Members of the Abortion Caravan demonstrate in front of Parliament Hill, Ottawa, 1970. Photo courtesy uOttawa Archives and Special Collections

Pretty much everything that we might find redeemable about Canadian society has come as a result of community-based struggles and social movements. Yet, most people have little awareness of the historical significance of collective action because public memory practices rarely recollect, never mind detail, histories of activism.

In response to Trump’s threats to annex Canada, actor and filmmaker Mike Myers warmed many hearts with his romantic construction of Canadian exceptionalism. Like no other nation, he claims, Canada has “tried to get it right.” Yet, worker safety standards, environmental regulations, or access to abortion services, among a myriad of other programs, institutions or ‘rights’ that might provide evidence of this claim, have only come about due to organized pressure on governments. And they are continually under threat by the neoliberal austerity programs implemented over the past few decades by Conservative and Liberal governments alike. As Nora Loreto argues in her recent book The Social Safety Net, “our condition has declined, but our myths have yet to catch up.”

In the introduction to Resisting the State: Canadian History Through the Stories of Activists, Scott Neigh reflects on how Canadian popular history does not provide “a sense of the legacy of struggle by workers and people of faith, the actions and political courage and sacrifice” that made possible, for instance, socialized medical care. Rather, the fairy tale produced through public memory in Canada presents such institutions as natural characteristics of a benevolent nation. Hence, stories of activism are largely suppressed in popular narratives of Canadian history.

For instance, if you complete your schooling in British Columbia, you will not learn much about movements for social change, if at all. References to social movements or grassroot movements appear only four times in the social studies curriculum documents. Similarly, the terms “protest” or “activist/activism” appear only four times each.

The Canadian media and government have spent the last 16 months, and more, demonizing campaigns to boycott Israel. In the last few weeks alone, though, since Donald Trump launched his trade war, boycotting has become reimagined as a righteous, patriotic act. Neither “boycott” nor “strike” appear in the BC social studies curriculum, though organized labour has been crucial for creating the living standards that many people in Canada enjoy. If you do your schooling in BC, you definitely will not learn about “civil disobedience” or “nonviolence.” Further, the term “resistance” appears only twice, both references in the curriculum document for the optional First........

© Canadian Dimension