Passages to Canada

Teachers’ Resource Booklet

A SEARCH FOR BELONGING

Canada

MICHELLE BERRY • SHYAM SELVADURAI • YING CHEN • ALBERTO MANGUEL • DANY LAFERRIÈRE • KEN WIWA

toPassages

Dominion Institutewww.passagestocanada.com

Dear Educator,

Since the first settlements in Canada, the phenomenon of immigration has beeninextricably linked with our national identity. The waves of people who journeyed herefrom the world over have brought and continue to bring their own hopes, dreams and cultural traditions to Canada’s shores. The interweaving of these individual stories withthe national narrative has produced the cultural mosaic that we celebrate today.

The Passages to Canada Teachers’ Resources have been designed to provide educatorswith the tools to explore the human dimension of immigration. Through the first-personstories of six leading authors who have immigrated to Canada, this guide challengesstudents to go beyond the history and geography of immigration in Canada and startthinking about the immigrant experience as a personal search for identity and belonging.

The Passages to Canada Teachers’ Resource Booklet is complemented by a series of uniqueonline educational tools. Via the Web site www.passagestocanada.com, students can postand read their own stories of immigration, whether first-hand accounts or family history.

The Dominion Institute wishes to thank Citizenship and Immigration Canada for theirsupport of Passages to Canada.

Yours sincerely,

Rudyard GriffithsExecutive DirectorDominion Institute

Passages to Canada is made possible by the support of the following organizations:

Translation by LEXique Ltd. Teaching Tools by educator Nick Brune.Edited by Alison Faulknor.Cover photo credits: Immigrant family - NAC, Wall of China - Corbis.

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Learning Process

Passages to CanadaLearning Process

This Teachers' Resource Booklet explores the personal stories of immigrationby six Canadian authors - Michelle Berry, Shyam Selvadurai, Ying Chen, Alberto Manguel,Dany Laferrière and Ken Wiwa.

Use these stories in the classroom to discuss issues of immigration and citizenship withyour students.

• Find excerpts from the Passages to Canada Short Story Series on pages 4-15 and activitiesthat will encourage your students to explore the meaning and themes of these passages.Photocopy all twelve pages or select one or two for comparison.

• After reading these excerpts, use the Critical Thinking Activities on page 16 to engageyour students in a discussion about the key issues of immigration in Canada.

• Make your students Digital Historians! Find Web Projects on page 16 and usewww.passagestocanada.com in the classroom. Access the original short story seriesand have your students share a story of immigration or an interview online.

Use Passages to Canada in Grade 10, 11 and 12 history, civics, social studies and English courses.

www.passagestocanada.com

Explore the human dimensionof immigration with your students.

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Michelle Berry Playing DominosThe following excerpts are taken from Michelle Berry's short story Playing with Dominos in which she looksback on her journey as a young girl coming from the United States to Victoria, B.C., and reflects on the differencesbetween American and Canadian culture.

It’s funny how I want my memory to work a certain way. I want it to be like those historyclasses I took in high school, chronological and ordered. But memory doesn’t work that way.It’s not a connected line. It’s a series of images flashing on my consciousness, images thatare connected only by a brief thread of thought. It’s a chain reaction. Tip over one dominoand the rest will fall down.

*******

On our glass coffee table before we left he laid out a map of the United States and Canadaand my brother and I kneeled down to trace the route we would take. ThroughPennsylvania, through the mid-west to Chicago, through Iowa and the Badlands andWyoming or Montana (nobody’s sure anymore), through Idaho to Washington State wherewe would take the Anacortes Ferry to Victoria and touch down on Canadian soil. My fathertold us about living on an island. He showed us how big Canada was. I distinctly rememberhim mentioning something about a Queen. When he told us about the vastness of Canadawe saw the huge colours on the map, hardly any of it covered in writing. Somehow I under-stood that the journey would be a big one, and that the line my father traced across thecountry was not really an arm-span long but stretched for miles and miles. We were leavinggrandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins in New Jersey. We were leaving friends, mycareer as Betsy Ross, my ballet class, the fields and woods around our house.

*******

The scenery changed as we moved towards Canada. Things became lush (although anythingis lush after the dust bowls of the prairies). The hotels were nicer, the pools clean. There wassomething coming, bright, just around the corner. Anticipation was thick in the air. We wereapproaching Canada.

We weren’t running from persecution, we weren’t leaving because we had to, we weren’tcoming to Canada for good. We would return to the States, we reasoned, in a couple ofyears. We spoke the same language as Canadians. We had come from a democracy to ademocracy. My father had a guaranteed job. He was an academic. I was blonde and blue-eyed. I was Betsy Ross, for God’s sake. I’d memorized all the states and their capitals. I knewthe U.S. presidents. We’d fit right in.

