Memory Politics in the Context of Canada's Multiculturalism - Dr. David MacDonald
Dr. David MacDonald, Guelph University, in an interview on memory politics. This interview is part of the interview series " Expert Voices on Memory Politics" realized with the financial support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Kanada and Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.
The interviews were recorded during the October 2022 conference "Addressing the Past - Shaping the Future".
Dr. David MacDonald posits that different settler states use memory to promote specific kinds of status quo. Using ‘official’ memory to preserve a status quo can however lead to structural violence, where certain memories compete with others. This can create silences amongst certain groups. In the Canadian context under the narrative of multiculturalism, the ‘official’ memory that English and French Canadians are the “two founding peoples” has been increasingly contested. The ‘white’ face of Canada is in fact engineered. Indigenous Peoples and Black communities in Canada have been finding spaces to share their narratives / memory, which reveals the false narrative that has been branded as Canada’s ‘official’ mark.
EUCAnet (Europe Canada Network) is a hub for experts primarily located in Canada that work on European and Canadian current issues from a transatlantic perspective. These experts offer commentary and expertise and are available for media interviews and public talks. We are a public outreach platform – that makes scholarly knowledge available and meaningful to the public in times when the need for evidence based knowledge and public debate is crucial. Our goal is to foster the Canada Europe Transatlantic Dialogue with the aim of supporting the process of informing public policy making.
Focus on : European Studies, Transatlantic Studies, Global Studies, Issues of Democracy, Populism, Memory Politics, Migration.
Official Site: http://www.eucanet.org
