Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Academic Opportunities

• Canadian Studies funding available to Berkeley grads & undergrads

• Call for papers: 2025 ACSUS Conference / Emerging Scholars Colloquium

Upcoming Events

• The “Illusion” of Childcare Reform: Childcare, Taxation, and Social Policy in Post-WWII Canada

External Events

• Learn to Curl Social with the SFBACC

• Rediscovering Édouard Roditi: The 20th Century of a Dazzling Mind

• Distant Early Warning: The Arctic Under Siege | Photographs by Louie Palu

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES

The Canadian Studies Program would like to remind subscribers that we offer generous research funding to support students engaged in Canadianist research here at Berkeley. Opportunities are available for both graduate and undergraduate students. Please forward this information to any friends, students, or colleagues who may be interested!

The Edward E. Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $5,000 per semester

This fellowship funds direct travel and research costs for projects that contribute to knowledge about Canada and/or the Canadian-U.S. relationship. Applications are open to UC Berkeley graduate students in any discipline and of any citizenship.

The Rita Ross Undergraduate Prize in Canadian Studies

Amount: $300

This prize recognizes undergraduates who have written a superior research paper or other project on a Canadian topic. The competition is open to any UC Berkeley undergraduate student in good academic standing, in any college or discipline. Submissions must be an original paper or project produced in a UC Berkeley class or independent study during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Undergraduate Research Funding

Amount: Variable

Funding is available for undergraduate students interested in conducting organized research for a UC Berkeley class or as part of an independent study project. Awards are made at the director’s discretion.

Call for Papers: 2025 ACSUS Conference / Emerging Scholars Colloquium

Deadline: February 1

The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) will host its 27th biennial conference, November 13-16, 2025, in Seattle, WA. The conference is open to all proposals with a significant Canadian focus. We welcome papers and panel proposals from students, professors, independent scholars, and practitioners on all critical perspectives related to the theme “Canada: Spaces of Change.”

How is Canada perceived and portrayed from outside its borders, and by the international community? What are the historical and present-day nuances of Canada-US relations and where are they going? How are the US and Canada changing? What role does the border have in creating or working against familiarity, or belonging? What roles do non-governmental agencies around the world play in shaping Canada’s relationships with the world? Finally, as a professional organization dedicated to the promotion of Canadian Studies, what is ACSUS’s role in these larger questions? Proposals that touch on these themes are encouraged though, as always, submissions on all subjects addressing Canada and Canadian-American relations are welcome.

Established scholars presenting papers at the conference must be ACSUS members in good standing.

Graduate and undergraduate students may submit papers to the ACSUS Emerging Scholars Colloquium. Colloquium participants will benefit from the opportunity to network with other students, as well as liaison and receive mentorship by faculty and senior scholars while attending portions of the ACSUS conference.

Emerging scholars accepted to the colloquium will receive guaranteed funding up to a maximum of $1,000 USD to help alleviate conference registration and travel costs.

To learn more about the ACSUS Conference and Emerging Scholars Colloquium, please click here. Prospective participants must submit an abstract of not more than 300 words (including a working title), along with a brief CV (2 pages maximum), no later than February 1, 2025.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The “Illusion” of Childcare Reform: Childcare, Taxation, and Social Policy in Post-WWII Canada

Tues., Jan. 28 | 12:30 pm | 223 Philosophy Hall | RSVP

The recent introduction of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program, known as C-WELCC, has brought renewed attention to the history of childcare policy and politics in Canada. Recognized as the culmination of decades of advocacy for universal, accessible, high-quality, and inclusive childcare, C-WELCC has been transformative for many Canadian families. The initial years of its implementation have also been tumultuous. Many ask how a “universal” program can be achieved or sustained when perplexing issues remain: what about the role of private operators? How can we ensure an adequate and qualified workforce when wages are not adequately addressed in the plan? How will capacity be created to deliver services to all who need it?

History reminds us that Canadian governments have often dealt with perplexing social policy issues by using the tax system. Indeed, critics of C-WELCC often insist that its challenges are insurmountable, and that it would be more effective to give parents more tax credits than to publicly fund a childcare system. But is it? This presentation, inspired by a need for informed debate about the future of childcare policy in Canada, looks backward to consider the relationship between the tax system and childcare policy in post-WWII Canada. It does so by focusing on the Child Care Expense Deduction (CCED), introduced in 1971. The CCED, while it is often relegated to footnotes in histories of Canadian childcare, had a significant impact on the childcare policy landscape in the decades after its introduction, and has a lot to tell us about the kind of childcare services that develop when policymakers lean on the tax system to deliver social policy objectives.

About the Speaker

Dr. Lisa Pasolli is an associate professor in the Department of History at Queen’s University, Ontario. Her research explores the history of childcare, women and gender, and social policy in 20th-century Canada. Her published works include the monograph Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia’s Social Policy, published by UBC Press in 2015. She is currently one of the investigators on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded Partnership Grant “Reimagining Care/Work Policies”, a multi-year and multi-disciplinary program examining childcare policies as well as parental leave and employment policies.

