Editorial

By Paul Schratz

The famed Hollow Tree in Stanley Park has a date with a chainsaw, a thought that horrifies many people.

There's something about trees and Stanley Park that brings out the passions in people, even a tree as wind-damaged and unstable as this one is. One almost gets the impression that if the 1,100-year-old tree actually toppled and fell on a park visitor, some people would regard it as a small price to pay to preserve an important part of our cultural memory.

The tree has been described as iconic. It helped form the first impressions of many newcomers and visitors to Vancouver. Its loss troubles people, especially in a world where they have less and less of significance to hang onto:

• Canadian culture? "We're multicultural now."
• Arts? "Let's check out YouTube."
• History? "Written by dead white men."
• Religious faith? "What is truth?"
• Family? "Biological mom and live-in dad are separated, Granny is on an African safari, and Grampa works full time."

Now in the midst of this loss of connection to our history, the latest Canadian census data illustrates what happens when traditions are maintained.

According to the census, more than 5 million Canadians now identify themselves as members of visible minorities, and their numbers are growing five times as fast as the rest of the population. At this rate they will make up 20 per cent of the population within the next decade.

As St. Paul said to the Thessalonians, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." St. Paul was talking about religious teaching, not the cultural traditions behind the census data, but it's easy to see what happens as visible minorities hold fast to their traditions: growth and stability.

How do they do it, when the rest of what Canadian society holds in common seems to be dissipating into a homogenous mush fuelled by Hollywood, MuchMusic, and the latest download technology?

In short, they're supported by family.

Minority communities such as Indo-Canadians and Chinese Canadians still have a strong sense of ties to family. It may be dwindling, but it's enough to keep their numbers rising in comparison with other Canadians.

Take Abbotsford, where nearly 23 per cent of the population is visible minority, the third-largest proportion in Canada, with the highest proportion of South Asians in the country.

One professor from the University College of the Fraser Valley pointed out that in the Abbotsford area, Indo-Canadian families live together and support each other. It's not uncommon for aging relatives to stay with family rather than be sent to nursing homes. They pass along their culture to their children, who tend to marry others from the same community.

When difficult times come along, as they inevitably do, the family is there to support them. Children of recent immigrants might struggle to define themselves and balance their heritage with their sense of "Canadian-ness," but their sense of tradition is there to sustain them in tough times.

(Shameless plug for The B.C. Catholic: these minority communities also tend to be well served by their own daily and weekly media: in the case of the Chinese, by three daily newspapers!)

Coincidentally, the same week the census figures came out, the Vatican held a conference on family. The plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family ran from Thursday to Saturday with a theme of grandparents, specifically aimed at the role of grandparents in keeping families together, supporting their children and grandchildren, and helping to mediate in couples' relationships.

In Africa, the devastation of AIDS has been answered partly by the rescue of orphaned children by their grandparents. In other countries, high rates of emigration have left children behind to be cared for by grandparents.

We're in a global culture where technology encourages isolation and a mind-numbing popular culture. It's an isolation that we seem to enjoy, but while the world preaches independence, faith and family teach interdependence and mutual support.

After all, a tree that stands independent of others is more likely to be brought down when winds blow.