BUDDHISM IN CANADA Buddhism has become a major religion in Canada over the last half-century. The ‘ethnic Buddhism’ associated with immigrant Asian peoples is the most important aspect, but there is also a growing constituency of Euro- Canadian Buddhists seriously interested in the faith. This book analyzes the phenomenon of Buddhism in Canada from a regional perspective, providing a review of the history of Buddhism and an analysis of its current situation in the provinces and in three major metropolitan areas. The work provides an important examination of the place of Buddhism in a developed Western country associated with a traditional Judeo-Christian culture, but a country nonetheless undergoing profound sociological transformation due in no small part to large-scale immigration and religio-cultural pluralism. Bruce Matthews is the Dean of Arts and C. B. Lumsden Professor of Com- parative Religion at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada. A former Commonwealth scholar in Buddhist Civilization at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya (1970–71), he has a long-standing interest in Buddhism and the modern world. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism General Editors: Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety of perspectives, using a range of different methodologies. The series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual transla- tions and commentaries, sociological investigations, bibliographic studies, and considerations of religious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral religiosity. It also presents materials on modern intellectual historical studies, including the role of Buddhist thought and scholarship in a contemporary, critical context and in the light of current social issues. The series is expansive and imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of Buddhist history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition. A SURVEY OF VINAYA PAIN AND ITS ENDING LITERATURE Carol S. Anderson Charles S. Prebish EMPTINESS APPRAISED THE REFLEXIVE NATURE David F. Burton OF AWARENESS THE SOUND OF LIBERATING Paul Williams TRUTH ALTRUISM AND REALITY Edited by Sallie B. King and Paul Williams Paul O. Ingram BUDDHISM AND HUMAN BUDDHIST THEOLOGY RIGHTS Edited by Roger R. Jackson and Edited by Damien Keown, John J. Makransky Charles Prebish, Wayne Husted THE GLORIOUS DEEDS WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PURNA OF THE BUDDHA Joel Tatelman Kathryn R. Blackstone EARLY BUDDHISM – THE RESONANCE OF A NEW APPROACH EMPTINESS Sue Hamilton Gay Watson CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN BUDDHISM BUDDHIST ETHICS Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams Edited by Damien Keown and Christopher Queen INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST IMAGING WISDOM WOMEN Jacob N. Kinnard Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo TEACHING BUDDHISM TIBETAN AND ZEN IN THE WEST BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN Edited by V. S. Hori, R. P. Hayes David N. Kay and J. M. Shields THE CONCEPT OF THE EMPTY VISION BUDDHA David L. McMahan Guang Xing SELF, REALITY AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF REASON IN TIBETAN DESIRE IN THE BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY PALI CANON Thupten Jinpa David Webster IN DEFENSE OF DHARMA THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN Tessa J. Bartholomeusz THERAVADA BUDDHISM Paul Fuller BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY THE BUDDHIST THEORY Dan Lusthaus OF SELF-COGNITION Zhihua Yao RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION AND THE ORIGINS OF MORAL THEORY IN BUDDHISM SANTIDEVA’S Torkel Brekke SIKSASAMUCCAYA Barbra R. Clayton DEVELOPMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM BUDDHIST STUDIES FROM Michelle Spuler INDIA TO AMERICA Edited by Damien Keown ZEN WAR STORIES DISCOURSE AND Brian Victoria IDEOLOGY IN MEDIEVAL THE BUDDHIST JAPANESE BUDDHISM UNCONSCIOUS Edited by Richard K. Payne and William S. Waldron Taigen Dan Leighton INDIAN BUDDHIST BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND THEORIES OF PERSONS APPLIED PSYCHOLOGICAL James Duerlinger RESEARCH Edited by D. K. Nauriyal, Michael ACTION DHARMA S. Drummond and Y. B. Lal Edited by Christopher Queen, Charles Prebish and BUDDHISM IN CANADA Damien Keown Edited by Bruce Matthews The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies a project of The Society for