*******

I remember rapidly learning the provinces, trying desperately to catch up to the rest of theclass....

By the end of grade three I was quickly forgetting the States. Like a reformed smoker Irapidly became anti-American myself. I forgot everything I had ever learned.


Michelle Berry

Michelle Berry wasborn in 1968 in Berkley,California, but raised in

Victoria, BritishColumbia. She has

written two collectionsof short stories; How to

Get There From Here(1997) and Margaret

Lives in the Basement(1998). In 2001, Berry

published her firstnovel, What We AllWant. With a dark

sense of humour, thenovel explores familiarthemes such as family

relationships and subur-ban life. What We All

Want received glowingreviews, and Berry has

recently finished writingthe story’s screenplay.

In addition to her writ-ing, Michelle Berryteaches at Ryerson

University, reviews forthe Globe and Mail and

Quill and Quire, andserves on the board of

PEN Canada.

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Michelle Berry

1. As a young girl, does Michelle Berry seem excited to move? What is her perception of Canada?

2. Who is Betsy Ross? What is the significance of the Betsy Ross image in Berry's story?

3. Based on her immigrant experience, do you think Berry sees Americans and Canadians as essentially thesame or different? Explain your position.

4. Do you think that the experience of American immigrants to Canada is largely similar or different from thatof immigrants from other nations? Explain your answer.


Michelle Berry (Mary, kneeling in centre)in school Nativity play, 1975.

My Grandparents visited from New Jersey every year and one year they brought me a Betsy Rosspincushion doll.

"Who’s Betsy Ross?" I asked my mother as I flipped up the skirt to see what you poked pins into.

*******

When I go to the United States now what I notice are the little things. The little things those kids at OaklandsElementary School noticed in me. The way I probably walked with a swagger, the way I pushed ahead ofeveryone else in line, the overwhelming confidence I so quickly lost. I thought that had something to do withbeing seven and then turning eight and nine and ten. But I wonder about that now.

I see the kids in my daughter's school ground, their running, tousling, gangly looseness, and I think aboutwhat they know growing up here. On the surface it's all the same, for example, both countries' policeofficers carry guns. But underneath are the seething differences - our fathers don't carry guns. We bothconsist of different cultures, but theirs attempt to blend in while ours often try to stand apart. The foodportions are always bigger in the States, everything is bigger actually. Louder.

But I can easily think of the Canadians I have met who are outspoken and opinionated. I think of theAmericans I know who are shy and agreeable.

To read the full-length version of this short story from the Passages to Canada series visit www.passagestocanada.com

ACTIVITIES

Michelle Berry in 1975, age seven, on the ferry with herolder brother David, travelling from Anacortes to Victoria.

Michelle Berry and older brother Davidin Badlands, South Dakota 1975.

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Shyam Selvadurai

Shyam Selvadurai wasborn in 1965 in

Colombo, Sri Lanka.For years, Sri Lanka’s

Tamil minority andSinhalese majority have

clashed over issues ofpower-sharing and local

autonomy. This politi-cal unrest resulted in

violent riots in the cityof Colombo in 1983,

and it was after theseriots that the Selvadurai

family immigrated toCanada. Selvadurai’s

first novel, Funny Boy,was published in 1994and received the W.H.

Smith/Books in CanadaFirst Novel Award. His

second novel,Cinnamon Gardens,

was published in 1998.Both novels reflect

Selvadurai’s concernabout the political andsocietal realities of SriLanka, and the chal-lenges and triumphsthat ordinary people

face as a consequence.Selvadurai identifies his

experiences as an immi-grant to Canada as partof the reason he is ableto write so capably and

compellingly of hishome country.

Shyam Selvadurai Conversations with my Mother The following excerpts are taken from Shyam Selvadurai's short story Conversations with my Mother in whichhe chronicles his journey from Sri Lanka to Canada. In the first excerpt Selvadurai recounts an experience at theLodge, a hotel built by Selvadurai's father to house tourists who were on safari in Sri Lanka.

In 1981, rioting broke out again and the Lodge was once more destroyed. My father foundout the news on the afternoon of his birthday. It was too late to cancel the party and thatevening as our garden filled with guests, it resembled more a funeral that a birthday. Amongthe guests was a Canadian. A Jewish immigrant who had escaped Nazi Germany. He toldmy father that what was happening reminded him of those dreadful times. He advised myfather to leave. My father vacillated, said he would think about it later. I remember being soangry at him for not taking us away, being so frightened and sad at how our lives werefalling apart. Now that I am in my thirties, I do understand why my father could not go.He loved the country, he had invested himself in it. He had made a life for himself there.

*******

Nine years after my parents had decided to give up an affluent lifestyle in the west,decided to live out their passions, their commitment to the country of their birth, theyfound themselves forced to leave, to come here and start with nothing.

