Canadian Race Relations Foundation

'Painting the Maple,' speaks out to Canadians in addressing the current challenges of Canadian society. The authors are spread across the academic fields of Political Science, History, Nursing, and English. This interdisciplinary work opens up debate on how sexism and racism shape the history of this nation, with the main purpose of ‘discovering’ the biases, assumptions and authoritative practices that underline the construction of Canada’s national identity.

Other voices are also absent from the traditional historical and sociological studies of early Chinese migration to Canada. Because so few women immigrated from China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, their experiences have been largely ignored by mainstream scholarly literature. (p.157) Today, while numerous nations around the world continue to grind out hardhearted, nationalist warfare, there are some lesbians, bisexuals gay men, and transgender in Canada who have realized some modicum of safety, love, and hope for a transformed future. (p.208)