Covering multiculturalism: popular images and the politics of a nation as reflected on the covers of Maclean's and L'Actualite.

Gilbert, Liette ; Viswanathan, Leela

Abstract

How have images of immigration and mutticulturalism been depicted on Canadian magazine covers and what do they say about the national politics of immigration and multiculturalism? A discursive and visual analysis of the covers and articles in Maclean's (from January, 1960 to May, 2006), and to a lesser extent in L'Actualite (from 1976 to May 2006), reveals a dualistic pattern depicting multicultural and immigrant representations as either the successful, contributing, and model "other" or the threatening, oppositional, and problematic "other." Our analysis goes beyond this binarism and exposes the intersections of age, class, status, sexuality, and racialization as integral to the multicultural context. Yet, as a concept, multiculturalism has hot necessarily been evident in the public and media imaginary of Canada.

Resume

Quelles sont les images vehiculees par les couvertures de revues canadiennes sur l'immigration et le multiculturalisme et que disent-elles a propos des politiques nationales sur ces questions? Une analyse discursive et visuelle des couvertures et des textes de Maclean's (de janvier 1960 a mai 2006) et, a un moindre degre, de L'Actualite (de 1976 a mai 2006) revelent un motif dualistique des representations multiculturelles et immigrantes en tant qu'un <<autre>> presente soit comme un modele de contribution sociale et de succes, soit comme une menace, une opposition et un probleme. Notre analyse va au-dela de ce binarisme et met en lumiere l'interconnection de la classe, du statut social, de la sexualite et de la racialisation comme faisant partie integrante du contexte multiculturel. Cependant, au Canada, le multiculturalisme n'est pas un concept evident dans l'imaginaire public ni dans celui des medias.

INTRODUCTION

Stuart Hall (1996, 613) has argued that "[a] national culture is a discourse--a way of constructing meanings which influences and organizes both out actions and our conceptions of ourselves" Media plays a central role in producing and reproducing a national culture. Media is often said to "either inhibit or advance the aims of producing more democratic, egalitarian and truly multicultural societies" (Kellner 1995, 10). The discursive relation between national culture and media was clearly articulated in the celebratory centennial edition of Maclean's magazine. Senior Contributing Editor Peter C. Newman (2005, 7) writes about being "struck by the parallels between the magazine and the country. "Both" Newman remarks, "have journeyed from primitive to possible to prosperous to postmodern" (ibid). Characterizing such mutation, Newman states that "[o]nce an impregnable WASP stronghold, the country was transformed into the most multicultural cultures" (ibid). And, according to Newman, Maclean's "has chronicled every leap and twitch of the country's dramatic sea change ... woven into the dreams and memories of its readers" (ibid).

Media do not simply chronicle or report events. News is the product of a complex process where "newsworthiness" is established according to the organizational practices and ideological values of the media (Hall et al. 2000). Indeed, national news media do not only attempt to inform the largest possible audience, they also socialize their readers by purveying hegemonic ideals that ascertain a shared national culture (Jiwani 2005). However, a national audience misleadingly conceals and reflects divergent interests and a multitude of regional, cultural, and structural differences. This representational challenge is also compounded by the intense concentration of news and entertainment media into a few conglomerates. A handful of large corporations such as Rogers Communications Inc., CTVglobemedia, CanWest Global, Astral Media, Quebecor, and Shaw hold a wide-range of television, cable television, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, and/or other communication and entertainment operations. Of particular interest here is Rogers Communications Inc., a diversified communications and media company with three subsidiaries: Rogers Wireless (Canada's largest wireless services provider), Rogers Cable (Canada's largest cable television provider), and Rogers Media (offering publishing, television, shopping channel, radio and sports entertainment services). Maclean's (Canada's largest-circulation weekly magazine which has published since 1905) and its French-language counterpart L'Actualite (Quebec's leading public affairs magazine, published since 1976), along with more than seventy consumer, trade, and professional magazines, are published by Rogers Publishing Limited (Canada's largest publishing company), a subsidiary of Rogers Media (Rogers Communications Inc. 2008). Ideologically, both Maclean's and L'Actualite have the reputation of being positioned at the center and right of center in the political spectrum. With its distribution of 356,165 copies and a readership of 2,491,000, Maclean's (forty-seven issues/year) is incontestably the expression of Canadian identity when it comes to news and social commentaries (Maclean's 2008, Rogers Publishing Ltd. 2008). L'Actualite (twenty issues/year) with a distribution of 178,057 copies and a readership of 911,000 plays a similar role in Quebec (ibid.). The hegemonic power of these two magazines as leading national magazines in their respective languages cannot be underestimated. Their iconic covers and anticipated content are an indelible part of national culture.

Covers are the most important component of any magazine. They are conceived to attract the attention of the reader by connecting visually to their audience. Covers combine visual and verbal elements to present a complex and persuasive message. Covers provide the unique identification of the magazine and act as a window into the publication, teasing or luring the reader inside the magazine. Covers are memorable and many of us will remember a particular article or story by way of recalling the cover image (Ryan and Conover 2003).

Leo R. Chavez's book Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (2001) provides a critical cultural history of contemporary discourse about immigrants and immigration through a detailed visual and discursive analysis of seventy-six magazine covers and the accompanying articles published by ten politically diverse magazines in the United States between 1965 and 1999. Chavez's argument is that the United States and the place of immigration, both its past and its future, is being constructed, debated, and contested on magazine covers. He finds that magazine covers reflect the ambivalence of United States society about immigration in the ways alarmist and affirmative characterizations of immigrants are interwoven with the competing and changing visions of immigration policy and management, the charged discourse on the economic and cultural capacity to "absorb" immigrants, and the contested nation's identity as "a nation of immigrants."

