Ethnicity, the State and War: Canada and Its Ethnic Minorities, 1939–45

Abstract

The first session of Conference focused on Bureaucratic Approaches to Ethnic Loyalty. It began on a positive note with N.F. Dreisziger's presentation on origins and work of Nationalities Branch of Department of National War Services. Drawing on conclusion of Arthur Marwick that war creates a national mood which makes possible the wide circulation of ideas confined in peacetime only to a tiny minority, Dreisziger set out to show that acceptance in Canada of a new concept of Canadian nationalism was reflected in establishment during war of bureaucratic machinery to deal with country's ethnic minorities. Established in October 1941, Nationalities Branch survived apathy of bureaucrats in Department of National War Services and misguided zeal of one Tracy Phillips to become Citizenship Division. It was eventually absorbed into new Department of Citizenship and Immigration in post-war years. Was Warwick's dictum about war acting as a catalyst in dissemination of ideas borne out by Canadian experience? Had Canadians come to share vision of Robert England and a few others of a new Canadian nationality embracing those of non-French and non-English background? Dreisziger admitted that they had not. Still, he did not see war as entirely or even mainly detrimental to Canadian ethnic groups. The encouragement given to Canadian multiculturalism today may be seen as a legacy of war. It is that conclusion which William Young appeared to contradict in second paper of session, Chauvinism and Canadianism: Canadian Ethnic Groups and Failure of Wartime Information. According to Young, government adopted an official view of Canadian nationhood which included those whose origin was neither French nor English. Through Bureau of Public Information and its successor, Wartime Information Board, government tried to promote acceptance of ethnic minorities, particularly those with origins in enemy countries. It soon became apparent that government's information agencies not penetrate either latent xenophobia of French and English Canadians nor could it escape being caught in rivalries which split ethnic groups unwilling to leave behind feuds which had riven their European homelands. IMR Volume xxi, No. 1 159