The Disciplinary Boundaries of Canadian Identity After September 11: Civilizational Identity, Multiculturalism, And the Challenge of Anti-Imperialist Feminism

This article aims to explore the ways in which Canadian identity has been reconfigured in the post-September 11 period. There has been a campaign to increasingly define Canadian identity along civilizational lines, as part of "Western civilization" and in a "clash of civilizations" framework. This re-configuration seeks to situate Canada internationally as an unconditional partner of the United States in foreign policy; internally, it has led to a re-whitening of Canadian identity and increased marginalization of its nonwhite minorities. Such an emphasis in national identity may appear to be a retreat from multiculturalism as the policy in effect in Canada since the 1970s; alternatively, it may represent a crystallization of certain inequalities, as well as inherent ambiguities and tensions, present in liberal multiculturalism even in the best of times. The focus of this article on the violent political reaction to a speech Sunera Thobani made in October 2001 reflects on notions of Canadian national identity and belonging in the post-September 11 period.