Rippling Effects: A Toronto Reckoning
What is Canada?
Sometimes described as “diverse, multicultural [and] progressive,” there is also a certain narrative about Canada that distinguishes itself from the United States.¹ Canadians enjoy talking about their identity and relationship with the United States as being the younger sibling to a much more powerful older one. But Canadian identity is also often defined by using the United States’ much more prominent histories to deflect from our own.²
Often, we describe Canada by everything it is not.
It is not like America.
It does not have the same race problems as America.
It does not have the same history as America.
After the death of George Floyd, in response to growing calls to defund the police, in an editorial, The Globe and Mail argued “Canada’s problems, though related, are different in nature and scale,”³ and “Canada…is not the United States.”⁴
A key part of Canada’s identity is believing that it is better than the United States. But is this really the case? Is it possible for one country’s history of violence and genocide to be better than another’s?
For too long, Canadians have ignored their identity and who we really are by comparing ourselves to the United States. Canada has a long history of presenting itself as “less racist” than the United States, but this ignores centuries of entrenched systemic discrimination. Canadians live under the myth that Canada is less guilty when it comes to issues common in both countries’ histories.
Canada is often said to hide its problematic history better than the United States, so I wanted to lift this veil.
The US and Canada share similar, but also unique histories, so this made me think. How can we address problems of mass incarceration, violence against racialized communities, climate change and many more without understanding our history? Where do we even begin to understand our history?
Canada’s history often slips through the cracks, so I decided to look through those cracks and try to understand what happened in Canada’s past and where we can go in the future. I realized that if I wanted to understand Canada’s history, I could just walk outside my front door. Since the pandemic began, my favourite activity has been taking long walks to explore the city of Toronto. So, I thought, why do I not look just a little bit closer and try to understand Canada’s history? (Masked and socially distanced of course)
I realized that I did not have to look that much harder to see that defining Canada by what it is not is both harmful and wrong.
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the land that these photos were taken on. I was on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. I also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.
The first stop on my journey took me to Riverdale Park, an area where Toronto’s first inhabitants lived. For centuries, this was Indigenous peoples’ land until the arrival of colonists, resulting in the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their land.⁵ Next to this park is Don River where in the 1890s, settlers built a bridge to connect Toronto and Montreal. This bridge was critical to connecting Canada’s largest cities and helped Toronto transform into a major economic centre built on industry and commerce.⁶
Centuries of colonialism have contributed to the destruction of natural resources Indigenous peoples were reliant on. While it may not look like it from the picture below, the intersection of Carleton and Jarvis was once a river that went across Southeast Toronto. However, years of urbanization and industrial activity buried this river and destroyed this area’s natural ecological setting.⁷
Rivers were essential for sustaining animal populations and for harvesting fish. While this may have had centuries ago, it still feels familiar as we continue to use Indigenous lands for colonial pillage.⁸ The destruction of these rivers has also contributed to the movement of Indigenous peoples away from their home territories as they search for more viable land. Both Canada and the United States have engaged in violent practices to assimilate and dispossess Indigenous people from their land.
Jarvis Street was not only built upon the stolen land of Indigenous peoples but is quite literally a manifestation of colonialism and violence. The Jarvis family were members of Toronto’s early elite political class, but more important yet often ignored, were slaveholders.⁹ The Jarvis’ ardently opposed the abolition of slavery in British North America and while some have debated whether or not this street honours Jarvis’ contributions to Toronto, this street represents one of the ways we need to more proactively engage in discussions about Canadian history to address the destruction and violence perpetuated towards Black and Indigenous communities.
Jarvis’ name is also featured in other aspects of the city including at Jarvis Collegiate Institute.
Canadian myths also argue that Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples was much better compared to the United States, but both governments aimed to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Residential schools have left lasting marks on Indigenous communities through inter-generational trauma. My stop at Ryerson University was a stark reminder of how we continue to ignore centuries of violence and genocide against Indigenous peoples.
While Egerton Ryerson is probably most well-known because of the Toronto university, we must highlight his contribution to the creation of residential schools. In 1847, Ryerson recommended the placement of Indigenous children in separate schools where they would have to take English and religion classes.¹⁰ Children could not speak their own languages and suffered frequent punishment. This was the beginning of a system that destroyed Indigenous families, tearing them apart, for purposes of assimilation.