*******

I am on the telephone to my mother again. I want to know if she has any regrets about notgoing to America all those years ago. She is silent for a while, thinking it over.... By the timeshe comes back to the telephone, I already know her answer. Yet, she surprises me as sheelaborates on it. "America is too dynamic, everything there is hire-and-fire. Here things aremore low-key, one is allowed to develop at ones own pace. Canada is a more accommodat-ing society." Again she is silent. "But, darling, it was hard." How laden her voice is as shedraws out the "hard."

My mind slips back to our first year here. It is that day in October when you know that theworld around you has turned irreversibly towards winter.... My mother returns home thatday, trembling with humiliation. At an office where she had temporary work, there was aparty at lunch time. She had brought something expecting to also share in the pot-luckmeal. Yet, just before the lunch hour, her supervisor came to her. "You can go now onbreak. We're having a party."

As my mother sat at the dining table, telling us this story, I remember the helpless rage thattook hold of me, a rage I saw reflected in the face of my father, my other siblings. Evenbefore we arrived in this country, my mother had already accepted that she would never beable to practice medicine here. Unlike in America where she would have had to only sit anexam, here she had to do an internship as well. There were a mere handful of internshipsfor all the foreign doctors applying. The bar was set unfairly high. My mother realized thatto say she was a doctor on her resume intimidated the people who might hire her. She"doctored" it down. First to a Bachelor of Science and finally to housewife.

*******

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Shyam Selvadurai


1. Selvadurai's parents mirrored the experience of thousands of immigrants in that they gave up their affluentlifestyle and their commitment to their homeland in order "to come here and start with nothing."Fundamentally, the immigrant experience is founded on a 'leap of faith'. Why is that? Do immigrants,including Selvadurai's parents, literally 'start with nothing'? What is relinquished; what is gained?

2. Is Salvadurai's mother happy that the family chose to come to Canada? Why or why not?

3. Who is Selvadurai talking to in the last passage? What advice does he give? How does Selvadurai discover hisCanadian identity?

ACTIVITIES

I remember looking at my mother that day, as if I had seen her after a long time. She had been of that firstgeneration of modern Sri Lankan women, imbued with a sense of confidence that her gender would not holdher back, living out the fruits of the struggles of the women before her. As a woman she could stand tall.Here in Canada she was learning to be small, subservient, docile, fit the expectations of an Asian woman....

As if my mother has sensed my thoughts she says, "But this country has been good to us, you children inparticular. All of you have done well. As for the medicine"- she has read my thoughts - "I might not havepursued it anyway. Your sister was only thirteen when we came here. If I was pre-occupied with my careerwho knows what trouble she might have got up to."

*******

I catch my reflection now in the patio doors and feel a great tenderness well up in me for that younger self.He was so painfully thin, the way his neck rose out of his shirt like a lily-stalk, his hair so out of style, his verybest clothes so shabby in comparison to the other people around him. Yet, at the same time, I want to placemy hand on his arm firmly; I want to say that this thing he seeks will be an entry not just into himself, butalso an entry into this country. I want to tell him that the friends he will make through coming out will be theones who will last; they will be the ones from whom he will learn the norms, the standards, the culture andhistory of this country. With them he will attend protest marches, organize to demand the same right asother Canadians- start to have an investment in this new land. They will be the first people he will tell aboutSri Lanka and hence begin the long process of healing those wounds.


Shyam Selvadurai, fall 1998. Shyam Selvadurai (second from left) with his familyin Sri Lanka.

Shyam Selvadurai shortly afterimmigrating to Canada.

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Ying Chen

Ying Chen was born in1961 in Shanghai, and

immigrated to Montrealin 1989. Chen has

published four majorworks in French, includ-

ing; Memory of Water(1992), Chinese Letters

(1993), Ingratitude(1995), and Immobile

(1998). Though Chen’snovels resonate with

reflections of Chineseculture and traditions,she has been praised

for her ability to writeabout themes that

transcend the culturalspecific—domestic dis-cord, human fears andemotions. Ingratitude

was nominated for aGovernor’s GeneralAward and the Prix

Femina, and receivedthe Quebec-Paris prize,

as well as the GrandReader’s Prize of ElleQuebec. It has been

translated into English,Spanish, Italian and

Polish.

Ying Chen On the Verge of Disappearance(End of the Chinese Letters)

The following excerpts are taken from Ying Chen's short story On the Verge of Disappearance (End of the ChineseLetters). The story reveals her personal struggle to live in two worlds: her native land, China, and her adoptedcountry, Canada.

Dear friend,

If you knew how much your letter, coming from so far away, after such a long silence, firstbrought me joy, then troubled me, even more so because I’m in the habit of granting thegreatest attention to your feelings and opinions.

