northwest.” instead used starvation and disease to control, starvation, to remove indigenous groups, as groups, The viciousness of this shatter zone would isolate and eliminate them. from the plains landscape. however be somewhat offset on the plains through The disappearance of the bison and the In light of recent debates about genocidal the resolution of fur trade competition in the region. re-emergence of tuberculosis represent two policies in Canada, some may criticize Daschuk As Daschuk notes, rivalry between traders had catastrophic moments for the indigenous peoples for being too cautious in his analysis and for not resulted in multiple harms for indigenous peoples: of the plains. Daschuk does not fall in line with naming the clearing of the plains an instance overharvesting of furs, excessive reliance on local those who suggest that the bison were purposefully of genocide or, more accurately, identifying the food sources such as the bison, the sale or gifting of extirpated to weaken indigenous nations, nor multiple attempted genocides of indigenous plains liquor to win indigenous favour and, of course, the does he subscribe to theories about pestilence peoples. However, I do not believe this is a criticism further penetration of deadly pathogens into areas blankets. Nonetheless, he holds federal authorities that needs to be made. The fact that scholarship previously free of infection. The creation of the to account for their failure to provide sufficient food such as Daschuk’s is emerging to shed light on the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly, however, did to stem famine on the prairies or to take adequate complicated stories of destruction, resistance and not fully alleviate these issues. The establishment of action to prevent the spread of tuberculosis. The resurgence that mark Canadian history is most the Red River Colony, as well as western settlement two are connected, of course, and they also link welcome. Indeed, because Daschuk does not set more generally, placed greater pressure on the with other government incursions into the lives of himself as both prosecutor and judge, and instead bison. Improved transportation to move settlers indigenous peoples. The treaties forced indigenous allows the historical record to tell the story, his is a and traders westward also facilitated the migration peoples onto small reserves, and when bison herds more convincing intervention in these debates than of disease. Nevertheless, the HBC also possessed an faltered, indigenous peoples were left overcrowded those who seek to impose a rigid Holocaust analogy interest in protecting its workforce, and vaccinations and malnourished. These are the conditions in onto the Canadian context. In truth, we need for smallpox and other forms of medical support which tuberculosis thrives. As Daschuk puts it, diverse contributions to the discussion of genocide were made available to those indigenous men “years of hunger and despair that coincided with in Canada, deriving from multiple standpoints. involved in the fur trade, as well as their families, extermination of the bison and relocation of groups Whereas countries such as Australia have had although in their efforts to quash this disease HBC- to reserves, exacerbated by inadequate food aid their “history wars” and engaged in public debate sponsored emissaries of health often brought other from the dominion government, created ecological about the harms of their settler colonial past, these ailments such as influenza with them. Other events conditions in which the disease exploded. Half- discussions have too often been wilfully ignored also had unintended consequences, such as when hearted relief measures during the famine of in Canada. An important part of this discussion is the Oregon territory opened for settlement in 1846. 1878–80 and after, which kept plains people in a educating Canadians about their history, and the Daschuk records how the rush to move troops to constant state of hunger, not only undermined policies and decisions that were made on their protect the colony from U.S. incursion also meant the government’s half-baked self-sufficiency behalf, in the formation of this country. the violation of quarantine policies that would have initiative but also illustrated the moral and legal
10 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Getting Aboriginal Rights Right Two new books take very different approaches to how aboriginal rights should be treated in Canada. Peter H. Russell
the foundation of human rights codes around the building hydroelectric dams to provide jobs and Aboriginal Rights Are Not Human Rights: world. Unlike those human rights that apply to all removing children to improve their education. In Defence of Indigenous Struggles people wherever they are situated, aboriginal rights For Kulchyski, culture must be understood as Peter Kulchyski are rights that only certain people and peoples can including the traditional hunting and gathering Arbeiter Ring Publishing assert. Aboriginal rights are those of peoples who economies of aboriginal societies. True aboriginal 173 pages, softcover as a result of colonialism find themselves in the rights must, above all, protect the continuation ISBN 9781894037761 position of being a minority in their homelands, of that economy. Here he seems oblivious to the and stem from the struggle against that colonialism. fact that many of Canada’s aboriginal peoples had Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: We can all agree with Kulchyski that aboriginal agrarian economies well before the white man Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation rights apply only to peoples in particular arrived (I am writing this review in Huronia) and of Legal Rights circumstances, not to all peoples, without rejecting that virtually all aboriginal peoples have moved David Milward the universality of the principle that underlies the to participating in mixed economies in which University of British Columbia Press justice of our recognition of aboriginal rights. there is a great need, among other things, for 303 pages, softcover That principle is the equality of all peoples that, vocational training. Kulchyski, whose background ISBN 9780774824576 although not always lived up to, is the foundational is European, appears to be wedded to a “frozen principle of the United Nations. It is because the culture” understanding of aboriginal peoples. governments of nearly all of the states in the world Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: Realizing a n 2007, the United Nations adopted the recognize the validity of that principle that they Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous could endorse the UN’s Declaration on the Rights the other book under consideration here, also by IPeoples (with the unfortunate acronym of Indigenous Peoples. a University of Manitoba professor, but one whose DRIP), which is meant to apply ancestry is Cree, manifests a much to the societies around the world Under the Conservative Harper more dynamic understanding that meet the UN’s definition of aboriginal culture. As a law of indigenous peoples. (The government, Canada was one of the last professor, David Milward focuses world’s indigenous population is on aboriginal justice systems— estimated to exceed 300 million, states to adopt the Declaration on the more specifically, criminal justice out of a total population of systems. Self-consciously, he 7 billion.) Although Canada under Rights of Indigenous Peoples. situates himself in the middle Liberal governments had been of the ideological spectrum on a keen supporter of the declaration, under the Kulchyski dissects the declaration’s 46 articles, aboriginal rights, neither as demanding or Conservative Harper government it was one of the showing how, in his view, some are simply the fundamentalist as Taiaiake Alfred (or Peter Kul last states to adopt it, finally doing so in 2010. extension of human rights (for instance, freedom chyski) nor, to use Kulchyski’s words, as compliant Canadians appear to take the rights of aboriginal from any kind of discrimination) to aboriginal as Tom Flanagan or Alan Cairns. He supports the peoples seriously. I know of no other country in the peoples, while others relate to true aboriginal goal of establishing aboriginal justice systems in world whose constitution includes, as ours does, rights (for instance, the right to autonomy or self- Canada that are built on a tradition of peacekeeping the flat-out statement that the aboriginal rights of government in matters relating to their internal and restorative justice rather than western systems’ aboriginal peoples in the country are “recognized and local affairs), and some are hybrids (for emphasis on retribution and punishment. But and affirmed.” Yet there is much confusion about instance, the right to the dignity and diversity of he recognizes the need for aboriginal justice what these rights are, including whether aboriginal their cultures). It is true that the declaration is a systems to evolve and overcome some of their rights are the same thing as the rights of indigenous somewhat incoherent hodgepodge, but Kulchyski shortcomings, including the difficulty of providing peoples, and much concern about how far and shows his fundamentalist perspective in faulting it an accused person with a fair hearing if the justice in what ways these rights should be given effect in for being framed in accord with “the existing state system is controlled by the dominant family in a Canada. So two new books that focus on getting system.” So it is. But what did he expect from an small community. aboriginal rights right should be welcomed. association of nation-states? Canada’s justice system has provided limited Peter Kulchyski, a Native studies scholar at the Kulchyski fears that what he regards as true openings for aboriginal practices. Judges, both University of Manitoba, aims his book directly aboriginal rights will be required to conform with aboriginal and non-aboriginal, employ sentencing at the existential question—what are aboriginal universal human rights. Because these latter rights circles in which offender and victim participate rights? His title gives the negative part of his are essentially Western European in origin, the with members of the community in a process answer: Aboriginal Rights Are Not Human Rights: In UN declaration has, for him, an assimilationist aimed at healing the breach in the social fabric Defence of Indigenous Struggles. What he means by thrust. As an example he cites article 21, which and reintegrating the offender back into the this is that aboriginal rights should not be thought provides that “indigenous peoples have the right, community. Section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code of as simply an extension to aboriginal peoples of without discrimination, to the improvement of requires judges to consider “all available sanctions those classic liberal rights that grew out of the their economic and social conditions, including, other than imprisonment that are reasonable in European enlightenment and have come to be inter alia, in the areas of education, employment, the circumstances … with particular attention vocational training and retraining, housing, to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders.” Peter H. Russell is a professor emeritus of political sanitation, health and social security.” The use of the Peacemaker courts are functioning in a number science and principal of Senior College at the Latin “inter alia,” he says, betrays the document’s of aboriginal communities. Milward regards these University of Toronto. He chaired the Research cultural bias as does the inclusion of “vocational developments as steps in the right direction, but Advisory Committee for the Royal Commission on training.” Such a right, he argues, could be used to they depend on the discretion of non-aboriginal Aboriginal Peoples. justify, in the name of indigenous peoples’ rights, judges, apply mostly to minor offences and depend
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 11 on the accused pleading guilty or being found comply with Charter rights. It is to his credit that an aboriginal right may make it difficult to assert guilty in the mainstream system. They fall far short he eschews that position, and instead insists on the and enjoy it, it does not kill the right. of enabling aboriginal peoples to establish and moral imperative for aboriginal peoples to evolve Where Kulchyski and Milward part company maintain their own justice systems as part of their their systems so that they meet universal principles is in their respective readings of the path that right to manage the internal affairs of their own of justice. aboriginal peoples in Canada might take in societies. The meat of Milward’s book is devoted to this exercising their aboriginal rights. Kulchyski’s vision Good arguments can be made that the historic exercise of exploring ways in which aboriginal justice seems frozen in the past, and in the bush. In the treaties were premised on aboriginal peoples systems, while remaining true to their restorative postscript of his book, he refers to First Nations retaining autonomy over their internal affairs. and healing purposes, can meet challenges to their cultures as “bush cultures” and says that the But Milward is doubtful that the non-aboriginal efficacy and integrity. These challenges include two borders that remain meaningful are the one judiciary that controls treaty interpretation will the risk in small communities of bias against the between Canada and “the states that remain united be willing to accommodate a full aboriginal accused in systems relying on local people to to our south” and “the border between bush culture justice system. Some modern treaties, notably administer justice, the difficulty of ensuring that and mall culture.” It is in the bush in northern First the Nisga’a, Sechelt and Tsawwassen agreements, the accused gets a fair hearing without making the Nation communities that Kulchyski has spent as provide some scope for community justice but process unduly adversarial, and the need for much time as possible over the last 30 years. We confine it to summary offences and subject it to strong sanctions against persistent and dangerous can appreciate his admiration for the life he has appellate supervision by the mainstream system. offenders. experienced there and why he values it so much If aboriginal peoples attempt to over the grit, the grime and, yes, pursue substantive jurisdiction Aboriginal peoples simply have to start the malls of the more urbanized over criminal justice in their settings in which the majority of communities, Milward believes, “doing it”: assert their rights and let Canada’s indigenous population on the basis of his reading of have come to reside. We should the Supreme Court of Canada’s other governments react to them. We all also appreciate the section of his interpretation of the “existing book that so poignantly describes aboriginal and treaty rights” in have a stake in their doing this. the devastation wantonly visited section 35 of the Constitution on the First Nation communities Act, 1982, that they are likely to fail. They are left, In investigating various ways of resolving of northern Manitoba by hydroelectric projects in he concludes, “without a solid constitutional tensions between western and aboriginal justice order to produce “cheap power” for the mall people foundation with which to challenge Canadian systems, Milward’s wide-ranging inquiry looks at the cost of wiping out the traditional economy of policies that accord only limited accommodations.” at tribal courts in the United States, aboriginal the bush people. Still the path that most of Canada’s Milward works through what a full-blown initiatives in Australia and the experience of a aboriginal peoples, be they Indian, Inuit or Métis, aboriginal justice system might look like in all of number of aboriginal peoples in Canada. The will likely take in exercising their right to develop its dimensions—sentencing, trial, investigation—if result is the most comprehensive account and their own societies according to their own lights it went some way to accommodate differences appraisal available on aboriginal justice systems is much more along the lines of David Milward’s between the mainstream system and traditional in the contemporary world. It is an extraordinarily vision. It is a path guided by a capacity for self- aboriginal systems. The accommodations he is valuable contribution to scholarship and policy in criticism and adaptation rather than a romantic most concerned about relate to criminal justice this important field of aboriginal relations. attachment to the past. rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In his analysis of each phase of criminal justice, The differing perspectives of Kulchyski and He does not see the reforms of aboriginal justice Milward carefully delineates the solution he favours Milward reflect the tension between traditionalists which he advocates as assimilationist. He justifies in resolving tensions between the ideologies of and modernizers in aboriginal communities that them as enabling aboriginal systems to better western and aboriginal systems. The blueprint of an Milward acknowledges may impede progress accord with what he refers to as “natural justice.” aboriginal justice system this yields goes far beyond toward adopting comprehensive justice systems Milward acknowledges that there is a clause a mere “indigenization” that amounts basically of their own. An equally difficult impediment is in the Charter, section 25, according to which to appointing more judges with an aboriginal the small size, localism and isolationism of most Charter rights are not to abrogate or derogate from background to administer the mainstream process. First Nation communities. The damage done to “rights or freedoms that pertain to the Aboriginal It is a system that would, among other things, indigenous self-government by carrying out the peoples of Canada” including those recognized by enlarge the scope for the uncodified customary Indian Act goal of breaking up the tribal system the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763, and law that each aboriginal people has developed should never be underestimated. Until there is those acquired by land claim agreements. Since over the years, allow for the removing of judges an effective rebuilding of confederal structures the political independence of Indian nations from the process when the parties are able to work that enable small communities, on a tribal, treaty recognized by the Royal Proclamation included the out their own solutions and, when there are trials, or regional basis, to work together for common freedom to continue operating their own justice conducting them in a more inquisitorial manner. political purposes, including the development systems, and modern land claims agreements It is a system that, in contrast to English common of their own justice system, aboriginal self- could explicitly allow aboriginal peoples to restore law ideology, tends to give more weight to the government for most of Canada’s indigenous their own justice systems, Milward might have well-being of the community than the rights of peoples will be an illusion. taken the position that legally aboriginal peoples the individual. Nonetheless, Milward thinks that The torpid follow-up to the Harper-Atleo do not have to modify their traditional systems to such a system, if it had to, could survive Charter “summit” provoked by the Idle No More movement scrutiny by non-aboriginal judges, providing they shows clearly that progress toward aboriginal are “culturally sensitive.” peoples enjoying the aboriginal and treaty rights our It is common ground for both these writers constitution says we recognize and affirm depends Moving? that it is aboriginal peoples, not non-aboriginal at this stage in our history on aboriginal initiatives. Don’t leave us behind! governments or courts, that shape the substance They simply have to start “doing it”: assert their of their rights. Their rights derive from the liberty rights and let other governments react to them. We Please send us your old and new they enjoy as peoples to determine their political all have a stake in their doing this. Our mainstream addresses, and we’ll keep your destiny, and their responsibility for looking after justice system with its overuse of imprisonment, subscription coming to your door! their societies and the lands and waters that costs and delays, not to mention its wrongly nurture them. Courts, including Canada’s Supreme convicted victims, could benefit from incorporating LRC Subscription Department Court, in adjudicating disputes about their rights some of the strengths of the aboriginal system. And P.O. Box 8, Station K may or may not get them right. These judicial mall people should be concerned about striking a doctrines and decisions about aboriginal rights more sensitive balance between extracting wealth Toronto, ON M4P 2G1 can build bridges connecting them to the legal through industrial development in the Canadian [email protected] system of the state in which aboriginal peoples find hinterland and protecting the interests of the bush Tel: 416 932 5081 • Fax: 416 932 1620 themselves embedded. Such bridges can, of course, people for whom that hinterland is their homeland. be extremely useful in promoting harmonious All Canadians stand to benefit from getting relations. But while failure to adequately recognize aboriginal rights right.
