29 July 2010

Clement, the Census, and the Canadian Multicultural Newspapers Digitized

Tony Clement, presently embroiled in the census issue, makes no secret of his own ancestry. Born in Manchester, England his father was of Greek Cypriot origin, his mother Canadian of Russian Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

It strikes me as paradoxial that none of that type information, save the name, often available in historic censuses and usually available now for elites like people in Who's Who, is something Clement finds so sensitive it should not be available 92 years hence for all ordinary Canadians through the short-form census.

Researching Clement's Russian side led me to Multicultural Canada, a site which exists to provide free and greater access to collections of archives and libraries in Canada which preserve the historical record of the experiences of ethnic and multi-ethnic communities. It aims to make available documentary resources seldom available beyond the walls of the institution.

The list of resources, mostly newspapers, is:

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