My youngest daughter Sarah,
age 10, and I have come to visit in
Steveston, B.C. with my sister Jennifer and
her husband Neil. Our main objective is the
Jonas Brothers concert in Vancouver. A big
treat over the Canada Day weekend.
Sunday after the concert is
Canada Day, July 1, 2009. We walk the short
distance to the main road in Steveston,
where it seems like the entire population
has turned out, either to watch or
participate in the annual Canada Day parade.
Sarah and I stake a claim on the curb and
watch the procession. The range of cultures
represented makes me proud to think that
Canada is perhaps the only place in the
world where such a culturally diverse event
could take place.
Steveston is a famous fishing
port at the mouth of the mighty Fraser
River. It’s home to the Gulf of Georgia
Cannery, which canned salmon for many years
and was a staple of the war effort. It’s now
a popular museum. I fished commercially
with my uncle off the west coast of
Vancouver when I was young. He spent many
years there, and later published the book
Smilie, about his adventures. In it, he
recounts his experiences with the different
cultures that came to work the canneries.
Each culture had its specific domain. The
Japanese were known for their net work. They
ruled the net loft, repairing nets. It was
their space, and you dared not enter. Each
culture lived, dined and worked separately,
tolerating the other – an uneasy détente.
Watching these girls of mixed
race parade together in traditional kimono
on Canada Day, in front of the cannery,
brings me to these thoughts. It makes me
wonder about their ancestors. Did their
grandparents perhaps work the salmon harvest
together? I think that that is the point of
Canada Day, and I think we’ve come a long
way from the segregation of cannery life.
