Who's Afraid of Cultural Identity? or, Stand Up and be Counted Down

Abstract

At first glance the title of the Mathews and Steele dossier, The Struggle for Canadian Universities, may seem overly alarmist and tendentious. Ordinary "liberal-minded," non-committed academics may be put off by the apparent tone of provocation, while those who have other fish to fry will make the most of the opportunity offered for subtle, and not so subtle, misrepresentation. That this last has already happened is apparent to anyone who has paid attention to the controversy which erupted in the mass media - and in faculty lounges - after Mathews and Steele chose to break silence, a little over a year ago, about a real problem. In the usual climate of Canadian timidity, indifference, and cultural in­security they made a no-no. Instead of closing their eyes, holding their tongues, and hoping the whole situation would just quietly disappear, with the help, if absolutely necessary, of the red-herring of an "impar­tial" survey of every possible attenuation of the central problem - sup­ported by a grant from the Canada Council or the Rockefeller Founda­tion - they chose to speak out. The violence of the reaction from certain quarters - to give an extreme example, quoted in Time, of course, "We hope we can club these people to death" - clearly shows the im­portance of their action. It's healthy to have the rabid running off at the mouth: their protective colouring of "scholarly objectivity" shows as the camouflage it is, which simplifies seeing what is hidden.