Saturday, November 14, 2009

"Discover Canada" Open Editing Call

The Canadian government recently released a new document, "Discover Canada" (pdf) that is the basis of the citizenship test for new Canadians. It contains a fairly significant section on Canadian history and, as you might expect, many Canadian historians who weren't consulted on the project have opinions about shortfalls in the document.

Yesterday, Andrew Smith posted a blog entry that suggested:

"maybe we should investigate using a Wikipedia-type process to write a real guide for new citizens. A more widely distributed process would be the best way of coming up with a statement of consensus values in modern-day Canada."

So, I’ve created a wiki and added the text from the “Canada’s History” section of the document. I encourage anyone interested in Canadian history to feel free to edit it as you see fit. Once everyone has had an opportunity to add their input, I will pass along the result to the Canadian government as a recommendation for improving the guide.

The wiki is located at: http://discover-canada.wikispot.org/

You can add to, subtract from, or make any changes you like.

It’s one thing to disagree with a government policy and another to do something about it, so here’s our chance as historians to have our say.

1 comment:

Williamchen said...

Canada is a phrase taken from the Mohawk language (I am Mohawk) and capacity “town”. It was once written down by using Jacques Cartier when he encountered our ancestors and used gestures to inquire as to what this vicinity used to be known as and in doing so pointed to one of our communities. Also of be aware are the names with which Canadians identification location many are of indigenous origin. The names Ontario, Toronto, Gananaque, Kanata, Ohsweken, Niagara are all Mohawk in origin. It ought to be burdened that our ancestors did now not come throughout the Bering Strait- a principle barring proof and a dull one at that. We got here from the southwest and developed a awesome Iroquois subculture and language over heaps of years. It . used to be our technologies, our sciences, our information as to the dimensions of the continent which allow the settlers from the east to live on and prosper the use of our herbal resources.

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