Journal Article

The Canadianization Movement in Context

Jeffrey J. Cormier

2005

Overview

The CSAA Canadianization frame went through many transformations before becoming official association policy. A series of episodes illustrate this transformation and demonstrate the kinds of constrains faced by Canadianization supporters within the association. In 1971 the AUCC struck a commission to \"rationalize\" university research. The Bonneau-Corrie Commission's mission was to find ways to minimize the amount of duplication and waste in Canadian university research. Several members of the CSAA volunteered to write the association's brief to the commission. In the process Gordon Inglis (anthropology, University of Toronto), Pierre Marauda, William Willmott, Michael Ames (anthropology, University of British Columbia), and several other CSAA members, managed to reframe the issue from \"rationalizing research\" to \"nationalizing research\" (Inglis, 1992). \"In a word,\" the CSAA Canadianization supporters suggested, \"the rationalization of research in our two disciplines means, first of all, the Canadianization of the disciplines.\" The CSAA Canadianization supporters worked to redefine the Canadianization issue: \"We therefore submit that for anthropology and sociology to play constructive roles in the development of an independent Canadian society these disciplines must now become more Canadianized in content, orientation and personnel.\"26 In April of 1972 Inglis organized a colloquium at the University of Toronto to discuss a variety of issues, including the proposed CSAA brief to the AUCC. The media reaction to the event gives a sense of the general feeling towards Canadianization supporters at this time. Two days after the meeting the Globe and Mail, never a great supporter of the Canadianization movement, printed a story reporting that a meeting of anthropologists and sociologists \"had dark nationalistic priorities.\" Columnist Kenneth Bagnall's article, entitled \"A Chauvinistic Step\" commented on several motions passed at the University of Toronto colloquium, reporting that such a position would \"build a stone wall around the intellectual life of the country.\"27 Even the Toronto Star, usually a staunch supporter of Canadian nationalism and Canadianization, had concerns. In its editorial the Star reported that such views as expressed by the University of Toronto colloquium were examples of \"negative and destructive anti-Americanism.\" It also drew disturbing parallels: \"This is something out of South Africa, with the human race neatly divided into categories and the American emerging at the bottom of the pile.\"28 Clearly the media was more proactive at framing the issue than was the CSAA. This frame too was eventually tempered. In December of the same year [Kathleen Herman] and the CSAA executive met to discuss her subcommittee's work on the association's Canadianization policy. By Herman's own admission the meeting was \"a long, tough pull.\"32 After several hours of heated debate, the CSAA executive agreed on an official policy position. This policy, however, was more restrained and controlled in tenor than the subcommittee's original recommendations. For example, instead of insisting that no positions go to non-Canadians, the association agreed that \"priority in appointment should be given to Canadian citizens.\" In granting tenure, universities should \"give strong weight\" to Canadian citizens. What this meant was that \"citizenship should be one of the many important criteria in the assignment of tenure.\"33 While a relatively more radical stance on Canadianization than had been formulated previously by the CSAA, this result was a significantly milder Canadianization frame. Absent was any reference to imperialism, nationalism, socialism, or morality. The resultant Canadianization frame instead focused narrowly on the issues of hiring and content.

• Publisher: University of Alberta,University of Toronto Press,Canadian Journal of Sociology,University of Alberta Library
• Subject: Academic discipline / Academic tenure / Anthropologists / Anthropology / Anti-Americanism / Associations / Attitude change / Canada / Canadian culture / Citizens / Citizenship / Colleges & universities / Contextual analysis / Cultural anthropology / Elites / Executive committees / Forecasts and trends / Frame analysis / Hiring / History of Sociology / Imperialism / Market trend/market analysis / Mass media effects / Mathews, Robin / Meetings / Morality / Nationalism / Nationalization / Note on the Discipline/Réflexion sur la discipline / Perception / Professional associations / Race / Rationalization / Research universities / Social aspects / Social Movements / Socialism / Sociological Associations / Sociology / Sociology of organizations and enterprises. Bureaucracy and administration / Sociology of work and sociology of organizations / Steele, James / Subcommittees / Supporters / Transformation / Tribunals & commissions / Universities / Universities and colleges / University administration