Canada’s Controversial $100 Bill

The head of the Bank of Canada has apologized for provoking a racial controversy over an image on the country’s new $100 bill.

Originally, the bill was to show a female Asian scientist.

But the bank scrapped it after complaints by focus groups.

The Asian woman was replaced by a Caucasian female scientist.

Host Marco Werman gets the full story from Raymond Hyma, a knowledge exchange officer in Toronto.

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Marco Werman: The U.S. has Benjamin Franklin on its $100 bill. Canada has a fictional scientist who appears not to be Asian and for that Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney apologized this week. Okay, that’s a bit of a simplification. You see, there has been an uproar in Canada over the design of the $100 bill that went public last year. That’s because it’s emerged that the bill’s original design featured the likeness of an Asian woman, but after the image was reviewed by focus groups it was changed to portray a supposedly ethnic-neutral person. Except, many critics say the female scientist on the bill now looks essentially Caucasian like all the other people portrayed on Canadian bank notes. Raymond Hyma is with the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement in Toronto. He says different people are upset by the controversy for different reasons.

Raymond Hyma: Some people see this as a typical Canadian over-politically correct response to something that had happened over a process. There are other questions about our Canadian $100 bill being a yellowish brown color and associated it with racialization. Others see this as a blow to not just Asian-Canadians but to all ethnicities in Canada that might take offense to being excluded from being on a bill.

Werman: Now, I saw an image on a News Canada website – the woman now looking into the microscope looks ethnic-neutral. Who in Canada did see the original changed note?

Hyma: Well, unfortunately the Bank of Canada hasn’t released the original image of the scientist of the prototype. They did note during an apology on Monday that the image composite was of a South Asian woman but, until now, it’s been the focus groups and internally at the Bank of Canada being able to see the image itself.

Werman: Fair to say that the tone of the debate so far in Canada over this has been pretty divisive. Do you think it’s part of a bigger national conversation for Canada on race that has to happen?

Hyma: Well, definitely. I think that the issue is not simply about the Bank of Canada’s decision to change the bank note but it’s really asking why a supposedly neutral composite of a face is considered a Caucasian default by a public institution. And even more so, why is there such contention around the face on the back of a bill that happens to not look distinctly white?

Werman: There’s a long history of Asians in Canada. Is there a back story here that we should know about? Is there a history, recent or otherwise, of racism against Asians?

Hyma: Well, Canada has a history of discrimination against minorities like any other country. It has periods of both overt and silent racism towards minorities. Most Canadians know that. The Canadian-Pacific railway system that links our country from coast to coast was built on the backs of Chinese laborers. Once they completed their usefulness laying down these tracks around 1885, they were singled out in the immigration system to pay a head tax to come to Canada.

Werman: So, what do you think this ultimately says about how Canada, as opposed to other countries, deals with these issues?

Hyma: I think in Canada here, for example, in comparison to the American concept of a melting pot where people from all over the world come and adapt to an American culture, here since the 1970s under policies by then Prime Minister Trudeau, Canada has historically treated itself as a multi-cultural mosaic. So, in essence, if you were to see the nation as a quilt of fabrics that come together but stays different, many Canadians see themselves as keeping other cultural traits and living and even thriving in a society of difference. So, the fact that there are many Canadians who would take offence to actually removing an image because it’s identified as non-white is an issue that we are dealing with.

Werman: Raymond Hyma with Canada’s Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement; he is speaking with us from Toronto. Thank you for your time.

Hyma: Thanks for having me.

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