I’m glad that even while successfully managing your affairs, you have found the time to readand reread the words of Kong-Zi. The two activities should be very complimentary, the linkbetween them being so fragile.

You believe that those who don’t read Kong-Zi are not real Chinese. You seem to beworrying yourself about the moral education of my children who weren’t born in the landof their ancestors. You imagine them in the company of robots, efficient but without souls.I remember, in times past, you weren’t preoccupied with moral questions. But now you treatus differently because we’re in the West, and we run the risk, more so than you, of sinkinginto decadence. I don’t know what to say about this. I have the exact same feeling ofpowerlessness each time a Westerner comments loud and clear about Continental China’spolitical system. I don’t think a foreign country should be judged according to second-handinformation. We can’t form a sensible opinion as long as this country and its people arestrangers to us, when we don’t deign to learn their language, and we haven’t shed sweatand tears on their land.

*******

The human species likes difference. Today we hear, in absolutely every corner of the Earth,this same speech: "We’re different, our language is particularly beautiful, our culture isparticularly rich or distinguished, our nation is perpetually menaced with disappearance…."And, "let’s live together with our differences?" This means living in our own corner, stayingin our culture of origin, protecting our spiritual, if not geographic, territory, contentingourselves with appreciating each other from a distance. This love of difference is not onlyin style everywhere, but it’s becoming a real world tradition. We tried in vain to divide theworld into two, or many, camps. The planet’s map is different depending on the angle fromwhich it’s seen. But the planet stays the way it is. The world is globalized anyway.

*******

So I don’t content myself with a voyage. I aspire to a real destiny: a destiny with roots.I like North America. I say it without blushing. I like this Nordic continent (my body doesn’ttolerate extreme heat), for absolutely childish and capricious reasons that hardly justify thegesture of uprooting myself. Here, at least, the land is still green and the sky is blue.... Thesidewalks are very clean. Nowhere else have I seen so many smiling faces. Here, we rarelyhave to line up. And we don’t fly into a rage for nothing. It’s important. We’re calm whenothers are calm. One must at least maintain the appearance of calmness; a little politeness is

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Ying Chen


1. Ying Chen composes her reflections in the form of a letter. Do you think this is an effective approach?Why or why not?

2. Does Chen support the idea of "let's live together with our differences"? Provide evidence to support yourview. What do you think she means by, "the planet’s map is different depending on the angle from whichit's seen?"

3. Ying Chen makes a telling reference to Norman Bethune. Who is he? How is he seen differently in hisnative land than in his adopted land? How does this example validate Chen's idea (in question 2) of theplanet's map looking different depending on the angle from which it's seen?

4. Why has Chen omitted the word 'homeland' from her vocabulary? What does she mean by, "I have twoidentities… but I have only one passport"?

ACTIVITIES

needed, some distance, in order to share the planet without colliding with each other.

*******

Canada is Bethune’s country. Don’t believe that Bethune could represent this country. Nobody, no matter howgrandiose his or her destiny, can ever represent anything. You would be surprised to know that he’s almostunknown here. A modest statue in downtown Montreal and a film about him, that’s all. Yet he’s not only aChinese hero. He didn’t only save the lives of Chinese soldiers, those who very often found themselves underfire not for some ideal or other but simply to obtain something to eat and to wear, in exchange for theiryoung blood. Bethune also worked for his compatriots. He fought in concrete terms for universal health care,for one of the best systems in the world in his era, better even now despite the new problems, better than inChina in any case, for which the Canadians rejoice while complaining, and which those without papersdream of while dying in the boats. But Bethune is gone. On the other side of the ocean, a quarter of thehuman population knows him. From his native country, he has disappeared. There are some who believe hecommitted suicide, or that he was suicidal in throwing himself into the vast Orient.

*******

So, twelve years after the fall of my shell on this land, I am still walking towards it. I don’t walk from onecountry to another, but from one place to another. The word "homeland" left my vocabulary the moment Ileft Shanghai. I don’t have the desire to confuse my own fate with that of an entire nation. I wouldn’t do itunder any circumstance. I’m alone on my path. Patriotism of any kind troubles me, because I’ve suffered fromit. Throughout my childhood I was isolated from the rest of the planet in the name of patriotism....

Now if a second birth is nothing but a play, I count on performing it right to the end. Maybe I have two iden-tities as I’ve been told, but I have only one passport. It’s an important fact. Concrete facts make us who weare. Roots are a luxury that beings like me can no longer dream about. We aren’t able to keep them long inour pocket because it becomes inevitably worn with time, because our memory can have gaps in it. Webecome shifting trees whose roots cross each other and lose themselves. We are transformed into a differentspecies. Maybe it’s what we always were, from the beginning, even before the voyage. And this new species,each day growing in number, rolls along despite the solitary and the ancient, without a precise destination,contented by approximations, because its own identity is constantly being formed.