If media images, as insightfully demonstrated by Chavez, not only reflect but also play a powerful role in shaping national discourse, how have images of immigration and multiculturalism been depicted on Canadian magazine covers and what do they say about the politics of immigration and multiculturalism in Canada? Identified by Newman in the centennial issue of Maclean's as one of the most important transformations in Canada, the importance of multiculturalism in shaping Canada's national culture was historically established when Trudeau declared that "cultural pluralism is the very essence of Canadian identity" (Canada, House of Commons 1971, 8580). Enshrined in Canada's constitution, the ideology of multiculturalism no longer represents solely a policy reacting to socio-demographic change. Multiculturalism has become a social ideal and organizing national vision. The construction of multiculturalism as a social ideal or as a shared national identity has, however, rested on immigration which was not always from the dominant group, leading to the development of greater diversity and difference.

Given the centrality of multiculturalism in the Canadian national culture, and following Chavez's research, we investigated the representations of immigration and multiculturalism on the covers of Canada's national magazines. We had a limited number of Canadian magazines to work from and quickly identified Maclean's as our ideal choice for study. We expected that a few covers, particularly around the announcement of the Multiculturalism Policy in 1971 and the Multiculturalism Act in 1985, would have been dedicated to the "celebration" of Canadian multicultural identity. Because of curiosity (we are both francophones from Quebec) and comparative interest, we also looked at the covers of L'Actualite even though its publication started after Quebec's adoption of interculturalism as a management strategy of its diversity.

We examined Maclean's covers from January, 1960 to May, 2006 in recognition of the changes in the 1960s in immigration policy, the rise in identity politics, and the acknowledgement that diversity preceded policy. In looking for immigration and diversity representations, we identified 120 covers that either depicted the contested yet practical criteria of non-white people, immigration, and/or important social and political contexts of the time. Out of these, we specifically examined fifty covers featuring individuals of various racial and/or immigrant groups. We also examined covers of L'Actualite from its beginnings in 1976 to May, 2006. We selected twenty-two covers (out of some 450 issues published) for their contextual and discursive relevance.

After reviewing more than 3,000 covers of Maclean's and L'Actualite, we found no covers or cover headlines with the actual wording multicultural or multiculturalism. This finding corroborated a previous argument made by Wood and Gilbert (2005) that, despite its importance in shaping a national imaginary, multiculturalism has been an accidental discourse in the Canadian national culture. How, then, did Maclean's and L'Actualite conceptualise multiculturalism without using this particular concept in reference to policy, ideology, or practice?

UNCOVERING MULTICULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS

Over the period of the last forty years, Maclean's covers depicted Blacks (ten covers), First Nations (fifteen), and Asian and South Asian (eight) (predominantly male) individuals. Issues related to immigration were presented on eight covers. A couple of covers referred respectively to Jewish and Irish experiences. Only two covers addressed collective issues of race and race relations. Three post-2003 covers showed members of ethnocultural communities in more "ordinary" situations related to education or faith--which could signify a greater embrace of multiculturalism.

Eighteen covers of L'Actualite spoke of diversity in similar ethnocultural and individual terms as round in Maclean's, but the most important difference was that seven covers depicted couples or groups of adults. Three particular L'Actualite covers were of interest. The first one depicted a group of six racially-diverse adults (in their twenties or early thirties) dressed in hockey shirts, smiling under the headline "Quebec of Tomorrow" (October 1989). The second showed a group of unidentified people, much like a grouping on a busy street, under the headlines "Who Are We? Anatomy of a Distinct Society" (January 1992). The third cover presented six artists as "Quebeckers of the Year" who had chosen Quebec "as the best place to live" (January 1998). The contrasting use of groups on the covers of L'Actualite, compared to individuals on Maclean's, evidences Quebec's promotion of interculturalism encouraging "cultural convergence" through the adoption of French as the language of public life and a respect for liberal democratic and pluralistic values (Juteau 2002; Helly 1996). These three covers highlighted a range of "convergence" representations, from the superficial understanding of belonging expressed noncommittally in the wearing a hockey shirt, to the physical coexistence of an indifferent crowd and fleeting engagement, to the "brain gain" of newcomers loyally choosing a new society. The contention of "cultural convergence" was, however, best exemplified by a more recent cover (May 15, 2006) showing a bi-racial couple and the cover line "Sommes-nous racistes? [Are we racists?]" and the provocative result of a survey indicating that Quebeckers have no problem with their children marrying a Black person, but that hiring a Black person is far more unlikely.

