Canadian Prime Minister Research Articles

“There's a River to Consider”: Heid E. Erdrich's “Pre-Occupied”

“There’s a River to Consider”Heid E. Erdrich’s “Pre-Occupied” Susan Bernardin (bio) part 1: as long as the river flows Water is Life. This is the resounding refrain of the Nodapl movement centered at the Standing Rock Reservation. Beginning in April 2016 with the creation of Sacred Stone Camp, the small Nodapl encampment along the Cannon Ball River in North Dakota grew over several months into a community of many thousands. Supported by hundreds of Native nations, as well as international Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous allies, the Nodapl movement marks an extraordinary moment in a continuing history of Indigenous actions on behalf of land and water threatened by ruinous extractive industries. The aptly named Dakota Access Pipeline, the latest in a long pipeline of assaults on Indigenous territories, threatens the Missouri River and its vast watershed. The interconnected water systems imperiled by oil contamination underscore that rivers are, in the words of International Rivers Director Jason Day, “a ribbon of life” (Public Radio International). Nodapl’s national and international visibility was made possible by the collaborative groundwork of Indigenous activists and non-Indigenous allies in recent movements such as Idle No More and Tar Sands blockades. The message and meaning of “water is life” also has deep roots in local Indigenous communities that have always recognized that rivers are veins and arteries connecting peoples and territories. For example, in 2010, Twin Cities–based poet, curator, and filmmaker Heid E. Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) curated Original Green, an exhibit featuring four Indigenous artists—Gwen Westerman, Carolyn Lee Anderson, Bobby Wilson, and Gordon Coons—who offered perspectives of St. Anthony’s Falls and the Mississippi River. This exhibit was [End Page 38] part of a series called Greening the Riverfront, which addressed “how the Minneapolis riverfront has transformed, beginning with the Dakota and Ojibwe people and their relationship to the land, their removal by Euro-Americans, the rise of industrialization in the area, and the recent steps to embrace sustainability as a goal, as well as a look toward future initiatives” (Regan). The Mississippi River, whose major tributary is the Missouri River, emerges from headwaters in Ojibwe territory and moves through Dakota and other Indigenous territories along its 2,350 miles. It is also one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. Erdrich’s curation of this exhibit fed a broader arterial network of Ojibwe and Indigenous women artists and activists who have worked to make visible the continuing claims of this and other threatened riverine systems. On March 1, 2013, Sharon Day, executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, led a small group of Ojibwe women, helpers, and allies from the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River Walk, according to Day, was a “ceremony. . . . [E]very step we took was a prayer for the water” (“Ojibwe Water Walker”). The River Walk served as a moving mnemonic that was intended to remind, reassert, and reactivate ongoing relationships and responsibilities toward the Mississippi River. Social media networking about the River Walk extended its geographical reach by connecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples across territories. In the fall of 2012, three First Nations women and one non-Native woman—Sylvia McAdam, Nina Wilson, Jessica Gordon, and Sheelah McLean—turned to Facebook and Twitter to declare “#IdleNoMore” in the face of the proposed legislative assaults on Indigenous lands and waterways by Bill c-45, created by the government of Stephen Harper, prime minister of Canada.1 Bill c-45 jettisoned environmental protections in order to streamline energy development in Canada. In launching teach-ins and making the threat of Bill c-45 more visible, these four women and the movement they inspired reaffirmed the potentiality of digital spaces for carrying words across territories, linking Indigenous peoples across geopolitical borders not of their own making. As Stephanie Fitzgerald quips about Idle No More’s formation, “The power of four women and a hashtag cannot be underestimated” (122). The central role of Indigenous women in the formation of Idle No More and in related movements such as the Nodapl movement reaffirms [End...

