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The article offers information on several congresses and meetings in Canada including the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (AASSC) on June 1, 2008, Association for Canadian And Quebec Literatures (ALQL) on May 31, 2008 and Canadian Association of Latin-American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) on June 7, 2008.

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reviews the definitions of racial profiling in selected published academic and government publications in Canada and the U.S. between 1990 and 2015. The review aims to delineate the central conceptual issues on racial profiling and is not intended to be exhaustive. This paper highlights seven components in the definitions of racial profiling and concludes that there is no consensus on what constitutes racial profiling. Lack of common theoretical grounds, inconclusive empirical evidence, and competing values make it difficult for arriving at a consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language of the Métis, Michif, is on the verge of extinction largely due to colonial injustices which forced many Western Métis to hide their identities and language. This paper will discuss one ongoing effort to revitalize the language in a Métis teacher education program and the implications the initiative has for other post-secondary educational programs and institutions who seek to contribute positively to Indigenous language reclamation in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents selected findings of research commissioned in 2011 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (the national human rights institution in Britain). The research explores the law in relation to equality, human rights and religion or belief in England and Wales and how it is understood and applied in the workplace, public services and the community. The paper examines some prominent legal cases and identifies areas where the law is unclear or contested. It includes a focus on situations where interests are perceived to conflict between claims based on religion or belief and those based on other 'protected characteristics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that normative debates about the relative merits of interculturalism in Québec are evidence of a particular type of nationalism in both Québec and Canada, one that continues to centre the experiences of the "two founding" nations of Canada. In order to resituate this debate, I locate interculturalism within the rise of tolerance discourses in Western liberal democracies since the 1980s. The first section of the paper presents a brief overview of some of the major claims for the rise of interculturalism in Québec. The second section of the paper provides a concise analysis of the racial politics of the intercultural discourse in Québec. By doing so, I argue that despite their respective legitimacy, interculturalism and multiculturalism must be read as continued attempts to manage and limit expressions of racialized diversity in the social and political realms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interculturalism vs multiculturalism: Two solitudes? Scorpions in a bottle? Strange bedfellows? Tweedledum or tweedledee? Many believe these 'isms' are fundamentally different and incompatible, with interculturalism positively contrasted as a new and improved model for integrating immigrants. This paper challenges each of these notions by reframing the debate over multi/inter/culturalism along governance lines. The paper argues that, despite differences in tone and emphasis, the principles of an integrative inclusivity inform the discursive logic behind both governance models. The paper also contends that Canada's official multiculturalism is less 'multi' than widely perceived, while Québec's interculturalism is less 'inter' than many propose. The paper concludes on a cautionary note: In that neither multiculturalism nor interculturalism have a knack for meaning what they say or for saying what they mean, debates over the 'isms' as competing governance models will remain a contested affair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influenced by the ideas of Buddhist fatalism, old Chinese immigrants in Canada often used avoidance as their adaptive strategy in the face of discrimination from and conflict with the mainstream society. Only when confronted with serious threats did they unite themselves for a concerted action. Since the 1990s, new Chinese immigrants in Canada have changed tremendously; it must be interesting to see how the new Chinese immigrants adapt to the new situation and whether they still experience discrimination. This article studies new Chinese immigrants in the city of Vancouver. The research questions of this study are: How are they now related to the mainstream society? How are they integrated with it? And what are the main conflicts and how do they cope with them? The paper deals with their relationships in three main aspects: the new mode of concentration, new forms of conflicts, and the lived experience of Chinese entrepreneurs and their coping strategies. The paper concludes that while new Chinese immigrants enjoy a much higher social status in comparison with their predecessors, they never forget the past oppression and that some regulations in the current policy smacks of unfairness. The research is based on secondary data, but provides recent demographics of new Chinese immigrants in the city. In the paper, the term "new Chinese immigrants" refer to those who entered Canada after the year 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts between religious rights and other Charter-based equality rights involve deep-seated matters of dearly-held and highly personal individual beliefs. This paper provides a survey of the cases in this area over the last decade across Canada, concentrating in particular on the Surrey book banning and the Saskatchewan marriage commissioner case. Rather than taking a philosophical, jurisprudential, or partisan political approach to Charter questions, this paper argues that the methods of democratic deliberation may provide an effective means of processing conflicts between religious rights and lesbian and gay rights. The paper concludes by considering some of the conditions that must be met for successful deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will provide