Magazines rely on narratives that are easily recognizable by those who constitute the nation, and the use of negative and ambivalent metaphors often suggests a nation in crisis (Chavez 2001). The fifty Maclean's covers, selected for their representations of members of ethnocultural communities, were spread out and increased in frequency over rime (three in the 1960s, eight in the 1970s, eight in the 1980s, nineteen in the 1990s, and twelve between 2000 and 2006). A dualistic pattern quickly emerged from the covers that depicted the successful, contributing individual and model "other" in contrast to the threatening, oppositional, and problematic "other." The model "other" was represented by wealthy investors such as Li Ka-Shing (August 1987), public figures such as Adrienne Clarkson (September 1972, March 2003, and September 2006), politicians such as Ujjal Dosanjh (February 2000), popular entertainers such as Charlie Biddle (July 2001) and Paul Anka (July 2005), and athletes such as Donovan Bailey (July 1996) and Perdita Felicien (August 2004). Covers depicting the threatening "other" featured more menacing and alarmist images and cover lines such as in the case of Sikh spokeperson Dr. Arjinderpal Singh Khalsa holding his kirpan ("The Sikh Connection" June 1986), an unidentified Mohawk warrior holding a rifle ("Rough Justice" July 1990) and a anonymous black young male ("Young, Black, and Angry" May 1992). A similar dualistic and binary pattern emerged from the immigration-related covers where immigration was either celebrated in terms of humanitarianism, national generosity, inclusive open door policy, or the successful accomplishments of immigrants. But most immigration covers, particularly those featured in August, 1986; April, 1996; August, 1999; and December, 2000, presented the tensions of the "open door" policy and refugee arrivals and human smuggling. Such views tended to be alarmist in imagery and word, and consistently raised issues about immigration control and national identity. Overall, magazine covers conveyed more alarmist images during the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. A series of covers in the early 1990s depicted issues of violence, tension, and resistance, expressing the national angst about constitutional debates and economic recessions. Since 2000, covers have predominantly used affirmative imagery due perhaps to a greater multicultural sensitivity of mainstream society, larger ethnocultural populations (readership), conscious marketing strategy, and calmer constitutional and economic climate. However, a rapid review of Maclean's covers from May, 2006 to August, 2008 shows that the alarmist exception to this trend has been the representation of Muslims, first in the context of the Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency ("Prepare to Bury Your Dead" March 20, 2006), homegrown terror ("It's Not Over," June 19, 2006 and "The Khadr Bunch," August 7, 2006), the global rise of Islam ("Why the Future Belongs to Islam?" October 23, 2006), and, second, in the debate on the limits of Canadian tolerance ("Do Immigrants Need Rules?" March 5, 2007, and "Are We Becoming a Nation of Bigots?" October 22, 2007). While the representation of Muslims as the "threatening other" is clearly linked to the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States and previous and subsequent attacks elsewhere, it is interesting to note that Maclean's did not dedicate much cover space to Muslims abroad or in Canada until 2006. It is also interesting to note that Muslim women were featured predominantly on the covers on the global rise of Islam and the national decline of tolerance. Generally portrayed as submissive, Muslim women are suddenly depicted as key actors in the enactment of Canadian multiculturalism (Jiwani 2005, Karim 2003).

CONTEXTS OF NATIONAL UNITY AND IDENTITY

Thirty-nine Maclean's covers dealt with issues of Canadian unity and identity--in relation to Quebec and the United States. There were celebratory covers of national unity, particularly around the 1982 repatriation of the constitution. Following the Meech Lake debates and the 1988 United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement, covers in the late 1980s and early 1990s convey division, uncertainly, doubt, and hardship, coinciding also with the economic recession. The covers after NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the 1976 Quebec referendum covers display a mix of anxiety and confidence. Most of these covers show photographs of key politicians acting in the debates, but there were also a large number of covers created from iconic symbols such as the flag, the maple leaf, the beaver, and the globe. Canadian maps and images of the maple leaf were stretched, held together precariously, or were literally falling apart. However, by 2000, a cover depicted a beaver wearing the iconic winter tuque and opening his traditional checkered shirt to show a vibrant, if not symbolic, Canadian heart.

We identified twelve covers dealing specifically with Canada-United States national and trade relations. The majority of these covers in the 1980s and early 1990s concentrated on issues of friendship and partnership--articulated around two key moments: the 1988 United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. A general ambiguous feeling present until the mid-1990s seems to be replaced by a more secure relationship in the late 1990s with covers talking about vanishing borders and sharing currency. Covers were mostly composed of collages or drawings juxtaposing both Canadian (e.g., flag, maple leaf, beaver) and American iconic symbols (e.g., flag, eagle, statue of liberty). In May, 2004, the same very relaxed beaver, this time wearing a baseball cap backwards and sporting a maple leaf motif shirt, calmly holds a beer as it stands by a white picket fence.

We also identified twenty-three covers presenting Canada-Quebec tensions. Such covers were concentrated on Quebec elections and referenda (1976, 1980, and 1995). A few covers continue to debate the recurrent independence debates after 1995. Here juxtapositions of federal and Pequiste politicians or Canada's maple leaf and Quebec's fleur de lys were often used. Particularly interesting is the fact that many covers were cartoonish drawings of Quebec politicians (e.g., Parizeau, Levesque, Ryan, Bouchard, and Charest), a style that seems exclusive to Quebec politicians with the only exception being Preston Manning (October 1993). Recurrent use of words like "separatism," "republic," and "divided" were significant.

We also identified fifteen covers featuring First Nations issues and individuals. Early covers presented relatively "neutral" imagery of First Nations individuals (e.g., female model, male elder, or Indian art). But starting in the 1980s and particularly during the Oka crisis in 1990 (featured on the June, August, and September covers of that year), First Nations people were depicted in the alarmist, oppositional, and violent images of armed individuals. Covers featuring First Nations tended to be less oppositional after 1995 with images of Inuit children and Nunavut premier Paul Okalik, acclaimed as the "northern son," and evidencing the dominant society's patriarchal power. Words such as "battle," "rough," "fury," "drumbeats," and "rage," along with violent symbols (notably guns and war bonnet) were often used on the magazine covers.