If you require an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please let us know at least 7 days in advance.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Learn to Curl Social with SFBACC

Sat., January 25 | 3:00 pm | Oakland, CA | Buy tickets

Join our friends from the Digital Moose Lounge for a fun-filled afternoon learning one of Canada’s most iconic sports. No experience or special equipment necessary! Expert instructors from the SF Bay Area Curling Club will safely teach you the basics of the game. This 90-minute class includes a brief introduction to the sport, guided instruction, and a mini-game. Use code “DML” to register: tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for students 21 and under.

Rediscovering Édouard Roditi: The 20th Century of a Dazzling Mind

Tues., February 4 | 5:00 pm | 4229 Dwinelle Hall

Dr. Robert Schwartzwald (Université de Montréal) and Dr. Sherry Simon (Concordia University) will discuss their recent publication, Worldwise: Édouard Roditi’s Twentieth Century. The book explores the life of critic, poet, translator, and essayist Édouard Roditi. Born in Paris, Roditi was a perceptive social analyst whose outspoken views irritated American, Soviet, and French authorities by turns. From his Jewish roots, his work as a translator for the Nuremberg Trials, French decolonization, contributions to LGBTQ culture, and essays on contemporary writers, Roditi’s writings are a unique account of a life lived at the flashpoints of history and at the margins of society, providing acute and unsparing observations of literature and political events.

This event is sponsored by the Department of French and is cosponsored by the Canadian Studies Program, the Jewish Studies Program, and the departments of English and History of Art.

Distant Early Warning: The Arctic Under Siege | Photographs by Louie Palu

Thurs., Feb. 6 | 6:00 pm | 121 North Gate Hall | RSVP

The Reva and David Logan Gallery of Documentary Photography proudly presents the opening reception and presentation of “Distant Early Warning: The Arctic Under Siege” by Canadian documentary photographer and filmmaker Louie Palu.

Palu has made over 40 trips to the Arctic since the early 1990’s, resulting in over 200,000 photographs, documenting the transformations taking place in this vast and isolated region. As polar ice melts, countries are scrambling to stake claims on untapped resources and new trade routes. With support from a Guggenheim Fellowship and National Geographic magazine, Palu examines the growing geopolitical tensions in the polar region and the changing life for Indigenous Inuit people amidst the warming of the planet. Read more about Palu’s challenges photographing the Arctic in GUP Magazine.

This event is sponsored by the Berkeley School of Journalism. An RSVP is required, and a suggested donation of $10 is requested from attendees.

Canadian Studies Program

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Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

Holiday Wrap-Up 

• A message from our Directors
• The complex legacy of Canada’s “oldest Christmas carol”
• Holiday recipe: The bûche de Noël, Québec’s Yule log cake

 Happy Holidays from Canadian Studies! 

Dear friends,

As we wrap up another year, we extend our warmest greetings to our friends both north and south of the border. We hope that this holiday season is filled with joy, laughter, and family, and that you have the time to enjoy a bûche de Noël or a pot or two of maple taffy!

We are truly grateful for your support. Canada and the U.S. have a special relationship, yet as we look forward to the new year, we predict our work will be more important than ever as that relationship enters a new phase. Your engagement will be critical to forging connections that strengthen that bond through cultural and academic exchange. We are already hard at work scheduling speakers for next semester who can illuminate overlooked and intriguing topics in Canadian Studies. We look forward to a new year where we can celebrate that richness together, and honor the unbreakable ties between our two countries.

Thank you for being an invaluable part of the Canadian Studies Program family. We wish you a merry Christmas, a happy Hannukah, and a bright New Year!

See you in 2025!

Richard A. Rhodes and Hidetaka Hirota

Program Co-Directors

CANADIAN CULTURES

The Complex Legacy of Canada’s “Oldest Christmas Carol”

Any Canadian who attends a holiday concert is likely to hear a rendition of the well-known carol commonly known as The Huron Carol, or ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime. A staple of Canadian Christmas music for over a century, it is often touted as “Canada’s oldest Christmas carol”. It is as well-known for its beautiful melody as for its unique portrayal of a “First Nations” Nativity. The song has been celebrated in Canadian postage stamps, cards, and books, and become internationally known as a symbol of Canadian culture. Yet the song’s history reveals a complex legacy that shows the often painful and ambiguous ways that European settlers and Indigenous inhabitants interacted in the lands of modern Canada, as well as the contradictory ways that Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians assess that legacy today.

Image: 1977 Canada Post “Jesous Ahatonhia” stamp. Source: Postage Stamp Guide..