Disney Prince

Disney Prince Heather Snell They're beautiful, aren't they, the Conways? Their youth, their two little children. The country is falling in love with them. They won't fall in love with us like that, but we have something they don't. We are willing to go one step farther than everyone else. —Claire Underwood, in House of Cards, "Chapter 46" The quotation I have chosen to introduce this editorial comes from an episode in the fourth season of House of Cards, in which the Underwoods' claim on political power is challenged by Governor Will Conway (played by Joel Kinnaman) and his wife Hannah (Dominique McElligott). What the Conways have and the Underwoods do not is a claim on the child, achieved through their possession of youth and actual children: the Conways are roughly twenty years younger than the Underwoods and have two young children. In the context of the show—and indeed, outside of it, in American culture—the figure of the child functions as signifier of purity, goodness, and futurity, not to mention conformity to heteronorms. In such a culture, the childless and middle-aged Francis and Claire Underwood (Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright) appear cold and calculating when set beside the Conways.1 While the assumption that childless couples are cold and calculating would typically be an example of spurious stereotyping, the Underwoods do embody these qualities in their demeanour and politics: they are so cold and calculating that Season 4 ends with the two of them looking on unblinkingly as the US hostage they have refused to save in the interest of not wanting to be seen negotiating with terrorists is beheaded.2 The only time the cold and calculating image of the [End Page 1] Underwoods appears to be a front is when the Conways visit the White House with their two children, an event that seems to provoke feelings of envy in Claire for one fleeting moment. As she watches Hannah dealing with her children, it appears as though she could be imagining what it might feel like to be Hannah or, for that matter, Will and Hannah Conway—that is, the enviable and easy-to-love couple that the US public would likely elect. Many might assume that such a couple would do a good job governing the republic, in part because it embodies the very values the public champions. The child—or, in this case, the children—function here to separate the wholesome presidential couple from the unwholesome one. The Conways' children and the Underwoods' lack of children, as well as both couples' attitudes toward children and the parents of children—the beheaded American has a daughter—immediately cast them on opposite sides of the political spectrum. A similar distinction has been emerging in press coverage of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie, on the one hand, and newly elected US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, on the other, despite the fact that both couples have children. Just as Will and Hannah's carefully cultivated image of warmth and spontaneity contrasts Francis and Claire Underwood's killer detachment, Trudeau and Sophie often function as a convenient foil for Trump and Melania. Notwithstanding the fresh-faced adorability3 of eleven-year-old Barron—the youngest of Trump's children and the only one he had with Melania—the Trumps are being painted as the kind of family that fails to live up to US values and sensibilities, akin perhaps not so much in appearance with but certainly in the spirit of the Underwoods.4 What we might call the "Disney code" separates politicians such as Trudeau and Conway from the Trumps and the Underwoods, investing them with the kind of childishness that "good"—as opposed to "bad"—kings are made of. Indeed, I focused my last editorial on the election of Trump, using Steven Almond's characterization of the new US president as a "child king" to remark on how the figure of the child fuelled US political discourse in the months leading up to and immediately following the election. The focus seemed fitting given how difficult it was at the time to ignore the fear and...

A 'Basic Dictatorship' Problem

This article examines the political Romanticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which animates his political thought and is ultimately the root cause of his self-professed admiration for basic dictatorships in China and Cuba and his belief in the myth that authoritarian regimes are inherently more efficient than liberal democracies. In reality, good government fundamentally depends upon a strong link between taxation, representation, and expenditure, which bind together the accountability and responsibility of the government and the consent of the governed.

Canadian translated politics at the Economic Club of New York

ABSTRACTIn the course of their leadership, Canadian prime ministers often make an appearance before the Economic Club of New York (ECNY). With such an event, three cultures (i.e. American, English-Canadian and French-Canadian) are at play, along with two languages. This article inquires about the political implications of translated speeches delivered by Canadian prime ministers at the ECNY, between 1978 and 2006. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and Audience Design, this study shows that the translation shifts of some speeches were potentially based on an ideological struggle between different national discourses. The study also builds on the recent notion of ‘government by translation’ brought forward recently in institutional translation research. The translation shifts found in the corpus can have many effects but the study focuses on two specific ones: (1) legitimisation and characterisation of linguistic communities and (2) neutralisation of Canadian territory. The results of the ECNY corpus were validated with a larger corpus of Canadian parliamentary speeches. One of the aims of this work is to contribute to the general discussion of identity in institutional translation, showing among other things how identity and power questions relate to one another in a particular discursive practice.

