Canadian Studies Announcements

In this issue:

Next Week

Psychedelics, Eh? Canada’s Role in a Psychedelic Renaissance

April 27 | 12:30 p.m. PT | RSVP here

In the 1950’s, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was on the cutting edge of research into hallucinogenic drugs. Under the province’s massive healthcare reforms, researchers received grants to pursue LSD treatments they thought could revolutionize psychiatry. What do these experiments say about Canada’s healthcare system and society at the time? And what can we learn from the program’s successes and failures at a time when psychedelics are attracting renewed scientific and public interest?

Erika Dyck is the Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice at the University of Saskatchewan. She specializes in the history of psychiatry, and has written several books on the history of psychedelic research and eugenics in Canada. She is the author of Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from Clinic to Campus (Johns Hopkins University Press), which covers the complex history of LSD in North America.

This event is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.

Reminder: Just Two Weeks Left to Apply for Canadian Studies Research Funding!

The Canadian Studies Program is currently accepting applications for funding opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students at UC Berkeley. Applications for AY 2021-22 will close in two weeks, on Friday, May 7, 2021. Learn more and apply by clicking the links below.

The Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship provides travel and research support for Berkeley graduate students whose work focuses primarily, or comparatively, on Canada. Fellowships range from $5,000 – $10,000.

The Rita Ross Undergraduate Prize in Canadian Studies provides a cash prize of $250 to the Berkeley undergraduate who has produced the best research project engaging with a Canadian topic for a class or independent study program.

Please circulate this information to your students, peers, and networks!

In the News

Canadian Supreme Court Affirms Land Use Rights for US-Based Indigenous Groups

In a landmark ruling for Indigenous rights, the Canadian Supreme Court declared Friday that members of US-based tribes maintain their ancestral land rights in Canada despite no longer living in the country.

In the 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that US-based descendants of the historical Canadian Sinixt, who were declared legally extinct by the Canadian government in 1956, maintain the rights of their ancestors in their historic territory. While almost all Sinixt people today live in eastern Washington state, the majority of their historical territory was located in modern British Columbia.

The case was brought by Rick Desautel, a resident of the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, who was arrested in 2010 after crossing the border into British Columbia to hunt elk. Desautel argued that as a member of a tribe descended from the Sinixt, his hunting rights were protected under the Canadian Constitution’s guarantee of such rights to “Aboriginal people of Canada”. Federal prosecutors argued that this term did not include the modern descendants of the Sinixt, as they do not live in Canada. However, the Supreme Court disagreed, determining that “Aboriginal people” includes the successors to any group whose ancestors resided in Canada prior to European contact.

The landmark decision is expected to have wide implications, potentially affecting tens of thousands of Native Americans whose ancestral territories were divided by the modern US-Canada border. The ruling also raises questions as to whether US-based groups will need to be consulted over potential resource projects in their ancestral territories.

Image: Rick Desautel and other members of the Colville Reservation conduct a prayer: Credit: Shelly Boyd, The Guardian.

Affiliate/External Events

L’influence du contexte social et politique sur l’intégration des immigrants

29 avril | 10:00 a.m. ET | RSVP ici

La directrice de notre programme, Irene Bloemraad, participera au Forum sur l’intégration, organisé par le Département de science politique de l’université Concordia, et l’Initiative de recherche sur l’immigration, avec le soutien financier du Gouvernement du Québec. Le Forum réunit des chercheurs, des représentants des gouvernements et des acteurs de terrain afin de faire le point sur l’état de la recherche sur les dynamiques d’intégration des immigrants au Québec et ailleurs. Le forum est une première dans le contexte québécois, par son désir de faire découvrir aux acteurs de terrain et aux chercheurs les expériences d’ailleurs dans le domaine de l’intégration, tout en établissant un dialogue sur les développements au Québec.

Le Forum se déroule du 28 avril au 30 avril. Pour en savoir plus et s’inscrire (inscription gratuite), consultez le programme complet ici.

Book Talk: Bridging the Longest Border with Dr. Donald Alper

April 29 | 7:00 p.m. PT | RSVP here

As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Western Washington University’s Center for Canadian-American Studies is sponsoring a talk by Dr. Don Alper on his new book, “Bridging the Longest Border”. The book is a story of how a handful of visionaries built a program at Western Washington University to educate students and community leaders about Canada. While not a history lesson, this book traces the journey of creating a place for developing knowledge about this important country just a stone’s throw away.

Dr. Alper is an emeritus professor of political science at Western Washington University, and the former director of Western’s Center for Canadian–American Studies and the Border Policy Research Institute. Known nationally for his advancement of Canadian Studies in the United States, he has taught courses on Canadian politics and Canada-U.S. relations for more than 40 years. Don Alper will be joined in conversation with Cat Wallace, journalism instructor at Whatcom Community College and editor.

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