Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Upcoming Events

• Efforts at Indigenous Language Revitalization at Bkejwanong

News from Berkeley

• Record-holding Canadian swimmer to join Cal swim team

News from Canada

• Trudeau pays Trump surprise visit amid threat of tariffs

Academic Opportunities

• Call for Submissions: Examining Canada’s Approach to “Refugees” across Two and a Half Centuries (1770-2023)

EVENT TOMORROW

Efforts at Indigenous Language Revitalization at Bkejwanong

Tues., Dec. 3 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

Neebnookwe ndazhnikaaz, Bkejwanong ndoonjibaa.

Summer Sands-Macbeth, Neebnookwe, has dedicated herself to preserving and transmitting her community’s ancestral language of Nishnaabemwin, an Ojibwe dialect spoken in the southern Great Lakes.

Sands-Macbeth grew up on Bkejwanong (Walpole Island First Nation) in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the border with the USA. Walpole Island is a Three Fires Confederacy community (Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomi). Nishnaabemwin has been in decline since the 1970s, and today only about 20 first-language speakers still live on the island. However, Sands-Macbeth was surrounded by the language and culture of her parents, both of whom were fluent speakers of Nishnaabemwin. Her mother, Reta Sands, Naawkwegiizhgokwe, has devoted her life to the support and preservation of Nishnaabemwin on Walpole Island.

After a sojourn of several years in the United States, Sands-Macbeth moved back to Walpole Island in 2005 and has spent the last decades engaging in language revitalization efforts in her community. Her talk will share aspects of her work and the outcomes so far. She will discuss impact from intergenerational trauma and the effects of the Indian Act on suppression of Indigenous languages, as well as resilience and resurgence as it relates to Indigenous language revitalization work on Walpole Island.

Summer Sands-Macbeth is a coordinator for the Indigenous Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at Queen’s University, Ontario, where she is currently enrolled in the World Indigenous Studies in Education (WISE) master of education program. She is an Indian Day School survivor. She holds a bachelor’s in physics from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor’s in education from the University of Ottawa.

NEWS FROM BERKELEY

Record-Holding Canadian Swimmer to Join Cal Swim Team

A record-setting member of Canada’s national junior swim team will be joining the Golden Bears in Fall 2026. Halle West, of Winnipeg, announced her verbal commitment to UC Berkeley last month as part of the Class of 2030.

Halle has represented Canada at several international competitions, including the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships and the 2023 World Junior Championships. Halle currently holds a Canadian age-group record for women’s 100 meter breast, after breaking a 35-year-old record at the 2023 New Year’s Invitational.

Halle joins her sister, Mia West, who is a current member of Cal’s Women’s Swimming & Diving team. Mia previously won silver and bronze medals at the 2024 Speedo Canadian Championships, as well as three bronze medals at the 2023 World Junior Championships. She was also named champion in 200 butterfly at the 2022 Canada Games.

The West sisters’ parents are also accomplished swimmers. Both are former Olympians: their mother, Riley, competed for Canada in the 1996 Summer Olympics, while their father, Bo, was a member of the Danish national team.

NEWS FROM CANADA

Trudeau Pays Trump Surprise Visit Amid Threat of Tariffs

On Friday, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau made an unannounced visit to Florida to have dinner with US president-elect Donald Trump and members of his incoming administration. The visit, which took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, makes Trudeau the first G7 leader to meet with Trump since the election. The meeting comes after Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico until both countries control what he called an “uncontrolled” flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

The proposed tariffs represent a serious threat to Canada’s economy, which is highly dependent on foreign trade. About 75% of Canada’s exports go the United States, and certain sectors, such as oil & gas and automotive exports, are even more reliant on US consumers. While some argue that Trump’s position on tariffs is a negotiation tactic, Trudeau is taking Trump seriously: “When he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out”.

Both Trump and Trudeau reported a “productive” conversation after the dinner, although neither offered many specifics. Trudeau underscored his ability to work with Trump during his first term, despite an occasionally tense relationship between the two leaders. Trump has previously denounced Trudeau “two-faced” and “very dishonest and weak”; nevertheless, an anonymous official described the meeting Friday as “very friendly, very positive.”

Sources indicate that one of Trudeau’s key objectives was to decouple Canada from Mexico in the Trump’s mind. Canadian officials have bristled at what they consider an “unfair” comparison between the two countries, and say that the expansion of the “border crisis” narrative to the US-Canada border is not supported by facts.

Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman, said Sunday that she believed Trudeau had managed to convince Trump that the Canada-US border was fundamentally secure. Hillman pointed out that the US border agents seized a mere 43 pounds of fentanyl coming from Canada last year. And while attempted illegal crossings from Canada have increased in recent years, Hillman noted that the 23,721 migrants caught entering the US from Canada last year was less than half of the 56,530 migrants apprehended entering from Mexico in October alone.

Regardless, Canadian officials have been quick to assure the incoming administration that they are willing to increase border security. Public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the meeting with Trump, suggested the federal government would make unspecified additional investments in border control. And as an example of security cooperation, Ambassador Hillman pointed to a controversial deal that Trudeau signed with President Biden last year to tighten rules around asylum-seeking and expand deportation eligibility for refugee claimants.

Nevertheless, the Canadian government is preparing for any eventuality. Trump’s proposed tariff regime would unravel one of the key achievements of his last administration, the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Officials have begun exploring the possibility of retaliatory tariffs, which Canada had enacted prior to the signing of CUSMA in 2018. And Canada’s thirteen provincial leaders met last month to discuss the possibility of an alternate solution, such as Canada pursuing a bilateral trade agreement with the US that excludes Mexico.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Deadline: December 15, 2024

The journal Études Canadiennes/Canadian Studies is pleased to announce a special issue on Canada’s long-term approach to “refugees”, directed by guest editor Dr. Sheena Trimble (Université catholique de l’Ouest), in association with editor-in-chief Dr. Laurence Cros (Université Paris Cité).

The formal inclusion of “refugee” as a specific class of immigrants in the Immigration Act of Canada dates back only to 1976. Nonetheless, many older migrations could in fact be considered as refugee movements. The objective of this issue is to present a long-term perspective that compares and contrasts Canada’s approach to refugee admission, resettlement and integration during different periods of the country’s history. Contributions of theoretical reflection as well as concrete case studies are welcome.

Please click here to read submission guidelines for articles.

Canadian Studies Program

213 Philosophy Hall #2308

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