What it means to be Canadian

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The question of what it means to be Canadian has always been intriguing to me, given my background as a person born in the Philippines to Filipino parents, raised in the UAE from the age of five to high school graduation at seventeen, and who decided to come to Canada by myself (with the financial help of parents of course) on the basis that tuition fees for international students was much cheaper in Canada compared to the United States.

That was a number of years ago, and I am glad to have obtained my Canadian citizenship earlier this year. Early in our relationship, I used to tell Monika that the only reason I was dating her was to expedite the process of getting my Canadian papers. Jokingly of course.

It certainly makes a difference having a Canadian passport especially when traveling. Even more so when going across the border into the US. I remember having to wait hours at the border to get my fingerprints taken and eyes scanned, simply by virtue of traveling on a Filipino passport and a 10 year multiple-entry US visa. When traveling elsewhere, the reaction has almost always been positive when I mention that I am from Canada.

Copenhagen 2009

That is why when it comes to the issue of the environment, it saddens me to see that Canada is now to climate change, what Japan is to whaling

WIth the Copenhagen talks set to take place next week, the impression that the current Canadian government will do everything in its power to wreck the talks reflects very poorly on Canadians, especially since this is incongruent with the movement building and gaining momentum in Canada right now, especially among young people.

Although the minority Harper government has used stalling tactics to delay a vote on Bill C-311 (Climate Change Accountability Act), an act to ensure Canada assumes its responsibilities in preventing dangerous climate change, parliament passed a motion last week that was supported by all three opposition parties, that Canada adopt the first target from the delayed Bill C-311 as its position in Copenhagen.

That, in the opinion of the House, Canada should commit to propose at the Copenhagen conference on climate change

1. reducing, through absolute reduction targets, greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized countries to 25% lower than 1990 levels, by 2020;
2. the necessity of limiting the rise in global temperatures to less than 2oC higher than in the preindustrial era; and
3. supporting the developing countries in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change.

Unlike Bill C-311, this motion is not legally binding. However, this does send a powerful message to other countries and world leaders involved with the Copenhagen talks, that the current Canadian government’s position on climate change does not represent the majority view of the Canadian people.

To end on a lighter note, below is an email forward that I received from a friend this morning, that helped to spark this blog post, along with the accompanying photos taken in various Canadian cities over the years, that I feel helps to capture the diversity of the Canadian landscape (or at least the places in Canada that I have visited). I am also looking forward to attending the Guelph Lecture on Being Canadian next week, featuring John Ralston Saul, considered to be one of Canada’s foremost political and economic thinkers. This lecture will certainly help to put what it means to be Canadian into perspective.

An Australian’s Definition of a Canadian

You probably missed it in the local news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had advertised in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed a Canadian – any Canadian.

An Australian dentist wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is, so they would know one when they found one:

“A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

A Canadian may also be a Cree, Métis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many other tribes known as native Canadians.

A Canadian’s religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or none. In fact, there are more Muslims in Canada than in Afghanistan. The key difference is that in Canada they are free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian ultimately answers only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognize the right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

Canadians welcome the best of everything: the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services and the best minds. But they also welcome the least – the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected.

These are the people who built Canada .

You can try to kill a Canadian if you must as other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world have tried, but in doing so you could just be killing a relative or a neighbor. This is because Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, can be a Canadian.”

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