Race, ethnicité, peuples autochtones et politique

L21 - Indigenous home and justice

Date: Jun 4 | Heure: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Salle:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Emily Wills (University of Ottawa)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Emily Wills (University of Ottawa)

The Impact of Discrimination on Racialized Canadian Political Participation: Grace Miura-Wong (Carleton University)
Abstract: Once a source of national pride, the promise of multiculturalism is now in serious conflict with the everyday realities of racialized Canadians. Anti-Asian racism is not new – but it has resurfaced as a significant and politically salient issue demonstrated by the marked rise of discriminatory rhetoric and anti-immigrant attitudes plaguing the community. We know little about the effects this increase in discrimination has on the political participation of racialized communities, such as Asian Canadians. While some scholarship suggests that discrimination discourages voters by weakening their relationship with political institutions, other research demonstrates that discrimination can actually mobilize voters to take action. Prior research that does examine this nexus predominantly focuses on Black and Latino voters in the United States. As such, through analyzing quantitative survey data and conducting qualitative focus groups, this mixed methods project seeks to explore the following question by researching the understudied community of South Asian and Chinese Canadians in Vancouver: what is the link between discrimination and political participation? Given the differences in rates of political participation between South Asian and Chinese Canadians, this project hypothesizes that there is a relationship between the prevalence of discriminatory experience, the connection an individual feels with their in-group, and the degree to which they politically participate. As this community continues to grow, especially in urban centers, so too does the significance of meaningful research on diversity, community, and belonging, for academics, policy makers, and ordinary Canadians alike.

La participation politique des personnes autochtones au Canada : dépasser le vote pour comprendre la diversité des moyens de participation et d’actions politiques.: William Beaudry (Université Laval)
Abstract: De quelles manières les personnes autochtones participent à la vie politique sur les territoires au Canada ? Les chercheurs concluent que les personnes autochtones participent moins que les personnes allochtones. L’étude empirique de la participation électorale domine la littérature au détriment d’autres modes de participation politique des personnes autochtones et limite notre connaissance de la participation politique globale des personnes autochtones. J’examine cette question avec les données de sondage du Bilan sur la démocratie (2020-2023) qui me permettent de constituer un échantillon de 955 répondants autochtones du Canada et 33 020 allochtones. Dans une perspective comparée entre personnes autochtones et allochtones, j’utilise l’analyse descriptive et l’analyse de régression logistique hiérarchique sur ces données pour établir le niveau de participation dans neuf modes de participation politique, puis les barrières à la participation des personnes autochtones en suivant le modèle du volontariat civique. Basé sur la littérature actuelle, les ressources – l’argent et le temps – sont des barrières plus importantes à la participation institutionnelle des personnes autochtones qu’allochtones. Et inversement, ces ressources exercent une influence plus faible dans les autres modes de participation. Mon étude offre deux contributions d’importance. Il établit une référence sur les niveaux de participation dans une variété de modes différents en utilisant les données de sondages originaux. Et en identifiant les barrières à la participation, il offre aux acteurs et décideurs politiques des pistes de réflexion pour favoriser la participation des personnes autochtones au-delà du vote.

The Sanctuary Imaginary: Narratives of Local, Godly, and Global Anti-State Sovereignty: sasha skaidra (University of Alberta)
Abstract: As in 2016 and again in 2025, the election of Donald Trump has revived interest in Sanctuary Cities, which instruct staff to refuse cooperation with federal deportations. Much of Social Scientific literature positions Sanctuary Cities as a fundamental challenge to the nation-state system of immigration controls and border enforcement. This paper interrogates such narratives through Edward Said’s theory of "Imaginary," which articulates how geographic and religious discourses re-imagine faraway places and long-ago times to articulate a foundation for one’s power. My discourse analysis corpus compiles Sanctuary City scholarship and media from 2016-2021 and from February 2025 onward. The content analysis tabulates spatial and humanistic signifiers used to describe Sanctuary, such as diverse spiritual traditions (Byzantium, Greece, and Rome to Buddhist, Christian, and Islamic traditions) or historical precedents (medieval churches, the Vietnam War-era deserters’ movement, and the New Sanctuary Movement). I introduce the outlines of a ‘Sanctuary City imaginary’ that relocates power to godly, city, or global sources of sovereignty beyond the nation-state, yet remains invested with sovereignty. The discourse analysis tracks, using machine text analysis tools, the correlative instance when scholars cite these examples with upticks of Sanctuary City media coverage, revealing the Imaginary at work. This paper intervenes in Critical Migration Studies by outlining that the Sanctuary Imaginary harbours logics of sovereignty that reinforce discourses of migrant "deservingness." A critique of The Sanctuary Imaginary thus invites the field to consider how to think beyond sovereign imaginative power and center overlooked subaltern sanctuaries, such as those of Indigenous communities, 2SLGBTQI+ struggles, and squatting movements.

Economic Reconciliation and Nation-Building in Canada: Hannah Wyile (Saint Mary's University)
Abstract: In the wake of the current upheaval in Canada-US relations, discourses of “economic reconciliation” between Canada and Indigenous peoples that have grown in prominence over the last decade are now paired with a renewed emphasis on Canadian nation-building. The current federal government has placed major resource development and infrastructure projects at the heart of its vision of nation-building, reinforcing existing links between economic reconciliation and resource extraction. This paper takes up a recent call for critical engagement with the forms of economic thought informing particular approaches to reconciliation (Mongeon and Dubois, forthcoming) by conducting a discourse analysis of the House of Commons debates around the One Canadian Economy Act, announcements regarding the Major Projects Office, and Budget 2025 to explore the economic logics animating invocations of economic reconciliation in relation to Canada’s new major nation-building projects. I situate these debates in relation to earlier discourses about the place of Indigenous peoples with respect to the Canadian economy, nation-building, resource extraction, and infrastructure projects (Lajoie-O’Malley 2024), and consider points of resonance and divergence with examples of support for and critiques of economic reconciliation discourses advanced in media articles, financial blogs, and think-tank publications over the last several years. Finally, I explore the dominance of non-Indigenous economic thought in informing the government’s current approach to economic reconciliation by considering its underpinning economic logics through the lens of conceptions of economic justice put forward by Indigenous scholars (Atleo 2015; Atleo and Boron 2023; Coulthard 2014; Hamilton et al. 2021; Jobin 2023; Simpson 2017).