an overview of four Quebec educators as they speak about their teaching experiences in Montréal. Their accounts provide interpretations of the challenges that lie ahead for Québec, as the province continues to assert its French-Canadian political, cultural and linguistic identity within Canada, and as it faces an evolving definition of what it means to be a Quebecker, in terms of the multilingual, multicultural, multifaith presence of its immigrants, who live primarily in the large metropolis of Montréal. The teachers' insights regarding teaching and living in Québec provide a number of alternatives. Language is at the core of Québec's identity. Along with culture, ethnicity, geography, and until recently, Roman Catholicism, language embodies the history of Quebeckers and their struggle to survive. This paper will examine how Quebec teachers negotiate this linguistic reality in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been much research on the barriers and supports that impact newcomer access to healthcare, there is not agreement on whether the optimal healthcare services model for newcomers should be targeted specialized healthcare services for specific populations or an inclusive model where extra navigation or language supports are embedded in regular healthcare. This paper describes the health partnership model in Regina and presents some learnings from their experience. Overall it would be ideal to enhance the capacity of the healthcare system to provide responsive, culturally competent healthcare through the addition of mobile healthcare navigators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using ethnographic accounts, this paper offers a reflection on the difficulties, aspirations and strategies that francophone refugees face as they try to integrate into a cultural and linguistic landscape dominated by English. Given migration movements and identity shifts that affect Francophone communities in Western Canada, our discussion relies on concepts of 'deterritorialization/reterritorialization' (Deleuze & Guattari) as well as on the notion of 'minority within a minority' (Maddibo), with special attention to the issue of social, linguistic and identity dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on the literature presented in Employment Pathways for Refugees, Part 1 and offers a programmatic approach to overcome barriers faced by refugees when seeking employment. Refugees have unique profiles and needs that differentiate them from other newcomers and therefore require informed program and service responses to support their settlement and integration. Results from the Employment Pathways prototype, which took place in four Government-Assisted Refugees resettlement communities to address employment barriers, will be shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting, retaining and integrating newcomers in smaller centres has been an issue in Canada for more than a century. This paper briefly describes efforts that have been made in past, the factors that contribute to "welcoming communities" that may increase the numbers of immigrants choosing to go to and stay in those communities, and the actions that smaller (but perhaps not small) communities can take today to successfully attract and retain newcomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada depends on the settlement service provider organizations (SPOs) to take care of the needs of the newcomers assisting them to integrate within the new society. The main focus of the article is not the immigrants who use the services but the remaining two-thirds of the population of immigrants who need but do not use the available settlement services. This paper tries to reflect on the available immigrants' service use in Western Canada and how the SPO can best assist those immigrants who need settlement services but cannot avail them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employers can play a key role in the employment, settlement, and integration of newcomers. Potential supplemental policies and supports, such as lunchtime EAL training, mentor programs, and housing assistance, can help support newcomer employees. However, before employers invest in such programs they need reassurance that doing so will have a positive impact on their bottom line. Little research has been conducted to assess the potential benefits to both employers and newcomer employees for offering supplemental newcomer supportive policies. This paper reviews the success story of one large Canadian employer by describing the policies offered and the organizational rewards of doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary 'convert-immigrant' make-up of the Canadian Buddhist population not only complicates accommodating the diversity of Buddhist-Canadian religious rights, but also challenges the very definition of "creed" as it is currently formulated in the Ontario Human Rights Code. This paper highlights these dynamics as they pertain to two institutional settings: the penal system and the health care system. This paper concludes by urging the OHRC to consider the unique needs of split convert-immigrant religious traditions, such as Buddhism, in order to not privilege the rights of minority convert populations over majority immigrant "cradle" populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Freedom of religion includes both the right to manifest beliefs and practices and the right to be free from state coercion or constraint in matters of religion. This paper looks at the scope and interaction of these two aspects of freedom of religion in the context of religious accommodation issues in public schools. It considers the factors that may be relevant in addressing requests for accommodation in schools and how to address the difficult challenges of ensuring that accommodation of practices does not become and is not perceived as state endorsement or sanctioning of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ontario Humanist Society (OHS) is representative of Humanist ethical communities of choice, with an established institutional history supporting deeply held ethical beliefs and principles as a 'living' creed. These communities are currently excluded by definition from the concept of the OHRC definition of 'creed.' As a result, the collective rights of Humanists and other such ethical communities of choice are not recognized under the Ontario Human Rights Code. On