Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime

Book excerpt: With the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, the Canadian government realized that the war effort required not only invoking national consciousness but also involving the twenty percent of the country's population who were not of British or French origins. Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime explores both the anxieties that characterized public debated and policy making at the time and the pragmatic view that the wartime project depended upon the successful integration of marginalized immigrant communities. This history provides a key to understanding the later development of multiculturalism in Canada. At the time, Canadian policies regarding ethnic communities were preoccupied with the involvement and loyalty these communities might have with their homeland's politics and with fears of infiltration from either the left or right of the political spectrum. Focusing on the creation and operation of government institutions and committees devised to exercise subtle control of minority groups, Ivana Caccia explores the shaping of Canadian identity, the introduction of government-inspired citizenship education, and the management of ethnic relations in the mid-twentieth century. An engaging work that offers an important account of nation building in Canada and the treatment of ethnic minorities in times of heightened international tensions, Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime provides crucial insights into multicultural policy and the possibility of parallels with the preoccupations with security and surveillance in the aftermath of 9/11. Book jacket.