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Alberto Manguel

Alberto Manguel wasborn in Buenos Aires,

and worked in publish-ing in Italy, France,England and Tahiti,

before arriving inCanada in the early

1980s. Manguel beganhis distinguished careerwith the first edition of

The Dictionary ofImaginary Places (1980)

co-authored withGianni Guadalupi. A

History of Reading waspublished in 1998, and

was awarded France’sprestigious Prix Médicis

Award. Movingthematically through

different eras andplaces, A History ofReading presents a

wide-ranging explo-ration of the topic of

reading. His mostrecent book, ReadingPictures (2000) exam-ines various paintings,

photographs, sculp-tures and monuments,and explores the waysin which they attempt

to tell a story. TodayManguel is recognized

as an accomplished edi-tor, translator, antholo-gist, essayist and novel-

ist.

Alberto Manguel Destination IthakaThe following excerpts are taken from Alberto Manguel's short story Destination Ithaka in which he examines thebroader meaning of 'journey' and reflects on why he calls Canada home.

Even though I grew up travelling, the wisdom around me told me that I should stand still inone place. "Kosmopolitt!" spat out my grandmother, to insult a distant cousin who neverhad sprung roots in any of the cities in which he had lived. What was that place where I firstcame to this earth? My passport said "Buenos Aires"; in my dreams I was not so certain.

*******

Friends of mine had a small daughter and, because both of them worked full time, decidedto employ a Mexican au pair. Canadians are, by and large, terribly ill at ease with what weused to call in Argentina "domestic help". They are uncertain of what role to play asemployers, how to behave, what to say. My friends decided that, in order not to show anyclass distinctions, they would treat the young woman as one of the family. They shared theirmeals with her, invited her to watch television with them in the evenings, asked her to jointhem when they went out with friends. One day, my mother, who had come over for a visitand had been kindly invited by my friends to lunch, followed the au pair into the kitchenand chatted away to her in Spanish. Suddenly, the young woman asked if she could beg afavour. "Of course," said my mother. "Please, señora, don't think I'm ungrateful. They arenice, they want me to eat with them, watch TV with them, go out with them after mywork. But señora, I'm so tired. Could you please tell them to leave me alone?"

*******

...nowhere else have I had the sense of truly being a citizen, of feeling truly at home.The Greeks believed that a citizen was he who could claim that his ancestors had shedtheir blood on the city's soil. Canada makes no such demands. It requires nothing but thecontribution of one's own experience. Its virtue (or its magic) lies in that it both assimilatesand hands back the dowry of its newcomers, so that they can both expend and preservewhatever it is they bring to this country. Perhaps this is possible only because Canada haschosen to keep a low political profile (reflected in the absence of Canadian news in theinternational press), a vision of cold open spaces (apparent in the publicities of the TouristBoard), a modest and open identity (which excluded it from my earlier imagination),so that in some sense Canada illustrates the Second Law of Thermodynamics as appliedto nationalities.

*******

Why do I call Canada my home? After seemingly endless trials and adventures, Ulyssesreaches Ithaka, the home he left so long ago that he barely remembers it. Is that old womanhis wife? Is that young man his son? Is that toothless dog his dog? What proof does hehave that this is not another of Circe's spells, the vision of an imagination, a dream that nolonger has the vagueness of a dream? How does he know that the place he now calls home

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Alberto Manguel


1. Why does the family feel they should include the au pair in their daily routines? Why do you think the aupair reacted the way she did? Why do you think Alberto Manguel includes this anecdote in his short story?

2. What does Manguel say about citizenship in Canada? Do you agree with his statement? How would youdefine citizenship?

3. Alberto Manguel has lived in so many different countries, yet when he arrived in Canada he simply felt itwas his home. Why does Manguel feel Canada is his home? Why do you think he includes the referenceto Ulysses?

ACTIVITIES

is a place he has come back to? Can a traveller not come upon a foreign shore, to a city in which he hasnever set foot, and feel a pang of recognition, of acquaintance, suddenly able to guess what lies beyond thatdistant building and around that farthest corner? Can he not experience the joy of homecoming even if he isreturning to a place in which he has never before set foot?

Now, when I think of homeland, I think of Canada. Nowhere else have I been persuaded of sharing inthe res publica, the "public thing" that has to do with customs and language and landscape, with assump-tions and open questions and something like faith in the prevalence of our better qualities. Nowhere elsehave I wanted to pledge allegiance to a nation, to something beyond the individual, beyond a particular faceor name. Nowhere else have I felt the need or the desire to claim myself part of a society whose brand-newConstitution still declares its belief in what (in another of my constant childhood books) Robert LouisStevenson once called "an ultimate decency of things".


