Nov. 17, 2010 - Issue #787 : Margaret Atwood

Prevue

Starting the debate

Margaret Atwood and the Parkland Institute tear up Canadian mythology to write a new one

At last year's Copenhagen climate conference Canada was perceived in international media as obstructionist procrastinators and was the recipient of not one but two international pranks. The YES Men, pranksters-at-large, decided Canada wasn't making the right decisions on climate change and made an announcement for Environment Canada, changing national climate policy to curb emissions and start a climate debt fund for the developing world. Meanwhile the international Climate Action Network, composed of over 450 NGOs, decided to award Canada the "Fossil of the Year" for its slow-moving agenda. The perception and international criticism may seem in sharp contrast to those Canadians for whom Lester Pearson's peacekeeping initiatives and hard-fought UN diplomacy form their thoughts on how Canada participates on the international stage. Usually described as a middle-power, Canada was often thought to be the broker of deals, holding just enough weight to help negotiate. But that perception is changing.

Within the last year Canada has received moderate praise, but a lot of criticism for its G20 maternal health policy. Debate first circled around Canada's refusal to include abortion procedures and then criticism against the slowly delivered—and not exactly what was promised—funding for the program. But the policy itself was mired in the controversy of Canada's grand expense of the G20 summit itself and the mass arrests that occurred. Most recently, Canada saw its bid for the rotating seat on the UN's Security Council denied in favour of Portugal. With all of the changes in international perception, the Parkland Institute decided it was time to start talking about Canadian values and rewrite an image that may no longer be true.

"We've noticed there's been a concerted attempt to change the image of what Canada stands for," says director and political economy professor Gordon Laxer.

Laxer wanted the annual conference to focus on conversations about what Canada has become, as compared to the ideas Canadians held to be true about themselves. He suggests that most people would describe Canada as having been a peacekeeping, open and multicultural democracy during the '70s and '80s. And for the most part these images are what most Canadians would identify or try to define themselves with.

Laxer believes Stephen Harper's government is attempting to change the whole formula, and keynote speaker, author Margaret Atwood, would tend to agree. "Harper is attempting to rewrite Canada," says Atwood, pointing out that the myths Canadians hold to be true have only ever been held by some. "It becomes difficult when you begin to examine what you mean by 'we.' We never know who 'we' is."

Defining a national narrative has always been a difficult subject, often resulting in identifying with beer commercials or defining ourselves as "not American," but as our foreign policy begins to align more closely with the United States, even that statement becomes a false descriptor.

The recent rejection by the world to Canada's entrance to the Security Council may be the most jarring confirmation that the world's diplomatic community does not approve of Canada's current policy directions. But it also may force Canadians to define exactly what it is they want from their national identity—and what they might be missing.

"We were never the caring, sharing non-racist society that a lot of us thought Canada was; there certainly were great class differences, poverty and treatment of people," says Laxer. "But the fact that there was a national image there that dealt with what Canada was, at least we could say, 'Hey you're not living up to our ideals as Canadians'—now there is a concerted attempt to change what Canada stands for."

The Parkland conference this year lists sessions on internal issues such as indigenizing Canada and the recent debates over criminalizing dissent after the mass arrests of the G20, but also issues Canadians are exporting to the world, says Laxer: "There's a lot of mining companies in Canada that are acting in an imperial way and that is a real concern."

"We're always discovering new things," Atwood says of Canadian history, adding that we may not always like what we discover such as residential schools or the third-world conditions in which Aboriginal peoples live in this country.

"We have more than one nation in this country," says Laxer. "Progressive people have had real difficulty going across these divisions, recognizing indigenous people and their rights and how they can develop their life and social positions."

Laxer believes a dialogue is needed to recognize the ignored aspects of Canadian identity and principles. "It's a real challenge for progressives to not only recognize diversity but to also make it a common cause," he says, adding, "but a discussion is needed. It's a reality that there is terrific diversity, but [also] continuing racism."

Part of the challenge, Laxer believes, comes with the issues brought forward by the 21st century: "Climate change disasters, the running out of every resource, globalization and then the world economy doing incredibly badly, we've got new problems we have to face, so we have to redefine what this political community called Canada means."

Atwood posits that the challenges may lie in leadership: "We don't know the direction the country is headed. World leaders at this moment in time don't know what to do about the economy or the environment." Historically, says Atwood, "they used to pretend they knew."

With all of the controversy that could spill out of this year's conference, it's perhaps fitting that Atwood takes the reins as keynote speaker. Familiar to controversy and debate, Atwood is not afraid to state her mind and face the consequences.

"People will always attack you," she says. "People have attacked me for the last 40 years."

She's not even sure the Parkland attendees will like what she has to say: "I asked [the organizers]. I said I may not be the one that you'd rather have."

Atwood perhaps doesn't fit Parkland's traditional keynote speakers. She doesn't describe herself as left or right, and in a recent Sun editorial she described herself as a "swing voter": "I'd vote for a turnip if it was accountable, transparent, a parliamentary democrat and listened to people," she wrote.

But Laxer is confident she's the woman for the job: "National culture is about the stories we tell ourselves and no one has done this more than Margaret Atwood. She's been involved in every decade, the free-trade debates and very much in the climate-change issue. Who better than Margaret Atwood to start this discussion?”

Interestingly Atwood doesn't see herself as political, nor does she feel a responsibility to be political—she's just stating the issues that are important to her, which is perhaps the most important role a citizen can play. For a country often mythologized around its politeness, that's a lesson Canada could take away from one of its most famous authors. V

Rewriting a Country: Toward a Just and Peaceful Canada
Fri, Nov 19 – Sun, Nov 21
University of Alberta (various locations), $90 – $135
parklandinstitute.ca

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