The Ethnic Press of Canada

A window of the pluralistic multicultural society

By Thomas S. Saras

Introduction

I am greatly honored and delighted to participate in this forum both as a journalist, editor and publisher of one of the largest newspapers published in Greek outside Greece and also as the president of Ethnic Press Council of Canada. 

The Ethnic Press Council of Canada is an association which brings together journalists and publications of different ethnic groups in Canada working together as one force to influence public policy and to protect and promote the interests of ethnic press in Canada at the same time. I am, therefore, extremely thankful to the organizers of this seminar on such vital yet mostly ignored topic.

This seminar is taking place in an academic setting. I am no academic. I am a grassroots operator. For more than 35 years I have been working as a journalist, editor and publisher of one of the largest newspapers published in Greek and English outside Greece. This is the reason that I would like to have my remarks confined to a more practical aspect of running an ethnic newspaper in Canada or in North America.

Ethnic newspapers

By definition, an ethnic newspaper serves the members of a specific linguistically homogeneous cultural group in Canada or the USA. Furthermore, there are many linguistic variations in any cultural group within the Canadian multicultural or pluralistic experience. For example, in the South Asian community, there are many newspapers published in different languages, although they claim they serve the same cultural group. In fact, they serve a particular client group which happens to speak a different dialect due to geographic location in the same country. So, the different client groups have different linguistic needs within the same cultural loop of a specific ethnic community.

It is true that classical democratic values always view freedom as a set of institutions, which both promote and depend upon the full rational development of every individual citizen by providing them with the ability of fully understanding the virtues and political principles of the society he or she lives in. The ethnic press is well suited to achieve that end due to multiplicity of cultures and languages.

This ability to inform the members of each cultural community in their own mother tongue constitutes for them a new concept of freedom and shows the appreciation of every individual member of the community for the society in general. Many of these people have always been denied freedom in every simple aspect of the term, such as the freedom of education in their own cultural linguistic background. To them this fact constitutes a new concept of freedom, some new sort of ethnic experience outside of their own homeland.

It is a common experience that Canada is a pluralist society and the manifestation of this pluralism should be left to individual, personal preferences. Twenty-five centuries ago, in the ancient Athenian democracy - the first democracy of human history - one of the greatest philosophical minds, the first “citizen of the world”, Socrates the Athenian, defending his criticism against the political establishment of the city-state said that he thinks of a society like a horse and himself as a horsefly whose duty was not to allow the animal to sleep.

In the same motive, I would like to bring the importance of the ethnic press in our multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, society. And this is exactly  the significance of the existence of the ethnic press. Initially, it serves as an information messenger, providing information about events in the community, vital news about the progress and the development of its members as well as news from back home. 

Since the newspaper is written in the particular group’s own language, it is read by almost all members of the family and certainly contains information most relevant to them. At the same time, it performs a social service by arranging various social events and culture reaching functions such as picnics, entertainment and various community programs.

In a pluralistic society, such as the Canadian, this is one of the most important characteristics of a liberal and inclusive democracy. It is the newspaper which is going to inform the members of the community about the political developments back home and also keep them aware of the political possibilities, opportunities and possible challenges in the new land. At this developmental stage, the newspaper has no political ideology. The main concern is survival. It is not practical for the editor to get involved in a political dialogue or any political debate or present views on any divisive issues.

Survival is the magic word and this is where they are putting all their efforts, with hard work of many hours per day and personal and family sacrifices.

With regards to Canadian issues at this stage, it seems that they do not form a major component to the editor or publisher of an ethnic newspaper. They are mainly concerned about the events of the community, due to limitations in human and financial resources and the practical inability to follow the events of the mainstream society.

Most of the time, or almost all the time, the ethnic newspaper is a one person’s operation. He or she is the reporter, usually is the editor, publisher, distributor and financier; hence, this person has no time to write or entertain national issues.