Paul Martin on the G20 and China’s Hosting of the G20 Leaders’ Summit

[Editor’s note: This is the text of the video remarks by Paul Martin, to the V20 meeting in Hangzhou China. Paul Martin was the Prime Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006 and the Minister of Finance from 1993 to 2002. Mr. Martin was the inaugural chair of the Finance Ministers’ G20. The embedded podcast in these remarks is an interview by Alan Alexandroff, one of the Senior Editors of Global Summitry . It was recorded on May 4 2016. Mr. Martin was one of the earliest proponents of a leaders’ level summit for the G20. Mr. Martin is also a member of the Global Advisory Board for this Journal. The Vision 20 meeting in China (March 29 to April 1) and network is to bring together scholars from various fields with think tank leaders, civil society and private sector leaders, and government leaders with the hope of generating ideas and actionable items for the long and medium term, while finding ways to initiate such processes in the short term.] First of all, allow me to congratulate you all for being in Zheda [Zhejiang University in Hangzhou China] and the work leading up …

Susanne Buckley-Zistel, et al., Transitional Justice Theories

On 11 June 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper claimed his nation’s public attention for delivering an official apology on behalf of the federal government. This apology was directed at the indigenous populations of Canada, the First Nations. The Canadian Head of State publically apologized for the mistreatment of the indigenous under colonial rule, in particular for the so-called Indian Residential School System. The system was aimed at eradicating any notions of indigeneity within ...

Dear PM

This election dispatch is a selection of emails addressed by Montreal artist Chris Lloyd to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They form part of a larger set of communications with the Prime Minister of Canada going back to 1 January 2001, and also a larger performance infiltration project, in which Lloyd secured the position of Conservative Party candidate in the riding of Papineau (Justin Trudeau’s riding) and campaigned for several months without being detected as a performance artist. The letters were posted on the project’s Dear PM blog along with photos of Lloyd rubbing elbows with Harper and other key figures in Canada’s Conservative Party. They remain important documents of Lloyd’s intervention, which continued after his campaign was exposed, in May 2015, as performance art and after he was subsequently removed as Conservative Party candidate and went on to run as an independent in the final months of the election. As Lloyd explains, this performance was designed to “test the limits of free speech and explore the possibilities of voicing independent views within the confines of an electoral system that privileges dominant party ideologies.” The letters also reveal the performative rituals on which the Conservative Party’s public relations machine and the wider electoral process depends.

Matthew Evenden.Allied Power: Mobilizing Hydro-electricity during Canada’s Second World War.

The phrase “Canada’s Second World War” conjures many images. There are the high politics of Canadian-American continental defense exemplified by the Ogdensburg Agreement (1940) and the Hyde Park Declaration (1941), as well as the 1943 and 1944 Quebec City conferences between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill (with Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King playing host). Events between 1939 and 1945 that touched Canada are evoked: Japanese-Canadian internment; the disastrous Dieppe Raid; the conscription crisis; and women in the wartime workforce. In this list of World War II touchstones, however, few would include the expansion of a hydroelectric producing network. That is, until now. Matthew Evenden’s fine study digs deep, in fact into the geologic history of the nation, to unearth a new element of Canada’s contribution during the global conflict. Moreover, it provides a wedge into the study of the environment and warfare in Canada’s past, an area seldom explored by environmental historians.

Andrew Wheeler’s Governing Body

This article looks at a single actor’s performance of three very different politicians. One of Vancouver’s most prolific stage actors, Andrew Wheeler has a resumé that boasts many memorable monarchs and soldiers of the classical repertoire. In the last five years, however, his standout roles have brought to life contemporary political figures in provocative Canadian plays that feature critiques of political establishments and processes. The article looks at Wheeler’s performance as US Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara in Sean Devine’s Re:Union, as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Michael Healey’s Proud, and as mistakenly elected Member of Parliament Angus McLintock in Vern Thiessen’s musical adaptation of Terry Fallis’s novel about Canadian electoral dysfunction, The Best Laid Plans: a Musical. The article describes how actors insert themselves into the political process by speaking to the audience about the character they are playing, and charts how, as Marvin Carlson points out, each successive role carries a haunted echo of the last. Wheeler’s performances, it is argued, critique not just the real and fictional people on whom they are based but ideology and power as well.