COVERING MULTICULTURAL IDENTITY

If, as Chavez argues, "images on popular magazine covers provide an excellent window into issues of importance in a society" (2001, 19), the policy of multiculturalism was never very high on the Canadian and Maclean's agendas. The development of the multiculturalism policy in 1971 was not reported by the magazine even though this policy was to alter the relations among newcomers and their host and origin countries. A year after the 1988 revision of the Multiculturalism Act, a cover featuring a photograph of then-Employment and Immigration Minister Barbara McDougall (July 1989) could be linked to the event. The cover line "An Angry Racial Backlash" not only contradicts the intent of the policy, but it also stands somewhat in contradiction to the composed image of the Minister. Although the word "multiculturalism" did not appear on any covers, we round four issues using the noun or the adjective in accompanying texts--in two July, 1989 issues, in an article of February, 1994 on NAFTA, and in a July 1, 2002 issue celebrating Canada Day. Instead, we round visual and textual reminders that the politics of multiculturalism and immigration in Canada continue to be contentious.

The words "race" and "racial" were featured on two covers, even though Canada prides itself in its ethnocultural (rather than racial) understanding of diversity. Six years after the introduction of the multiculturalism policy, a cover depicted a Sikh-Canadian protestor and the headline read "Race: The Debate Becomes Violent" (February 2, 1977). In the articles elaborating on the cover story, we learn that a group of one hundred demonstrators, "oblivious to the blowing snow and bitter cold of January in Toronto" (a reference to acclimatization used historically to rationalize white only immigration policy), are speaking after two years of racist attacks where homes were vandalized, temples desecrated, children beaten in schoolyards, and men assaulted on subway platforms (Ferrante 1977, 18). The events were long considered incidents by the police until East Indians actually came forward with detailed stories of discrimination and assaults (which led to the creation of a one-man task force to study racism in Toronto). Ferrante (ibid.) qualified the events as a "racial time bomb" manifested by the fact that "Canadians are seeing a visible change in the racial makeup of their society at a time when fears about unemployment tend to make them more inflexible." According to the article, East Indians became the perfect scapegoats for these fears because they are "the most 'different' culturally of the new visible minorities" and "they appear even more threatening to Canadians because they tend to be professionals, relatively well off, capable of competing in the marketplace for good jobs" (ibid.). A Maclean's survey showed that 80% of 2000 Canadians surveyed wanted immigrants to assimilate unobstrusively (ibid. 20).

A second cover dated July 10, 1989, carried the headline "An Angry Racial Backlash" and subheadings "Canada's Ethnic Mosaic Under Attack" and "The Rise of Third World Immigration," offering an interesting contrast to the photograph of Barbara McDougall. Here the message is that Canada's ethnic mosaic is under attack by Third World immigration--and could potentially lead to a angry racial backlash--unless the immigration minister acts. The main article, under the subtitle "Harmony, a Vision of Canada" speaks about the opening of "a bold new frontier, setting an example to the rest of the world that people of different backgrounds could live in harmony without losing their cultural distinctiveness. It was a tempting image that set Canada's cultural mosaic strikingly apart from the American melting pot to the south--and many Canadians embraced it wholeheartedly" (Kopvillem 1989, 14). However, the article states that the Canadian reality has fallen short of this harmonious ideal and that a growing number of Canadians have become more intolerant not only of identifiable minorities, but of the idea of ethnic diversity itself (ibid.). This situation presents "a reality far different from that envisioned in 1971, when then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau officially adopted multiculturalism as a touchstone for Canadian Society" (ibid.), and when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney--"himself the husband of an immigrant Canadian"--reaffirmed Ottawa's commitment to multiculturalism by declaring that Canadians should have the freedom "to retain their respective identities while joining one another as equal partners in a united country" (ibid.).

Canada faces the dilemma of accepting more immigrants in order to offset the declining birth rate in the country and to preserve its prosperity, knowing that a large majority of these immigrants will now come from Third World countries. How can Canada reconcile the demographic and economic need for more immigrants with xenophobia and intolerance? For McDougall, "the reality confronting Canada is clear: the mosaic will increasingly be set in colors other than white. And it will be left to Ottawa to contain any backlash against visible minorities" (ibid. 16). McDougall reassures the readers that" [t] he counteroffensive is already under way. Last year, Parliament passed a new Canadian Multiculturalism Act that enshrined in law 'the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve and share their cultural heritages'" (ibid.). The policy of multiculturalism is clearly seen here as the solution to the backlash.

The cover featuring McDougall presents the institutionalization and celebration of the Multiculturalism Act of 1988 (and its close association to immigration policy) as a solution to the "angry racial blacklash" While the cover and cover line expose the dissonance between "open door" immigration policy and the threats of intolerance, a short article appears to celebrate the Minister as well. It is reported that four days after being named Minister, McDougall intercepted Turkish marchers and supporters demanding an end to deportation, on their way to Ottawa (from Montreal). McDougall apparently "contain[ed] the storm" by insisting that no exception will be made to the immigration policy because "we must treat everyone the same" (Clark 1989, 20). The focus of this article is, therefore, not about the backlash or the march, but rather about McDougall's political and economic career, and how the interception of marchers was labeled a "brilliant move" that "completely neutralized the problem" (ibid.).

