Po ponad 20 latach nadawania polskiego progarmu telewizyjnego przez stację w Toronto zamknięto i rozwiązano polską ekipę. Dotyczy to również ponad 300 redaktorów z innych grup narodowościowych mieszkających w Kanadzie.

Dobrze by się stało, gdyby Zarząd Kongresu Polonii Kanadyjskiej napisał petycję do CRTC podobną do tej, jaką przygotowała Rada Kanadyjskich Mediów Etnicznych - The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.

Petycję tę należy w formie kopii wysłać do jak nawiększej liczby posłów federalnych i powinny to zrobić zarówno oddziały KPK, jak i wszystkie oganizacje polonijne takie jak Związek Polaków w Kanadzie, Związek Narodowy Polski i inne.

One thing to note is that immigration from Poland has slowed to a trickle. About 800 Polish citizens are granted landed immigrant -- permanent resident status -- in Canada per year.

Those Poles today interested in travelling abroad -- given the possibility of easily travelling to Britain, Ireland, and other countries of the EU -- would rather go there in search of work and success. However, one thing which might increase contacts is that, recently, the visa requirement for Polish citizens travelling to Canada has been lifted. Indeed, it has been a long time for this requirement to be withdrawn.

In today’s world, especially in the now increasingly-multicultural Canada and United States, “monodal” identities have become less and less likely to occur. Indeed, insofar as some kind of Polish affiliation is to persist in Canada, it will perforce have to be an intermediary, emphatically hyphenated identity. It should be POLISH-CANADIAN – in order to attract persons of the generations born in Canada. This is likely to be the main vehicle for the persistence of a fragment culture.

Looking at the life of the Polish-Canadian community today, there does not appear to be any forum or setting or context where a dynamic, intermediary, somewhat enduring, emphatically Polish and CANADIAN identity can get underway and be consciously worked out. What seems to be happening is rather quick language loss, followed by near-total assimilation into the so-called “mainstream”. But the “mainstream” is not a very interesting and dynamic place to be, today.

The second area of possible resistance to mass-media assimilation that could be looked at, are the cultural and multicultural policies of the Canadian state.

Various levels of Canadian government offer considerable support to what could be considered the quote-unquote “Canadian” part of culture, especially the area of Canadian literature or so-called CanLit. They also offer considerable support to the cultural activities of various ethnic groups and organizations.

Thirdly, there is the fact of virtually no Polish-Canadian or Polish-American presence in the North American pop-culture.

Indeed, Polish-Canadians have faced the withering effects of North American pop-culture from the 1960s forward. The scintillating allure of pop-culture usually overwhelms young people of Polish descent, resulting in quick Polish language and identity loss. The younger generations have virtually disappeared into a conformist, mass-mediated North American identity. It may indeed be argued that the exciting pop-culture overwhelms everything that appears "stodgy," "old-fashioned" and "unprogressive."

It could also be argued that one of the general effects of the Internet is the tendency to accentuate a “hyper-fragmentation” of social, cultural, and political interests, which means that broadly-based public and political debate becomes ever more difficult.

Also, in the case of a very large number of people, the Internet is used simply for access to various entertainment and pop-culture imageries and “news,” existing in various subgenres like “porn”, celebrity-cults, rock- and rap-music, and sports, movie, and television show fandom.

13 maja br. w budynku parlamentu prowincji Ontario odbyło się comiesięczne spotkanie redaktorów mediów etnicznych oraz konferencja prasowa z przywódczynią ontaryjskiej New Democratic Party (NDP), panią Andreą Horwath. Pani Horwath towarzyszył jej osobisty sekretarz oraz pan Sanjeet Singh z tej samej partii.

Pani Horwath (na wstępie) w krótkich słowach powiedziała, że NDP skupi się na obniżeniu stawek za ubezpieczenia samochodów osobowych o 15 proc. dla mieszkańców prowincji Ontario. Pani Horwath powiedziała, że w związku z wysokimi kosztami ubezpieczeń samochodowych NDP będzie proponowała powołanie rzecznika do spraw ubezpieczeń (Financial Accountability Office), którego zadaniem będzie monitorowanie kosztów ubezpieczeń i ewentualnych nadużyć ze strony firm ubezpieczeniowych. Partia NDP będzie również proponowała ustanowienie rzecznika (ombudsman) do spraw służby zdrowia, którego zadaniem będzie monitorowanie kosztów służby zdrowia, jakości pracy służby zdrowia, będzie proponowała rozszerzenie uprawnień rzecznika praw obywatelskich prowincji Ontario (seeking more powers for the Ombudsman of Ontario).