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A Report on the Arts, Letters and Sciences
A momentous event in the life of the Canadian nation has been the
publication, this past summer, of the Report of the Royal Commission on
National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, popularly known
as the “Massey Report” in tribute to the eminent Canadian, the Right
Honourable Vincent Massey, who was chairman of the Commission. This
Report is unique in our history, for it emphasizes Canadians’ awareness of
the value of cultural factors in the making of a distinctive Canadian tradition.
The members of the Commission spent a year travelling the length and
breadth of Canada, receiving submissions from hundreds of groups and
individuals who were eager to make their views known and anxious to assist
the Commission in its efforts to gain some insight into the essential nature of
Canadian nationality.
It was the request of the Canadian Government that the Commission
make a study of “... institutions which express national feeling, promote
common understanding and add to the variety and richness of Canadian
life...” with a view to recommending future organization and policy.
As the Report explains, “The agencies and functions with which we were
required to deal are only certain threads in a vast fabric. To appreciate their
meaning and importance we had to view the pattern into which they are
woven; to understand them we had to study their context. We found it
necessary therefore to attempt a general survey of the arts, letters and
sciences in Canada, to appraise present accomplishments and to forecast
future progress...”
“There have been in the past many attempts to appraise our physical
resources. Our study, however, is concerned with human assets, with what
might be called in a broad sense spiritual resources, which are less tangible
but whose importance needs no emphasis... It is the intangibles which give
a nation not only its essential character but its vitality as well... Through all
the diversities of race, religion, language and geography, the forces which have
made Canada a nation and which alone can keep her one are being shaped.
These are not to be found in the material sphere alone. Physical links are
essential to the unifying process but true unity belongs to the realm of ideas...
Canadians realize this and are conscious of the importance of national
tradition in the making.”
(Cover: Prime Minister St. Laurent (right) receives his
copy of the Massey Report from Rt. Hon. Vincent Massey.)
The Report of the Commission is most encouraging, for in its travels its
members have found evidence of a
great deal of worth-while creative
activity, in other than material fields,
among Canadians in all walks of life.
However, while paying warm tribute
to our American neighbors, the
Report warns us that through our too
eager acceptance of the bounty of
others we are in danger of letting
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