Alberto Manguel at ten months old, inArgentina on a visit.

Alberto Manguel’s third birthday party, 1951.

Alberto Manguel on the day he becamea Canadian citizen in 1985.

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Dany Laferrière

Dany Laferrière wasborn in the village ofPetit Goave, Haiti, in

1953. For decadesHaiti suffered under the

brutal dictatorship ofFrancois Duvalier andhis son, Jean-Claude

Duvalier. During theseyears thousands of

people were killed ordriven into exile.

Among those whowere forced to flee wasDany Laferrière. While

living in Haiti, Laferrièrewrote for Le PetitSamedi Soir, and

worked for Radio-HaitiInternational. When

his life became endan-gered in the late 1970s,

Laferrière immigratedto Quebec. He has

published a number ofnovels, among them:

How to Make Love to aNegro Without GettingTired (1987), An Aroma

of Coffee (1993),Dining with the

Dictator (1994) and ADrifting Year (1997).

He has received manyprizes for his writing,

notably the Carbet dela Caraibe Prize, and

the Edgar-LesperancePrize.

Dany Laferrière One-Way Ticket The following excerpts are taken from Dany Laferrière's short story One-Way Ticket. In this story, he chronicleshis journey from Haiti to Montreal, Canada, and highlights the critical moments in his life which have shaped hissense of identity.

That morning, I was sitting in front of Paul’s father, at the breakfast table. Paul wassleeping off last night’s drinks. "But really! Really! I never would have believed this… Claude Ryan asking us to vote for theParti Quebecois in his editorial in Le Devoir."Le Devoir is Quebec’s big intellectual daily newspaper. Someone recently explained to methat Le Devoir is to Quebec what Le Monde is to France. Paul’s father passes me the news-paper. A long, copious editorial full of nuances and reservations saying he is opposed to theraison d’être of the party for which he is asking people to vote (in the pure Jesuit tradition).In Haiti, you think of nothing but physically eliminating your political adversary. Here, you’reasked to vote for him if it seems reasonable. Reason. In Haiti, a political adversary is anenemy. Passion. Good Lord! I’m not going to fall for Senghor’s formula that asserts that"reason is Greek, and emotion, black”."What’s the importance of an editorial like this?" I ask."Huge. When your worst enemy comes around to your side, there’s no betterpropaganda….""And what will happen when the Parti Quebecois comes into power?""They’ll finally ask the question. They’ll ask Quebeckers if they want to live in anindependent country or stay a province.""Well, in Haiti we had a national war to gain our independence. I had never thoughtthat a country could become independent simply by asking its citizens: do you want to beindependent?"He looks at me worriedly. I had just spoiled the pleasure the editorial in Le Devoir hadprovided him. What a misunderstanding! I was in total admiration of the founding workdone by the Quebec people. I prefer the calm morning to the bloody twilight.

*******

People from the north believe that winter, especially snow, is the main event of the journey. It’s true that it’s a big part of it. But it’s the move on the social ladder thatfascinates me. You go abruptly from the enviable status of intellectual middle-class in Haiti to that of worker. And it’s not a summer job like for young North American students.The first day I found myself in front of a machine, it took me a long moment to understandwhat was happening to me. In Haiti, the economic situation might be disastrous, but Ihad a social status. My father was a journalist, very briefly the mayor of Port-au-Prince,Assistant-Secretary of State and finally diplomat. My mother was an archivist. My grandpar-ents lived comfortably in Petit-Goâve. And there I was in front of that machine designed tocrush me (I almost lost an arm the first day), in front of all these people who believed it wasthe best thing that could happen to me. To them, my condition was never better. I spent theafternoon in the factory washrooms thinking about my new condition. I was a worker, animmigrant and a black. Bingo! The bottom of the barrel. I went home. I was totally down.I sat in the middle of the room, in the dark. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t thinkingabout a political, literary or philosophical problem, but about what was happening to me in

12

Dany Laferrière


1. What does Dany Laferrière say about the differences between Canadian and Haitian politics? Why does hefeel that he has upset his friend's father?

2. How does Laferrière feel about his first job? Why does this affect him so profoundly? What do you thinkhe means by: "As for me, there was nobody behind me. Without a net. And it’s what saved me"?