12 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Deception, Betrayal and Terrorism The Cuban-American vendetta produces a sobering and puzzling tale. Reg Whitaker
presidents in its grip, confining What Lies Across the Water: American Cuban policy within the The Real Story of the Cuban narrow tunnel vision of the exiles. Five With regard to Cuba (or later Stephen Kimber Saddam Hussein’s Iraq) Americans Fernwood Publishing might better have eschewed 296 pages, softcover ideological solidarity and instead ISBN 9781552665428 heeded the long-ago advice of Machiavelli about how dangerous it is to trust to the representation of uccessful use of intelli political exiles. “So extreme is their gence has been an important desire to return to their homes,” he Sresource for states in the wrote, “that they naturally believe making of grand diplomatic and many things that are not true, and military policy. In the Second add many others on purpose … World War, the ULTRA secret Tey will fill you with hopes to that permitted the Allies to decrypt degree that if you attempt to act German military communications, upon them you … will engage in an thus providing them with a strategic undertaking that will involve you leg-up. Intelligence failures, like in ruin.” Air India or 9/11, have caused The hardline exiles have never massive political embarrassment. been content merely to voice their Yet day-to-day intelligence opposition to the Castro brothers activities often serve less exalted purposes. It is a Since the Cuban revolution in 1959, hostile and all their works. Clandestine gangster-like groups dirty but not very well-kept secret that all too often relations between the United States and Fidel and have carried out armed and violent actions against spying is just pornography for states, allowing them Raoul Castro’s Cuba, beginning as a small subset the Cuban homeland, sometimes in shadowy to engage in prurient games that fall short of actual of Cold War competition with the former Soviet collaboration with elements of the American conflicts with material consequences. John Le Union, have survived the end of the Cold War and secret state, at other times benefitting from official Carré’s Cold War novels capture this reality with the demise of the Soviet state. Intelligence power American silences accompanied by friendly winks cynical precision. The frissons of deception and has been the favoured instrument of competition, and nudges. These actions have included bombs in betrayal grip readers but mean next to nothing in but relations have always hovered in a twilight zone Cuban public places and a horrific act of air piracy: the bigger picture of global politics. where clandestine “peacetime” conflict continually in 1976 a Cuban Air DC-8 flight from Barbados As even free speech liberals are uneasily aware, threatens to erupt into actual violence. Less than to Jamaica was brought down by terrorist bombs, pornography cannot always be contained within three years after the victorious guerillas arrived in with 78 fatalities, the deadliest terrorist airline the limits of private indulgence but may blur Havana, an inexperienced young U.S. president attack in the western hemisphere to that date. The into harmful impacts on real, vulnerable, people. was drawn by anti-communist Cuban exiles into conspirators, with links to the CIA, were identified Routine espionage and counter-espionage carried the humiliating fiasco of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In but have escaped criminal convictions. Even in on by rival bureaucracies may seem an expensive 1962 the world came within one minute of nuclear the age of the “global war on terror,” the U.S. has but relatively harmless pastime. When intelligence midnight in the Cuban missile crisis. Throughout, a deployed a remarkably shameless set of double assets are redeployed for more active uses—what draconian American sanctions regime has imposed standards, bitterly denouncing terrorism in all the Americans refer to as covert actions such as severe economic damage on the lives of Cubans its forms and pledging to bring its perpetrators sabotage, assassination, regime destabilization— (matching the damage caused by heavy-handed remorselessly to justice, while turning a benignly the results are not at all harmless. Innocent people Soviet controls by the Castro government). blind eye, or worse, to terrorism carried out in the die and ugly impacts work their way through entire These were all public matters. We now know name of anti-communism—even though the Cold societies. a great deal about covert actions initiated by the War is a fading memory. Stephen Kimber’s What Lies Across the Water: The White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, The starting point of Kimber’s examination of Real Story of the Cuban Five focuses on the nexus of enlisting everyone from professional spies and this rat’s nest of violence and deception is the 1998 the United States, communist Cuba 145 kilometres bloodthirsty exiles to Las Vegas mobsters and arrest and subsequent conviction of five Cuban off the Florida coast, the anti-communist exiles in shady mercenaries in plots to kill Fidel Castro and “spies” in Florida: Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Florida and the rival intelligence services of the two destabilize the regime by any means possible, Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González countries. This is, as Kimber shows, a poisonous, however dubious in terms of law, ethics or even and René González. These “illegal” undercover even deadly nexus. common sense. And then there is the Cuban exile agents of Cuban intelligence ranged in age at the community in South Florida: uncompromisingly time of their arrest from 33 to 42 years. Some had Reg Whitaker is the co-author of Secret Service: committed to the overthrow of the Cuban regime; Cuban wives (at least one of whom was left for Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to fiercely vengeful toward its leaders and supporters; some years in ignorance of the reasons for her Fortress America (University of Toronto Press, and effective as a lobby that holds much of husband’s sudden departure from Cuba); one 2012). the American media, Congress and successive had picked up an American girlfriend who knew
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 13 nothing about his real identity. All were given or was likely to result from their activities on did not know was that they had fallen under close lengthy prison sentences and all, with the exception American soil. In fact, their mission from the Cuban FBI counter-espionage surveillance. Their arrest of René González, who was released on parole in intelligence service that had dispatched them to and subsequent convictions and lengthy prison 2011, remain behind bars today but have hopes of Florida was not to spy upon the United States at sentences, amid maximum media publicity about release in the future. Gerardo Hernández, now 48, all but to infiltrate and attempt to neutralize anti- smashing an extensive Cuban spy network, put sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years [!], has no Castro groups organizing attacks against Cuba. paid to any future Cuban-American cooperation hope of ever seeing the light of day. There was brief They had been quite successful in penetrating the to stamp out freelance terrorism launched from optimism about a more liberal American stance targeted organizations. Despite the exiles’ ferocious Florida. What is unclear is the precise role of the FBI when Barack Obama assumed the presidency, but anti-communism, they proved inept in identifying and American authorities in these developments. Obama showed no interest in reconsidering the Castro’s agents planted among them. This is not so Were the Americans simply duplicitous in their prisoners’ situation. surprising: enthusiastic self-deluders, exile groups dealings with the Cubans, always intending to Kimber carried on a lengthy correspondence are easy prey for penetration, an early example exploit the matter for anti-Castro propaganda while with los muchachos, as they are affectionately being that of the anti-Bolshevik groups opposing continuing to covertly support exile terrorism? known in Cuba, and found them, despite their the 1917 Revolution from outside Russia that were Or is it rather a matter of the American state condition, polite and helpful in assisting his efforts thoroughly penetrated and manipulated by agents and its agencies, including the FBI, being less to reconstruct their tangled story. of Lenin’s Cheka. than monolithic, the left hand not knowing what In America, these men have been viewed as The Cubans were less successful, however, the right hand is doing? Either interpretation is evidence of the Castro regime’s malign intent in neutralizing the exile groups that carried on possible. Kimber offers evidence to back each toward democracy, and as proof of the effective planting bombs in Havana, one of which killed hypothesis, while sensibly noting that too much is work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a Canadian visitor. This is where Kimber’s story murky and hidden to pass final judgement. protecting America from foreign agents. In Cuba becomes more interesting—and more opaque. Kimber has done an admirable job of tracking they are Los Cinco, the “Cuban Five,” proof of the Cuban intelligence actually made efforts to warn down as much information on this tangled affair hypocritical mendacity of the American regime in the Americans about the threats posed by the as is likely to see the light of day for some time to promoting terrorism against the Cuban people. exile groups. With the assistance of the celebrated come. Interviews with participants seem to have These two views are obviously incommensurate Nobel Prize–winning Colombian novelist Gabriel been difficult at times. High political stakes and the with one another, if not in outright contradiction. García Márquez, who carried a secret message shark-like ruthlessness of the exile activists appear How to square this circle? Without going so far as from Fidel Castro to U.S. president Bill Clinton, the to have spooked many who have brushed up simply to echo Cuban propaganda—which Kimber information gathered by the Los Cinco network on against this story over the years. Kimber refers to the does not—he makes a strong case that wherever the the exiles’ operations was brought to the attention curious indifference shown by mainstream North truth finally lies in this wilderness of mirrors, it will of American officials. A secret Cuban-American American publishers to his publishing project. look rather more like the Cuban than the American meeting was even held in which information was It has finally appeared under the imprimatur of version of reality. exchanged and Cuban intelligence apparently left Fernwood Publishing, a small but energetic left- Although the Cubans were convicted of with the impression that some form of cooperation wing publisher in Halifax and Winnipeg. Kimber conspiring to commit espionage against the U.S., might be arranged between the long-time and Fernwood are to be commended for getting out evidence was never presented of any harm to antagonists to contain the threat of terrorist attacks. a story that needs to be told. America or American interests that had resulted What the Cuban undercover agents in Florida Admirable as the author’s intentions may be, the book is not without flaws. Kimber confides that his original intention to write a novel set in Cuba was sideswiped by this stranger-than-fiction tale. The book perhaps strives too hard to retain novelistic elements. It proceeds as a series of short, almost cinematic snapshots in which various characters, villains and more-or-less heroes are introduced and then set aside for later. The effect is rather like one of those British TV detective dramas that start with a series of seemingly unconnected vignettes that gradually resolve into one interconnected narrative. In this case, however, there are too many characters who flit by too quickly to impress their identity clearly with the reader. Instead of coming together, by the end the narrative becomes if anything even more formless and perplexing. Much of this is attributable to the mysterious nature of the story itself and the contested status of the facts. But one wonders: might a more analytic approach have shed more light? In any event, if Kimber’s narrative remains unresolved, one could say precisely the same about the state of Cuban-American relations more than six decades after the revolutionary fighters burst onto the streets of Havana on New Year’s Day 1959. Since then no fewer than eleven American presidents have grappled unsuccessfully with the spectre of a communist state 145 kilometres off the American coast, including a close brush with global nuclear Armageddon in 1962. The combined efforts of American, Cuban and Soviet intelligence agencies, as well as the rogue anti-communist exile state-within-a-state in South Florida, have succeeded only in roiling and muddying the waters yet further, not to speak of causing considerable collateral human damage along the way. What Lies Across the Water is both a commentary on and a symptom of this never-ending story.
14 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada West Meets East Reliving the Canada-Japan relationship. Bronwyn Best
Several unsuccessful attempts were made to also been growing since the early 1900s, when Finding Japan: publish MacDonald’s account of his Japanese Japanese immigrants entered Canada, along with Early Canadian Encounters with Asia sojourn, as early as the 1850s. Part of his story was their goods. Initially welcomed, the mood turned Anne Shannon printed in 1893, the year before his death, but the when the Japanese became prominent in the Heritage House Publishing full version was not published until 1923. There fishery. As Shannon reports, “for a country reliant 240 pages, softcover are American historians who claim MacDonald, on immigration, Canada could be remarkably ISBN 9781927051559 with a Chinook princess mother from Oregon, as unwelcoming … While the context was racial, the their own. His Scottish-born father, however, was flashpoint was labour competition.” Sadly, this a Hudson’s Bay fur trader, and Ranald “grew up at echoes, even today, in attitudes toward Canadian any Canadians, if asked to think his father’s forts at Kamloops on the northern end immigrants. about our country’s relationship of the Okanagan Trail and at Langley on the lower Canadian women missionaries and educators Mwith Japan, will recall the internment Fraser River east of what became Vancouver.” The were a remarkable asset in “raising the status of of Japanese Canadians as enemy aliens during story of MacDonald in opening up relations with [Japanese] women through education.” For some, World War Two, even though it was subsequently Japan is certainly big enough to be a shared part of like Caroline Macdonald (who was an educator demonstrated that they posed no security threat the history of both Canada and the United States. and founder of the YWCA in Japan but was most whatsoever. Although an apology, compensation Shannon covers just over one hundred years of revered for being a prison reformer and labour and other forms of redress took place starting in the Canada-Japan relationship, to 1950, a relation- activist) and Emma Kaufmann (who took over from 1988, the internment remains one of Canada’s ship that has not always been easy. She divides her Macdonald and spent 23 years of her life at the darkest chapters. book into three parts, “Arriving,” “Growing” and Japanese YWCA), the challenge of making a dif- But there was a long history of Japanese- “Struggling.” The first starts with MacDonald—who, ference in Japan was euphoric. For others, like my Canadian contact before World War Two, and even though he was imprisoned, was treated with grandmother, the environment in Japan sometimes Anne Shannon’s Finding Japan: Early Canadian great courtesy, unlike other foreigners finding proved inhospitable—the greatest challenge, as Encounters with Asia pulls together a disparate themselves in Japan between the 1600s and 1800s— Shannon notes, being loneliness. While foreigners collection of characters—“adventurers, military and then moves on to the unequal treaties between in Japan were treated with great consideration, they and technical advisers, missionary educators and Europe and Japan and treaty ports of Japan, which were also treated with curiosity, often as novelties, social workers, businessmen and art collectors, “became synonymous with guiltless fun,” the always as gaijin. Nonetheless, many of these Cana- politicians, diplomats and soldiers, as well as replacement of the rule of shogun with Emperor dian women gave “every indication of having been the occasional misfit”—whose stories indicate Meiji in 1868, and all the change that “set in motion feisty, energetic individuals who got on remarkably that the relationship is much more colourful an astonishing transformation of everything from well in Japan’s male-oriented society.” and complex than we realize. For me, a second- the country’s social structure, to its economy, to its By the 1940s, “Canada and Japan had gone from generation Canadian missionary kid born in Japan place in the world.” being allies to enemies.” Canada’s attitude toward and a student of Japanese studies, people I know As an economist, Shannon begins with Mac- immigrants feeds into the last part of the book, personally and others whom I have studied over the Donald’s hints at the potential for trade and moves “Struggling,” which includes a quick overview of years spring from Shannon’s text. on to talk of a “rapidly industrializing Asian power.” the Canadian side of the Second World War years, Shannon begins the relationship between A Canadian engineer named Henry Spencer years in which my grandfather, mother, father and Canada and Japan with Ranald MacDonald and Palmer assisted with the design and construction aunt-to-be all worked in the Japanese-Canadian his journey to Japan, in 1848, disguised as a of the first pressurized waterworks in the city of relocation camps (to put a nice name to them)— shipwrecked sailor, “quite possibly the first person Yokohama and then went on to serve as a journalist also a part of my own history for this is how and of Canadian origin to reach the shores of Asia.” for a British journal, extolling “Japan’s progress in when my parents met. Shannon spends more Unhappy with his banker’s life, MacDonald was areas like law and the judiciary, while sympathiz- time on Canadian veterans caught in Hong Kong pulled to Japan, spending six years in preparation, ing with growing Japanese frustration over foreign and held in grim conditions as prisoners of war in including signing on to a whaler headed for Hawaii, unwillingness to reopen the unequal treaties struck Japan, and ends, rather abruptly, with the story of where “Japan seemed closer and the prospect of its at the end of the 1850s.” Many other Canadians one of Canada’s greatest Japan experts, diplomat opening not so far-fetched.” What he planned to do made their lives in Japan as Christian missionaries Herbert Norman, a man of peace, and his influence in Japan is not clear, but he may have intended to and educators, all in the name of helping Japanese on post-war Japan. be an interpreter or to engage in trade. Regardless to embrace western civilization. But Christian the- Through Finding Japan, Shannon enriches of his intentions, MacDonald was seized upon his ology, Shannon notes, was never “an easy fit in a our history, helping us identify those Canadians, arrival, and literally carted in a cage around Japan, society where spiritual values were rooted in the well known in Japan but little known in Canada, where he was studied and stared at. He ended up family, the community and the state.” as well as the Japanese, who played a significant in Nagasaki, giving daily English lessons, hinting “Growing” focuses on the years my grandparents role in Canada-Japan trade and cultural relations. to the authorities about the potential for trade with and others went to Japan as Canadian missionaries. Indeed, as Shannon notes in her introduction, Japan, and, “with the exception of personal liberty Shannon regales us with the first vestiges of trade “what leaps out of many pages is the sheer power … had everything he wanted.” Nine months after his between Japan and Canada—from the Japanese of human connection, the sparks of energy that arrival, however, MacDonald was put on the USS side, tea, mikan (Japanese oranges) and the silk transcended seemingly impossible cultural Preble, there to rescue survivors of an American trade, with Canada acting as intermediary between barriers and ignited some remarkably productive shipwreck, and told never to set foot on Japanese Japan and the United States. Canada had wheat relationships.” Those of us intimate with Japan find soil again. and timber, both sorely lacking in Japan, as well as many friends among the pages of Shannon’s book. modern “products” such as automobiles and life Those new to the stories will come away with an Bronwyn Best is president of Heiwa Business insurance. The Japanese were quick to encourage appreciation of the wider relationship between International, a Canada-Asia cross cultural direct trade in order to bypass foreign agents. The Canada and—as Shannon, the economist turned awareness, management, negotiation and first Canadian Legation was established in Japan, historian, captures in her subtitle—Asia more mediation, and international business ethics in 1929. broadly, one that continues to deepen and expand, consultancy. Antipathy toward Asian immigration had across our Pacific border.