U.S., Canada commit to methane reductions from oil and gas production

U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month jointly committed their nations to reduce methane emissions from existing oil and natural gas sources by 40 to 45% from 2012 levels by 2025. Their agreement notes that the oil and gas sector is the world’s largest source of industrial emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Environmental Defense Fund, an activist group, says the oil and gas industry is responsible for 90% of U.S. methane emissions. Obama says EPA will begin developing regulations and start a formal process to require companies to provide data on methane emissions. Canada will propose rules by early 2017. In the past, EPA proposed to limit methane emissions from various sources, including oil and gas production facilities, but ran into industry opposition. The American Petroleum Institute says regulations would curb the current U.S. oil and gas bonanza, adding that the

John G. Diefenbaker and Cross Border Relations During the Bomarc Missile Crisis

<span>This paper discusses the influence of Canadian Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker's respective relationships with Dwight. D. Eisehnhower and John F. Kennedy on bilateral relations during the Bomarc Missile Crisis amidst the cold war.</span>

A Busy March for Arctic Affairs Watchers

March 2016 witnessed brisk activity on Arctic issues. A summit between President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau culminated in a joint statement on climate change impacts on the Arctic and the White House issued a progress report on implementing its National Strategy for the Arctic Region and a Framework for the coming years. In Fairbanks, Alaska, the Arctic Council, the US Arctic Research Commission,a Model Arctic Council, and the Arctic Science Summit Week all brought much needed attention to Arctic issues.

Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada by R. Blake Brown (review)

Reviewed by: Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada by R. Blake Brown Gary Mauser Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada. By R. Blake Brown. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. vii + 349 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, index. $34.95 paper. Early settlers in the Great Plains relied upon firearms to provide food for their families as well as to protect themselves against violence. Many Americans and Canadians still do. Lacking constitutional guarantees for an individual right to own firearms, Canada has approached regulating firearms somewhat differently than the United States. Non-English minorities have been particularly vulnerable. Canada is known for having restrictive gun laws. But for most of its history, authorities in British North America have actively promoted the ownership and use of firearms—at least by “trustworthy” citizens. Many important nineteenth-century Canadian politicians—including Sir John A. Macdonald (the first prime minister of Canada), Edward Blake, and Robert Baldwin—argued strongly that Canadians, as English subjects, enjoyed the right to bear arms; nevertheless, they supported imposing severe restrictions on firearms ownership and use by non-English minorities. R. B. Brown is to be commended for pointing out the racist roots of Canadian gun laws. In times of crisis, governments in British North America passed laws specifically designed to disarm groups seen as suspicious or threatening, including, in early centuries, Aboriginal peoples and the resident French population, and later, Irish and Italian immigrants. During World War I, Canada disarmed Ukrainian settlers, and during World War II, disarmed or incarcerated Japanese, Chinese, German, and Italian Canadians. Beginning in the 1990s, Canada imposed draconian firearms regulations on everyone. Unfortunately, Brown does not seem to realize that such restrictions sent a powerful message that the state viewed everyone as untrustworthy or even threatening. Such views have troubling implications in a democracy. Brown unequivocally aligns himself as a “progressive,” citing approvingly controversial icons such as Michael Bellesiles, whose claims in Arming America have now been thoroughly discredited. Unfortunately, Brown’s ideological biases lead him to ignore or misrepresent important fundamentals, such as the American Second Amendment. Too often he seems satisfied with stereotypes. Brown also makes minor errors regarding firearms, such as confusing semiautomatic and fully automatic actions. His errors are particularly glaring when he attempts to describe contemporary politics. Gun control endures as a robust perennial because it reflects the unresolved tension between individual liberty and governmental power. Curiously, present-day progressives appear not to fear governmental limitations on classic individual political freedoms, such as firearms rights or free speech. Without convincing [End Page 65] evidence, promises that draconian gun laws will improve public safety merely offer false hope while encouraging government to grow ever more intrusive. Gary Mauser Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies Simon Fraser University Copyright © 2016 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

The trouble with self-determination: Canada, Soviet colonialism and the United Nations, 1960–1963

In 1960, Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker embarked on a campaign to see the United Nations (UN) recognise and censure Soviet colonialism. This effort is often cited as an example of Diefenbaker's populism and his pandering to ethnic voters. But to the prime minister, it was unconscionable that, with Eastern Europe under Moscow's thumb, the UN should direct its opprobrium entirely towards Britain, France, and other colonial powers then in a process of imperial devolution. Ultimately more than a mere quixotic reflection of populist pandering, Diefenbaker's campaign to secure a UN condemnation of the Soviet Union was a nascent but imperfect effort to inject the promotion of human rights into Canada's foreign policy at a point where self-determination was a significant area of international contestation. This initiative raised valid questions about the commitment of anti-colonial powers to universal self-determination thereby showcasing the ambiguities extant in the effort by the anti-colonial movement as it employed human rights.