My next stop took me to St. Lawrence Hall. While Canada’s legacy of slavery may be different than the United States, we cannot ignore it. Canadian myths tend to ignore Canada’s participation in the slave trade since Canada was not as extremely divided over whether to end it compared to the United States where this debate resulted in the American Civil War. However, the British stole approximately 4 500 Black people from their land and they endured horrible conditions to come to British North America, stripping them of their freedom and holding them as slaves.¹¹
The British Empire abolished slavery in 1834, and in 1851 St. Lawrence Hall hosted the North American Convention for Coloured People. At this convention, delegates chose Canada as the best location for escaped slaves to find freedom and passed a resolution recommending “to the colored people of the U.S. of America, to emigrate to the Canadas instead of going to Africa or the West India Islands, that they, by so doing may be better able to assist their brethren who are daily dying from American slavery.”¹² Over 50 000 escaped slaves chose to migrate to Canada in search of freedom.
However, racism did not end north of the border and racism continued to manifest through continued segregation and discrimination.
My next stop at the Toronto Railway Museum highlighted how easy it is to ignore Canada’s history of violence and exclusion. The Canadian Pacific Railway is often seen as a great Canadian accomplishment, resulting in the creation of an east-west internal Canadian market. On display here were models of trains and stations to “discover Canada’s railway heritage.”¹³
Yet the CPR also represents how Canada and the US have held very similar attitudes towards Asian immigration. To build the CPR and foster Western expansion, Canada relied on low-wage labour from Asian immigrants. Yet after its completion, the Canadian government instated a head tax on Chinese immigrants entering the country to limit immigration from China to Canada.¹⁴ Learning about Canada’s anti-immigration sentiments begins to shatter the myth of Canada always being a “cultural mosaic.”
So, what should we do with this knowledge? How should we address these problems we have ignored for so long?
I do not have all the answers to this question, but I hope that we as Canadians can begin to take a closer look at our own history and acknowledge the sins of Canada and the United States’ past which continue in the present.
On the final leg of my walk, I crossed through Queen’s Park. I remembered there was a statue of Sir John A Macdonald at the south end, but to my surprise, a box now covered it.
Both America and Canada now struggle with how we should remember those who built our country but also committed horrible acts of genocide and violence against racialized groups. The conversation on this is far from over, but we need to understand the past to know how to address the issues of today and tomorrow.
Discrimination and violence towards racialized communities continue to plague the United States and Canada. Issues of mass incarceration, anti-Asian racism, Islamophobia, and migrant detention continue to make both these countries seem not that different after all.
With a climate crisis looming over all of this, the US and Canada share a joint responsibility to address and mitigate the threats climate change, driven by man-made fossil fuel activities, presents. Climate change threatens to destroy the land colonizers stole and especially exacerbates the challenges racialized communities already face. We need to fight for climate justice to ensure equal rights for everyone.
This is a big goal. But maybe that is how we can define Canada. We cannot explain Canadian identity and nationalism by how different it is from America. We should root it in Canada’s ability to do better.
Instead of rooting Canadian exceptionalism in Canada’s “peaceful” history that respects individuals and promotes a multicultural society, we need to think about who has held power and who we excluded in our history. Canada needs to fully reckon with its history to be able to move on and fully understand who we are.
It is no longer enough to describe what Canada is not. We too easily ignore what it is then. For Canadian identity to really mean something, we must confront the past and the present to address their harms to truly live up to our self-proclaimed values.
[1] Brian Trinh, “We Asked Canadians To Describe Canada In One Word. They Did Not Disappoint,” Huffington Post Canada, June 30, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/29/we-asked-canadians-to-describe-canada-in-one-word-they-did-not_a_23006738/.
[2] Denise Balkisson and Hannah Sung, “The Angel Complex,” September 27, 2016, in Colour Code, produced by The Globe and Mail, podcast, 28:23, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quyHGHA2HeI&ab_channel=TheGlobeandMail.
[3] The Editorial Board, “‘Defund the policy’? Dumb slogan, promising idea,” The Globe and Mail, June 12, 2020, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-defund-the-police-dumb-slogan-promising-idea/.
[4] The Editorial Board, “Fewer guns. More cameras. Better police,” The Globe and Mail, June 9, 2020, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-fewer-guns-more-cameras-better-police/.