that account, we argue for a more inclusive interpretation of the term 'creed' in this paper, which is a collaborative work by the OHS Ethical Action Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to provide a social and historical context for the efforts of the Ontario Human Rights Commissions attempt to re-evaluate its policy on addressing discrimination based on "creed" and protecting religious freedom. Most Canadians assume that because Canada is a secular, multicultural society, the problems of religious intolerance and discrimination have disappeared. Consequently, they are confused by public conflicts such as the "reasonable accommodation" debate in Quebec and the "sharia courts" controversy in Ontario. Part of the confusion arises from the fact that, since the 1970s, Canada has become both more secular as well as more religiously diverse. Canadian Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Chinese and Jews - as well as aboriginal peoples - struggle to integrate themselves into structures that had been defined first by Christianity and then by Canadian-style secularism. At the same time, new forms of religious intolerance and discrimination have emerged, challenging Canada's efforts to become a multicultural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first step in developing a framework for the interface between a secular society and religion is to define the role of the "secular" state. This paper identifies four interpretations of the meaning of "secular" and identifies legal cases that use several different interpretations. In addition, it gives a strong rationale for the protection of religious rights. After reviewing some high profile conflicts between religion and the secular state, the author argues for the broadest inclusion of religious adherents in Canadian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that the ideas of multiculturalism and interculturalism are not mutually exclusive. Rather, their difference and sometimes adversity must be situated within the context of two competing nation-building projects - a context in which Québécois interculturalism reveals traces of Canadian multiculturalism and multicultural Canada promotes intercultural dialogue without writing the latter on its forehead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence indicates that Employment Equity (EE) has had a moderate success in achieving its goals. The lack of practical and promising models for implementing EE seems to be one of the reasons for this moderate success over time. I propose EE is a change management issue because it requires major changes in employees' values, attitudes and behaviour. Using the most promising theories and concepts in the change management literature, I propose a practical model for implementing EE. The model highlights the critical role of leadership, organizational learning culture, effective communication, education, and employee participation in successfully achieving EE related policies. This paper highlights that paying attention to policy implementation is as important as policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to explain the changing role of the university in the context of growing international mobility and demand for regional Francophone immigration through case studies of l’Université de Moncton (U de M), in New Brunswick, and the Collège universitaire Saint-Boniface (CUSB), in Winnipeg, Manitoba. These results are a part of a broader research project on the recent internationalization of Francophone universities, and their new role in attracting, integrating and retaining international students, which also includes l’Université de Sherbrooke and l’Université Laurentienne in Sudbury1. Through an analysis of federal, provincial and municipal policies concerning international students, interviews with city officials and university administrators, and focus groups with international students, we are interested in this topic in light the recent policy changes in Canada aiming for a greater attraction and retention of international graduates outside major urban centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that shared citizenship provides the context and the means for differently situated persons to advance competing human rights claims and that this shared citizenship can be a resource for Human Rights Commissions in Canada to develop social policy that frames competing human rights claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last few years there has been a disinformation campaign against human rights commissions. While it is not surprising that Internet blogs post things about HRCs that are false and malicious, these claims have seeped into mainstream discourse. This paper sets out some of the claims made about the CHRC and describes how they are misleading or just plain false and it considers how these deceptive and invented claims have entered mainstream discourse. This will involve some general observations about the state of public discourse in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the recommendations made in the report I prepared for the Canadian Human Rights Commission concerning s.13 of the CHRA. In the report I recommended the repeal of the section so that the CHRC and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal would no longer deal with hate speech, and in particular hate speech on the Internet. I took the position that state censorship of hate speech should be confined to a narrow category of extreme expression - that which explicitly or implicitly threatens, advocates or justifies violence against the members of an identifiable group, even if the violence advocated is not imminent - and that the restriction of this narrow category of expression should be dealt with under the Criminal Code rather than the CHRA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on knowledge of the historical evolution of health and social services in Quebec and Canadian studies on accessibility to healthcare for immigrants, this paper provides some reflections for initiating dialogue on this subject in relation to English-speaking ethnocultural and immigrant communities. A training tool designed to sensitize health and social service practitioners to barriers of access within a multiethnic context is also outlined as means of improving accessibility as well as the quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of immigration to