Reagan's legacy in a world transformed

Reagan's Legacy in a World Transformed. Ed. by Jeffrey L. Chidester and Paul Kengor. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp xvi, 229, notes. Cloth, $45.00.)Jeffrey L. Chichester, Director of Policy Programs at University of Virginias Miller Center, and Paul Regnor, Professor of History at Grove City College, have collected twelve scholarly essays dealing mainly with President Ronald foreign policy and its legacy. They also each contributed as essay to volume.The essays are divided into five units: Global Impact of Domestic Policy; Legacy in Global Democracy; Reagans Defense Policy Revisited: The Great Debate; Reagan and Negotiating End of Cold War; and Reagan and Multilateralism.The collection begins with a foreword by Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada from September 1984 to June 1993. He establishes overall tone of this collection by offering essentially a hymn of praise to presidents policy initiatives. He concludes his comments with a ringing endorsement of the golden achievements of era (p. xvi).The essays taken together develop three major themes. First, domestic economic initiatives, especially ones involving defense spending, helped reinforce his foreign policy goals. Second, Reagan's willingness to enter negotiations with USSR on nuclear issues ultimately paved way for agreements that reduced threat of nuclear war. Finally, pragmatism allowed him to deal with somewhat tangential issues, such as relations with United Nations and Law of Seas negotiations.The first three essays agree that Reagan's economic policies both helped nation's economy and speeded up rise of economic globalism. Alfred E. Eckes argues that and Margaret Thatcher's free market rhetoric and actions they took to deregulate and open markets ... brought political drive to globalization (p. 12). He does grant that ultimately American manufacturing jobs were lost in long run during process but that benefits far outweighed costs.The more immediate gains in Reagan's economic policies came in economic during his time in office. What Henry Nau calls the great expansion especially involved massive increase in military spending (p. 24). Although this led to increased budget deficits, it also was instrumental in pressuring Soviets. (Interestingly, himself regretted deficits but blamed Congress for not cutting spending in non-military areas. …

A fearful asymmetry: Diefenbaker, the Canadian military and trust during the Cuban missile crisis

/RésumésCanada's actions during the Cuban missile crisis open a revealing window onto the Canada—USA relationship and the sub-state influences therein. By refusing a US request to raise the alert status of Canadian forces, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker precipitated one of the worst crises in the modern Canada-USA relationship; by secretly defying this refusal, the Canadian military leadership ensured that Canadian forces provided greater military support to the US than any other ally did. In this article, I argue that a significant divergence in the extent to which the Canadian Prime Minister and military leadership trusted their US counterparts represents a critical part of any explanation of this bifurcated response. In so doing, I rely on a new conceptualization of trust and how it influences decision-making in international politics. By applying this model, I develop an explanation for Canada's contradictory behavior that is superior to existing explanations of Canadians’ decision-making during this crisis.

