Canadian Plurality

"Some have concerns that the researcher appears to be Asian.  Some believe that it presents a stereotype of Asians excelling in technology and/or the sciences.  Others feel that an Asian should not be the only ethnicity represented on the banknotes.  Other ethnicities should also be shown."  From a 2009 report commissioned by the Bank of Canada from The Strategic Counsel.

 Well, that's just fairly morally tawdry.  So much for Canada's vaunted tolerance and cultural accommodation to the diversity of its population with its guarantees of equitable treatment under the law.  Multiculturalism is a failed concept in many ways, encouraging new Canadians from a variety of sources all over the world to retain the traditions of their heritage, even when they so often collide with Canadian values.

But this is a perverse and surprising new low, that the Bank of Canada made the decision to eradicate an image of an Asian-in-appearance woman in a science cartoon on the $100-banknote when focus groups mentioned her ethnicity, as not being representative of being "Canadian" enough.  Too female, too Asian, too particular.  Alongside a bottle of insulin, perhaps the image could have originally reflected Frederick Banting?

But having paired a bottle of insulin, a proud Canadian medical breakthrough, with an Asian female scientist, why not simply have accepted it?  This is no caricature, strictly speaking, for many Asians, both men and women, excel at scientific research; it might just as easily have been a Canadian male of East Indian extraction.

To express the opinion that the banknote was "racialized" as a result of the choice of image, is just too absurd, and questionable of prejudice for words.  "The original image was not designed or intended to be a person of a particular ethnic origin.  But obviously when we got into focus groups, there was some thought the image appeared to represent a particular ethnic group, so modifications were made", according to Jeremy Harrison, a Bank spokesman.

Mr. Harrison cited policy that deliberately avoids depictions of ethnic groups on banknotes.  Changes were made to alter the image in question to render it with a "neutral ethnicity".  As far as the Chinese Canadian National Council is concerned, the bank allowed itself to be manipulated by a racist response.  "The Bank of Canada apparently took seriously ... racist comments and feedback from the focus groups and withdrew the image.

"That was upsetting simply because of the history and longevity of Chinese-Canadians in this country", said May Lui, interim executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council's Toronto chapter.  The group's national executive director recommended that the Bank take steps to change its policy of not depicting Canadians with visible minority backgrounds.  The firm reality is that identifiably ethnic looks do indeed exemplify Canadianism.

Of the eight focus groups consulted with respect to the proposed images for the new $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 banknote series, the Toronto groups stood out for their positive attitude respecting the image of an Asian woman, since "it is seen to represent diversity of multiculturalism."  Not in Quebec, though, where "the inclusion of an Asian without representing any other ethnicities was seen to be contentious."

According to the 2006 census, the entire population to that date was inclusive of over five million people from visible minority groups.  Of that number, 1.2-million were of Chinese origin, along with an additional 240,000 from southeast Asia.  If that number is not fairly well representative of Canadian plurality, then what is?