All I Want for Christmas Is a New Massey Commission

It’s time for a new vision of Canadian culture, and the COVID-19 pandemic provides a major opportunity to embark on this project. A new Massey Commission could establish a different paradigm for arts and culture, one that could be valued as an inherent good, similar to education and health care, and dramatically increase access and sustainability in the process.

Canada

This chapter examines the history of the English-language novel in Canada since 1950. It first considers how the promotion of Canadian cultural identity and attempts to articulate a distinctly Canadian social ethos became increasingly mobilized in the decades following World War II. It then discusses the newfound optimism about the future of Canadian literature and culture that flourished following the Massey Commission initiatives, as well as Canadian novels published during the 1960s and 1970s — a period regarded as a time of social emancipation, sexual freedom, and counter-culture revolution. It also explores developments in the 1980s and 1990s and during the period 2000–2015, citing a number of important novels published in these years, including Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees (1996), Austin Clarke's The Polished Hoe (2002), Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For (2005), and David Chariandy's Soucouyant (2007).

International Cultural Relations as a Factor in Postwar Canadian Cultural Policy: The Relevance of UNESCO for the Massey Commission

The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (The Massey Commission, 1949-1951) is widely seen to be Canada’s most important position paper on national cultural policy. This article explores the relation of this significant document to UNESCO and its characteristic discourse of “cultural relations.” Not only did UNESCO appear in the terms of reference for the Massey Commission Report, but it also was a repeated touchstone for submissions to the Commission. This overlooked international aspect of the Massey Commission underscores the connection between politics and culture in Cold War Canada providing a clear case of how international political language becomes entangled with — and helps to legitimize — artistic and cultural endeavours. The combination of the discussion of education and culture with that of development and trade allowed Canada to reconsider its position on public funding for the arts. Résumé: La commission royale sur le développement national des arts, des lettres et des sciences (la Commission Massey, 1949-1951) est vue par de nombreuses personnes comme étant la plus importante en ce qui a trait à la politique culturelle nationale. Cet article explore les rapports entre ce document présenté à l’UNESCO et son discours caractéristique de ¨relations culturelles¨. Non seulement l’UNESCO sert-elle comme point de référence dans ce rapport, mais il fut aussi un repère constant dans les soumissions à la commission. Cet aspect international négligé de la commission Massey souligne le lien entre la politique et la culture au Canada pendant la guerre froide. Ceci démontre de façon évidente de quelle façon le langage politique international devient entremêlé avec et prête une certaine légitimité aux activités culturelles et artistiques. Le rapprochement de la discussion sur l’éducation et la culture avec celle du développement et du commerce permet au canada de reconsidérer sa situation vis-à-vis le financement public des arts.