COVERING IMMIGRATION POLITICS

Over the last century, Maclean's dedicated six covers and headlines to immigration (including issues of refugees, human smuggling, and document fraud). Three additional covers spoke of immigration processes and policies under the headlines of international investment, Vancouver, and child adoption. Two covers published in 1986 reported on the "Desperate Voyage" of Tamil refugees (August 25) and on the new immigration targets and profiles of immigrants under the cover line "The Immigrants: A New Campaign to Open Doors" (October 13). In contrast to the former cover which tested the sympathies of Canadians for "the world's homeless" (Janigan 1986, 8), the latter cover presented a celebratory image of the Canadian "mosaic" with four small cameo photographs that imitate a family album. The contrast, highlighted by these two covers, is that Canada has always been preoccupied by its capacity to take refugees and deal with human smugglers, but has been more comfortable with its immigration program. The October issue emphasizes the fact that Canada's history and future is made of immigrant stories, and immigrants are the "necessary raw material for the nation" (MacQueen 1986, 12). The article reports that Canada is reopening its borders after a decade, defying chronic unemployment and limited economic growth, and that the government is "risking" a significant increase in immigration (from 105,000 to 200,000 yearly admissions), and creating "investor" as a category of immigration in an attempt to stimulate the economy and counteract the declining birthrate and an aging population. The government's rationale is that immigrants create jobs and expand markets and demands. Gerald Weiner, then-Minister of State for Immigration, contends that his "vision is to open the doors, but of course, in a controlled fashion" (ibid.). Two months earlier, Weiner had presented the same imperative of control in prudent terms at the time of the Tamils' arrival on the coast of Newfoundland, by stating that "our shores can be available to those that are legitimate refugees with legitimate claims" (Janigan 1986, 10).

Canada's controlled "open door" policy for refugees and immigrants has changed "not only the nation's demography but its sense of itself" (MacQueen 1986, 13). This is linked to the fact that "visible minorities" have now reached 8% of the total population in a country that has long pursued a white-only immigration policy. A 1985 Royal Commission on the Economy noted that increased immigration of non-European origin is a potential source of political conflict and that, as seen earlier, "Ottawa needs to sell the public on the benefits of a more culturally diverse nation" (ibid.). However, Ottawa's commitment is to create a new image of itself as an attractive place to invest. For almost a decade, Ottawa has encouraged wealthy entrepreneurs (with a net worth of $500,000 and willing to invest at least half in a business project or investment syndicate) to move to Canada, but since the Conservatives took office in 1984, it has become a higher priority. Reacting in part to the arrivals of 155 Tamil refugees to Newfoundland in 1986, a joint government-private sector panel concluded that refugees are "increasingly inappropriate for our technological society" (ibid. 15). Yet, this new trend in immigration policy has critics concerned because refugees and relatives of landed immigrants cannot legitimately or legally buy their way into the country, and many of them will, therefore, be relegated to human smuggling (an issue addressed in the remaining immigration covers).

Immigration debates reappeared on a cover of Maclean's in 1994 under the cover line "The Lessons of Vancouver" and the subheading "Debating Immigration: Who and How Many?" The February 7 cover depicted four smiling, "ethnically-diverse" children in front of the Vancouver skyline. Although the cover seems to communicate a larger acceptance of immigration as the present reality (not only the past or future) of the country, the accompanying article raised the same fundamental questions of national identity and values in the face of immigration. The transformation of Vancouver, financed by Hong Kong and Taiwan investments (many of them qualifying under the investor category of immigration and citizenship), is said to have created discomfort among existing residents, despite the fact that immigration is also responsible for the city's vibrant economy. Sore points ranged from the perceived lack of effort made by Asians "to fit into" Canadian society, the building of a "monster house" (and the loss of a Victorian residential and gardens aesthetic), and the soaring price of real estate--particularly the sale of Vancouver Expo (below market value) to Hong Kong developer Li Ka-Shing (Mitchell 2004). Such changes challenged existing civic conventions and institutions, particularly schools and policing--despite the contrasting message of smiling children on the cover. But, the main point is that Canada is changing, and that some people are resisting such change. It is argued, again, that "[i]n our big cities, and in many small towns as well, the highest levels of non-white immigration ever are raising fears and testing our commitment to the ideals of multiculturalism" (Phillips and Wood 1994, 26). Yet, the article points out that the polite agreement "not to debate the issue seriously has vanished" (ibid.) with the recent Reform and Bloc Quebecois's critique of official multiculturalism--ironic since the House includes more "visible minorities" than ever and three native leaders "who might justly regard all the other 292 MPs as 'immigrants'" (ibid.).

There is a persistent ambivalence characterizing the immigration debates. On one hand, it is reported that the mood among Canadians toward immigration has soured, and yet, Canada's "generosity" and liberal immigration policy is constantly celebrated. "Canadians find it difficult to strike a balance between their humanitarian instincts and the best interests of their own country" writes Bergman (1994, 35). While Canada accepts a larger proportion of immigrants compared to the United States and Australia, the problem is framed in terms of recent newcomers being unskilled and "not faring as well as earlier immigrants"--which then legitimizes Canada's emphasis on professional and marketable skills for economic migrants (ibid.).

