Canadian Ink

Human beings have always been caught up in the sense that their identity is the ground to their existence. One's sense of identity is related to one’s cultural, historical, geographical, experiential, physical and psychological self. To be Canadian might have a general meaning from an outsider's point of view, but from that of an insider, who experiences the great diversity of ethnicities, languages, cultures and traditions of his/her country, Canadian is a theme of vast complexity. Cynthia Foo illustrates this complexity when, in her article “Portrait of a Globalized Canadian: Ken Lum's There Is No Place Like Home”, she poses the question: “when one is asked to imagine a “Canadian,” does an image of a non-white Canadian automatically come to mind?” (p. 44). The English language has played the devil’s advocate in Canadian colonial history in the forms of capitalism, politics and colonisation by the colonial powers. It has long been used as a strategy to separate people from their identity, tradition and culture. It has also been strategically utilised, both subtly and aggressively, by the intellectual, artistic and literate minds of ethnic minorities for use as educational and social commentaries, to bring attention to the underlying colonial exploitation of the society, and to build public awareness of oppressed cultures in Canada. How has the colonial English language been employed as an effective strategy to change the fabricated view of multicultural Canada and Canadian identity?