3. What is the significance of Dany Laferrière's dream? What is his conception of home?

ACTIVITIES

everyday life. Real life, as they say in Quebec. The question wasn’t what I would become, but rather what Iplanned to do with myself. For the first time my life was in my own hands. It was both terrifying and exciting.I was alone in this city. The trunk of the genealogical tree. Nobody before me, and no descendants yet. I’mno longer the son here, but I’m not yet a father. Only me. The tree will bend in the direction I will give it. Thenew Quebec friends I spent my evening with in the bars came mostly from those spruce little suburban citiessurrounding Montreal. They didn’t in fact travel too far from the family nest. From time to time, when thingswere going badly for them, they wouldn’t be seen for one or two weeks and we would learn they had goneto recuperate at the family home (in Repentigny, Sainte Thérèse, Saint-Marc, or Joliette). As for me, there wasnobody behind me. Without a net. And it’s what saved me.

*******

I still remember that during that trip, I never stopped dreaming of Montreal, which had never happened tome throughout my whole stay in Montreal. At the time, I was in Montreal by day but Port-au-Prince occupiedmy nights. When I’m in Port au-Prince it’s rather Montreal that occupies my nights. Today, I’m in Miami, butI’ve never dreamed of this city. Instead I have a rather strange dream: I see myself in Montreal, on Saint-DenisStreet, but the colours and smells are still those of Port-au-Prince. When I’m in a city, I live in it; when I’m nolonger there, it’s the city that lives in me.


Dany Laferrière shortly after arriving in Canada.

Dany Laferrière revising a manuscript in front of his home.

Dany Laferrière in Miami with his threedaughters, Melissa, Sarah andAlexandra, and his wife, Maggie.

13


Ken Wiwa

Ken Wiwa is the son ofmurdered Nigerian

writer, journalist andhuman rights activist,

Ken Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned

for his campaign toprotect Nigeria’s Ogonipeople from the envi-

ronmental and culturaldestruction wreaked bythe Nigerian oil industry

and the country’srulers. Tragically, in

1995, Saro-Wiwa wasexecuted by Nigeria’smilitary government.

During his father’sincarceration and trial,

Ken Wiwa travelled theworld, tirelessly lobby-

ing world leaders, writ-ing, speaking and cam-paigning for his fatherand the Ogoni people.

Ken Wiwa’s novel, Inthe Shadow of a Saint

(2000) chronicles theseexperiences. Ken Wiwamoved to Toronto with

his wife and son in Mayof 1999. He is a for-

mer journalist and edi-tor at The Guardian,writes for the Globe

and Mail, and is a sen-ior resident writer at

Massey College,University of Toronto.

Ken Wiwa An Inventory of BelongingThe following excerpts are taken from Ken Wiwa's short story An Inventory of Belonging in which he examines theforces that led him to make Canada his home.

I was 10 years old when my father decided to send me to school in England. When I tookmy seat in the aircraft at Lagos airport in Nigeria, I had no idea that I was swapping thesecurity of an idyllic African childhood for the uncertainties of adolescence in Europe. I hadno idea that I would spend the next twenty years trying, unconsciously, to get away fromNigeria. Or that when I would eventually make an accommodation with my father, myfatherland and my country, I would be living in Canada.

Which is where I am now. In a house in Toronto, delving through my memories, trying tofind some rhyme and reason, a line of logic through the erratic sequence of events thatbrought me here.

Most immigrants have a straightforward enough reason for leaving home – religious orpolitical persecution or the lure of a better life or opportunity abroad. Push and pull factorsas I learned at school. But my story refuses to fit into such neat categories. Although thereare elements of the push and pull factors in my experience, I didn’t exactly come here insearch of better opportunities nor was I fleeing from political persecution. Whenever I amasked "why Canada?", I usually sigh and reply enigmatically that all roads led to Canada.

Between leaving Nigeria in 1978 and the decision on a beach in France 20 years later is acircuitous and internal journey of self-discovery.

*******

In my mind’s eye I am back there again and I can hear the waves washing up against thebeach, the swish of the sea, rather like the sound of the wind rustling through the trees out-side my window. Mark is once again explaining that Canada is proud of its reputation as acountry where writers are encouraged to come to find their voice without losing their identi-ty. He is saying something about a mosaic but I am staring out over the ocean towardsAfrica. I hear his pitch but I’m not sold on the idea. Not just yet. He says something about aUN statistic that he always brings up to impress me about his country. I would normally dis-miss Canada right there but then impulsiveness grips me and within six months I will be liv-ing in Canada.

I sometimes wonder as I am staring out of the window here, at the U-turns, chance meet-ings, reckless gambles and inspired decisions on which our lives turn. Do we actually activelymake choices or are we passive ciphers of the choices that fate imposes on us? Suppose Ihadn’t been on that beach in Cannes, with Africa so close and yet so far? Was it really someunconscious, paradoxical desire to return to Africa that sent me on this grand detour?Because of course the irony is that when I am in this room I actually feel closer to home,to Africa than I have ever done since I left.