INTERSECTIONALITY OF DISCOURSES

What is not addressed in any of the Maclean's covers and articles is how elements of race, racialization, class, gender, economic status, and where we live all intersect. Considering intersectionality of the various foot causes of oppression is important not solely to go beyond the alarmist and successful binarism, but also to expose these intersections as integral to the multicultural reality. Without an understanding of how and why these relationships to domination are perpetuated, social change is hardly possible.

The dualism of affirmation and alarmism in the images of Maclean's covers was probably the most marked for Black males. A smiling entertainer Charlie Biddle ("The Brain Gain," July 1, 2001) and a shirtless athlete Donovan Bailey ("Ready to Rip," July 22, 1996) opposed the earlier image of an unidentified black young male ("Young, Black, and Angry," May 18, 1992). The cover of a young black man was published after a demonstration in downtown Toronto (inspired by the recent Los Angeles riot and the acquittal of four white policemen in the videotaped beating of Rodney King) and the recent shooting of a young black male in the west end of Toronto. Despite this context informing the cover, the young black male was not depicted as the oppressed, but rather as the oppressor. The representation of this young black man as symbol of urban tension and of youth/anger were contrasted to the jovial Charlie Biddle and Donovan Bailey images of people having represented Canada in the world. Bailey, who came to Canada in 1980 from Jamaica, went on to win two gold medals and establish a world record at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, thus boosting Canada's international reputation. Biddle, known as the father of the Montreal Jazz Festival, came to Montreal in 1948 from the United States and was identified as one of the successful immigrant personalities by Maclean's in celebration of Canada Day. Both Bailey and Biddle were deemed "exceptional" examples of immigrants contributing positively to out society. However, the "fearful" Black "other" was not constructed as the "other" as immigrant, but rather as the "other" on the social and urban margins. Violence and contestation were presented as internal issues of a minority youth group. Fear instilled by the Black male youth distracted from the conditions of discrimination, poverty, and unemployment characterizing racialized neighborhoods. The ambivalent acceptance of racism has been more recently and explicitly questioned on a more recent cover featuring writer Lawrence Hill (2001) under the title "Black +White ... Equals Black" (August 27, 2001), and offers a more nuanced view of Black identity in relation to White hegemony.

The visual composition of the Maclean's covers is also quite significant. A white-bearded Charlie Biddle, smiling and striking the chords of his bass fiddle, exudes talent, hard work, and entertainment value. The sexualized sprinter Donovan Bailey, smiling and looking straight to us, expresses physical power and courage. Biddle and Bailey's smiling and affable stances contrast with the image of the younger black man wearing his hooded sweatshirt and looking away. The young unidentified Black man is made far more threatening than Charlie Biddle and his music. The fact that the three selected covers depict male figures is rather consistent with the majority of Maclean's covers, and the sexualization of the entertainer and athlete is not limited to males. A smiling Deborah Cox dressed in a shining bustier was crowned Canada's Queen of R&B (July 19, 1999) and an athletic Perdita Felicien is featured in another Olympic special issue (August 16, 2004). Yet, the recognition of Black entertainers and Olympians is quite temporal in comparison to the powerful stereotype of the young Black angry man and the social structures that foster inequality.

In another set of covers, class issues are made far more prevalent. Under the cover line of "Very Rich and very Powerful" (August 17, 1987), investor and real-estate developer Li Ka-Shing represents the epitome of the "successful" immigrant. In an issue about international adoption entitled "Bringing Home Baby" (August 21, 1995), actor Sonja Smits is featured proudly holding her newly adopted Chinese baby boy. Strangely reminiscent of the Smits cover on international adoption, another cover shows a smaller image of a Chinese mother and baby under the cover line "The Smuggler's Slaves" (December 11, 2000) and focuses on the clandestine journey of migrants to Canada. These three covers intersect issues of class, immigrant status, and ethnicity, as well as themes of il/legality, in/security, and humanitarianism.

Asian immigration, as a source of Canadian immigration, is the subtext in each of these covers, whether the specific issues be economic investment, international adoption, or human smuggling (none of which are, of course, restricted to Asian newcomers). Human trafficking, mentioned previously, has been one result of the preference for highly-skilled labor in the Canadian immigration policy. However, there are also economic and political events such as the transfer of Hong Kong to China, the new coexistence of poverty and prosperity in China's economic boom, and China's one-child policy that have an contributed to il/legal immigration to Canada, the influx of refugees, and the adoption of Chinese babies by Canadians. Class and immigration are key themes being played out on these covers and their accompanying articles. The issue of class is manifested through the economic immigration by individuals and groups who come to Canada as investors and who, like Li Ka-Shing, become very rich and powerful. The cover photograph shows Li Ka-Shing looming over the globe (as if to say that his power extends over the world). He is recognized as an important player in the global economy who has built his "Canadian empire" in the real estate industry in Vancouver. Although Ka-Shing and other Hong Kong investors have faced opposition in Vancouver, Mitchell (1996, 2004) has argued, that even with contestation, multiculturalism was justified by the economic boost that Hong Kong capitalists gave the city and the province. Multiculturalism was used to smooth the resistance to the transnational movement of capital (Mitchell 1996).

