Belonging:
the Paradox of Citizenship
February 2015
Click square for index
At the end of 2014
I was given the book by Adrienne
Clarkson Belonging: The Paradox of
Citizenship, Anansi, 2014. I managed to
read it after a January struggle to
improve my Spanish in Puerto Vallarta,
MX.
Clarkson's book is the published form of
her 2014 Massey Lectures. The intent of
the lectures was to provide a forum
where "major contemporary thinkers could
address important issues of our time."
Clarkson is a thoughtful creative person
with an interesting career in
broadcasting and as Governor General
behind her. She helped create the
Institute for Canadian Citizenship. But
I don't think of her as a "major
contemporary thinker." Yet I do think
that her insights about Canadian
citizenship are helpful.
Unfortunately, these Massey Lectures
came late 2014 after some public debate
around recent changes to the citizenship
law which had the affect of creating a
two tier citizenship in Canada, (see my
article June 2014). Those native born
have secure citizenship. Naturalized
Canadians can have their citizenship
removed and can be returned to the
land of prior citizenship on grounds of
terrorism related activity with a rather
weak appeal process. Thus citizens are
not all equal. The book's silence on the
matter is unfortunate, especially since
Clarkson touches on the ancient Greek
city state democracy and the notion of
equality more than once. Then I miss
reference in Clarkson's book to our
Constitution with its Charter of Rights
and Freedoms. Citizens who join Canada
take this as it is - a work in
progress. The present Constitution did
not enjoy the support of Quebec or the
First Nations, (see my article January
2015). New citizens should be encouraged
to take up that challenge.
I also take issue with a style that
seems to avoid some instruction about
citizenship. Citizenship is an issue
among nations and thus is based on some
international law that deserves a nod.
For example Clarkson skirts the
fundamental international bases for
citizenship - shared civic emblems which
dominate French and US citizenship and
blood line which has dominated
German citizenship. So I add that
Canadian citizenship is of the civic
variety. You accept a package of
national institutions including a
Constitution and you accept a Quebec and
First Nations - and voila - you
belong. Citizenship can come by birth in
Canada, by Canadian blood if born of a
Canadian elsewhere, or by
naturalization. Now the good news.
Clarkson's book does have useful
thoughts about Canadian citizenship. And
it reads comfortably - like a chat in a
warm living room around a winter log
fire.
Clarkson's first chapter, The Circle
Widens alludes to the reality that those
like Clarkson and me who arrive in
Canada are joining a widening circle
with those already here. Humans need to
belong and to relate to forms of society
with particular histories. She refers to
a fabled French town whose residents
share a unique geography and a long and
special history. She refers to a novel
about a person who had left his slot in
a community which was then filled by
someone else who was fitted in. New
people fit into a new slot and belong.
The Canadian society has shifted towards
"a kind of fictive trust among people
today." "It is critical that we
acknowledge our existence in the context
of other people." Interdependence is
belonging.
Canadian public schools experienced by
Clarkson ran with a presumption of
equality and through a library she
learned of Greece and Pericles, Aspasia
and the Athenian city democracy with
freedom in politics and tolerance in
private lives. The community interest
was essential to the interests of the
individual. The freedom to speak and the
equity it implies was important in
ancient Athens as it is with the Inuit
today and it is a great marker of being
a citizen. When opinions are valued and
dissent is aired with respect,
conversation can become democratic
discussion and there can be democratic
decisions. There can be heckling. It can
be nasty. Yet it is better for us to
witness all that in real time in
parliament for ourselves than to see a
newspaper account. By speaking and
acting we insert ourselves into the
world. Fast forward through exclusion of
women and slaves, through Alexander's
empire and Rome's, through hierarchy and
Louis IV to the English revolution 1688
and the French revolution and the
citizen who took personal responsibility
in forms of parliament. These histories
and the Aboriginal Peoples' we
have joined in Canada. We are not
related by blood or religion or history.
We act with other people for the benefit
of other people with other groups of
peoples and for other groups of
peoples.
The cosmopolitan ethic is the basis
of the Chapter 2 thinking. Although we
have concern for ourselves and our
family's safety and well being, we
accept our country as it is with its
good things and its bad things and we
assume our responsibilities as we enjoy
our rights and insert ourselves into its
history. We are to participate in
politics and work for others. We must
listen and be listened to. We will need
to engage with people whose background,
loyalties, religion and ethnicity are
very different from our own - calling
for a "cosmopolitan ethic" from us.
"Canada accepted us with its tradition
of parliamentary democracy, the common
and civil law, bilingualism, public
health care and public education. But
how we go about living with each other
... is the challenge that everyone --
immigrants, new citizens, established
citizens, and native people -- have to
meet."
Clarkson's chapter on Unbuntu begins
with a description of Nelson Mandela's
funeral and an account of his story
because he personified "ubuntu" - a
statement about family, cohesion and all
living things connecting us to each
other in the past present and future - a
symbiosis of life. There are echos in
other religions. The opposite of ubuntu
is a blinkered self interest - and
Western economic writers are read, or
misread, to justify selfishness and
reinforce the idea that only self
interest and greed motivate the
individual. The Bible and the Quran talk
of us as one family. Our personhood is
derived from other people is nourished
by other people and grows with other
people. The early Canadian understanding
of community came from the Aboriginal
people who taught settlers how to
survive. This chapter notes the
challenge of maintaining diversity while
recognizing each other as part of the
same family. Clarkson turns to the
treatment of the First Nations and
Inuit, reminding us of the words of the
1991-1996 Royal Commission. "The
evidence of betrayal is all around us
..." I agree with the implication here.
Citizenship based on ubuntu requires us
to honour the promises made to the First
Nations. This Chapter moves on to
something she describes as "passive
acceptance." She refers to friendship
and love but returns to ubantu as the
necessity for human relationship and
accepting the other. "It is not an
emotional relationship. Countries cannot
be built on emotional relationships. The
scale is simply too large."
The final chapter (lecture) is built
around Gross National Happiness. It
begins with the thought that great
religious music is also great music
because we are all part of one
civilization. She quotes Frye: "Our
vision of what society is, what it could
be what it should be are all structures
of metaphor because the metaphor is the
unit of all imagination." To take this
line of thinking further she introduces
Vaihinger's philosophy of As If. You act
As If something is true if that will
bring benefits. And she adds quotes from
Forberg: "Believe that no good action
... will be lost in the haphazard course
of things!" Clarkson adds that a good
person does good even if she doesn't
believe in a moral world order. She acts
As If she believes she does. Clarkson
suggests Canadian society has recreated
itself by believing it is a whole
pluralistic mix from founding groups
into an ever extending stream of
newcomers. She goes on to posit that
when we live As If, the As If can take
on qualities of actual reality.
The narrative switches to a visit to
Bhutan, a Bhuddhist country which
conceived the Gross National Happiness,
whose principles she uses for Canada.
Generosity is in Canada's overseas
programs, its United Way and its "pay it
forward" in coffee shops. Ethical
behaviour shows in courtesy, sharing and
honesty. The first settlers were
welcomed into the First Nations circle.
We all continue to need to act in the
context of all others. Perseverance is
called for in addressing the
relationship of citizens to their
natural environment as well as in
addressing the shameful inequality
between Aboriginal People and others in
Canada in such things as schools,
housing and drinking water. A short
recap of some earlier thoughts leads to
her final sentence: "It's our turn to
add to the story, to imagine the citizen
of the future into being.