Offline: Why science should matter more to global health

A brief experiment in global health comes to an end this week. On Sept 26, the iERG (the thankfully short acronym given to the independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health) hands its fourth and final report to WHO's Director-General, Margaret Chan. The iERG is a creation of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health (CoIA). CoIA was, in turn, the product of Ban Ki-moon's signature global health initiative, Every Woman Every Child. CoIA was chaired by the Prime Minister of Canada (Stephen Harper) and the President of Tanzania (Jakaya Kikwete). Such high-level political leadership ensured that CoIA's recommendations were taken seriously, especially since Canada was promising billions of dollars for maternal, newborn, and child health programmes (its highly successful Muskoka Initiative). The purpose of the iERG (declaration: its two co-chairs are Joy Phumaphi and myself) was to strengthen accountability for women's and children's health, which meant making sure the promises of all stakeholders were actually delivered. The philosophy behind the iERG was animated by Paul Hunt, a former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health. He envisaged accountability as a three-part process—monitoring, review, and remedy or action. The integration of human rights into health proved to be a powerful idea, one that has helped to accelerate progress for women and children worldwide. But there was one further lesson from this embryonic architecture of accountability—the neglected value of science as a political instrument to catalyse advances in health. Governments and multilateral organisations are essential partners in determining the direction of global health. Civil society is increasingly recognised as a forceful additional actor in shaping global health policy. The burgeoning engagement of non-governmental organisations at the World Health Assembly has exemplified not only the emergent diversity of global health, but also its gradual democratisation. And the private sector is now recognised as an indispensable voice too, and not only for its money. But science and scientists also have a role, and my experience in working with the iERG has been that science deserves far greater attention as a tool for global health decision making. Surprisingly, many global health leaders turn away from science and feel uncomfortable among scientists. Partly, this aversion is because leaders of health-related agencies often have little-or-no scientific background themselves. Alienation from the language and practice of science may, understandably, lead to anxiety, scepticism, and rejection of science itself. Good global health leadership demands a suite of political skills whose acquisition may be entirely antipathetic to science. But global health needs to learn to love science—and scientists. Here's why. Science performs at least five vital functions for global health, and especially for global health accountability. First, science can deliver the most reliable data to inform decision makers (think of the contribution made by the Global Burden of Disease study). Second, science can support the impartial evaluation of global health programmes. Third, science can offer divergent visions of the world's future through its predictive models, varying conditions and outcomes which offer choices to political leaders. Fourth, science creates new ideas that can help to accelerate action. Examples might include Dean Jamison's Commission on Investing in Health or Ana Langer's Commission on Women and Health. Finally, scientists can be advocates for policies based on the best available evidence. But there is a danger. Although one might lament the fact that science is a persistently marginalised cultural force, a technocracy can never substitute for democracy. The control or influence of society by a technical elite will only produce a new tyranny. Experts are unaccountable to society. Technical solutions may not be humane solutions. The technocratic becomes the inverse of the democratic. But even a justified fear of science is no excuse for ignoring the contribution science can make either to the alleviation of human suffering or to the delivery of social justice. Scientists are surely sometimes guilty of private diffidence and public arrogance. But those who could use science to advance the health of their societies and who choose not to do so are guilty of far greater atrocities.

Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983–2009 by Maryse Jayasuriya (review)

Maryse Jayasuriya. Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009. Plymouth: Lexington, 2012. Pp. x, 183. $82.04 CDN. Maryse Jayasuriya's Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009, published relatively soon after Sri Lanka's separatist war ended in 2009, presents a deeply engaging account of twenty-seven-year conflict through literature of local and diasporic Sri Lankan writers. Stating that her study illustrates and examines capacity of literature respond what might seem be unimaginable circumstances, and imagine alternatives and a future beyond them (26), Jayasuriya synthesizes literary analysis, historical narrative, and political commentary with intent of exploring possibilities for reconciliation. In her introduction, Jayasuriya addresses production, reception, and possible impact of English creative writing in Sri Lanka, expressing her desire bring this literature to attention of Western academy but also attention of a Sri Lankan audience (17). implied international reader, she provides context, such as country's ethnic mix--which comprises seventy-four percent Sinhalese, eighteen percent Tamil, and eight percent Muslim--and its 1972 name change from Ceylon Sri Lanka, when Sinhalese was declared official language and Buddhism religion of state, predicating ethnic unrest mainly due language barrier for Tamils. (1) Moreover, Jayasuriya contextualizes literature through significant markers in history of ethnic conflict, such as riots of 1953, eruptions of violence in 1983 and 1988, intervention of Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) in 1987 and their subsequent departure, intensified attacks and suicide bombings by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Norway ceasefire (2002-08), and final overthrow of LTTE in 2009. Jayasuriya states that sufferings of Sri Lankans have gone unnoticed by world due Sri Lanka being a small country and conflict not being on a major scale. Nevertheless, she mentions that the LTTE was proscribed as a terrorist organization by United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada, and most recently, European Union (15). (2) Since her book's publication, however, several events have drawn widespread attention Sri Lanka's politics. These include arrival of 449 Tamil migrants Canada in August 2010; Canadian Liberal Minister of Parliament Bob Rae flying Sri Lanka on a fact-finding mission in June 2009 and being turned back at Katunayake airport by Sri Lankan authorities; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper boycotting 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, followed by deliberations by other leaders; and a United Nations resolution in 2013 calling for an investigation into human rights violations by Sri Lankan government during last stages of conflict--conducted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. For healing and reconciliation be possible, Jayasuriya writes, the wounds of all sides in conflict must be acknowledged (40). In chapter Mourning Terror: Memorials Conflict in Poetry and Film, she holds out hope that [t]he capacity of Sri Lankan Anglophone writing cut across ethnic lines has provided an important opportunity for Sri Lanka's ethnic communities mourn together (66). To that end, she reveals suffering and grief through poetry of local writers Jean Arasanayagam, Kamala Wijeratne, Anne Ranasinghe, Sivamohan Sumathy, Vivimarie Vanderpoorten, and Richard de Zoysa as well as short fiction of Neil Fernandopulle, Nihal de Silva, and Arasanayagam. Jayasuriya asks, Is there any healing possible for a people so inured--and perhaps so immune violence? (54). In her exploration of numerous works that communicate effects of trauma, she calls attention those that convey guilt, not only of perpetrators of violence, but also of silent and passive bystanders who look on, paralyzed by an internalized helplessness or fear of reprisal if they intervene. …

