Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies

This study examines the emergence of the New Left organization, The New Tendency, in Windsor, Ontario during the 1970s. The New Tendency, which developed in a number of Ontario cities, represents one articulation of the Canadian New Left's turn towards working-class organizing in the early 1970s after the student movement's dissolution in the late 1960s. Influenced by dissident Marxist theorists associated with the Johnson-Forest Tendency and Italian workerism, The New Tendency sought to create alternative forms of working-class organizing that existed outside of, and often in direct opposition to, both the mainstream labour movement and Old Left organizations such as the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party. After examining the roots of the organization and the important legacies of class struggle in Windsor, the thesis explores how The New Tendency contributed to working-class self activity on the shop-floor of Windsor's auto factories and in the community more broadly. However, this New Left mobilization was also hampered by inner-group sectarianism and a rapidly changing economic context. Ultimately, the challenges that coincided with The New Tendency's emergence in the 1970s led to its dissolution.

While short-lived, the history of the Windsor branch of The New Tendency helps provide valuable insight into the trajectory of the Canadian New Left and working-class struggle in the 1970s, highlighting experiences that have too often been overlooked in previous scholarship. Furthermore, this study illustrates the transnational development of New Left ideas and organizations by examining The New Tendency's close connections to comparable groups active in manufacturing cities in Europe and the United States; such international relationships and exchanges were vital to the evolution of autonomist Marxism around the world. Finally, the Windsor New Tendency's history is an important case study of the New Left's attempts to reckon with a transitional moment for global capitalism, as the group's experiences coincided with the Fordist accord's death throes and the beginning of neoliberalism's ascendancy.

Author Keywords: Autonomist Marxism, Canada, Labour, New Left, Rank-and-file Organizing, Working-Class History

This thesis explores the experience of Jewish individuals living in a small Jewish community in an urban centre of less than 100,000 in Ontario, Canada. The central question I explore is the ways in which Jewish individuals in a small community enact and perform their identity. What are some of the challenges and obstacles faced by Jews in a small community and what kinds of compromises must be made to accommodate members of the community? Do the benefits of living in a small Jewish community outweigh the shortcomings? This thesis examines how Jewish identity is constructed, maintained and challenged within a smaller urban centre.

I begin with a brief historical background of the Jewish presence in Canada. I will look through the lens of Jewish identity within the framework of Canadian multiculturalism, and reasonable accommodation. Jewish identity will then be explored through an intersectional framework. Using qualitative interviews conducted with Jewish individuals, an analysis of common themes and issues pertaining to Jewish identity and maintenance is explored. These themes include Religious observance, cultural identity, Jewish customs and traditions, social action and advocacy. These themes were divided between those of a more individual nature and those of a more communal nature.

For participants in this research, managing and maintaining their Jewish identity consisted of balancing their religious and cultural life with their social, work, and other obligations outside the sphere of Jewish identity. The relationship between White identity and Jewish identity is a focal point of study. The synagogue/community centre acts as the primary place in which to express, share, and connect with other Jews.

Author Keywords: Assimilation, Community, Intersectionality, Jewish Identity, Multiculturalism, Reasonable Accommodation

This study examines the household foodwork of low-income mothers in Peterborough,

Ontario and considers how community food initiatives (CFIs) such as community gardens and

good food box programs can support these women in their efforts to feed their families

adequately. I draw on multiple data sources: interviews with representatives from

Peterborough CFIs; interviews with and illustrations by 21 local low-income mothers; debrief

sessions following participants' tours of CFIs; and my ongoing involvement with two local food

networks. The mothers' extensive foodwork considerations, strategies, and struggles reflect

an engagement with three main ideals that are placed further out of reach through poverty

and food insecurity. Women experienced pressure through these ideals: the "good mother,"

to take primary responsibility for their children's well-being through food; the "good

consumer," to participate in society as individual consumers; and the "good food program

participant," to avoid indications of over-reliance on food programs. Each ideal reflects the

neoliberal exaltation of self-sufficiency and its flipside, the vilification of dependence. The

research results highlight the need for CFIs to focus on the broader, systemic discursive and

material challenges that can hamper the foodwork of all low-income mothers, in addition to

addressing the immediate needs of their own participants. Towards this goal, Peterborough

CFIs employ principles of universality, social inclusion, democratic processes, and broadening

of social imaginaries. In their efforts, CFIs must navigate between cultivating collectivity and

interdependence on the one hand, and engaging with this familiar, individualizing neoliberal

ethos on the other hand. This study provides insights about the subjectivities of low-income

mothers that may be useful for CFI programming as well as more analytic examinations of the

role and impact of CFIs. It also reveals the common feminization, devaluation, and under

resourcing of the food-related work of both mothers and CFIs. In doing so, the study points to

the urgent need for broad dialogue and political action regarding poverty, dependence, caring

labour, and the roles of citizens and the state in ensuring that households can adequately

feed themselves.

Author Keywords: Community Food Initiatives, Community Food Programs, Domestic Labour, Food Insecurity, Gendering of Caring Labour, Household Food Work

This thesis focuses specifically on artistic projects that address violence against indigenous women and uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine their meaning and reception. I argue that the mainstream media has negatively stereotyped missing and murdered indigenous women and that art projects have the ability to reframe their lives to the viewing public. I focus on five case studies of works, including Vigil (2002) by Rebecca Belmore, REDress (2011) by Jamie Black, The Forgotten (2011) by Pamela Masik, Walking With Our Sisters (2013) by Christi Belcourt and Shades of Our Sisters (2017), created by Ryerson University students and produced by Maggie Cywink, Alex Cywink and Joyce Carpenter. Art has the capacity to encourage activism, raise awareness and promote reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people. Comparisons can be drawn between how the case studies of these art works have framed the lives of missing and murdered women and the dominant media images that have prevailed in Canadian society.