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 15 Sisters
Apple trees you planted side by side for our mothers —
apples’ sheen, flesh, labyrinthine cores snap, fall, release of seed.
They bore us, told us what they remembered of our births.
As their lives grew thin, they perfected their dreams.
Married Sex I kiss them, taste the bark of them, hear them rustle together Midnight in the bathroom and she’s making love with girls laughing, young women her husband. She saddles whispering of sadness in our blood. the chair, heels on the rungs for leverage, the towel rack behind his neck Guy Ewing threatens to snap under the weight of her grip. She resists, he resists. They can ride each other’s eyes if they want — they’re married, so she can vanish into him, she can trespass, she can dally. White noise from the baby monitor surfs below their wave — it could all go to shit in a breath. And he’ll tug on boxers, rush to the child who sleeps through the night less often than they finish fucking. He lurches up, hefts her hips onto the vanity, uses their four-year-old’s potty stool for height— they’ve got tools in every room. Now she’s caved in the fruit of his hair, blond waterfall of freshly shampooed hair, her back puttied against the mirror. They can recite favoured phrases, they can say whatever they want, they’re married, so she can breathe into his ear and watch the pleasure of her words take effect. She feels her words bloom in his body. The child who sleeps in their bed, in the middle, and wakes once, twice, usually between foreplay and dawn, whines through the monitor. They pause. Between them for four years, and not budging any time soon. Absence of motion pulls the room into focus: steam-slicked walls, ribbons of dust in the vent, Renoir print askew, water damage down one edge — Kyeren Regehr has just finished her first poetry those women row on that lake forever, the oiled collection with the help of a grant from Canada wheat of the sun, the arching blue of that pool. Council for the Arts. The title poem from this manuscript, Cult Life, was longlisted for the 2012 CBC She slides her chest across his; Literary Prizes. Her work has appeared in journals water and sweat. And he watches such as The Fiddlehead, Grain, Prairie Fire, PRISM the LED dial, the red lights rising and falling international and Room, and is forthcoming in The with the sleeplessness of their child. She wants to Antigonish Review, Filling Station and Best New Poets lean over, yank the plug, whack it into the tub — 2013. Kyeren lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she serves on the poetry board of The Malahat Review. Kyeren Regehr Since completing her master of fine arts in creative writing in March, Kyeren has been luxuriating in a long bath of “unassigned” books, including is by Anne Simpson, Every Happy Family by Dede Crane and The Sweet Girl by Anabel Lyon.
Guy Ewing lives in Toronto. He is the author of two books of poetry, Hearing, and answering with music (The Mercury Press, 2009) and Earth Becoming Sky (Teksteditions, 2011). He is currently reading Dear Life by Alice Munro, The Martyrology: Book 6 by bpNichol, frogs &. others. by Kusano Shimpei and The Port’s Seasonal Rental by Gerry Shikatani.
16 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Brothers
Nice to sit with a guy you have known for 70 years outside the North Jetty Fish Camp in Nokomis, Florida drinking cans of PBR and watching for dolphins to roll past as you talk about common interests
The two of you often never spoke for years at a time … one insult or another being enough to trigger that
But now you are too old to waste time in silence and know better how not to set the other off and the thing is: two brothers on a bench Thresholds do not want to be disturbed When toddler and grandmother They’ve already missed too much of each other follow the garden path and have little bench time left ready to pick new peas they come upon a steaming Barry Butson pile of bear scat. They calmly turn around, go home without the peas. Taking fifty dollars from her purse laying it on the table the woman simply says Get the boy a dog.
Soon we have a free-to-good-country-home dog and a new out-of-doors rule: When the dog barks, head for the house. No questions asked, no debating the cause — squirrel or grouse, bear or old Henry’s bull out for a wander because Henry’s on a bender and doesn’t know he’s gone. The rule works — dog and children each play their part.
But when the dog barks by the roadside, won’t break off at my whistle, I dismiss the rule. I warily leave porch and yard to see what’s up. From road’s edge I hear high pitched chatter — a sow treeing her cubs.
In an instant she crosses the ditch completes her bluff, huffing and standing on two legs. Without a thought for the dog I retreat a few steps then hightail it for home. Barry Butson began late as a poet, but has published The dog slips by as I cross the threshold. five collections. East End Poems (Moonstone Press, 1998) won the annual Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award and his latest collection is Down at the End W.M. Herring of the Road (Altadore Press, 2010). His work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, England, Ireland, Wales, France and Australia. He is currently reading Books to Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery Novels, edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke.
W.M. Herring is an emerging writer who lives, works and observes nature in rural north-central British Columbia. Her work has appeared or is forthcom- ing in Arc Poetry, Christian Century, The Nashwaak Review, Passion: Poetry, The Prairie Journal and Time of Singing. Books on her current reading list include The Message: The New Testament and Psalms in Contemporary Language by Eugene Peterson, Dirt of Ages by Gillian Wigmore and The Red Tent byAnita Diamant.
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 17 Is University
$29.99 Paper Obsolete? 270 pages 978-1-55458-832-9 Canadian Join McGill sociologist Commentaries series and provost Anthony P. Masi for a public discussion on the digital sea-change in higher education. Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word: A Different Take on Taxes in Canada Alex Himelfarb and Jordan Himelfarb, editors Taxes are the hinge that joins us to each other, to the common good, and to the future. Why is the topic taboo? This book resurrects the Canadian Please join us for a thought-provoking talk, Q&A and reception, as part of The 40th Anniversary tax debate and challenges the maxim that “any Max Bell Essays and Lectures. In this series, four taxisabadtax.” exceptional Canadians will each publish an essay and deliver a public lecture about a policy issue critical to the country’s future. It was announced in celebration of Max Bell Foundation’s 40th Anniversary, and in honour of the thousands of November 14, 2013 charities across Canada that work every day 6:00 PM to improve society. McGill Faculty Club and Conference Centre $29.99 For more about the foundation and its work, 3450 McTavish Street, Montreal Paper visit www.maxbell.org 187 pages Presented by: 978-1-55458-897-8 Cultural Studies series Places at this free event are limited, so RSVP to [email protected] This event is presented by Max Bell Foundation by November 7, 2013! and the Literary Review of Canada.
When Technocultures Collide: Our Literate Lunches feature good food and good conversation with Innovation from Below and the Canadian authors. The series is presented by the Literary Review of Struggle for Autonomy Canada in partnership with the Gardiner Museum. Gary Genosko Genosko studies the collision course between technologically inspired subcultures and the corporate and governmental entities they seek to LITERATE LUNCHES undermine by examining computer hackers, phone phreaks, urban explorers, “CrackBerry” LUNCH WITH KAMAL AL-SOLAYLEE users, whistle-blowers, Yippies, zinsters, roulette October 30 | 12 PM – 1:30 PM cheats, chess geeks, and Julian Assange’s 111 QUEEN’S PARK, TORONTO WikiLeaks website. $25 – Talk/gallery admission and a bag lunch by à la Carte Kitchen
Kamal Al-Solaylee, journalism professor and author of the critically acclaimed Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, will discuss the successes and setbacks of the human $52.95 rights movement in the Arab world nearly three years Paper into the revolutions that rocked the region. Does the 604 pages 978-1-55458-827-5 thirst for democracy mean a better world for women, the gay community and religious minorities? Drawing on his personal experience of growing up gay in the Middle East, Al-Solaylee will explore the contradictions and promises of a part of the world rich in both. Kamal Al-Solaylee, a professor and undergraduate program director at the School of Journalism at Ryerson University, was previously a theatre critic at The Globe and Mail. He has written features and reviews for numerous publications, including The Toronto Star, Cruel but Not Unusual: Violence in National Post, Walrus, Literary Review of Canada, Xtra!, Quill & Quire and Toronto Life. Al- Solaylee holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Nottingham and has taught Canadian Families, 2nd Edition at the University of Waterloo and York University. He is the editor of Tonight at the Tarragon: Ramona Alaggia and Cathy Vine, editors A Critic’s Anthology (2011) and co-editor (with Alex Boyd) of Best Canadian Essays 2010. A comprehensive picture of the scope of violence Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize in all types of Canadian families and intimate for Nonfiction and for the U.S.-based Lambda Literary Awards in the Gay Memoir/Biography relationships. category. He lives in Toronto.
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS Available from your favourite bookseller or call 1-800-565-9523 (UTP Distribution) To register for this lunch, visit reviewcanada.ca/events www.wlupress.wlu.ca facebook.com/wlupress | twitter.com/wlupress
18 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Trying to Pass A black Canadian poses as white during World War Two. Jack Kirchhoff
references to “little pickaninnies” and “half-naked Chief among the supporting players is William Emancipation Day Negro men” in Rio de Janeiro. But Vivian does not Henry Lewis, “of W.H. Lewis & Sons, Ltd., Plasterers, Wayne Grady see the obvious, and in any case is not looking for Willie to his wife, Will to his brother and friends, the Doubleday Canada it. Besides, Jack’s mother, Josie—who might be the Old Man to his sons, Pop to his daughter, William 326 pages, softcover daughter of a Jewish bandleader, although “that Henry to his mama who was living in Ypsilanti ISBN 9780385677660 didn’t make sense to anybody, so they ignored it”— or Cassopolis, no one was certain where or even could pass for white, and his brother and sister, at if she was still alive, she’d be in her nineties, and least, are blond. also William Henry to himself.” Jackson’s father is a ou have to hand it to Wayne Grady. Eventually, of course, it all comes out, though proud, hard-working and hard-drinking man; some When he steps outside his comfort zone, not “officially” until Vivian meets William Henry would say he is a drunk. He starts every day with Yhe makes it a giant step. In the midst of when he is hospitalized. “A thought struck her, a a big breakfast and is then shaved by his brother, a distinguished career as a non-fiction writer and thought she had never quite formulated before Harlan, proprietor of the barbershop in the British- translator—14 books, 15 translations from the but ought to have, she couldn’t imagine why she American Hotel, the same shop formerly run by French (including works by Antonine Maillet, Yves hadn’t: Jack’s family was coloured.” their father. The routine has lasted for 32 years, and Beauchemin and Daniel Poliquin), three Governor Even then, when Vivian asks Jack why he had often includes the first drink of the day. General’s Award nominations and one win (for never said his father was a Negro, he answers: Much of William Henry’s story arrives in flash- Maillet’s On the Eighth Day)—he has produced “‘What do you mean, a Negro?’ Jack said, as sur- backs, especially his angry, long-lasting skepticism his first novel. And not just any about his wife’s fidelity when the old novel, but one set during and oh-so-white Jackson is born. But just after World War Two in New- The bigotry of the whites in the book life goes on, more children come foundland, Windsor and Toronto, along and, over the years, matters featuring several black characters, is hair-raising, and the racism of black settle into routine. including one who is desperately Back from the war, Jack works determined to pass for white, people against other blacks is no less so. a few jobs with his father and and dealing with music, race and brother, but plasterer is not his family dysfunction. There are a lot career dream, and he focuses on of ways for this to go wrong, but Grady—a skilled, prised and indignant as if she had told him his par- his calling as a bandleader. Other strands of Jack’s careful and knowledgeable writer—does not miss ents were codfish. ‘He’s not. My father and Benny past are revealed as we go along, especially his a step. both have blond hair, Alvina has blonde hair. Have youthful attempts to pass: joining the band known The main story of Grady’s novel, Emancipation you ever seen a Negro with blue eyes and blond as the All-Whites; the affair with Della, the jazz- Day, begins in 1943 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. hair? Look at me. Do I look like a Negro to you? loving mother of one of his white band mates. Most Among the thousands of sailors in the port city is Does my mother? Stop talking nonsense.’” Denial movingly, there is the time when the nine-year-old Jack Lewis, from Windsor, Ontario, a trombonist runs deep in Jackson Lewis, though to Vivian, “his Jackson disappears while the family is watching in the Navy Band and a horn player, drummer and response had evidently been prepared.” fireworks on Emancipation Day (marking the day singer—“he looked so much like Frank Sinatra it This bare-bones outline does not nearly do in 1834 when slavery ended in the British Empire). took your breath away”—with the King’s Men, a justice to Grady’s novel. There are several intrigu- The family, especially his mother, is frantic. Then, swing group made up of Jack and several other ing subplots, and secondary but important stories two days later, the police call. Jack—“that’s what he musicians from the Navy Band, who get together to are told in flashbacks and gradually deepened and calls himself when he’s talkin’ to whites”—has been play at the local Knights of Columbus hall. broadened. The various supporting characters, found, but when his father goes to claim him, the It is at the K of C that he meets Vivian Fanshawe, from minor to significant, are sharply delineated police cannot quite believe the little white boy is a local girl who volunteers at the dances, bring- and placed in nicely detailed settings. There his. Moreover, Jackson is claiming that his parents ing sandwiches to the boys in the band. Sparks fly are scenes in nightclubs, in parks and homes in are white, and that William Henry killed them. between the two, and despite resistance from Viv- Windsor, Toronto and Newfoundland, on the If there is a disappointing aspect to the novel, ian’s well-to-do family—they just do not seem able streets of Detroit during a riot, and—most convin- it might be in the music. The jacket notes say the trust the good-looking singer—the two date for a cingly—aboard the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer book is “steeped in the jazz and big band music of while, are married and head for Windsor so Vivian Assiniboine, escorting a 50-ship convoy across the the 1930s and ’40s,” but I don’t know. Many of the can meet Jack’s family. Atlantic. scenes are in musical settings, from that Knights of She meets Jack’s mother, and his brother and The latter section of the novel is remarkable. It is Columbus hall to the Detroit nightclubs, but while sister, and a number of other friends and family a cold and dreary morning when the bandsmen are music is Jack’s escape route from life as Jackson, members, but never seems able to get together marched to the docks and “pressed” into shipboard I seldom got the impression that it moves him or with his father, William Henry. Vivian soon begins service. Jack laments that he joined the band “so makes him passionate. to suspect that there is more to Jack’s family than he I wouldn’t have to go to sea.” But to sea they go, and But despite all that, Grady’s work is an absorb- is willing to admit. The fact is, of course, that Jack’s Jack’s adventures include a practical joke that goes ing, entertaining and informative look at love, mar- family is black, something every reader would know badly, almost fatally wrong, combat with a German riage, men at war, family dynamics and, especially, even if the cover notes did not give it away. The submarine and near-constant seasickness, as well race and racism in Canadian history: the off-hand hints and foreshadowings are thick on the ground: as a couple of tense scenes between Jack and the bigotry and matter-of-fact discrimination of the comments about Jack’s hair and eye colour; ship’s doctor, who turns out to be from Windsor as whites in the book is hair-raising, and the subtler well, and is the father of Jack’s friend Peter—and the racism of black people against other blacks is no Jack Kirchhoff is a freelance arts writer and editor husband of Della, a woman with whom Jack had a less so. I think this is the point of Emancipation in Toronto. blistering affair. Day, and it is a point very well made.
