[Review of] Evelyn Kallen. Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada

Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada is a sequel to Kallen\u27s The Anatomy of Racism: Canadian Dimensions. Whereas her earlier work sought to clarify the concepts of race and ethnicity as they applied to a neutral, if not tolerant, nation, the social context of the current work is less benign. Factors implicated in the shift to more contentious racial and ethnic relations include a struggling national economy, separatist moves in Quebec and the West, a rapidly expanding non White immigration, and advancement of natural resource claims by aboriginal groups at a time when federal pressure for energy development in the North conflicts with these rights. Although the bulk of Ethnicity and Human Rights in Canada is specific to the Canadian context, several sections are more broadly applicable. The introduction provides a brief biological discussion of genetics and race, racism, and human rights. Of particular value in this section is a clear explanation of the impact of continual structural discrimination, in the self-fulfilling prophecy of White racism. The relationship of race, culture, and ethnicity is explored in chapter three, which uses the Canadian situation to illustrate points of broader significance. Contrasting cultural understandings of land ownership, for example, are problematic beyond Canada\u27s boundaries. In this chapter, Kallen introduces classification schemes, such as the typology of rights and the typology of claims, which clarify the bases for argumentation for protection or advancement of human rights