Author Keywords: activism, art, Canada, indigenous, missing and murdered indigenous women, symbolism

This thesis documents an oral history of the New Canadians Centre, the only immigrant-serving organization in Peterborough, Ontario. This case study builds on scholarship that critically examines immigrant settlement work in Canada. Drawing on interviews and archival research, and employing the analytical concept of home, I investigate how differently-located actors have practiced home and welcome in Peterborough in the context of settlement work. I demonstrate how the New Canadians Centre's work consolidated as well as challenged normative discourses of home that disadvantage racialized new immigrants and privilege white settlers represented as "host." I argue that this false binary between immigrant and host is harmful, inadequate in accounting for the complexities of people's lives, and easily reinforced in settlement work without efforts to challenge it. I conclude that accountability to power in settlement work is crucial to envisioning a more inclusive welcome and a more just home in Peterborough and Canada.

Author Keywords: home, immigrant settlement sector, migration, oral history, Peterborough, welcome

Background: Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) claims people with mental illnesses/addictions need improved care/overuse emergency departments. MOHLTC expects Coordinated Care Planning (CCP, teams of mental/physical health professionals, social workers and informal caregivers) to improve care and lower emergency department returns/healthcare costs. CCPs are directed by policies, Smith's "problematics," or Deleuze's "expressions," supposedly reflecting "contents"/"everyday worlds."

Research Question: How do Ontario health/allied professionals come together with a person with mental illness/addictions and informal caregiver(s) to address health needs through a CCP?

Method: 1) Analyzed CCP policies; generated questions about creation/implementation. 2) Interviewed eight professionals about interpreting/enacting policies. 3) Connected interview data to policies.

Findings: Opportunities for fragmentation exist in gaining consent; determining eligibility; persons in care, informal caregivers and professionals' participation; person-centeredness; "shame-free" environments; health literacy; records of medications.

Conclusion: CCP participants need to minimize fragmentations which takes time, space, money; creates contradictions in lowering costs/improving care.

Author Keywords: Addiction, Dual Diagnosis, Health Care Policy, Institutional Ethnography, Integrated Health Care, Mental Illness

The Places to Grow Act (2005) and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2006) are two pieces of legislature passed by the Government of Ontario to help govern and limit urban sprawl in major cities across Ontario through to 2041. These policies are framed around the development and maintenance of large-scale cities. While there are some provisions within these policies for mid-sized cities that are part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH), there are few resources, case studies, and models for successful revitalization, and intensification in mid-sized cities. The goal of this thesis is to answer questions related to planning and development in Peterborough, Ontario and to assess its progress as it relates to Places to Grow (2005) and the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2006) guidelines. Through the use of library research, policy document analysis, interviews with key stakeholders, and GIS analysis, I identify both strategies and challenges related to development and growth in Peterborough, ON. I conclude that the policies are proving to be initially favorable in their results, however it is not without significant challenge to Planners and stakeholders in Peterborough, ON. Finally, I suggest further research take place in order to further assess the effectiveness of these policies in other mid-sized cities in Ontario, as well as to measure the success of the policies closer towards the 2041 deadline.

Author Keywords: GIS, Peterborough, planning, policy, revitalization, Smart Growth

This thesis is an attempt to provide a critical history of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) during the Popular Front era, roughly November 1935 to September 1939. This study contains a detailed examination of the various stages of the Popular Front in Canada (the united front, the height of the Popular Front, and the Democratic front), with special attention paid to the CPC's activities in: the youth movement, the labour movement, the unemployed movement, the peace movement, and the anti-fascist movement. From this I conclude that the implementation of the Popular Front, the transformation of the CPC from a revolutionary party to a bourgeois party, was not a smooth process, but instead was punctuated and resisted by elements within the CPC in what can be considered a process of class struggle internal to the CPC itself.

Author Keywords: Canada, communism, Great Depression, labour, Popular Front, socialism

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) convened in 2008 and focused on the impact of the residential school on Indigenous people in Canada. It was intended to initiate healing in Indigenous communities while contributing to new understandings between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. In 2015, the TRC's mandate must be completed, and its final task is creating a National Research Centre (NRC) at the University of Manitoba that will hold all of the documentation generated and collected throughout the TRC's tenure. In this thesis I examine many of the challenges the NRC faces, such as lack of funding, institutional oversight, and the enormity of balancing the needs of Indigenous survivors and their communities against building an accessible archive. At a broader level, questions remain about how successful the TRC has been in achieving reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, and how the NRC can work to fulfill this goal.

Author Keywords: archives, Canada, Indigenous, museums, residential schools, truth and reconciliation

In June 2010, the Group of Twenty (G20) met in Toronto, Ontario. The summit drew large-scale protests that culminated in mass arrests and extensive civil rights violations. Given these outcomes, this thesis examines the security spectacle of the summit to assess the evolving state of public order policing and social movement protest in Canadian law and politics. Connecting the securitization of the summit to the politics of neoliberalism, I argue these overlapping forces helped foment the criminalization of political dissent during the 2010 Toronto G20.

Author Keywords: mega-events, neoliberalism, public order policing, securitization, security, social movements