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 19 The Terror and Pity of Contact Native-Jesuit relations under a brilliant fictional microscope. Marian Botsford Fraser
annihilation of a people—and small, individual Sioui and Bruce Trigger. The result is a work that is The Orenda tragedies—first taste of alcohol, first firing of what both exemplary storytelling and a tempered exposé Joseph Boyden Bird calls the shining wood, attempted rape of a of the clash of civilizations; Boyden, whose earlier Penguin girl, buggery of a boy. Mitigation comes in the form novels Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce 487 pages, hardcover of tenderness and acts of generosity—the gift of were explorations of modern First Nations charac- ISBN 9780143189404 knowledge (Gosling to Snow Falls), Bird’s patience ters caught up in western wars and cities, is himself with Snow Falls, Crow’s conflicted compassion for of Anishinabe, Irish and Scottish heritage, and he her—and in the beauty of language, descriptions of attended the Jesuit-run Brébeuf College School. t is a rare book that can alter forever land, sky, water and the intimacy of family life. This is unquestionably his history. the reader’s understanding of a single word, Boyden says that this is fiction, “inspired” by his- The book is steeped in a quiet, sorrowful anger. Ian ordinary word that until now has had one tory; he has synthesized events and locations and “This, on the surface, is the story of our past,” writes meaning only. real characters (Champlain makes an appearance, Boyden in one of four brief meditations suspended The word is “caress.” A soft, musical word, as does Father Lalemant) from a period of several outside the fiction proper, and which unequivocally with loving connotations; how can it possibly be decades into a drama that is simultaneously relent- address the current status of First Nations in Can- used without irony to describe acts of torture? But less and overwhelming (a book so powerful that at ada. The coming of “the crows” to North America henceforth for this reader it is yoked to images of times you must put it down) and utterly compel- brought irrevocable devastation and change, but flayed skin and clamshell razors, the smell of fire ling (when you pick it up again you are instantly Boyden asks, “What role did I play in the troubles and flesh, and the sound of men fearlessly singing enfolded into the world Boyden has so brilliantly that surround me … If success is measured one their death songs—recurring, heartbreaking scenes imagined). way, then how shall we measure defeat?” Boyden’s from what is described as “mourning warfare” Imagined, and recreated. There is a passage near writerly sympathies are undoubtedly with the First in Joseph Boyden’s magnificent third novel, The the beginning of the book describing The Kettle, Nations characters, but he mostly resists irony Orenda. the Huron Feast of the Dead, a ceremony of some when it comes to certain aspects of Jesuit conver- Three characters narrate The Orenda; their tales ten days’ duration, as the village moves to a new sion—the ridiculous trick of seeming to command are interwoven, they often cover the same events, location, and brings its buried ancestors and rela- a clock (named Captain of the Day) to strike the but they also push the story forward independently tions to a new burial ground. From Crow’s journal, hour, the arbitrary burial of a convert who commits of one another. They are first-person, present- addressed to his Superior: suicide outside mission cemetery gates. Instead, tense narratives by Bird, Snow Falls and Crow, all he presents a dialogue between Aetaentsic, the Sky protagonists in the novel and emblematic of the … the most splendid thing I’ve yet to see in Woman and mother of the Wendat, and The Great triad of tragedy that is its foundation: the Huron (or this heathen land … All these communities Voice of the Jesuits, in the form of a story about Wendat) and Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) nations descend upon their respective cemeteries three deeply realized characters. and the Jesuit mission from France. Bird is the and unearth their deceased from the tombs It is a complex dialogue, because at the heart of Wendat warrior and leader, a wise, fierce man in which they lay. Each family sees to its it lies the mystery of language. Words like “caress” governed equally by compassion and revenge in dead with such bereavement and care, their are disturbing—a spiritual dimension to torture his relationships with enemies and conquests. tears falling like raindrops … some are simply is almost incomprehensible to the modern mind, Snow Falls is an Iroquois (Seneca) girl, seized by bones, others have only a type of parchment despite equivalents in Catholic rituals of mortifi- Bird during one of the apparently endless cycles over their bones … Still others, the recently cation of the flesh. The word “orenda” is not eas- of raid, slaughter and capture that characterize departed, crawl with worms … Once the ily understood. Boyden refers to orenda as “our Huron–Iroquois interactions; Bird at first plans to bodies have been unearthed, they are put on magic”: “we understood our magic. We understood kill her, but instead adopts her as a replacement display so all family members might grieve what the orenda implied. But who is at fault when for his own daughter killed, with his wife and anew, and it’s this that strikes me as especially that recedes?” Christophe writes of the orenda as another daughter, by the Iroquois. Crow, as he is powerful, the willingness of the sauvages a life force similar to “our own Catholic belief in called by the Huron, is Christophe, a Jesuit priest, to gaze down what they each will one day the soul … What appalls me is that these poor mis- modelled at least in part on St. Jean de Brébeuf, become. There’s something in this particular guided beings believe not just human beings have who first lives in Bird’s village as a captive and practice that can teach us Christians a an orenda but also animals, trees, bodies of water.” later establishes a mission nearby. The circle of powerful lesson. Fundamental to early Christian theology was the secondary characters (the novel has the sweep of notion that God made the world for humans; funda- Homerian epic, the formal rigour of Euripidean The (almost verbatim) source for this descrip- mental to native theology is the belief that humans tragedy) includes Bird’s devoted, intrepid second, tion is Volume X of the Jesuit Relations (all 71 vol- are a part of nature, not above it. Little wonder that the “war-bearer” Fox, and—as a direct challenge umes are online, translated into English); Huronia, conversion required more than a little trickery. to Crow’s Christian belief system and mythology— 1636, was written by Brebeuf, with his trademark The final chapters of The Orenda are heart Gosling, an Anishinabe healer and wise woman vigor, clarity and objectivity, even admiration. rending; the ending is implicit in the beginning, from the north, so also, in a way, an outsider in the (Boyden’s characters too never hesitate to reveal and yet is still almost unbearable. But in the true village of the Arendahronnon (the Bear clan). their respect and admiration of one another, spirit of tragedy the novel offers catharsis—in res- The novel is, unavoidably, a tale of horrific disas- even in adversarial conditions.) The description pite from massacre, on an island, and in gestures of ters, on a grand scale—exquisitely drawn-out rituals of Crow’s death, at the end of the book, is drawn love and faith and miracles of birth and prophecy. of torture, episodes of drought, famine, epidemic from the testimony of the Jesuit donné, Regnault, Boyden’s novel is, I think, the book of the year. It (malignant influenza, diphtheria) and the virtual witness to Brébeuf’s actual death. Boyden seam- would be well placed, not only on the curricula of lessly integrates these materials and matches them aboriginal studies courses, but on all Canadian his- Marian Botsford Fraser is a writer and broadcaster with rich detail drawn from traditional sources tory and literature courses; his “our” belongs to all living in Toronto. and modern historians of Wendat culture, Georges of us.
20 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Faking Your Way Through Life A memoir captures the tension between the deaf and the hearing worlds. James Roots
All those awards and degrees? The Deaf House They were trophies for “overcoming” Joanne Weber her deafness. “I’m just like the other Thistledown Press kids,” the eleven-year-old Weber says 274 pages, softcover in accepting one accolade. But even as ISBN 9781927068489 she says it, she senses there is some- thing wrong and dishonest about it: she is unable to hear the praises and ommunication is a pre- questions of those admiring her as requisite to belonging. a model success. She has faked her CBelonging to a family, a way through life and school by cob- school, a culture—it does not matter bling together knowledge based on the venue or context: what matters is prodigious reading and “reasonable that the first step toward belonging is guesses” rather than from actually communication. Two-way communi- hearing and understanding what was cation. Easy two-way communica- being said in classrooms, in meetings, tion. Easy for both communicators. in gatherings. I stress “two-way,” “easy” and She is a success by the Hearing “both” because communication—like world’s imposed standards, not by her all human interactions—involves a own standards or by those standards balance of power. If communication is not equally handful of deaf lawyers and deaf investment coun- that might be deemed natural to someone like her. easy for both parties, or obviously if it is a one-way sellors in Canada and has even run for political The Hearing world’s standards for deaf people are conversation, then one party has a clear upper office. A second minority is labelled “oral failures,” wilfully uninformed; her own are as yet merely hand. In that case, the dominated party’s sense of not because they cannot cope with a mainstream unformed, because she has not been permitted to belonging is imperilled; she or he may become little curriculum but because they cannot fake hearing discover her essential Deafness, her “Deaf body.” more than a belonging. and speaking. Weber externalizes her “Deaf body” as a “Deaf Nowhere is the importance of easy, equal, The third group, by far the largest, may be called house.” The symbolism is incandescently evocative. two-way communication more disrespected than “surface successes.” Joanne Weber, author of the The first half of the book is a chronicle of someone in the Hearing world’s approach to people who fictionalized autobiography The Deaf House, is one who cannot stay in any “house” longer than two or are deaf. (Note: I am following Joanne Weber’s of these. (I am another.) Weber earned piles of uni- three months: she moves 47 times before finding practice in The Deaf House of capitalizing “Deaf” versity degrees, awards and applause as a model of herself married to a Hearing man who is a teacher and “Hearing” when referring to language-defined what oralism can achieve. Inside, though, she was of the Deaf. Marriage and two young daughters communities and using lower-case letters when a churning mass of alienation, rage, loneliness and (both Hearing) cannot settle her. Leaving her hus- referring to medically defined diagnoses.) Hearing an inability to feel she belonged anywhere. band, she takes the daughters and continues mov- people isolate the deafness as a sickness that must The Deaf House is a powerful examination of the ing: North Battleford, Wilkie, Regina, Saskatoon, be “cured” (there is no real cure). An industry worth contradictions that have made the author’s life, and Edmonton. After nine years, incredibly, she returns billions of dollars drills into the skulls of deaf babies the lives of those like her, a tormented search for a to Murray, the husband who has the tolerance and children to implant primitive technology world in which they can feel they belong. Raised of a saint. Even thereafter, she constantly flees to (32 electrode clicks attempting to do the work of in and relentlessly trained for the Hearing world be alone for hours or (sometimes) days at a time, 35,000 hair-cell tones is primitive indeed), forbids that simultaneously rejects them because they are searching for new surroundings, unable to feel she them the language of the eyes—sign language— clinically deaf, they are equally unable to integrate belongs in any one place. that is the most facile mode of communication completely into the Deaf world because oralism It is an obvious parallel to her endless shuttling for them and focuses all educational resources denied them the passport of sign language. Coming between the Hearing world and the Deaf world, the into “conquering” their deafness instead of into late to signing, it cannot be their natural language Hearing “house” or body and the Deaf “house” or educating them. even if they master it: those Deaf people who have body—something that fits her, the “real” her, for Three kinds of deaf people emerge from this signed all their lives immediately spot the accents now and for the future, but also for the past. She “oralist” regime. One, a minority, can be paraded that betray it as an acquired language. cannot reject that past because it constitutes the as “proof” that the system works: a friend of mine, Weber does an amazing job of limning the tiny, Hearing part of her that made her capable of speech deaf and oralist from birth, is one of less than a fragile things—as well as the big, glaring things— and lip reading and thereby ostensibly capable of that measure out the failure to socialize fully into functioning in the Hearing world (a friend implies James Roots is executive director of the Canadian either world. This book is about everyday life as a Weber is “a Hearing woman trapped in a Deaf Association of the Deaf, author of The Politics of Deaf woman, from the most humdrum interactions body.”) Visual Language: Deafness, Language Choice and to the deepest self-analysis; it is about the power The oralist gospel dictates: if you are capable Political Socialization (Carleton University Press, and control at play in everything people do and of functioning in the Hearing world, you not only 1999) and the middle of three generations of deaf think and say, most particularly the language in do not need the Deaf world, you are morally obli- men. He lives in Kanata, Ontario. which they do and think and say it. gated to reject it and its communication mode:
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 21 “the Hearing house” is closed to it. “You are not a Her frustration with her home life parallels her the voice of her mother and sections written in the Deaf house,” Weber reacts to yet another move into frustration with the school system that employs her. voice of Weber’s own older self, tropes such as “Lit- yet another incompatible domicile. “You are not She becomes a teacher of the Deaf in the Regina tle Red Coat” and “Jane Eyre,” and a habit of break- going to make living with deafness any easier for public school system, and a grim immersion it is: ing dialogue scenes into scripts in which amusing me.” In coruscating contrast, an important aspect the few students in her program have been deprived tag-names identify the speakers: “JOANNE OF of “the Deaf house” as a literal house is its use of forever of a language, brainwashed to believe them- ASSISSI,” “JOANNE ON HIGH HORSE,” “DESPER- openness. Walls are, as far as possible, done away selves able to hear and speak when in fact they are ATE TO SLOW IT DOWN MURRAY.” And there is with, corners are rounded, the entire interior has pitiably helpless to do either. They regurgitate all the almost a superabundance of literary references: uninterrupted flow, so that the Deaf inhabitant oralist clichés their parents and counsellors have classic and biblical myths, the Green Knowe books, can see what she cannot hear: the presence of drummed into their cochlear-implanted heads: “I fairy tales, McLuhan, Dylan Thomas, Shakespeare. others, the flutterings of light that indicate action can hear perfectly,” “I have good speech,” “I don’t Some of the dialogues with Murray are obscure and movement, the visible communication that need sign language.” They endure hours of uncom- and puzzling because they reference forgotten streams around corners in the same way that invis- prehending boredom in regular classes and then archetypes: their talks come across as story meta- ible voices do. This openness is part of the Deaf come to Weber expecting her to make sense of the phors rather than as believable conversations. Even culture: the Deaf world accepts Weber reaches a point where she all, whether they have cochlear She is paranoid that her husband is laments that she is “tired of always implants or hearing aids or not, speaking in literary code.” But whether they can lip read and “stealing” their daughters from her these literary devices are import- speak or not, whether they are ant to the thrust of the story: Deaf masters of sign language or stiff- because the three Hearing people can people with such good English fingered, blank-faced novices. and literacy skills feel particularly Weber’s reconciliation with chat so easily with one another, leaving split between the Deaf world and Murray does not make living the Hearing world because they do with deafness any easier, either: her the odd member out. have rare mastery of the language instead, it serves to crystallize her used by the latter. inability to belong to one or the other of the Hearing material for them, but they lack any of the tools— The most effective device Weber uses is the and Deaf communities. The communication battles language, experience, awareness of the world, speechless underline (“I said: ‘______’.”) she faces in the outside world find reflection in the self-reliance, life skills, strategies for learning—that This is not pretentious: it indicates the wish to say family unit. She is paranoid that Murray is “steal- would enable her to really guide them. something, even the awareness of what should be ing” their daughters from her because the three “Even those deaf kids will say they’re doing said, but the inability to come out with it, the com- Hearing people can chat so easily with one another, fine,” points out Weber. “Wouldn’t you say you were munication barrier interfering not just with the leaving her the odd member out, “a spectator.” doing just fine if you had someone taking care of ability to communicate but with the content of the “Well, it’s not fair to me to have to live like this,” she you all the time?” The reality is as she bluntly tells communication. whines: “It’s about functioning in a group, a family, her students: Weber’s prose tends to run-on sentences, the not in pairs or couples, a family … If I can’t partici- nervous energy of her writing leading her to speed pate in any conversations, I can’t feel that I am of But teachers are giving you pity passes right through the stop sign of a period: there is too significance to others.” because they think you can’t do the work and much to be said and too little time in which to say they just want to shove you on. Or they give it. Even as she concedes a comma in her pell-mell I just want to be connected, I don’t care how, you high marks because they think that will dash to communicate, there are Deaf children fall- I don’t care if I have to use sign or speech, make you feel better about being deaf. You ing irredeemably behind their peers in language I just want to be close to someone without know you are not doing the work. And you are and literacy development. They will never learn being yanked away by deafness … Inability manipulating the interpreters into giving you to communicate, or be given the tools with which to to decipher a spontaneous conversation answers to questions in homework and on easily and equally communicate, and for Weber rendered me invisible and alone. exams … You may hear, you may talk, you may to come to a full stop in her expression of their sign, but not having a full language in either needs would be a black irony at best, an affront at English or ASL has affected your learning. worst. Tis is not a book for those who want a happy Te 1991 closing of the only Deaf school in Sas- ending or a catharsis, a resolution, a vindication of katchewan decimated the Deaf community. That some kind. It is not To Sir, with Love or Stand and Get monthly province’s “no-option” oralism has been nothing Deliver, with Weber singlehandedly salvaging a lost short of deliberate linguistic genocide. The rem- generation. updates from nants of a once-thriving Deaf community, now old and incapable of mounting a counter-attack on a Nothing has changed. I’ve healed no one. scorched landscape, know full well that this is about Many students leave just as wounded as they the LRC’s power: “the word Hearing had little to do with the arrived four or five years ago … many students ability to hear sound but everything to do with haven’t been able to make a healthy transition editor-in-chief. domination.” Weber recognizes her own unwilling into adult life. Some leave with the idea that complicity in the power game: “Everyone wants they are Deaf, but haven’t been able to inte- me to be integrated seamlessly into the Hearing grate the knowledge into their bodies. Many Sign up online for our e-newsletter to world, with no, or little, effort on their part … I’m leave, dispirited, unmotivated, fearful, and receive a monthly Editor’s Note from such a good lip-reader. Hearing people like that. perpetually dependent on their parents for Bronwyn Drainie, with the details There isn’t much effort on their part. They merely their future. of new LRC pieces now online— have to talk.” including topical full-text articles That sounds bitter. Weber has earned her bitter- Nor has her own dilemma been settled. “Dear ness. It contributes to her self-portrait as a rather God, I am Deaf. I’ve not been able to hide it … All republished from our archives for unlikable narrator: although courageous and the optimism and the technology in the world will newsletter subscribers—and other honest, she is also self-obsessed, petulant, self- never make me into a Hearing person. Nothing will magazine-related news. dramatizing, querulous, needy, difficult, constantly ever take this deafness away from me.” Still see- accusing others of blocking her out of a “normal” ing her own deafness as a cell that marks her as a life whose normalness she is unable to define to her failure, she dubiously suggests, “The world will be Visit
