I swear (or affirm)
That I will be faithful
And bear true allegiance
To Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second
Queen of Canada
Her Heirs and Successors
And that I will faithfully observe
The laws of Canada
And fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen.
Forty-three words. Succinct. And with that oath, immigrants to Canada become Canadian citizens.
Earlier this month, the Harper Conservative government, much to its credit, unveiled Discover Canada:
The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, its new 62-page guide to citizenship, which significantly attempts to refashion our national image through historical emphases, replacing the bland and politically correct, A Look at Canada, the 48-page citizenship guide published by the Chrétien Liberals.
A Look at Canada included such stirring patriotic citizenship material as an admonition to "conserve energy and water by turning off lights and taps when they are not being used" and explained "people who help others without being paid are called volunteers. There are millions of volunteers across Canada."
As the Globe and Mail commented, the conservation tip, while "good for the bathroom wall, [is] not relevant to the high calling of Canadian citizenship" and the volunteer statement embarrasses "both the reader and the writer."
There is a refreshing emphasis on our history in the new guide and a willingness to speak plainly on important facts.
A section reminds new Canadians that "as a constitutional monarchy, Canada's head of state is a hereditary sovereign (queen or king), who reigns in accordance with the constitution: the rule of law. The sovereign is a part of Parliament, playing an important, non-partisan role as the focus of citizenship and allegiance, symbol of Canadian sovereignty, guardian of constitutional freedoms."
It's not only new Canadians who sometimes need a lesson in constitutional civics as Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean discovered last month after she twice referred to "head of state" as if it were the Governor General's title during an Oct. 5 speech in Paris to executive members of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.
Four days later, Rideau Hall's new website was re-launched with several references to the Governor General as "head of state," leading to Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications chief, to bluntly correct the Governor General's usage stating: "Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of Canada and head of state. The Governor General represents the Crown in Canada." The website has been corrected.
Starting next February, Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, will be the study guide for the 250,000 immigrants who arrive in Canada annually.
No longer will they be told that Canada is strictly a nation of blue-helmeted peacekeepers. The new guide properly places a much greater emphasis on Canada's combat military history, from the First World War to more recent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and the war in Afghanistan, which is properly referred to as a United Nations international security operation. Canada is present as part of the International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan (ISAF) task force, authorized by United Nations (UN) security council Resolution 1386 on Dec. 20, 2001.
The new guide was produced in consultation with a blue-ribbon panel of experts that included former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, her husband, writer John Ralston Saul, historians Jack Granatstein, Margaret MacMillan, Desmond Morton and Xavier Gélinas, and retired general John de Chastelain, former chief of the defence staff. That's not to say the guide doesn't have its critics. "It's kind of like a throwback to the 1950s. It's a tough, manly country with military and sports heroes that are all men," opined historian Margaret Conrad.
Perhaps so, but in addition to international military history, Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship truthfully tackles other issues and personalities of historical significance, including Quebec's separatist movement and Louis Riel.
"When Canada took over the vast northwest region from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Métis of the Red River were not consulted. In response, Louis Riel led an armed uprising and seized Fort Garry, the territorial capital. Canada's future was in jeopardy. How could the Dominion reach from sea to sea if it could not control the interior?
"Ottawa sent soldiers to retake Fort Garry in 1870.
Riel fled to the United States, and Canada established a new province, Manitoba. Riel was elected to Parliament but never took his seat. Later, as Métis and Indian rights were again threatened by westward settlement, a second rebellion in 1885 in present-day Saskatchewan led to Riel's trial and execution for high treason, a decision that was strongly opposed in Quebec. Riel is seen by many as a hero, a defender of Métis rights, and the father of Manitoba."
Then there is this: "From the 1800s until the 1980s, the federal government placed many aboriginal children in residential schools to educate and assimilate them into mainstream Canadian culture. The schools were poorly funded and inflicted hardship on the students; some students were physically abused. Aboriginal languages and cultural practices were mostly prohibited. In 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to the former students."
And from the present day: "Canada's openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, 'honour killings,' female genital mutilation, or other gender-based violence. Those guilty of these crimes are severely punished under Canada's criminal laws."
Imagine: a citizenship guide that offers unvarnished history and speaks clearly for our Canadian values.
The point is not what one thinks of Riel, Canada's military history or our involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Those are subjects of legitimate debate where reasonable people hold different views.
No, the point is we finally have a citizenship guide that's not afraid to speak historical truths and trusts new Canadians can handle such shocking revelations as Quebec has a separatist movement.
