Fundamental assumptions as a basis for discussion:

I posit, with History as my evidence, that:

• humans are social animals living in contact with other humans, all existing within an environment of other living and non-living things.
• as soon as an individual exists in contact with any other living thing (animal or plant), then that individual does not have the freedom, right, power to act, speak or think unilaterally.
• an individual does not have the unilateral power of “self-determination” as it means being independent of fate or necessity.
• immediately upon an individual existing in proximity to any other living thing then there is an existential need to ‘share space, things and time’ with others.
• “society” is the structure that regulates our interactions.
• over time the will of the social majority is superior to the will of any individual.
• whenever the will of an individual comes in conflict with the will of the society, the society lasts and the individual ceases – even in death.
• only societies of individuals acting in concert can override the will of another society.
• “freedom” is not for an individual to define, but for a society to regulate.
• large societies may have several sub-groups that self-identify as ‘culture’.
• large societies, like Canada, face a constant challenge to unify various sub-cultures within the larger national culture for its own survival as a nation-state.
• societies organize themselves with decision-making structures, called “politics”.
• politics decides our freedoms, and how we organize our political systems determines our “freedoms” to act as individuals.

Canada is a country encompassing many cultural groups that have gathered in this space over time. Canada has been described as a multi-cultural nation with a political governing system, having access to legal enforcements, at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

Canada is a place of immigrants. How do we treat the first immigrants (from 17,000 years ago) and the most recent immigrants to this place? Is Canada a place for some, or for all who are here now?

Characteristics of Culture, Adaptation, Ethnocentrism, Valuing and Sustaining Diversity [click link]

Theoretically, any group of immigrants (first to get here or last to arrive) can ascribe to themselves some common characteristics of a culture. A common list of cultural descriptors included language, dress, shelter, food, music, dance, ceremonies of life stages -birth, marriage, death, religion.