The experiences of investors contrast greatly with the experiences of adoption and human smuggling. Although the growing practice of international adoption has been made more possible by poverty, war, abandonment of children, international policies on child adoption, and even child trafficking rings, the cost of international adoptions is significant. In 1995, when the "Bringing Baby Home" cover was published, foreign adoptions ranged in cost from $10,000 to $25,000 per child (Fulton and Driedger 1995, 34). The capacity to give a child a better life here is based on both the relative differential in wealth between countries and the economic status of the adoptive parents in Canada. In this particular issue of the magazine, international adoption contrasted the prevalence of child/human trafficking with the multitude of complications that many prospective parents face in the international adoption process. Yet, in the case of Sonja Smits, the adoption process is said to have moved rather quickly and favorably since she was awarded a male baby by the Chinese authorities, apparently because her profession of actor carried status in China (Driedger 1996). This happy ending contrasts with the experiences of the influx of illegal immigrants smuggled in ship containers and retained by businesses in Toronto and Vancouver as part of the underground economy's indentured slaves.

In "The Smugglers' Slaves" story, there is no mention of the humanitarianism describing the international adoption process. The image and the related stories of the 2000 cover revealed the desperation of many trying to migrate to Canada through smuggling networks that make human trafficking a global business. The experiences of the Chinese migrants are depicted here in quite different terms than the 1970s Vietnamese refugees to Canada or the Tamil refugees who arrived off the coast of Newfoundland in the 1980s (Fennell 2000). Earlier events were presented with a definite humanitarian narrative, even if the settlement stories of these refugees might not have all been trouble-free. In the case of the Chinese refugee claimants, most of them from the Fujian province, the debt incurred by the indentured slaves to secure false documents and a precarious passage to Canada could reach $100,000 (ibid.). These refugees spend many years at multiple jobs working for less than minimum wage in restaurants or factories in order to pay off the smugglers. Facing a back-logged refugee application process, migrants are forced to dwell in the informal economy. An), regularization program would, in the words of then-Citizenship and Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan "send the wrong signal ... particularly when you are dealing with trafficking" (ibid. 19). The risks and costs for desperate migrants and refugees to come to Canada contrast greatly with the open door policy to investors as a category of immigration.

The financial dimension of il/legitimate immigration is also reflected in the image of Li Ka-Shing confidently arched over the globe and the actor Sonja Smits proudly holding her adoptive son and the image of the Chinese mother and child on "The Smugglers Slaves" cover. The mother-child portraits, despite their similar composition, exude very different messages. Smits's family portrait, appearing more revered, larger, and composed, displaying Canada's national colours of red and white, conveys comfort and safety. By contrast, the portrait of the immigrant mother and child is much smaller, black and white, with blurry edges that make it appear almost like an old document. This is not an image of safety and security; neither does the cover allude to any celebratory depiction of multiculturalism. Clandestine immigration issues have received additional coverage by Maclean's, but such reporting was caught in a legal/illegal framework that discriminates against migrants who fall outside the boundaries of official immigration and refugee policies.

CONCLUSION

Multiculturalism has not, implicitly and explicitly, received much attention on the covers of national magazines. When represented, multiculturalism appears as a vehicle for national unity and national identity, and is more clearly articulated in terms of economic rather than social benefits. While multiculturalism has been the subject of public debate since 1971, when it was introduced as a policy under the Trudeau government, our research shows that the terms and terminology of the debate remain quite ambiguous. Limited by stereotypical images of multiculturalism, the discussion about multiculturalism and immigration are categorized in terms of alarmist and celebratory imagery. These cultural constructions, which at times involve distortions of multiculturalism and immigration, become part of the dominant discourses and are so ingrained in collective consciousness that media do not much question them (Karim 2003). By juxtaposing social, cultural, political, and economic issues, we have revealed some of the many tensions in both multiculturalism and immigration policies. Yet, the place of multiculturalism and immigration as debated on Maclean's magazine covers is one that represents our national culture and its limits to engage critically in imagining our multicultural society beyond its celebratory and tolerant conceptions. The complexity of hierarchical power relations that creates dominant and dominated groups was, unsurprisingly, considered "newsworthy." In looking at the constructions and representations of multiculturalism and immigrations on magazine covers, we still see the hegemonic reproduction of a contested multicultural Canada.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu-Luban, Yasmeen, and Christina Gabriel. 2002. Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.

Angus, Ian. 1997. A Border Within: National Identity, Cultural Plurality, and Wilderness. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.

Bannerji, Himani. 2000. The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.

Bergman, Brian. 1994. Points of Contention. Maclean's 107.6 (Feb. 2): 35.

Bennett, David, ed. 1998. Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity. New York: Routledge.

Canada. House of Commons. 1971. House of Commons Debates. October 8. www.canadahistory.com/sections/documents/trudeau- onmulticulturalism.htm

Chavez, Leo R. 2001. Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Clark, Mark. 1989. A Cool, Steady Hand. Maclean's 102.28 (July 10): 20.

Deacon, lames. 1996. The Power and the Glory. Maclean's 109.30 (July 22): 18-20.

Drache, Daniel. 2004. Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America. Halifax: Fernwood.

Driedger, Sharon D. 1996. Where Boys Are Rare. Maclean's 108.34 (Aug. 21): 37.

Fennell, Tom. 1999. Canada's Open Door. Maclean's 112.34 (Aug. 23): 12-17.

--. 1987. From Refugee to Multibillionaire. Maclean's 100.34 (Aug. 17): 28-30.

--. 1987. Rich and Powerful. Maclean's 100.34 (Aug. 17): 21-27.

--. 2000. The Smugglers' Slaves. Maclean's 113.50 (Dec. 11): 14-19.

Ferrante, Angela. 1977. Racism? You Can't Argue with the Facts. Maclean's 18 (Feb. 2): 20-21.