22 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Essay Stagnate or Innovate? That Is the Question Our whole way of life depends on answering it correctly. David Crane
e have an economic recovery ance becomes even more important. Yet labour way to consume. Now that debt must be paid down. of sorts. But economic growth remains productivity growth rates have also been declining.5 Yet Cowen describes himself as “an optimist for the Wweak, too many people are unem- This is why so much attention is now being focused longer run” because he is hopeful that new “low- ployed or in temporary jobs, there is downward on innovation: productivity gains and increases in hanging fruit” will emerge—although in the mean- pressure on wages, income inequality is high and living standards depend greatly on major techno- time, “we’re trying to eke out gains from marginal business investment in productivity-enhancing logical advances and their rapid diffusion through- improvements in how we’ve done things for quite innovation is inadequate. Could it be that the out the economy. a few decades. That kind of process isn’t going to Golden Age of fast-rising productivity yield massive improvements in our living and significant improvements in living Americans, and Canadians to a standards,” he says. standards that we experienced in the last Cowen’s optimism is based on what he half of the 20th century is over, and that lesser extent, made a huge mistake, sees as favourable trends. One is the focus we now face a decade of slow or stagnat- on science and engineering in China and ing growth and consequently big chal- Cowen contends: “we thought we India, which will mean a transition from lenges in delivering on the health care, being copycats to becoming innovators. education and social promises made by were richer than we were.” This will contribute to global wealth governments when the economy was creation. Second, he believes that the doing better? While the economy will not stop growing, it may internet may do more for the economy in the future Discontent is no doubt the reason political par- not grow fast enough to create the good jobs and than it has done so far, because it will advance ties are focusing on the middle class, although their rising living standards we have seen in the past or scientific discovery, connect people with new ideas solutions are less clear. And as young Canadians fast enough to enable governments to continue to to boost technological progress and help billions face tough labour market conditions, including provide the health, education, pensions and other of people become better educated. Third, he sees a reduced wages and more temporary or contract social benefits we expect it to deliver while also major effort underway in the United States to bring jobs, while boomers expect their pensions and bringing deficits and debt under control. But is a improved quality to K-12 education, something health care, we risk intergenerational conflict. Yet decade or more of relative stagnation inevitable or Canadians need to pay attention to as well. These we cannot blame all of this on the recent financial is there something we can do? are all positive factors for the future, but they may crisis. Trouble has been brewing for some time, This is not simply a debate between stimulus take some time to kick in. as shown by adverse movements in labour par- and austerity. It is about whether we have the new Robert Gordon, an American economist and ticipation rates and median wage levels since the technologies and innovations that can deliver widely recognized expert on productivity also fears 1960s, particularly for young Canadians.1 Trends in higher rates of productivity growth that ultimately we face an era of slow growth. In a paper published income distribution have been just as worrisome, are the source of sustained increases in living stan- last year—Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering with income growth since the early 1980s largely dards. Here the jury is still out. What does seem Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds—Gordon confined to the very top echelons of income earn- clear, though, is that we need to focus even harder challenges the widespread assumption that eco- ers.2 As a result, the middle class has seen its share on innovation and productivity strategies if we are nomic growth “is a continuous process that will per- of income decline significantly. to move beyond slow growth. sist forever” and suggests that “the rapid progress Moreover, the average annual growth rate of made over the past 250 years could well turn out per capita national income after inflation, which he American conservative economist Tyler to be a unique period in human history.” Gordon is probably the base overall measure of how we TCowen, in The Great Stagnation: How America divides the period since the mid 18th century into are doing economically, has been dropping for the Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, three successive industrial revolutions, concluding past half century.3 This is due to a reduction in the Got Sick and Will (Eventually) Feel Better, argues that the second industrial revolution, which gave us growth potential of the economy. Two big factors that the enormous gains in economic growth and electricity, the internal combustion engine, chem- affect this growth potential. One is the growth rate living standards over more than two centuries came icals, indoor plumbing and mass communications, of the labour force, including improvements in from living off “low-hanging fruit” in the form of is the most important of the three, delivering rapid the skills of labour; the other is the growth trend lots of free land as settlers pushed westward, lots productivity growth and rising living standards over of labour productivity, which in large measure of immigrant labour and transformative new tech- 82 years from 1890 to 1972. depends on innovation and technology. Together, nologies. The problem today, he argues, is that “we Many of the gains from the information and they constitute the potential growth rate of the have built social and economic institutions on the communication technology or third industrial economy, the rate of growth that is possible without expectation of a lot of low-hanging fruit, but that revolution, Gordon argues, have already been setting off a burst of inflation. The problem is that fruit is mostly gone.” So his country is stuck with achieved, such as the role of computers in large- our potential growth rate has been slowing, acting low growth until the next major growth revolution scale data processing and the elimination of much as a brake on the economy, and it has been doing so occurs. The Canadian story is not much different. clerical labour, the introduction of CAM-CAD and since the early 1980s.4 Building condos and exporting oil sands oil will robotics in manufacturing, the invention of the The growth of the labour force is shrinking and not do it. microprocessor, and the advent of the internet will continue to do so, so that productivity perform- Americans, and Canadians to a lesser extent, and wireless communications. The current array made a huge mistake, Cowen contends: “we of devices, such as the BlackBerry and the iPad, thought we were richer than we were.” This belief while smaller, smarter and more capable than ear- David Crane is a Canadian journalist with a strong encouraged everyone, from homeowners to gov- lier devices, “do not fundamentally change labor interest in innovation and globalization. He can be ernments, to take on more debt, confident that productivity or the standard of living in the way reached at [email protected]. continued prosperity would make this a painless that electric light, motor cars, or indoor plumbing
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 23 changed it.” Gordon is not forecasting zero growth engineers worldwide and the growing investment be easy, but the fact that this task is now on the but slower growth. Innovation and gains in living in new approaches by industry, governments and agenda, because the failure of the one-size-fit-all standards will continue, but at a much slower pace, academia. Innovation is part of our DNA, he argues, neoliberal solution is on full display, offers a unique not only because of a slowdown in technology but and that will not change. Bernanke brings useful period of policy experimentation and innovation.” also because of other factors such as the need to insights but does not express a view as to whether However, they admit that countries in the West are bring public finances under control and reduce we can expect breakthroughs soon. having a tough time addressing these issues and household debt and the challenge from globaliza- In their sweeping survey of what they called they do not provide a clear road map to finding tion pressure on wages. Yet while Gordon is right “the third globalization,” Dan Breznitz and John such a balance. to challenge our belief in constant progress, he Zysman, American academics with a long-time Tom Brzustowski, chair of the Institute for could be underestimating the future gains from interest in innovation, offer a cautiously optimis- Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, the revolution in information and communication tic outlook. In their edited volume—The Third and for a decade the president of the Natural technologies (ICT). Globalization: Can Wealthy Nations Stay Rich in the Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Stephen King, group chief economist at HSBC, Twenty-First Century?—they postulate that we now Canada, knows something about innovation and is another who fears, in When the Money Runs Out: face what they call a “double bind.” This arises from the importance of both a rich science and engin- The End of Western Affluence, that eering base and the need to the West faces an era of economic convert new ideas into successful stagnation. The baby boomers The West cannot grow its way out of its innovations. Canada, he argues did well, he argues, calling them in Innovation in Canada: Why “the lucky ones.” But those who fiscal challenges; there will also be a need We Need More and What We Must now follow will face a tough time, to reorder public priorities. Do to Get It, is a wealthy country as slower economic growth and compared to most but, “surpris- weaker productivity gains make it ingly, it is turning out that Canada more difficult for governments to pay down public the desire both to unleash markets for innovation is not prosperous enough. Evidence is mounting debt and restore their finances. So promises made through deregulation while at the same time gov- that our current prosperity is insufficient to meet all in more prosperous times will have to be broken ernments are called on to protect society to ensure the truly important needs that are being identified as western societies are forced to re-evaluate pri- market outcomes are acceptable or to accomplish across the land.” orities, including entitlements and social spend- a specific objective such as dealing with climate He creates a daunting list of examples, including ing. In Canada we have already had one example. change. As they note, “simultaneous calls for often- the health costs of an aging society and the com- In his 2012 budget finance minister Jim Flaherty disruptive economic growth and citizen welfare petition for public dollars from needed education announced that the age of eligibility for the old age have always pulled in opposite directions.” spending, the challenge of reducing child poverty, security pension will be gradually raised from 65 For the past three decades, Breznitz and Zys- the restoration of crumbling infrastructure and the to 67, the argument being that we cannot afford to man contend, echoing Stephen King, that the rich future infrastructure needs in our cities, the provi- maintain the 65 eligibility level. countries have accepted “the neoliberal belief that sion of safe water in all communities, addressing King believes that the free market and deregula- ‘less’ regulated markets can achieve sustained climate change and the transition to a low-carbon tion advocates made us overconfident. “We began growth, which will then ‘naturally’ enhance soci- economy, expanding broadband access in rural to believe that economies free of excessive govern- eties without the need for public intervention.” The Canada, acquiring modern search-and-rescue air- ment interference could happily expand, over the financial crisis exposed the fallacy of this thinking craft, building ice breakers for the Arctic, investing years delivering higher incomes for all … Capital and the debate has now shifted to a more balanced in mass transit to reduce traffic congestion and markets would take care of everything.” This turned approach with a purposeful role for government. raising the standard of living of aboriginal com- out to be a delusion. The idea that western econ- They stress that ICT is radically changing the way munities. “We can’t afford to fund the necessary omies could grow their way out of debt is now seen firms compete and markets work, which is why we solutions fully, or quickly enough, or at all,” he to be a false hope. Many governments in the West need a new growth model to define what it takes for argues, because we are not generating sufficient face difficult choices; dealing with deficits is a pain- a company to compete in markets, create value and wealth. ful process when growth is weak. Yet restoring fiscal provide jobs as well as clarifying the role govern- The squaring of this circle, Brzustowski con- health is critical, King contends. Stronger growth ment plays in “sparking, sustaining, and supporting tends, depends on strengthening wealth creation from innovation would make it easier, although he development.” A successful third globalization will and economic growth through an all-out effort to does not express much optimism on future produc- emerge from the way this debate is resolved. boost innovation in Canada. While Canada has a tivity gains. This third globalization, they maintain, is about strong science base and abundant natural resour- U.S. Federal Reserve System chair Ben Bernanke change. The western domination of trade and ces, it is a laggard when it comes to innovation. But is more optimistic on whether we can look to finance has ended and the global power base is while Brzustowski does an excellent job of taking stronger economic growth from fast-paced innova- shifting so the West can no longer coerce the rest us through the factors that drive innovation— tion. Many factors affect economic growth, “but of the world to its agenda. The outsourcing of the such as sustained investment in education and over long periods probably the most important production of goods and services to networks that research, support for emerging next-generation factor is the pace of scientific and technological make the supply of components and tools widely companies, adding value to our natural resources advance,” he said in a speech at Bard College in available, along with ICT, has changed the terms before exporting them and boosting advanced May 2013. Previous “waves of innovation” through of competition and permitted rapid entry for new manufacturing—as well as setting out guidelines two industrial revolutions clearly benefited and countries into industries that were formerly domin- or principles for innovation policy, he provides enriched societies. Now we are living through a ated by the West. China’s entry into the automotive less in the way of actual prescription. His solution third industrial revolution—the information tech- and electronics industries and India’s entry into is to call for an “Innovation Action Plan.” It would nology revolution—that began in the late 1940s and the software and systems industries are examples. be led, he says, by “a small group of the top leaders is still going on. Likewise, the third globalization has seen loss of of government and equal numbers of the acknow- “History suggests that economic prospects middle class jobs and higher inequality in the West, ledged leading figures from business and from post- during the coming decades depend on whether with ICT-based automation in manufacturing and secondary education” who would “jointly develop a the most recent revolution, the IT revolution, has services and expansion of production from the strategy for meeting the goal” and specify “who will economic effects of similar scale and scope of developing world resulting in a hugely dispropor- do what and when.” However, this kind of national the previous two. But will it?” Bernanke asks. He tionate share of the gains from growth now going consensus-building exercise has been tried several answers his own question optimistically, main- to the so-called 1 percent. Growing fiscal pressures times, with only limited success. Canada clearly taining that innovation is based on ideas, that no on governments are also pressing on the welfare needs to improve its innovation performance, as one can forecast what future ideas will emerge, that state and the policies we have relied on to cushion Brzustowski stresses, but it is still not clear how the long-run consequences of innovation for the society from the disruptive impacts of capitalist best to do it. economy are notoriously hard to predict and that markets. In a major study published this year, the the pessimists may be paying too little attention Yet the two authors are optimistic, they say, McKinsey Global Institute sees considerable rea- to the underlying social and economic forces that because there is now recognition we need to son for “optimism about the potential for new generate innovation in the modern world, includ- achieve a new balance between markets and and emerging technologies” but trepidation about ing the vast increase in the number of scientists and governments. As they write, “this is not going to the impact on employment and social structure.
