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  Markham Moments

Markham Moments aims to provide snapshots about life experiences in the Town of Markham that also have some timeless or universal aspect to them. Please check back periodically for our updates! Content is by Bob Fisher, a freelance writer living in Markham, Ontario.


The Christmas Party
by Bob Fisher, December 14, 2002

“Language is the source of all misunderstanding.” – Antoine de St.-Exupéry, The Little Prince

The members of the club have a pre-Christmas dinner each year at Jason’s family restaurant. It’s called Jason’s because he is the eldest child of the owners Charlotte and Paul who are known for their eclectic, scrumptious menu that includes Chinese food and pizza. (The family is Chinese-Canadian.) Charlotte runs the food end of things and Paul looks after everything else, including making sure that his guests are fit to drive home. He doesn’t beat around the bush. “Are you OK to drive? Have you had too much to drink? Do you want me to drive you home?” Charlotte is terrific too at what she does, especially the food, and is always on hand to greet us, to serve the pre-dinner wine, and her luscious spring rolls, the latter are especially yummy although it’s a bit difficult eating a flaky spring roll when you have a glass of wine in your other hand. Most of the time Jason is there in name only; he’s joined a big corporation downtown and is well on his way to proving that he is the true offspring of this very hardworking and entrepreneurial family. We always feel right at home at Jason’s family restaurant.

This year my wife and I were seated at one of the smaller tables next to Linda and TJ. TJ is called TJ because he is Dutch and his Dutch name is very difficult for most non-Dutch people to pronounce.(TJ are the initials of his double-barrelled first name.) He came here as a young carpenter who had recently completed his apprenticeship in Holland, which by the way, has an excellent apprenticeship program for skilled trades.

And that’s where the confusion started.

We started talking about how the skilled trades in Canada are promoted and encouraged -- or not -- as we decided was in fact the case. The observation was made that in our schools the emphasis often seems to be on the so-called professions. Then TJ, who now runs his own very successful contracting business, (he’s done really well) recalled going to a Careers Night at his son’s elementary school and discovering that only the professions (i.e. dentistry, medicine, teaching etc.) were represented. There was no information on skilled trades nor were there any representatives from skilled trades present. When he questioned the school officials about this, it appeared as if including skilled trades in the evening had never occurred to them. Borrowing on my experience in anti-racist education, I pointed out that it is always important to realize that all individuals and organizations have a bias and that it is necessary to be aware of that fact of life. Furthermore it is important to understand that a bias is not necessarily a bad thing because all people and organizations “come from somewhere” (as in “I hear where you are coming from”) and are the products of their particular histories and “cultures.” Academic institutions, for example, are sub-cultures of a much larger culture. And it’s important to recognize one’s own bias in any given situation or on any issue. We all have perspectives – world views, if you like – that are formed, shaped, and learned through exposure to innumerable events, circumstances, and influences. But what is most important is knowing when a bias becomes a negative bias. For example, can you detect the bias in the following sentence?

The seal hunt and the killing of baby harp seals in the waters off Atlantic Canada have created an enormous international controversy.

I’ll give you a hint. If you earned part of your living on the seal hunt, what adjective in that sentence would you take exception to and why? What is the nature of the bias inherent in this statement?

OK So what’s a bias?

Well a bias is an opinion, point of view, inclination, or preference. For example, all learning materials or media (or business plans for that matter) are created from particular points of view or biases, which may be identified as negative or positive based upon the experiences which authors, readers, viewers, listeners, consumers, or participants bring to these materials.

Here’s a positive bias: “All students can learn.”
And here’s a negative bias: “All teenagers are self-centred.”
And here is a bias which, although stated in positive terms, is negative in its effect: “Gentle people, noble savages.”

So by not including the skilled trades in its Careers Night did the elementary school demonstrate a positive or negative bias, or neither? Discuss.

But I digress. During the discussion TJ mentioned (or so I thought) that he had recently trained an apprentice who was “an Eritrean,” an excellent worker, and the strongest man TJ had ever met. He went on to say that the young Eritrean had moved to Powassan, Ontario, and later had gone to Eritrea as a Christian missionary. Well I was certainly intrigued with this story. Canada being a country that is known for accepting immigrants and refugees from all over, I could certainly see how an Eritrean could end up here and I was pleased that this particular man had done so well. But I wondered what it must have been like for him to go back to his native land as a missionary. It struck me that this was a rather incongruous situation.

So, wanting more information, I asked TJ what the young man’s first language was.
TJ replied, “French.”
French? From Eritrea? Now my knowledge of the history and geography of that region is not all that good but I didn’t think that Eritrea had ever been a French colony. (Eritrea is to the north of Ethiopia in Eastern Africa and borders the Red Sea. It underwent a 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia, a border war that eventually ended on December 12, 2000 under the auspices of the UN. Peacekeeping troops are still there.)
“Why French?” I asked.
“Because he’s from Quebec,” said TJ.
“Oh. I see. So his parents are from Eritrea.”
“No,” said TJ. “They’re from Quebec too.”
“Then how can he be an Eritrean if no one from his family comes from Eritrea? And why does he speak French?”
“He’s not Eritrean,” said TJ. “He’s Québécois.”
“But .... you said you had been training a young apprentice who’s an Eritrean.”
“No,” said TJ, “I said I was training a young apprentice who’s in Eritrea.”
“Oh,” I said.

So that cleared that up. However, I’m not sure which seems more incongruous to me, an Eritrean in Powassan or a French-Canadian in Eritrea. I guess that’s my bias.

(The individuals in this story are real as is “Jason’s.” Their names have been changed however to protect their privacy; but I’m quite sure that there are many “Jason’s” family restaurants in Markham.)