The song now called The Huron Carol dates back to the 17th century. It was originally a simple Nativity carol called Jesous Ahatonhia (“Jesus is born”), written in the Wendat (formerly called Huron) language. Traditionally, it is believed to have been penned in the early 1640s by the French Jesuit missionary St. Jean de Brébeuf. Brébeuf worked at the mission of Sainte-Marie-Among-the-Hurons, in the Wendat’s territory in southern Ontario. Unlike some other missionary groups, the Jesuits pursued a policy of “cultural accommodation”, under which missionaries adapted their messaging and practices to local customs. Brébeuf, a talented linguist, had quickly learned the Wendat language and conducted a detailed ethnography of the Wendat people with the intent of finding cultural similarities that would facilitate conversions. As the Wendat were particularly fond of music, he considered songs to be a particularly effective method of catechism and wrote many in their language.

Image: Portrait of St. Jean de Brébeuf by R. G. Thwaits. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Unfortunately, the French mission brought disaster on the Wendat. European diseases decimated the population, while conversions caused religious divisions that weakened social bonds. Furthermore, the competition between the French and English for beaver pelts spread to their Native allies, inflaming tensions between the Wendat and the Iroquois Confederacy. In 1649, only a few years after Jesous Ahatonhia was written, the Wendat Confederacy was destroyed in a large-scale attack by their Iroquois enemies. (Brébeuf himself was captured and ritually killed during the assault.) The survivors scattered, with some seeking French protection outside Quebec City. There, the refugees established a new village (today’s Wendake Reserve), where the first written reference to Jesous Ahatonhia was made in 1688.

For almost three hundred years, Jesous Ahatonhia remained an obscure song sung only in Wendake. The Wendat notary Paul Tsawenhohi Picard published a French translation in 1899, but it never achieved much popularity.

It was not until 1926 that the song unexpectedly rose to national prominence, after the Canadian journalist Jesse Edgar Middleton published his popular English adaptation (“‘Twas in the moon of wintertime”), which soon became a staple of the Canadian Christmas repertoire. Middleton’s lyrics were entirely new, with only general similarities to the Wendat original. His version depicts the Nativity through a romanticized European view of Native culture. It depicts Jesus born in a bark lodge wrapped in animal pelts, replacing the shepherds with hunters and the Magi with chiefs. It also uses the term “Gitchi Manitou” to refer to God – an Algonquian phrase with no relevance to the Wendat. This reflected a contemporary fascination among white Canadians for supposedly “vanishing” Indigenous cultures – albeit one with little room for living Indigenous people.

Image: J. E. Middleton. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Today, the song is widely known and sung across Canada through dozens of recordings and numerous translations. The Middleton version has been sung by Canadian celebrities like Sarah McLachlan, as well as by foreign singers like Burl Ives (of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fame.) Nevertheless, as Canada grapples with Reconciliation, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians are re-assessing how and whether they continue to perform The Huron Carol. Middleton’s lyrics in particular have been criticized as stereotypical, but others question the ethics of singing the song at all given the history between Canada’s Indigenous people and Christian missionaries.

For today’s Wendat, opinions are divided on the song’s continued prominence both within and outside their culture. For some, it remains a well-loved Christmas tradition and a way to connect with their ancestors. Others view it as a relic of a painful colonial legacy that tried to erase their traditional beliefs, and a sort of “false culture” written by an outsider. At the same time, for decades Jesous Ahatonhia was the only time that many community members could hear the Wendat language long after it was lost for daily use. Most are excited at the renewed interest by singers across Canada in learning the song in its original language.

There have also been attempts to update the lyrics for the era of Reconciliation. Composer Sarah Quartel commissioned Wendat singer-songwriter Andrée Lévesque-Sioui to write new “decolonized” lyrics for the song, that explore the legacy of colonialism and a hope for a better future. This new version has been equally controversial in Wendake, with some defending the original and others hoping the song will just go away.

Despite the controversy, the song has historically been popular with Indigenous artists from elsewhere in Canada, who appreciated its Indigenous imagery. Singers have performed the song in languages including Inuit, Mi’kmaw, and Cree. Notably, the Cree singer Tom Jackson has toured Canada for almost four decades with an annual holiday charity concert called the “Huron Carole“, raising money for local food banks. If anything, the debate shows the mixed approaches and responses of Canadians of all backgrounds as the country confronts its colonial past and searches for the best way to move forward together.

Holiday Recipe: The Bûche de Noël, Québec’s Yule Log Cake

For many Québécois, the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without the traditional bûche de Noël, or “Yule log”. Unlike its English counterpart, however, this edible log isn’t one you’ll want to burn. Formed from a chocolate Swiss roll filled with jam or cream, this cake is shaped into a log and often decorated with powdered sugar “snow”, berries, and marzipan or merengue mushrooms. They are frequently served for dessert at the réveillon, a lavish feast that traditionally followed the midnight Christmas mass and continued until dawn.

Canadian Living offers a number of variations on this traditional cake sure to please a variety of palates. Or, try this chocolate-cherry recipe from Canadian Baking Show Holiday Week star baker Vandana Jain.

Interested in learning more about the réveillon? Read Montreal-based celebrity chef Chuck Hughes’ reflections on his own family traditions, and learn his recipe for oysters mignonette.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Canadian Studies Program

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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.

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