Montreal has ensured the multi-ethnic character of its English-speaking community. The self-segregation of many large ethnic groups in separate neighborhoods, together with the local status of English as a minority language, have fostered greater ethnic diversity in the types of native English spoken in Montreal than in other Canadian cities. This paper reports on an acoustic study of ethno-phonetic differences in Montreal English, among speakers of British, Italian and Jewish ethnic origins. It identifies several phonetic indicators of ethnicity in Montreal. These are analyzed in terms of what they suggest about the varying degrees to which the ethnic groups have assimilated to common phonetic patterns of native Canadian English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a demographic overview of Quebec's English-speaking population and focuses on the gap in the numbers of anglophones based on diverging federal and provincial definitions of identification with language groups. Based on the federal use of First Official Language Spoken there are approximately three hundred thousand more individuals that would be regarded as Anglophones that under the Quebec definition which is based on mother tongue. Much of the difference is attributable to the way in which immigrants and their children are classified by the two levels of government. Data is provided that looks at the ethnic origins, visible minority status and generational status of the 300 000 Quebecers that contribute to enhancing the demographic vitality of Quebec's English-speaking population. The text provides insight into the challenge facing anglophone leaders in determining the level of resources required to serve the community. More broadly it also reveals that demographic estimates of community size are vulnerable to the categories defined by the state and how it chooses to determine membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Diversity / Canadian Diversité is the property of Association for Canadian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How do ordinary Canadians deal with the presence of public historical disputes, often called "history wars"? This paper analyzes the responses of a telephone survey sample of 389 Canadians to the question, "When people disagree about the past how do you think they can find out what is most likely to have really happened?" Responses fell into three different levels of sophistication, with the most sophisticated expressing the necessity to interrogate all sources actively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on information gathered from focus groups with second generation Canadians of colour, this paper explores their experiences and perceptions of racism, as well as their feelings of belonging in Canada. It additionally addresses the ways in which the second generation compares their experiences with those of their parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the constitutional protection of religion (the Preamble and section 2(a)) and multiculturalism (section 27) in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It also examines the religious nature or content of many contemporary issues in Canadian society. These include the issue of religiously based arbitrations, the Hérouxville controversy, the protection of religious minorities and its effect on gender equality and the use of cultural/religious defenses in criminal law. The paper illustrates how religion is the central or core component in many contentious issues confronting policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the many paradoxes to engulf Canada's official Multiculturalism, few are as egregious as the belief that multiculturalism and anti-racism are mutually incompatible in the struggle against shifting notions of racism. This paper contends that such a perception is wrong - in part because Multiculturalism is not about diversity but disadvantage, that is, advancing inclusiveness by removing difference-based discrimination. This is in part because the structural changes envisaged by conventional anti racism do not materialize by themselves but with a multicultural mindset. Canada's Multiculturalism remains an ongoing and unfinished project that is evolving in response to the many and changing faces of racism. An official multiculturalism remains in the vanguard of making Canada safe for diversity, safe from diversity. Its role as an anti-racism partner should therefore not be underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how increasing tuition fees create barriers for Aboriginal and subordinate racialized group members seeking to pursue legal education in Canada. The history of racial discrimination in legal education in Canada is briefly reviewed to illustrate the roots of these barriers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The narratives embodied in, and generated by, 'multiculturalism' and 'interculturalism' are often conceived as in conflict. This paper focuses on the February 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision in S.L. and D.J. v. Commission Scolaire des Chênes to suggest that conflict between 'multi' and 'inter' need not be sustained or resolved. Nicely illustrated by the judgment, the two may instead be destined to co-existence as indicators of 'multi'plicity and shapers of 'inter'actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly describes some aspects of competing rights claims and responses in the context of disability rights. Such a specific examination may help ground more general approaches to a framework for addressing competing rights claims, as well as reveal how tensions between rights claims may manifest differently in particular contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that human rights claims are delimited by majoritarian values and interests and that this provides insight into how competing claims will be balanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the contributions and accomplishments of the Indian Taxation Advisory Board (ITAB) to the First Nations. It says that the ITAB developed and fought for the passage of the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act (FSMA) which became a law in 2005. It states that a research partnership has been formed by ITAB and the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), which produced papers on howto create a positive investment climate and fiscal relationship.