Foster, Cecil. 1994. The Mood Has Soured. Maclean's 107.6 (Feb. 2): 33.

Foucault, Michel. 1989. The Archeology of Knowledge. New York: Routledge.

Fulton, E. Kay. 1994. Keeping the Dream Alive. Maclean's 107.6 (Feb. 2): 34.

Fulton, E. Kay, and Sharon D. Driedger. 1995. Bringing Home Baby. Maclean's 108.34 (Aug. 21): 34-39.

Gilroy, Paul. 2005. Postcolonial Melancholia. New York: Columbia University Press.

Granatstein, lack, and H. Graham Rawlinson. 2001. Canada's Brain Drain. Maclean's 114.27 (July 1): 22-25.

Guerard, Francois. 2006. Sommes-nous racistes? L'Actualite (15 mai): 46-53.

Gwyn, Richard. 1995 Nationalism without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart.

Hall, Stuart. 1993. Encoding/Decoding. In The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. S. During, 128-138. New York: Routledge.

--. 1996. The Question of Cultural Identity. In Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies, ed. S. Hall et al., 596-634. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Hall, Stuart, et al. 2000. The Social Production of News. In Media Studies: A Reader, ed. Paul Marris and Sue Thornham, 645-652. New York: New York Press.

Helly, Denise. 1996. Quebec face a la pluralite culturelle. Quebec: Presses de l'Universite Laval.

Henry, Frances, and Carol Tator. 2002. Discourses of Domination: Racial Bias in the Canadian English-Language Press. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Hill, Lawrence. 2001. Black+White ... Equals Black. Maclean's 114.35 (Aug. 27): 16-21.

Isin, Engin F., and Patricia K. Wood. 1999. Citizenship and Identity. London: Sage.

Janigan, Mary. 1986. Desperate Voyage. Maclean's 99.34 (Aug. 25): 8-12.

Jiwani, Yasmin. 2005. The Great White North Encounters September 11: Race, Gender, and Nation in Canada's National Daily, the Globe and Mail. Social Justice 32.4.: 50-67.

Juteau, Danielle. 2002. The Citizen Makes an Entree: Redefining the National Community in Quebec. Citizenship Studies 6.4: 441-458.

Karim, Karim H. 2003. Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence. Montreal: Black Rose.

Kaihla, Paul. 1996. The People Smugglers. Maclean's 109.18 (Apr. 29): 16-20.

Kaihla, Paul, and Ross Laver. 1992. Black and Angry. Maclean's 105.20 (May 18): 24-30.

Kellner, Douglas. 1995. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics between the Modern and the Postmodern. New York: Routledge.

Kobayashi, Audrey. 1993. Multiculturalism: Representing a Canadian Institution. In Place/culture/representation, ed. J. Duncan and D. Ley, 205-231. New York: Routledge.

Kopvillem, Peeter. 1989. An Angry Racial Backlash. Maclean's 102.28 (July 10): 14-16.

Kymlicka, Will. 1998. Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

--. 2001. Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

Laver, Ross. 1989. Cooling the Welcome. Maclean's 102.28 (July 10): 17-18.

Lipsitz, George. 1998. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White people Profit from Identity Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Lowe, Lisa. 1996. Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.

Maclean's. 2008. About Us/Read about Out History. http://www.macleans.ca/about/index.jsp

MacQueen, Ken. 1986. Opening the Doors. Maclean's 99.41 (Oct. 13): 12-15.

Mills, Sara. 2004. Discourse. London: Routledge.

Mitchell, Kathryne. 2004. Crossing the Neoliberal Line: Pacific Rim Migration and the Metropolis. Philadelphia: Temple University.

--. 1996. In Whose Interest? Transnational Capital and the Production of Multiculturalism in Canada. In Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imaginary, ed. R. Wilson and W. Dissanayake, 219-254. London: Duke University Press.

Mooney, Paul. 2000. The Impossible Dream. Maclean's 113.50 (Dec. 11): 20-21.

Newman, Peter C. 2005. Dreams and Appetites. Maclean's 118.41 (Oct. 10): 7-18.

Nicol, John. 2000. Passports for Sale. Maclean's 113.15 (Apr. 3): 16-22.

Phillips, Andrew, and Chris Wood. 1994. Lessons from Vancouver. Maclean's 107.6 (Feb. 2): 26-32.

Razack, Sherene H., ed. 2002. Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society. Toronto: Between the Lines.

Rogers Communication Inc. 2008. Rogers Investor Relations. http://your.rogers.com/investorrelations/ investor_overview.asp

Rogers Publishing Ltd. 2008. Homepage. http://www.rogerspublishing.ca/

Rose, Michael. 1986. Assets of Any Creed or Color. Maclean's 99.41 (Oct. 13): 19.

Ryan, William E., and Theodore E. Conover. 2003. Graphic Communications Today, 4th ed. New York: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Tully, James. 1995. Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wood, Patricia K., and Liette Gilbert. 2005. Multiculturalism in Canada: Accidental Discourse, Alternative Vision, Urban Practice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 29.3: 679-691.

LIETTE GILBERT is associate professor and associate dean in the faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Citizenship Studies, Space and Polity, and City among others. She is currently co-authoring a book on the environmental politics of the Toronto Bioregion.

LEELA VISWANATHAN is adjunct assistant professor in the department of geography at Queen's University. Her current research focuses on cross-cultural collective action, social planning, and immigrant integration in small- and medium-sized cries in Canada.