Appendix CASE ONE - Collection Point® | The Total Digital Asset ...

The Legalization of White Supremacy in Canada 199
the almost fanatical positions of settlers on matter of race. However, their
attachment to the benefits of the spread of British institutions and culture and
economic expansion associated with settlement made it difficult for them to
stand up to the constant barrage of complaint from those who were in the
vanguard of this desirable policy of 'anglicanization'. 75 Where individuals took
a firm stand against local racism, as it may be argued the early British Columbia
judges did, their efforts were forgotten as more compliant individuals were
appointed to the bench and the process of constitutional interpretation became
sanitized.
Intestinal fortitude on the part of imperial and metropolitan authorities on
matters of race decreased as Britain sought to loosen its political control over
those parts of the empire in which white settlement had been encouraged and
which were thought to be capable of self-government. Part of the problem
was that even those who were strong advocates of the imperial ideal did not
see the races as equal. For them, though non-white races might well learn
to assimilate at some point in the future, in the short term the tutelage and
protection of the non-white population by its wiser, more worldly white rulers
was necessary. With political devolution within the white empire this meant
local white politicians and civil servants. In the event of a crunch developing out
of animosity by white settlers and their political representatives towards racially
distinct populations in their midst, arguments based on notions of trusteeship
of 'lesser' peoples were unlikely to be maintained consistently, or would be
qualified in order to appease settler sentiment. In the climate of exaggerated
ethnocentricity which marked the British Empire of the late nineteenth - and
early twentieth - century, it was natural that in the final analysis the benefit
of any doubt would go to those who, despite their obsessive campaigns and
boorish tactics, were carrying through a vital, perhaps the most vital, item on
the imperial agenda: the expansion of British institutions, economic interests
and culture across the globe.
75 On the development of the 'civilizing mission' in British colonial policy, see J. Manning Ward,
Colonial Self Government (Toronto, 1976), 233-46.