the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist Tradition The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies conducts and promotes rigorous teaching and research into all forms of the Buddhist tradition. EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS Noa Ronkin MIPHAM’S DIALECTICS AND THE DEBATES ON EMPTINESS Karma Phuntsho HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN The conditioned genesis of the early teachings Richard F. Gombrich BUDDHISM IN CANADA Edited by Bruce Matthews First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2006 Editorial matter and selection Bruce Matthews; individual chapters, the contributors This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Buddhism in Canada / edited by Bruce Matthews. p. cm. – (Routledge critical studies in Buddhism) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-32279-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Buddhism–Canada. I. Matthews, Bruce, 1941– . II. Series. BQ742.B83 2005 294.3′0971–dc22 2005018225 ISBN10: 0–415–32279–0 (Print Edition) ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–32279–9 vi CONTENTS List of contributors ix Foreword xii PAUL BRAMADAT Preface xvi BRUCE MATTHEWS 1 Buddhism in British Columbia 1 JAMES PLACZEK AND LARRY DEVRIES, with Appendix by VICTOR CHAN 2 Buddhism in Alberta 30 LESLIE KAWAMURA 3 Buddhism in Saskatchewan and Manitoba 43 JAMES G. MULLENS 4 Buddhist diversity in Ontario 59 KAY KOPPEDRAYER AND MAVIS L. FENN 5 Buddhism in the Greater Toronto area: the politics of recognition 85 JANET MCLELLAN 6 Lao Buddhism in Toronto: a case study of community relations 105 MARYBETH WHITE 7 Buddhism in Québec 120 LOUIS-JACQUES DORAIS 8 Blurred boundaries: Buddhist communities in the Greater Montréal region 142 MATHIEU BOISVERT, MANUEL LITALIEN AND FRANÇOIS THIBEAULT vii CONTENTS 9 Buddhism in Atlantic Canada 151 BRUCE MATTHEWS Appendix: buddhismcanada.com: a decade in cyber-samsara 162 GEORGE KLIMA Index 167 viii CONTRIBUTORS Mathieu Boisvert has been a professor at the Département des sciences religieuses de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) since 1992. He was initially trained in philology (Sanskrit, Pali), but now primarily works in the anthropology of religion. He is one of the founders of the Groupe de recherches interdisciplinaire sur le Montréal ethno-religieux (GRIMER), research funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Paul Bramadat is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Winnipeg. His research interests include reli- gion and public policy in Canada and the intersection between religious and ethnic modes of identity. His most recent work reconsiders the relation- ship between religions, Canada’s multiculturalism program, and the federal government. Victor Chan is Executive Director of the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Pro- gram, Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. Larry DeVries is located in the Pacific Rim Department at Langara College in Vancouver BC and teaches mostly religious studies courses. He holds a MA and PhD in South Asia Studies from the University of Minnesota and has taught at such institutions as the University of Minnesota, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Washington, as well as hold- ing a research position at the University of Chicago under the National Endowment for the Humanities. Louis-Jacques Dorais graduated in anthropology from Université de Montréal (MSc), and in ethnolinguistics from Université de Paris-III, Sorbonne (Doct.). He has taught since 1972 in the Department of Anthropology, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Dorais specializes in language and identity among overseas Vietnamese, the Inuit, and French-speaking minorities in North America. ix CONTRIBUTORS Mavis L. Fenn received her PhD from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She teaches Asian Religion at the Department of Reli- gious Studies at St Paul’s College (University of Waterloo), Ontario, Canada. Her research interests include women in Buddhism and the adaptation of Buddhism to the West. Her most recent articles are ‘The Kutadanta Sutta: Tradition in tension’ and ‘The Ordination Issue: Where are we now?’ (in progress). She is currently working on two projects: ‘Buddhism on a Canadian Campus’ and ‘Buddhist Women in Canada’ with Janet McClellan at Wilfrid Laurier University. Leslie Kawamura is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, the University of Calgary. He is currently the