24 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada In Disruptive Technologies: Advances That Will the innovation that comes from the development Notes Transform Life, Business and the Global Economy, it and exploitation of transformative new technolo- 1 A recent report by Statistics Canada found that in 2012, identifies major technology opportunities that it gies, our future growth prospects are weak. This for example, 78.5 percent of young men aged 25–34 had a full-time job, compared to 87 percent in 1981. Moreover, believes can bring big economic gains by 2025. matters because there is a close link between our those who had full-time jobs in 2012 had median wages However, “the nature of work will change, and mil- ability to achieve stronger growth and our ability after inflation that were 4 percent below 1981 levels, lions of people will require new skills” with new to deal with inequality and sustain valued health, despite the fact that they were better educated than their 1981 counterparts and that productivity growth since 1981 technologies making some forms of human labour education and social programs without imposing should have delivered some benefit. “unnecessary or economically uncompetitive.” The huge burdens on the next generation. Yet there will 2 As noted by Brian Murphy of Statistics Canada and new technologies have the potential to eliminate be pain because, as King points out, the West can- Michael Wolfson of the University of Ottawa, between 1982 and 2010 income growth was “largely limited to the top 5% many middle class jobs, and to continue the pattern not grow its way out of its fiscal challenges; there which in turn has been driven largely by increases to the of inequality in most western societies. will also be a need to reorder public priorities. incomes of the top 1% of income recipients in Canada.” In addition, “there will be a need for sustained These writers also challenge the so-called neolib- 3 A Statistics Canada study by John Baldwin and Ryan public and private investment in R&D and the eral agenda of deregulation, small government and Macdonald found that this key growth rate declined from 3.39 percent a year in the 1960s to 2.92 percent in the removal of regulatory and other barriers to new unfettered free markets that have dominated public 1970s, 1.7 percent in the 1980s, 1.47 percent in the 1990s technologies and new ways of doing business.” policy over the past couple of decades and seek a and 1.35 percent in the 2000s. Governments will have an important role to play. more balanced kind of economy that is able to tap 4 According to the Bank of Canada, the potential growth rate fell from 2.7 percent a year from 1982 to 1989 to “Since the Industrial Revolution, governments have the vast potential of a competitive private sector but 2.5 percent from 1990 to 1999, 2.3 percent from 2000 to played an increasingly important role in bringing with an essential role for government. 2009 and just 1.8 percent from 2010 to 2013. disruptive technologies to life,” the McKinsey report In Canada, as Brzustowski stresses, we need to 5 These growth rates averaged 4 percent a year in the 1960s, says. An active state is vital for innovation. cast our innovation net widely, to link our science 2.2 percent in the 1970s, 1 percent in the 1980s, an uptick to 2 percent in the 1990s and just 0.8 percent a year in the McKinsey lists twelve innovations, optimistic- and engineering skills much better to our own 2000s. ally declaring “that the technologies we identify critical needs to improve productivity and raise have potential to affect billions of consumers, living standards through wealth creation. This is hundreds of millions of workers, and trillions of not just a matter of public investment in educa- dollars [$14 trillion–$33 trillion per year] of eco- tion and research. It means building competitive nomic activity across industries” by 2025. The tech- Canadian companies that can compete in the new Coming up nologies are the mobile internet, the automation of global economy, based on innovative, high-value knowledge work, the internet of things, cloud tech- products and services. But building innovative nology, advanced robotics, autonomous and near- enterprise is hard work and mismanagement can in the LRC autonomous vehicles, next-generation genomics, undermine the efforts, as the bankruptcy of Nortel energy storage, 3-D printing, advanced materials, and the troubles of BlackBerry clearly demonstrate, advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery, and while a weak financial system for innovative entre- renewable energy. Five other technologies nearly preneurs means many of our promising young Stopping political made the list: next-generation nuclear (fission), companies are sold as seed corn to foreign multi- fusion power, carbon sequestration, advanced nationals rather than achieving their potential as science water purification and quantum computing. We Canadian companies. Alanna Mitchell should determine whether Canada is a strong con- But where there is need there is opportunity tender in any of these technologies, and if so which for innovation. Canada will have a federal election ones, and what Canada needs to do to ensure it has in 2015. The country’s future growth potential for Canada’s public staying power to be a contender through to 2025 a sustainable and equitable society should be the intellectuals and beyond. central issue. This is vital for our future well-being, What all of these writers share is a belief that much more so than reforming the Senate or legal- Andrew Potter without continued gains in productivity through izing marijuana. Lisa Bird-Wilson’s Works Consulted Just Pretending The Great Stagnation: How When the Money Runs Out: Ibi Kaslik America Ate All the Low-Hanging The End of Western Affluence Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick Stephen D. King The Great Lakes, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better Yale University Press Tyler Cowen before and after Dutton Natural Resources, the Terms of Trade and Real Income Growth in Wayne Grady Innovation in Canada: Canada: 1870 to 2010 Why We Need More and What John Baldwin and Ryan Macdonald Writing islands We Must Do to Get It Statistics Canada Tom Brzustowski Marq de Villiers Invenire Books Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts Keith Henderson’s The Third Globalization: the Six Headwinds Can Wealthy Nations Stay Rich in Robert J. Gordon The Roof Walkers the Twenty-First Century? NBER Working Paper number 18315 Anne Marie Todkill Dan Breznitz and John Zysman, editors Oxford University Press Economic Prospects for the Long Run Oil on ancient Disruptive Technologies: Advances Ben S. Bernanke That Will Transform Life, Business Speech at Bard College, May 18, 2013 coastlines and the Global Economy Kevin Patterson James Manyika, Michael Chui, Jacques Income Trajectories of High- Bughin, Richard Dobbs, Peter Bisson and Income Canadians, 1982–2010 Alex Marrs Brian Murphy and Michael Wolfson Spilling Massey blood McKinsey Global Institute Paper for Canadian Economics Association, May 2013 John Fraser
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 25 The Mystic versus the Politician A new book explores the creative paradox of the mahatma.
Charles Blattberg
To Gandhi, doing good is the chief Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography means of worshipping the divine, Arvind Sharma since morality—both personal and Yale University Press political—and religion are synonym- 252 pages, hardcover ous. As we shall see, however, they are ISBN 9780300185966 also, on occasion, paradoxical. Consider satyagraha. It requires respecting a number of principles, ere is an important, but including non-violence, a focus on disturbing, book about specific injustices rather than gen- HGandhi. It is important eralities and a willingness to com- because it offers an interpretation that promise as well as never to treat one’s runs against the grain of the “domes- opponents furtively or kick them ticated” Gandhi that can be found in while they are down. But it would be a a tradition of books that includes Joan mistake to conceive of satyagraha as V. Bondurant’s Conquest of Violence: a technique in the mundane, rational The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict, sense. For that its principles would Bhikhu Parekh’s Gandhi’s Political have to cohere and so be capable of Philosophy: A Critical Examination being skillfully applied, since this is and Ramin Jahanbegloo’s recent The how skills work. Satyagraha, however, Gandhian Moment. Their Gandhi is Gandhi did not see people as human is not something that “works.” largely reasonable, sensible, inter- We can begin to see why by going pretive—a theorist whose ideas can beings who had spiritual experiences back to Aristotle’s account of the form serve as a model for political practice. of practical reason that he called The Gandhi we encounter in Gandhi: but as spiritual beings who had technē. Technē requires taking an A Spiritual Biography, by McGill oblique approach, since the skillful University professor of comparative human experiences. actor should not shoot directly for religion Arvind Sharma, is a bit crazy, his or her ultimate end. For example, however, for he is a mystical creator rather than needs to appreciate how, as a Hindu, he conceived the rhetorician should aim to produce persuasive an interpreter, and his ideas are similarly meant to of morality as a matter of truth understood not as expressions, not to persuade, just as the doctor bring justice through inspiration. So it is because something propositional but as what one upholds should aim to produce effective remedies, not to of its focus on the centrality of religion for Gandhi in practice, such as when we keep a promise. bring health, and the player should aim to make that Sharma’s book is so valuable. And yet, as I said, Gandhi’s practice of satyagraha or “clinging to outstanding plays, not to win the game. If these dis- there is also something disturbing about it, which truth” should be grasped in this light. This is why his tinctions seem a bit strained it is because Aristotle is all the more troubling for coming near the end, vision of the ideal society, that of a decentralized, was exaggerating; still, he was on to something in after almost 200 clearly written pages of sensible participatory village republic driven by an econ- identifying the latter goals as external to the skills judgements and intriguing, sometimes profound, omy of love and capable “of defending itself against in question—even if they are, of course, their final insights. the whole world,” is utopian in the strictest sense.1 ends. This, then, is the sense in which a skillful In any case, it is not Gandhi the practical pol- What I mean is that it is a fictional “no place” meant activity must be something coherent overall. Not itical theorist but Gandhi the prophet or saint, the to inspire creativity rather than to serve as a guide so satyagraha, which goes beyond obliquity in one that sociologists today would call a charismatic in the sense of a model to be applied. It should thus that its practitioners must struggle to be true to leader, that correctly answers the question that be placed alongside such things as Gandhi’s pos- the sometimes paradoxical relationship between Sharma poses about the source of his power, about ition on celibacy, according to which married men religion and morality: by transcending the good, we how he was able to get people to face blows with- and women should have sex only for the purpose may fulfill it far more than if we aimed simply to do out defending themselves, much less retaliating. of procreation; once they have had three or four good. And we truly must transcend it, which is to For one thing, Gandhi was well aware that he often children they should sleep separately from then on. say that it cannot serve the role of even an external contradicted himself and he was also explicit that Teach people this, Gandhi once said, and if it fails, end. Hence, I would say, Sharma’s reference to there was no question of his “leaving any code.” For then “why not a law?” “the otherwise alarming statement by mystics that another, any proper interpretation of his approach Gandhi was 37 when, after much deliberation a bad deed done without attachment [to our quo- and discussion with his co-workers, he informed tidian existence] is better than a good deed done his wife that he had taken a vow of celibacy. Sharma with attachment.” And hence his exploration of the Charles Blattberg is a professor of political is excellent on the complex factors behind this temptation of succumbing to a “desire to serve,” philosophy at the Université de Montréal. His decision as well as on the tests that the vow would one that Gandhi faced throughout his life, and not latest book is a novel, The Adventurous Young later undergo. Sharma explains its fundamentally always successfully. (Of course, when dealing with Philosopher Theo Hoshen of Toronto (Angst Patrol, religious basis and how it was designed to assist a saint the question of his or her imperfections is 2013). Gandhi in making sacrifices for the common good. always of interest.)
