National Settlement Conference
(Kingston - June 18-20, 2001)
Notes for a talk to the
First National Settlement Conference
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
June 19, 2001
Fil Fraser
Check Against Delivery
Good evening, Bon Soir, Bone Natale etc
Thank you. I am very happy to be here tonight. As one who had the good
fortune to be born in this country, a child of immigrants, I am delighted
to celebrate with you, your remarkable successes in making settlement
work for so many Canadians.
Settlement. It's an old term that originally referred to the settlement
of new communities in Canada. Very often, these communities displaced
the Aboriginal peoples who were already living on the land. In Canada's
early days, settlement meant taking over this land of abundance that the
newspapers abroad wrote so much about. It meant building communities out
of nothing and exploiting previously unexploited resources.
Settlement obviously means many things to many people. Across the generations
immigrants have come to tap the rich resources of fish and fur, and later
of lumber and minerals; they came to take up the offer of free land as
part of a hard bargain to cultivate the prairies; they answered the siren
calls of the gold rush in the Fraser River Valley and in the Klondike;
they came as indentured labour to build the railway and found themselves
stranded with no way to get home; each of these groups, these and many
other waves of new Canadians, brought different expectations and had different
experiences in this land. Some came for adventure, and stayed. Some came
for the wondrous opportunities. Many others, then and now, came for refuge,
to escape the threat of genocide, of intolerable lives in far away places.
The first official settlement organization was established in 1922, after
the First World War, by the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society. Its objectives
were to:
- facilitate the legal entry of Jewish immigrants into Canada;
- provide them with temporary shelter, food, clothing and other forms
of assistance;
- provide advice regarding their destination;
- find them jobs to prevent them from becoming a burden on society;
- encourage them to settle in places other than the crowded cities,
and maintain offices that provided information on settlement conditions
in Canada;
- promote British ideals to new arrivals and instil in them a knowledge
of Canadian institutions and history.
That was in 1922, but if we replace the word "British" with the word
"Canadian", it is obvious that the goals of settlement workers have not
changed.
We must never forget, however, that the first people to offer shelter,
food, clothing and real assistance to help new comers cope with the sometimes
harsh extremes of this land, were the people who were here first - the
Aboriginal peoples who are now staking their claims as first nations.
I don't want to dwell on this subject - it leads to a long and complex
discussion that is for another time and another place. But we who, either
personally or through our parents and grand parents have come to find
a wonderful life in this country, need to remember - always - those, who,
in many ways, now need the kind of services we offer new immigrants.
But tonight we celebrate. We celebrate the remarkable successes of the
settlement movement, generation after generation, in helping those who
have brought the world to Canada. We are the world - and an example to
the world. A world which, if you can look at it from far enough away,
is really one country, an incredibly diverse country with both great and
terrifying challenges and great and extraordinary potential.
As much as we still have to do to make this the country all of what we
want it to be, the world has much to learn from us. We know what its like
for people to leave what is familiar, and to enter a different culture
with different rules, different ways of relating, and with values that
may be attractive, but that can also be strange and challenging. And yet,
in spite of a not always glorious past, our Canada now goes out of its
way to makes spaces for imported cultures. Dedication and hard work can
lead to success in any field, for any one. Any Canadian can become prime
minister.
On the other hand, as an immigrant,[1]
you quite often find yourself in a strange land, full hope, only to realize
that it's not what you had envisioned. You experience culture shock, and
you encounter language barriers. You have difficulty finding a place to
live and helping your children integrate into a different educational
system. You find it hard to make friends.
The Canadian Council for Refugees asked 13 Somali women to describe their
experiences of integration. I will read you a few of their answers.
"If you arrive in a country where all the people have only one eye, you
must remove one of your own if you want to integrate. That is how difficult
and painful the integration process is."
"I feel like I'm getting on a moving bus. I want to take the bus, but
I can't seem to find a seat because it's moving too fast."
"People think they know us because they see what's on the outside - our
skin, our veils. How can they know us if they have no idea what's going
on inside us?"
"A lion soaking wet looks like a fox. In Canada, I am a fox."
Reading these comments, along with many others, you can't help but shudder.
For many of the people who come to settle in Canada, life is a constant
struggle, riddled with obstacles relating to language, access to employment,
cultural orientation, skills recognition, racism and discrimination, family
reunification, immigration status and the establishment of support networks.
And as I look around this room tonight, I see those very people. those
who represent the face of caring. People who have taken the time to get
to know the woman behind the veil. People who can see the lion instead
of the fox. People who can offer a life line, whether it's language training
or whether it's help finding housing, help to link people with their new
neighbourhoods.
There needs, of course, to be more of us. There aren't enough of us.
The capacity of this land to absorb more of the world's people, to relieve
the stress of poverty and over crowding on other parts of this small planet,
has not really been tested. We continue to fail to meet even our government's
modest targets for immigration, falling far short of the desired one per
cent of the population per year. We need to understand, and to persuade
all Canadians, that we need immigrants as much as they need us. We do
each other a great service. But we need to do more, to be more. We need
50 million Canadians.
As Canadians do not say thank you often enough, I would like to acknowledge
tonight the significant contributions that you have made as settlement
workers. Pay alone is not sufficient recognition of your efforts. I am
convinced that sometimes you wish you didn't have to take your work home.
As a settlement worker, you hear much too often about torture, of loss
of human dignity, of spousal abuse, of loss of hope. You also witness
success in learning another language, in finding work, in becoming established
in a community. The successes do not always offset the difficult cases.
And still you manage to soldier on -- thinking perhaps some days, "well
if I can just help one more person..."
And you do, of course you do. Because that's the kind of person you are.
Look around you and you will realize that you are among family tonight.
You are among other settlement workers, people who share the same values
and aspirations, people who care about others. You will return to your
respective communities tonight with long lists of e-mail addresses and
telephone numbers of people you can contact. When you call them, you will
hear the voice of someone who knows exactly how you feel, someone who
may have the solution to an insurmountable problem. That is the goal of
this conference.
I am here tonight to say thank you. For your good work. For your good
intentions. For your good hearts. Thank you for being there, for me and
the millions of Canadians who rely on you on a daily basis. And thank
you for seeing the lion instead of the fox.
Thank you.
[1] Please note that I have taken the liberty
of inserting "as an immigrant', which is not in the French, in order to
make the English clearer. -Translator back
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