Author: Tina Chen

 

In preparation for the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural Centre’s celebration of Canada 150, The Hon. Philip Lee remarked on the difference between the celebration of Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967 and the Canada 150 in 2017. He felt that in 1967 that ethnocultural communities were silent groups because their participation in Canada’s centennial was not encouraged or recognized. The reason for this is that the new policies on Canada’s relationship with linguistic and cultural groups across the country had not yet been established.

在准备加拿大150周年温城中华文化中心庆典的过程中，前省督李绍麟先生（Hon. Philip Lee）谈到了1967年加拿大诞辰100周年和加拿大150年的庆祝活动之间的差异。他认为在1967年，种族文化社区是一个十分沉默的群体，他们对加拿大一百周年纪念活动的参与并没有被鼓励或承认。这其中的原因在于加拿大与全国语言文化群体关系的新政策尚未建立。

 

In 1963 the Government of Canada established a Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The objective was to develop greater equality between English and French communities in Canada. The Commission was also tasked with looking at the contributions of other cultural communities. Many ethnocultural communities used this as an opportunity to make claims for the importance of supporting a variety of cultural heritage groups across Canada, and to promote anti-racism work. This brought about a variety of changes — for example, the celebration of Manitoba’s 100th birthday in 1970 included what was to be a one-time Folklorama celebration that included Manitoba’s various ethnocultural groups. The success of the event meant that is is now an annual event.

加拿大政府于1963年设立了双语和双文化委员会。目的是让英国和法国社区能够更平等的在加拿大发展。委员会还负责研究其他文化社区的贡献。许多种族文化社区利用这一机会，就加拿大各地支持各种文化遗产群体的重要性提出声明，并促进反种族主义工作。这带来了各种各样的变化 ，例如，在1970年曼尼托巴100周年诞辰庆典，曼尼托巴各民族文化团体共同举办民风节庆祝活动。这次活动的成功，成就了现在一年一度的民风节。

 

The official policy Canadian Multiculturalism Policy was announced in 1971. Multiculturalism has a number of aims, primarily to preserve the cultural freedom of all individuals in Canada and to recognize the cultural contributions of ethnic groups to Canadian society. There has been debate about the extent to which the Canadian government put adequate resources toward these aims, and if focusing primarily on culture is an adequate way to address racism and build cultural diversity. Nonetheless, the policy did open up opportunities for communities across the country, including the Chinese community in Manitoba.

加拿大多元文化的官方政策于1971年公布。多元文化主义有许多目标，最主要的目标是为了保护加拿大所有人的文化自由，并承认族裔群体对加拿大社会的文化贡献。关于加拿大政府是否该投入大量资源去实现这个目标的问题有些争议，而加强对文化的关注则会是解决种族主义和建立文化多样性的一个充分的途径。尽管如此，该政策确实为全国各地的社区，包括曼尼托巴的华人社区开辟了机会。

 

For those like the Honourable Philip Lee, he vividly sees the difference in 2017 in the way that the Government of Canada has promoted and encouraged ethnocultural groups across the country to come together and to organize their own celebrations of Canada Day. He believes Canada 150 is an exciting example of how multiculturalism has developed in Canada, and that for this reason encourages us to proudly celebrate Canada as members of the Chinese community, and showcase Chinese culture as part of Canada’s history.

像前省督李绍麟先生这样见证了历史发展的人，看到了2017年同往年大庆之间的巨大差异，加拿大政府鼓励全国各族民间团体聚集在一起，组织自己的加拿大节日庆祝活动。他相信这次加拿大150周年庆，显示了多元文化主义在加拿大令人激动的发展成果，因此鼓励我们自豪地作为华人社区成员来为加拿大庆祝，并将中国文化作为加拿大历史的一部分。