*******

14

Ken Wiwa


1. In what style is Ken Wiwa's story told? Do you think that Wiwa's memory works similarly or differentlyfrom Michelle Berry's? Explain your view.

2. What do you think Wiwa meant by, "all roads led to Canada"? Do you think that he believes that his'passage to Canada' was based on a logical, sensible sequence of events? Why or why not?

3. Wiwa quotes the American writer, James Baldwin, who argued that "too much identity is a bad thingbut too little can also be a problem." What do you think Baldwin meant by this? Why do you think Wiwaborrowed this quote? How does he relate it to himself and his relationship with his father? How mightthis statement apply to the Canadian situation?

ACTIVITIES

I often shrink from the realisation that so much of my writing is self-centred but I also suffer from the delu-sion that my experience reflects a wider, universal, or at least, Canadian concern. The world is shrinking, peo-ple moving around so much, mingling intermarrying, changing so quickly that we keep being told that wenow live in a world without frontiers, in a global village. But I sometimes wonder in this brave new worldwhether it won’t be more important than ever to root ourselves in something, to somewhere. We still needto fix our values in a coherent system of beliefs, to believe in something, an idea, a community of sharedaspirations perhaps. We have to lay down a default identity that we turn to and cling to in times of stressand confusion and bewildering change. As James Baldwin once surmised, too much identity is a bad thingbut too little can also be a problem. I imagine that’s why the only shelf in my library that displays any sem-blance of order is the one devoted to my father’s books and letters. Because my father roots me, reminds meof the place I came from. He is my default template, the clay that I mould in my own image. And so nowthat I have defined him, quantified his values and made sense of the questions he once posed to my sense ofself, I can now look for my own answers. And when I am in here I feel reassured that he is close at hand thatI can reach over and re-read his words, look between the lines, talk to him and engage in a debate with him.When I am in here, I am in my father’s study, I am also back in Africa. I am in Canada. I am at home.


Ken Wiwa at the time of his immigration to Canada.

Ken Wiwa (on the left) with his father, Ken Saro Wiwa

Ken Wiwa,(on the left)with childhood friends.

15

Critical Thinking

1. Explain why the title "Passages to Canada" was chosen for this collection of short stories.What alternate title would you suggest?

2. Some commentators have argued that central to the immigrant experience is 'the searchfor home'. Explain what is meant by that sentiment and why that assessment may in factbe accurate. Do you think that any of the authors were searching for home? Did theyfind it in Canada? Why or why not?

3. There is an inextricable link between immigration and a nation's identity. Analyze thisrelationship. How has immigration affected Canada's identity?

4. In Canada, immigrants are encouraged to retain their native customs and traditions.This policy, known as multiculturalism, is central to the contemporary Canadian identity.However, some argue multiculturalism makes unifying this country more difficult.What is your view? Why?

5. What is the significance of Ken Wiwa's title, "An Inventory of Belonging"?Does Wiwa believe he belongs in Canada? Do the other authors feel that they belong?Why or why not?

Web Projects

1. Which of the readings struck you most forcefully? As a research assignment, goto the Web site www.passagestocanada.com and read the complete short story by thisauthor. Identify and explain the central theme. Reflect on why you selected this story andhow it has touched you.

2. Interview a family member or a friend about his/her story of immigration.Write a short report on this interview. Record the basic facts of the story (where, whenand why). Try to incorporate some of the emotion of their experience. Was it difficult toleave the home country? What was it like trying to adapt to a new culture? Log onto www.passagestocanada.com and record your story in the Passages Archive.Share your report with the individual you interviewed.

Critical Thinkingwww.passagestocanada.com 16

www.passagestocanada.com 17

Dominion Institute

The Dominion Institute

The Dominion Institute was founded in 1997 by a group of young people concernedabout the decline of history as a core subject in schools and by the public perceptionof the country's past as academic and boring.

Over the last four years, the Dominion Institute has focused its efforts on conductingoriginal research into Canadians' knowledge of the country's past and building innovativeprograms - such as Passages to Canada - that broaden appreciation of the richness andcomplexity of the Canadian story.

In addition to Passages to Canada, the Dominion Institute operates an array of educationalprograms that encourage youth to share stories of the Canadian experience over theInternet. Log on to www.thememoryproject.com to make history come alive for yourstudents! Discover the personal stories of Canada's veterans and an online databaseof veteran presenters in Peace and War. Explore biographies and reflections of notableCanadians in Heroes and Heroism.

The Dominion Institute is also home to the award-winning Web site,www.greatquestions.com, where teachers and students can access debates by some ofCanada's lead historians on issues of Canadian identity and history and enter the annual$2000 history essay competition.

For more information or to receive any of our free educational resources contact us at:

Tel: 416-368-9627 Fax: 416-368-2111Email: [email protected]

www.passagestocanada.com18

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