[5] “Anishinaabeg Wendat Haudenosaune Wampum,” Heritage Toronto, accessed April 1, 2021,
[6] Joanna Lavoie, “Importance of lower Don River recognized with two heritage plaques,” toronto.com, July 3, 2014, https://www.toronto.com/news-story/4611976-importance-of-lower-don-river-recognized-with-two-heritage-plaques/.
[7] “Carleton and Jarvis Lost Rivers,” Heritage Toronto, accessed April 1, 2021, https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore-learn/indigenous-history-toronto-tour/carleton-and-jarvis-lost-rivers/.
[8] Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, eds., “Indigenous America,” in American Yawp (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019), http://www.americanyawp.com/text/01-the-new-world/.
[9] Joshua Errett, “Was Jarvis Street named after a city-builder or slave-owner? Prepare for a debate,” CBC News, May 7, 2016, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jarvis-street-slavery-1.3564667.
[10] “Truth and Reconciliation and Ryerson,” Heritage Toronto, accessed April 1, 2021, https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore-learn/indigenous-history-toronto-tour/truth-and-reconciliation-and-ryerson/.
[11] Natasha Henry, “Brought in Bondage: Downtown Walking Tour,” Myseum, accessed April 2, 2021, http://www.myseumoftoronto.com/ontario-black-history-society/#location10.
[12] Henry, “Brought in Bondage.”
[13] “About,” Toronto Railway Museum, accessed April 3, 2021, https://torontorailwaymuseum.com/?page_id=39.
[14] El Jones, “Racist tropes about COVID-19 echo the history of anti-Asian stereotyping,” Halifax Examiner, March 21, 2020, https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/racist-tropes-about-covid-19-echo-the-long-history-of-anti-asian-stereoyping/.
Bibliography
Balkisson, Denise, and Hannah Sung. “The Angel Complex.” Produced by The Globe and Mail. Colour Code. September 27, 2016. Podcast, 28:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quyHGHA2HeI&ab_channel=TheGlobeandMail.
Errett, Joshua. “Was Jarvis Street named after a city-builder or slave-owner? Prepare for a debate.” CBC News, May 7, 2016. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jarvis-street-slavery-1.3564667.
Henry, Natasha. “Brought in Bondage: Downtown Walking Tour.” Myseum. Accessed April 2, 2021. http://www.myseumoftoronto.com/ontario-black-history-society/#location10.
Heritage Toronto. “Anishinaabeg Wendat Haudenosaune Wampum.” Accessed April 1, 2021. https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore-learn/indigenous-history-toronto-tour/anishinaabeg-wendat-haudenosaune-wampum/.
Heritage Toronto. “Carleton and Jarvis Lost Rivers.” Accessed April 1, 2021.https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore-learn/indigenous-history-toronto-tour/carleton-and-jarvis-lost-rivers/.
Heritage Toronto. “Truth and Reconciliation and Ryerson.” Accessed April 1, 2021. https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore-learn/indigenous-history-toronto-tour/truth-and-reconciliation-and-ryerson/.
Jones, El. “Racist tropes about COVID-19 echo the history of anti-Asian stereotyping.” Halifax Examiner, March 21, 2020. https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/racist-tropes-about-covid-19-echo-the-long-history-of-anti-asian-stereoyping/.
Lavoie, Joanna. “Importance of lower Don River recognized with two heritage plaques.” toronto.com, July 3, 2014. https://www.toronto.com/news-story/4611976-importance-of-lower-don-river-recognized-with-two-heritage-plaques/.
Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, eds. “Indigenous America.” In American Yawp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019. http://www.americanyawp.com/text/01-the-new-world/.
The Editorial Board. “Fewer guns. More cameras. Better police.” The Globe and Mail, June 9, 2020. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-fewer-guns-more-cameras-better-police/.
The Editorial Board. “‘Defund the policy’? Dumb slogan, promising idea. The Globe and Mail, June 12, 2020. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-defund-the-police-dumb-slogan-promising-idea/.
Toronto Railway Museum. “About.” Accessed April 3, 2021. https://torontorailwaymuseum.com/?page_id=39.
Trinh, Brian. “We Asked Canadians To Describe Canada In One Word. They Did Not Disappoint.” Huffington Post Canada, June 30, 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/29/we-asked-canadians-to-describe-canada-in-one-word-they-did-not_a_23006738/.