26 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada One might think about the contrast between years—is self-realization, to see God face to face, to that it aims for accommodation rather than recon- rational technique and satyagraha this way. “I was attain Moksha [freedom]. I live and move and have ciliation, for controlling the damage to, rather than never a real guitarist,” George Harrison once con- my being in the pursuit of this goal. All that I do by realizing and developing, the common good. And a fessed to a friend. What he meant is that he never way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures politics limited to negotiation tends not to be in the achieved technical mastery of the instrument, as in the political field, are directed to this same end.” interests of those who benefit from the status quo, must, say, a professional studio musician. Yet few Other Gandhian reversals include his response to since they will have to make concessions, to com- would protest the claim that Harrison’s playing was the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, promise rather than fulfill their values. No surprise, inspired. And that there is the difference between a in which he asserted that rights accrue to us only then, that it frequently seems necessary to bring craftsman or technician and a true artist, between when we have done our duties to the world, as justice with force instead, as Gandhi did so effect- an interpreter and a creator, between reason and well as his telling Indian South Africans that if they ively against the British Raj. But this is a dangerous revelation. Because unlike the rules of rational tech- wanted to be treated well they must deserve it. and, as we have seen, irrational business. Still, it nique, those meant to bring creativity do not have Gandhi did not believe that people inherently bear is often unavoidable, though we should never fail fully coherent reasons behind to appreciate how easy it is to them, since their point is not lose our way. fluid, skillful behaviour but Gandhi did not believe that people inherently Which brings me to the the forcing open of a hole disturbing part of Sharma’s (Leonard Cohen would call bear rights; on the contrary, to him duty, that book. On page 190, he opens it a “crack”) in meaning in is spirituality, must come first. a discussion in which he order to invite inspiration. makes some astounding com- Satyagraha’s principles are parisons. Gandhi, he says, just like that. This accounts for why Gandhi’s ideas rights; on the contrary, to him duty, that is spiritual- “is not the only towering giant of the twentieth were in constant evolution, and why they remained ity, must come first. century, which also produced a Churchill, a Mao, dynamic instead of settling into what might be This, then, is how we should understand and a Stalin.” Sharma then claims that “their great- considered a theory: his ideas followed his mystical Gandhi’s politics, much of which was not really ness matches Gandhi’s in some ways” for they all practice. It is also why he subtitled his autobiog- a politics since politics consists of responding to staked their lives on the truth as they saw it. To be raphy “The Story of My Experiments with Truth.” conflict with dialogue, the exchange of interpreta- sure, “Gandhi attributed his outstanding achieve- Although Gandhi did not himself recognize tions, whereas mysticism aims, as we have seen, for ments to his faith in God, but these three political the sometimes paradoxical priority of religion to creation rather than interpretation. This becomes leaders achieved as much by keeping God out of morality (for he subscribed to a monist metaphys- particularly clear when we take account of the the picture.” The discussion ends thus: “Churchill, ics according to which all parts of reality cohere role of force in creation—not necessarily physical Mao, and Stalin believed that their ends justified as one), it seems to me that his observance of sat- force, of course, although Sharma is right to point their means. And this belief might have led to their yagraha grew and deepened as he overcame the out that what Gandhi was doing constituted “a impressive achievements. But Gandhi did not temptation of “desiring to serve” by increasingly new form of warfare.” What it definitely was not, believe in that justification. And this belief led to his getting the priority right. Thus, as Sharma states, then, is “dialectic” (Bondurant and Parekh) or achievements.” “Gandhi began by identifying God with truth, but “dialogue” (Jahanbegloo). It is important to appre- Now the second thing that comes to mind upon in 1929 he reversed the equation and identified ciate the difference. Because while dialogue at its reading these words is: what about Hitler? Did he truth with God.” Evidently, Gandhi sensed the non- best, which takes the form of “conversation,” can not also manage to get the proverbial trains to run commutative nature of such concepts, of how when also serve the common good as well as be said to on time? But the first thing is that, while Churchill we reverse the order their meanings change. This is have a religious dimension (see Martin Buber), it certainly had some serious faults, surely he key to understanding him, as Sharma shows again is unlike mysticism in that it does so in a rational deserves to be included with Gandhi as one of the and again. For example, as a Hindu who believed and so non-paradoxical way. That is why we should great men of the century, whereas Mao and Stalin in reincarnation, Gandhi did not see people as (almost) always try it first, before turning to alterna- (each of whom arguably murdered more people human beings who had spiritual experiences but tives such as Gandhi’s non-violent resistance. One than Hitler) were two of its most evil dictators. Any as spiritual beings from the start, before (re-)birth, reason the conversational option nevertheless gets other interpretation is beyond me. who had human experiences. In this he concurred missed is that it is, as with Gandhi, misconstrued with “high mystical theory,” as Sharma refers to it, by identifying its reasons as “cold” (appealing to according to which God turns His face to us before the mind separate from the heart) and yet also Note 1 The quote comes from Gandhi’s “Village Republic,” in we turn our face to Him. Indeed, as Gandhi himself giving too great a role to imaginative empathy. Or The Village Reconstruction, edited by Anand T. Hingorani explained: “What I want to achieve—what I have else political dialogue tends to be equated with (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1998, 2nd edition), page 117. been striving and pining to achieve these thirty “negotiation,” which differs from conversation in
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 27 Biology, Culture and Economics A new evolutionary take on men and violence. Walter S. DeKeseredy
stand. Additionally, the scientific Human Evolution and Male names of the animals examined are Aggression: Debunking the Myth provided in an appendix and the of Man and Ape authors included a glossary for what Ann Innis Dagg and Lee Harding they refer to as “unusual but neces- Cambria Press sary terms.” 256 pages, hardcover Dagg and Harding’s book should ISBN 9781604978216 be widely read and incorporated into both high school and university curricula because the myths they cademics like me are well challenge are so deeply embedded known for living in intel- in mainstream society and are per- Alectual silos. This is not to petuated and legitimated by people say, however, that they totally dismiss with strong academic credentials. For different ways of thinking about the example, in 2008, I attended a World topics they study. Rather, given their Health Organization conference on increasing time demands, scholars injury prevention and safety promo- have difficulties keeping up with the rapidly grow- the development of new technologies, some “for- tion in Mérida, Mexico. Shortly after this gathering ing body of empirical and theoretical literature tuitous mutations,” and other factors too numerous ended, I by chance met another Canadian attendee on any topic. This is unfortunate because there is and complex to discuss here, “humans’ natural at the Mérida airport. He was a prominent engineer much to learn from reading materials outside one’s ability and inclination to defuse aggression became who specialized in traffic safety but knew little, if discipline. For a social scientist such as myself, less valued as chieftains began to recruit warriors anything, about the reality of sexual assault. He Human Evolution and Male Aggression: Debunking to fight other groups for resources that were still inquired about my research and I told him that I the Myth of Man and Ape, written by two biolo- scarce and sparsely distributed.” have spent close to 25 years studying various types gists specializing in animal behaviour, taught me Consistent with research done by a large of violence against women in intimate relation- many lessons and I will liberally cite it in some of international group of social scientists, Dagg and ships. He then told me his theory of rape, one my future writings on male violence in private and Harding’s findings demonstrate that male violence that was heavily informed by a highly problematic public places. is not universal in this current era. For example, interpretation of evolutionary theory. In his opin- It is often said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Nordic societies have much lower rates of violence ion, men raped because they were biologically Upon receipt of Anne Innis Dagg and Lee Harding’s than those of Colombia, the Russian Federation, compelled to “spread their seed.” When I asked if he path-breaking offering, I immediately assumed that the United States and Canada. Certainly, some was serious, he retorted, “I am, and your research these two seasoned researchers were attempting to societies are much more likely to teach violence is biased by a feminist perspective.” There seemed add further support to the popular, but scientifically to men than are others. The lesson here is that, in no point in continuing the discussion. As Dagg and erroneous, assertion that men are innately aggres- the words of Dagg and Harding, “faulty reporting Harding conclusively show, rape among primates sive. Then I read the subtitle and reviews on the and interpretation of biology were the bases of the is a rarity and this harm is definitely not a male back cover and quickly remembered the old adage: pervasive notion that humans and other primates technique of increasing reproductive success. A “assuming makes an ass out of you and me.” That is are inherently aggressive; … cooperative and affili- large scientific literature spanning close to 40 years the first lesson I learned from this book. The second ative behaviors more accurately characterize most consistently reveals that rape rates differ across is that progressive sociologists and some experts in primates’ daily lives, including humans.” societies and this gendered harm is not a sexual act. animal behaviour have much in common and need How do the authors make their case? The bulk of Rather, it is an act of power and control. to routinely exchange ideas. their data is derived from studies of animals living The aforementioned professor is one of mil- It is not uncommon to hear from a variety of in their natural habitat. They also occasionally cite lions of like-minded people, which seriously calls sources that the evolution of man was violent and empirical work done on species confined to zoos into question how students are taught evolution, that explains why there is so much male violence in or laboratories and provide up-to-date information let alone gender relations. There are, after all, very the world today. Dagg and Harding correctly point about the fossil remains of human ancestors. Dagg basic differences between humans and animals, out, using a wealth of scientific evidence, that noth- and Harding do emphasize, though, that animals’ but one of the most important distinctions that is ing can be further from the truth. In fact, humans’ behaviour in captivity cannot be generalized to not well known is that, as demonstrated by Dagg early ancestors were basically peaceful, and serious those of animals living in the wild. Furthermore, and Harding, “animals’ lives and behavior are human aggression only emerged less than 12,000 they remind us that humans sometimes alter condi- shaped entirely by evolutionary principles and years ago. According to Dagg and Harding, due to tions in the wild to the point that “habitats become humans’ are not.” For Dagg and Harding, modern more like bad zoos than natural environments.” cultural factors are the key determinants of violence Walter S. DeKeseredy holds the Anne Deane This book is by no means a traditional scientific and aggression. No sociologist would disagree. Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences at West monograph. The methodology section is quite brief Many theories attempt to lay out offender char- Virginia University and focuses his research on and the text is not riddled with empirical jargon acteristics that best predict interpersonal violence, male violence against women. that only leading experts in the field can under- but the most robust determinant of who commits
28 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada beatings, homicide, rapes and so on is whether the statistics. Nevertheless, such data are easily access- on to describe four major biases in the field of ani- offender is male. Why are most violent offenders ible online and elsewhere, and the next edition of mal behaviour: bias against females, bias against men? Dagg and Harding contribute to the large Human Evolution and Male Aggression (and I hope homosexuality, bias against full participation of body of criminological knowledge showing that it there is one) would be greatly enhanced by includ- Africans and bias toward male aggression. The first has little to do with their biological makeup or with ing a section on class inequality and male violence. bias involves spending more time observing male factors identified by evolutionary psychologists. Dagg and Harding do, in fact, mention that violence behaviour and framing female animals as being Again, they view aggression as mainly a product of is partially shaped by economic crises, but they do inferior to males. The bias against homosexuality modern culture, but their analysis of this issue, from not elaborate on this point. existed because, according to Dagg and Harding, a social scientific standpoint, is too brief. Actually, What is to be done about male aggression and many zoologists were homophobic. Racism and it is only six pages long, but there is a large social the ubiquitous popular myth of its being sim- colonialism affect almost every aspect of our society scientific literature that supports their argument. ply part of the male genetic makeup? Dagg and and the third bias entailed excluding Africans from What are the implications for further empirical and Harding conclude their work by stating that “it being fully involved in animal research projects. theoretical work? Many social scientists would sug- is our hope that the ideas in this book, and the The last bias Dagg and Harding examine involves gest that the best answer is provided by masculinity scholarly research behind them, will influence historical research (done primarily by men) that studies, which these authors could showcases and worships male benefit from including in their fur- aggression. They claim that this ther research. The myths about a genetic basis for problem “has tainted some of the Scores of scholars and activists research on primates and falsified see much of what is bad in our male aggression that Dagg and Harding the story of how human beings world as the product of men and evolved from their early primate masculinity. This is understand- challenge are deeply embedded in ancestors to the present.” able because men commit most of Obviously, Dagg and Harding the predatory street and corporate mainstream society and are perpetuated are critical thinkers and are not crimes, take us to war, cause most and legitimated by people with strong afraid to call into question the of the environmental damage sexist, racist and homophobic and are the main perpetrators of academic credentials. nature of work done by some violence in intimate/family rela- leading experts in the field. They tionships. Nevertheless, we often should also be applauded for forget that much of what is good in our world is also, politicians and the business leaders who support making explicit their own personal experiences in large part, produced by men. There are few fields them.” Many would agree, but it is highly unlikely with aggression. Both authors provide separate in which men around the globe are not making that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the CEO of personal statements. Dagg’s experiences were lim- outstanding contributions every day: technology, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. or other ited to watching violent movies, seeing aggressive medicine, education, science, entertainment and powerful figures will peruse even a small section of hockey games, witnessing a man spank a child and sports, to name just a few. As Dagg and Harding this book. attending a party that involved a father insulting his state near the beginning of their book, it is time to Using social media and writing op-ed pieces son, which, in turn, resulted in his son waving his eliminate the bias toward male aggression and to in newspapers would help, as well as giving fists, but the conflict quickly ended. recognize that “cooperation, not aggression, is the public presentations in libraries and schools. Harding, on the other hand, has seen men fight- essential mainstay of life.” Undoubtedly, Dagg and Harding’s words need ing and he, too, has fought, but not since university. By no means do Dagg and Harding minimize to get out and should not gather dust on library He also states that he was drafted for the Vietnam male aggression and their book includes a sobering shelves. Moreover, these two researchers should War but immigrated to Canada. Like numerous description of brutal crimes committed during make policy recommendations based on their contemporary social scientists, Dagg and Harding war and of various types of male violence against extensive research, although no practical, short- are fully aware that no scientific method or theory women. However, a very important variable— term solutions are provided in Human Evolution is value-free and it is highly erroneous to claim that turbo-charged capitalism—is missing from their and Male Aggression. one’s scientific work is “purely objective.” analysis of contemporary male violence. Consider There is another positive feature of this book Much more can and will be said about Human homicide in Canada and the United States. Why is that is worth mentioning. Many people, including Evolution and Male Aggression in the years to come. the Canadian rate typically three to four times lower thousands of academics, believe that scientists are This is an eye-opening book that will definitely than that of the United States? It is not because objective and their main goal is to search for the change many people’s thoughts about men and Canadians are naturally kinder and gentler. Dagg truth. This, like the claim that humans’ ancestors violence. It is also an important bridge between and Harding are not the first to point out that there were primarily violent, is a myth. As the famous academic disciplines and I strongly suspect that is no aggression gene. Hence, could the answer French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre noted in his Dagg and Harding’s work will assist social scientists lie in population size? Well, if this was the case, 1964 The Words, “all writing is political.” I commend in their quest to motivate political and economic Tokyo or Beijing would have dramatically higher Dagg and Harding for starting the first chapter of elites to effectively address the ways in which the murder rates than the U.S. when in fact those their book by reiterating this point. They assert that current political economic order contributes to cities are markedly safer. Let’s briefly return to “scientists live within their cultures and take on the brutal male aggression. culture. Thousands of Canadians listen to music, prejudices that prevail in their lives.” They then go watch violent movies and television shows, view pornography, and feast on other features of violent popular culture consumed and produced in the United States. This is not surprising because most THE MUSIC OF Canadians live near the U.S. border. Yet Canadians are, as a whole, much less violent. Researchers such ARVO PÄRT as myself and many others would say that this is The Canadian premiere of two Pärt masterpieces for because Canada has a much better social safety net, choir and string orchestra. Conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste, cheaper university and college tuition, and other featuring soprano Shannon Mercer. factors that help buffer its citizens from the violent consequences of unbridled free market capitalism Tuesday October 1, 2013 at 8:00 pm that is endemic to the United States. Countless criminological studies show that Koerner Hall, TELUS For tickets call countries with a wide gap between rich and poor are Centre for Performance 416-408-0208 the most violent and that countries characterized and Learning or visit soundstreams.ca by democratic socialism (e.g., Nordic countries) are the least violent. Granted, Dagg and Harding study animals and arguably it is unfair to criticize Consulate General them for not being familiar with international crime Black of Estonia
October 2013 CMYK reviewcanada.ca 29
Pantone
NEW DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC
NEW DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC
NEW DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC call for submissions
call for submissions for the 16th annual Donner Prize for best public policy book by a Canadian
the $50,000 donner prize will be awarded to the author of the most outstanding and innovative book on public policy, with $7,500 awarded to each of the other shortlisted titles. The aim of this award is to inspire lively debate on public policy issues and to reward provocative and excellent work that speaks to an informed readership. To be eligible for the 2013 prize, which will be awarded in April 2014, books must be published in English or French between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013.
deadline for submissions: noVember 30, 2013
publishers please note: The 2013 Submission Package and Entry Form are available for download at www.donnerbookprize.com.