Enjoy Three Popular Pastimes: Unwinding, Shopping, and Eating

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual Meeting HighlightsFull AccessEnjoy Three Popular Pastimes: Unwinding, Shopping, and EatingVabren WattsVabren WattsSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:19 Feb 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2015.2b5AbstractToronto’s Harbourfront Centre offers activities for everyone of every age to enjoy.Looking for a quick getaway between annual meeting sessions or at the end of a long day absorbing the latest clinical and research news? Grab a cab to Harbourfront Centre for a leisurely stroll, shopping, or dining along the picturesque shores of Lake Ontario.Visitors at Ann Tindale Park view merchandise from local vendors.www.harbourfrontcentre.comHarbourfront Centre is more than a year-round venue for arts programming, special events, and world-class performances; it’s an excellent way to spend the day enjoying a vast array of activities, according to its website. Located in close proximity to the CN Tower (Toronto’s signature structure) and the convention center, what is now the Harbourfront Centre was merely a wasteland amid condemned industrial buildings more than 40 years ago. After Pierre Trudeau, a former prime minister of Canada, pushed for legislation that would revitalize 100 central acres of lakefront property, the centre has been transformed into an international platform for cultural celebrations, education, and recreation—with more than 4,000 annual events that attract about 17 million visitors each year.A good place to begin a tour of Harbourfront Centre is with the mix of entertainment and shopping at Ann Tindale Park, a tree-lined park covered with plush, “environment-friendly” artificial grass. The park serves as the epicenter of spring and summer festivals. Visitors can stroll along the boardwalk to the recently built Exhibition Common to see whatever visual-arts events are going on or participate in a yoga class, for example.Entertainer at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.www.harbourfrontcentre.comFor more visual arts, head next door to the Bill Boyle Artport for the “Deep Woods” art exhibit, inspired by the beauty of some of Canada’s forests, or to the Powerplant Contemporary Art Gallery to see “The Unfinished Conversation: Encoding/Decoding,” an exhibit of photography capturing many aspects of the post-World War II era.If accompanied by children, an interesting option is the Natrel Pond, where paddle boating and canoeing are available, or the Brigantine Room in the Bill Boyle Artport to take part in the interactive musical “The Story of Babar,” written by French composer Francis Poulenc. End the evening with lakeside dining at the Amsterdam BrewHouse. The BrewHouse boasts that it is known for some of the most creative brewing-process techniques in the world and its freshly made artisan food. Other restaurants at Harbourfront Centre include Lakeside Local Bar & Grill, Lavazza Espression, and World Cafȳ.Harbourfront Centre is open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. ■More information on Harbourfront Centre is posted at http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com. ISSUES NewArchived

Partners in Development? Robert McNamara, Lester Pearson, and the Commission on International Development, 1967–1973

In 1968, the newly appointed World Bank president, Robert McNamara, asked former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to chair a Bank Commission on International Development in hopes that he could revive the North’s flagging commitment to foreign aid promised under the banner of the Decade of Development. The Commission and its Report—Partners in Development—have a general reputation as farsighted approaches to problems of official development assistance. In Canada, the Pearson Commission is viewed through the lens of Canada’s commitment to Middle Power multilateralism. This analysis tests both interpretations by examining the Commission and the conception and reception of its work. Whilst the Middle Power concept circumscribed Pearson’s role and effectiveness, the Commission succeeded in helping Canada’s chief ally, the United States, share the burden of development assistance with its European allies. As in the realm of peacekeeping, Pearsonian development diplomacy was as much about shoring up relations with Northern allies as it was with developing new Southern friendships.