However, as the paper grows, it gets involved in Canadian issues, not only to the extent of whatever relates or affects the ethnic community, but also the community in general. Such subjects as immigration, citizenship, heritage language, multiculturalism, human rights, are issues debated by the columnists. At this stage, they try to follow the same pattern as the mainstream media, they include news, special columns, editorial, community news etc. And let’s be pragmatic, in these areas particularly, the ethnic publications do exercise considerable influence in forming public policy and opinion. This is usually done through exercising influence on the readers and by creating a new political dialogue with a large voting body. It is certain that during the last general elections, ethnic Canadians voted as ethnic blocs, and that, at least, political assimilation has not proved.

To this extend, let me remind you of the infamous claim of one of the Quebec’s politicians that the referendum lost because of the “money and the ethnic voters.” This is a paradox of our multiculturalism; on one hand it promotes diversity and on the other it is accused that ethnic pluralism bears the brunt of “disunity”.

There appears to be today, therefore, a sort of common knowledge, among the members of our political establishment, that the Canadian ethnic communities vote as ethnic blocs. An element proving that political assimilation has not occurred, and this is the result of the influence among the members of the various communities of the ethnic press.

This is mainly the reason that in the democratic process much depends on the ethnic Canadians. They managed to retain through the ethnic press most of their cultural identity while being implored not to do so by the establishment, in order to avoid the sense of the realization of their collective political power, which - and that is among us - it is considerable and is getting critical every year as the numbers of the new Canadians are getting bigger and bigger.

The importance of ethnic media in Canada

Regrettably, the importance of the ethnic media has not been recognized in the Canadian society so far. It is a fact that the ethnic newspapers do exercise considerable influence within the communities they serve. This is particularly so from the fact that the newspaper is read not only within a given city of Canadian jurisdiction, but also in other countries as well, and certainly in the home country of the specific cultural community. To this extend, the ethnic Press of Canada among other things serves and as an ambassador of the Canadian culture and political life, to other jurisdictions of the international community, bringing to them the political realities, heritage of Canada, through the editorials and columns of the Ethnic Press.

It is logical, under these circumstances, that as the number of immigrants increase, the influence of the ethnic media is getting more persuasive and pronounced. The fact that the ethnic media helps to formulate public opinion and political criteria for their readers shows the dramatic influence it could bring in the development of the national or local politics. Generally speaking, it helps to form public opinion within the ethnic communities and, furthermore, it has far more influence on the formulation of public policy.

From my experience, let me express my personal conviction that ethnic media can become a link between the mainstream information industry and ethnic communities. They suffer from two main problems: lack of adequate resources and lack of recognition of the important role it can play in the development of the Canadian multicultural society. In order to overcome these difficulties, it is very important to have the open assistance of the respective Governments.

In spite of the difficulties concerning the survival of ethnic newspapers, most of the publishers publish their weekly, monthly or daily newspapers not for the possibility of any profit but because of the passion and love for their respective culture and a passion for journalism, freedom and human values. If it is true that every culture has its own traditions, its own values, its own aspirations.    Then, it is our duty to help the members of the same family preserve these values, their cultural independence and bring and assimilate these ideals in the Canadian multicultural mosaic, the “real treasure” of Canada.

It is a common sense that the poet, the artist, the musician, the journalist, continue the quite work of the human progress for centuries, building bridges of friendship and understanding between peoples, reminding man of the universality of his feelings and desires and despairs, and also reminding him that the forces of unity are deeper than those that divide. And this is exactly the main goal of the ethnic press in a multicultural society, to inform, to criticize, to demand and defend the voiceless members of his community.

In a multicultural, multiracial, multilingual and multireligious society, such as Canada, ethnic press becomes underpinning of the existence of Canada as a viable community of communities. It is therefore quintessential for the government, the mainstream media and the ethnic press to work hand-in-hand for the progress of our society. In this togetherness lies the strength of a matured country like Canada, rich in cultures and human values, which respects and treasures the cultures and heritage of all its citizens, part of which is also the Ethnic Press.

Thomas S. Saras is the editor-in-chief of Patrides and the president of the Ethnic Press Council of Canada. This is an edited text of his speech at the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration (CERIS) of the University of Toronto.