For rules and information, please contact: Prize Manager, The Donner Prize 416-368-8253 or [email protected]
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Books ThaT Will Change Your Mind aBouT Canada
30 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada Letters and Responses
Re: “Questioning Higher Education,” by Re: “Judging the Judges,” by Philip Girard Re: “History from the Dark Side,” by Anthony Masi (September 2013) (September 2013) Megan Davies (September 2013) eneralizing about massive open online hilip Girard seems to believe that the process remember my shock, as an academic histor- Gcourses, or MOOCs, as Anthony Masi does in Pof writing history leaves the door open for Iian of psychiatry, when I first discovered why his essay, is tricky, because there is nothing uni- historians to write whatever they wish, notwith- Charles K. Clarke, the virtual founder of Canadian form about their pedagogy. The original Downes- standing the evidence. Such is apparently the case psychiatry, was sending young women to the train- Siemens MOOC, for instance, was highly con- with my book, La Bataille de Londres: Dessous, ing school at Orillia. In documents I discovered in structivist in its approach, meaning that its focus secrets et coulisses du rapatriement constitutionnel, the archives of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, was much more on the construction of knowledge whose purpose, Girard says, is to “delegitimize” named after him, it was not because these young than its mastery or consumption. In this respect it the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Supreme women suffered intellectual disabilities (mental is different from the majority of MOOCs available Court and the 1982 constitutional agreement. retardation). It was because they had been sleep- through Coursera, which often offer little more in This is not the way things work. When I started ing around with different guys. They were not terms of pedagogy than the traditional “sage on the my research eight years ago I had no idea of the feeble-minded but “immoral,” and for that reason stage,” only on video. Not all the new MOOCs are resistance that Trudeau encountered initially were freighted off to this grim institution that like this of course—some institutions participating in the United Kingdom because he wanted Megan Davies has quite correctly described. And in Coursera put more time, thought and money Westminster to enact a charter. Considering the I share the outrage that bristles throughout this into their products than others. The point is simply clash that ensued between London and Ottawa, review. that thinking of MOOCs as some sort of uniform this aspect of the story seemed, very objectively, Considering how awful things were at Orillia technology is unhelpful. the most interesting. and the many other institutions for children—and But in a sense, pedagogy is as may be. The rea- The same goes for the Supreme Court. Until adults—with mental retardation in North America, son MOOCs have become a major issue in higher three years ago I had no clue of who Bora Laskin it is not surprising that “mental retardation” has education—as Masi belatedly makes clear—is less was. I did not set out to demonize him, as Girard disappeared, and has given risen to “intellectual due to their pedagogical potential, but more to seems to believe. It so happened that he played a disabilities” and “autism,” themselves conditions their cost implications. It is certainly true that if very dubious role, to say the least, as attested by that parents dread but are not quite as soul- completion of a MOOC can be shown to be equiv- British documents. This was also something that freezing as mental retardation. Will historians alent to provide learning outcomes similar to those would have caught the attention of any historian. 50 years from now look back upon us askance in of an in-person class, and if institutions are willing Oh, but the Foreign Office archives are no the way that we regard Charles K. Clarke? Will cur- to accept them as transfer credits toward their own Watergate tapes, says the law professor. In his rent Skinnerian behavioural treatments for these degrees, then it could certainly lead to a significant mind, the absence of a verbatim transcript makes conditions be flicked from the table in the same restructuring of undergraduate education. But it difficult to really understand what people said way as we now flick away eugenics? those are two pretty big ifs. I am more skeptical and meant. According to his standard, which he And there is this: the eugenics movement has than Masi that they will be overcome. did not apply to his biography of Bora Laskin, the been thoroughly trashed by historians because it A major reason for my skepticism is simply that writing of history would be almost completely gave rise to so much evil, such as forced steriliza- I don’t really see much demand for this kind of impossible because, 99.9 percent of the time, ver- tion of “schizophrenics” in Alberta. But, minus education among current undergraduates. Studies batim transcripts are not available. the social policy, it really was just an early crack at of MOOC participants indicate that they are mostly Girard also notes that Quebec’s National psychiatric genetics. After the Second World War over 30 and most already possess degrees. This is Assembly unanimously demanded the opening the academic eugenicists renamed themselves what has led people to describe MOOCs as “edu- of all archival material related to patriation. This geneticists, because the Nazis had ruined the tainment” (a term that is essentially correct even if was received with a staunch refusal by the federal optics of the earlier term. And psychiatric gen- it has overly dismissive overtones) for the already government and a yawn by commentators. Girard etics is a real subject: if you have two parents with educated. First-time undergraduates—the ones seems to believe that it is completely normal that schizophrenia, you yourself are at something of a whose financial needs are allegedly being met by the government refuses to disclose documents of risk. Today, genetic perspectives represent valid this cut-price educational offering—are mostly such historical importance, almost 32 years after knowledge in psychiatry, but we no longer make notable by their absence. the facts. The one-paragraph report published by social policy on the basis of them. That’s not to say that advances in electronic the Supreme Court after a two-week enquiry, say- The kids at Orillia were shamefully treated. They learning are unimportant. Masi correctly notes ing that nothing wrong happened, did not seem to deserve their day in court, and it’s fabulous news that there are a number of ways to blend elec- trouble him either. that they may soon have it! tronic resources into classrooms that can be both This is certainly the best way to make sure Edward Shorter pedagogically and financially beneficial. But the that no more skeletons come out of the closet. Toronto, Ontario leap from that to saying that MOOCs are a game Such an approach is also a good one in order to changer for higher education is a non sequitur. It’s prevent Canadians from learning the truth about Re: “Hacking Society,” by Tom Slee not that they have no educational value; it’s just their history. Likewise, it has the advantage of (September 2013) that when undergraduate students thinking about protecting the Supreme Court and the Charter uch thanks to Tom Slee for helping to put what they want from their education, MOOCs of Rights and Freedoms, thus keeping unscathed Mto rest the pastoralist canard that the inter- aren’t it. They want meaningful contact and inter- the Trudeau legend. In this regard Philip Girard net (and the mobile) are killing community and action with teachers and peers, and—Quebec stu- must be very happy with the decision made by the family. As Slee says, we’re proud in Networked: The dents apart, perhaps—they are prepared to pay for conservatives. New Social Operating System that we’ve amassed it. At least in relation to undergraduate education, Frédéric Bastien a heap of Canadian and American evidence to that leaves MOOCs looking a lot like a solution in Montreal, Quebec show that the internet is sustaining—and expand- search of a problem. ing—family and friendship ties. And good for Alex Usher the LRC for publishing Tom’s piece—along with Toronto, Ontario fine reviews of the research in political scientist Ronald Deibert’s Black Code: Inside the Battle for
October 2013 reviewcanada.ca 31 Cyberspace and communication scientist Gabriella that now, not just the iPhone’s Siri—but when if it preserves valuable economic activity down- Coleman’s Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Google tailors our searches to what it thinks we’re stream. It might even be a better choice. Aesthetics of Hacking. Scholars are just so exasper- looking for. But Tom skips our description of fear- Cost-benefit analysis provides a sophisticated ated by evidence-free op-eds and blogs. some government and corporate surveillance. It method by which to assess the degree to which Yet our Networked book really isn’t about the looks like both futures—liberation and control— infrastructure should be built to mitigate floods. It internet itself. It is about the turn in North America will be our future. is not just the cost of moving people out of plains to a networked society—and we mean social net- We are neither technoid optimists nor oy vey versus the cost of mitigation upstream. It is also works as well as computer networks. We show how pessimists—just evidence-based realists. the benefit from land use in comparing differ- when the internet and mobile devices came along, Barry Wellman ent solutions. Land is very valuable in Calgary we’ve had a triple revolution that has changed Toronto, Ontario compared to upstream so mitigation is clearly an our lives. The turn to social networks started well option that should be on the policy table. before the internet—I did my first research on this Re: “Water Water Everywhere,” by Sid Building dams or pursuing other forms of in 1969 in the East York section of Toronto. Marty (September 2013) mitigation has been done in other parts of Canada Our evidence shows that we have moved from ith the recent southern Alberta floods, and the world. Winnipeg solved much of its flood- tightly bounded village-like social groups to social WSid Marty’s review of Wilderness and ing problem by building Duff’s ditch to divert the networks that give us flexibility to move among Waterpower: How Banff National Park became a Red River around the city. Flooding by the Yellow diverse social worlds, both local and far afield. Hydroelectric Storage Reservoir by C. Armstrong River in China led to seven million deaths in the Ask the folks in Chapleau, Ontario—which our and H.V. Nelles is quite timely. The building of past century and a half until the Three Gorges dam NetLab studied—what they think of the internet. dams for hydroelectric power raises a host of was built, and it has so far stopped the flooding. They’ll tell you it helped them reach out to family economic and social issues today that should be The dam, however, had its own environmental and friends across the continent, shop better and part of any assessment. In their favour, dams not consequences. be more informed. As “Debbie” joked to us: “The only provide less polluting electricity, but they can The decision to mitigate is not simple or clear- Internet is like sex. Once you have it, you don’t also help control floods downstream. However, the cut when it comes to flooding. However, it is some- want to give it up.” diversion of water can lead to surrounding land no times the best choice we have. Sure the internet is not perfect, but by a five longer being available for use by people, animals Jack M. Mintz to one margin, Canadians value how it connects or plants. University of Calgary them with their families. We respect what people In Alberta, we cannot reverse history now that tell us. We report and analyze what they say—both parts of Calgary have been built on flood plains. The LRC welcomes letters — and more are available with numbers that get us beyond cherry-picked The question is what one should do in 2013. The on our website at
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32 reviewcanada.ca Literary Review of Canada UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY PRESS
MY NAME IS LOLA “The wonderful thing about history is you can learn Lola Rozsa from it every day. Dr. Lola Rozsa knows her history As told to and especially when it comes to her community. Her written by Susie Sparks stories of Calgary from its earliest moments teach us new lessons on every page.” —Peter Mansbridge 336 p, $39.95, hc illustrations 9781552387191 October 2013
This book contains the collected memories of Lola Rozsa as she and her husband, Ted, made their way from the southern plains of the United States to the burgeoning oil fields of Alberta, made Calgary their home, and helped build many of its cultural institutions.
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John C. Parkin, Archives and Photography: Reflections on the Practice and Presentation Greening the Maple: Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy of Modern Architecture Canadian Ecocriticism in Context ANN DAVIS AND ELIZABETH HERBERT LINDA FRASER, MICHAEL MCMORDIE, EDITED BY ELLA SOPER AND 150 pp, $39.95, pb, illustrations AND GEOFFREY SIMMINS 9781552387078, December 2013 NICHOLAS BRADLEY 200 pp, $49.95, pb, illustrations 500 pp, $44.95, pb 9781552386385, December 2013 9781552385463, November 2013 Marion Nicoll is a widely acknowledged and important founder of Alberta art Architectural practice in post-World War II This book explores the development of and certainly one of a dedicated few that Canada brought substantial change to the ecocriticism in the context of Canadian brought abstraction into practice in the face of the Canadian built environment, literary studies. Selections include work by province. led by the contribution of John C. Parkin Margaret Atwood, Northrop Frye, Sherrill who oversaw the creation of a large Grace, Laurie Ricou, and Rosemary Sullivan. These titles also available as ebooks number of modernist projects.
Visit us at www.uofcpress.com The Once and Future Great Lakes Country An Ecological History JOHN L. RILEY
“John Riley has written the book I once thought I might write ... His knowledge, practical experience, and determination make this a singular work that combines historical scholarship, scientific understanding, and subtle, low-key advocacy.” Ramsay Cook, from the Preface
“… wonderfully written, and Riley’s profound knowledge of the region’s ecology shines through on every page. The reader sees much of Canadian history in an entirely new way.” Alan MacEachern, Western University
Creative Reading
The Politics of the Pantry Stories, Food, and Social Change MICHAEL MIKULAK The Edge of the Precipice “… beautifully written, engaging, and full Why Read Literature in the of interesting and insightful twists and turns. Digital Age? I’d happily recommend this book to anyone Edited by PAUL SOCKEN grappling with the complicated questions In Translation of sustainability as it applies to food, Honouring Sheila Fischman “This is an excellent collection – the stuff we agriculture, and knowledge.” Edited by SHERRY SIMON need for the notion of the ‘public intellectual’ Michael Carolan, Colorado State University to thrive: well-written pieces informed by “... full of insights into the nature, nitty-gritty, professional knowledge yet incorporating and legends of translation that add an impor- personal experience.” “This is a deeply intelligent, wonderfully tant chapter to Canada’s literary history. Ted Bishop, University of Alberta written book.” Everyone who reads this book will come away Jo Littler, City University London, author with a deeper understanding of the art of Includes contributions from Drew Nelles, of Radical Consumption translation and greater regard for one of its Michael Austin, Sven Birkerts, and best and most beloved practitioners.” Mark Kingwell. Gary Geddes, author of Drink the Bitter Root
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