Some comments on this special issue/Quelques commentaires sur ce numero special.

This issue of Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada is a departure from previous issues in several ways. First, it is a special issue including articles and other materials which began as presentations at the nineteenth biennial conference of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association/La societe canadienne d'etudes ethniques, which took place in Winnipeg, September 27-30, 2007. Second, this issue contains material on ethnicity from an international perspective.

Previous CESA/SCEE conferences have had international representation in the form of participants from other countries besides Canada, but the topics of their presentations were Canadian-oriented or dealt with other countries only in comparison to Canada. The nineteenth biennial conference of CESA/SCEE differed from preceding conferences in that it sought to discuss issues in a global context as reflected in the conference theme--Ethnicity, Civil Society, and Public Policy: Engaging Cultures in a Globalizing World.

The organizers of the conference were responding to the pressing issues of governance and ethnic and minority inclusion in a globalizing world. Virtually every national jurisdiction in the world is having to deal with these issues, although the specific manner in which each country deals with them may differ. We are witnessing Australia dealing with these issues. A newly-independent Ukraine is learning to deal with them. Since the conference, we have witnessed how the Kosovars are dealing with them. We, participants in the conference, were privileged to hear from presenters who were not only experts in this field in an academic sense, but, in several cases, were participants in the process of seeking ethnic and minority inclusion in jurisdictions throughout the world. Their expertise and experiences served to clarify our thinking not only in regard to ethnic inclusion in the global context, but also in regard to the implications for Canada. We hope that the insights gained will enable us to ensure that ethnic and minority inclusion is fully achieved in Canada.

The two plenary sessions dealing with these issues--"Ethnic Inclusion and Governance" and "Ethnicity, Civil Society, and Public Policy"--were sponsored and funded, respectively, by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) through the Glyn Berry Peace and Security Fund. Summaries of these sessions constitute the first part of this issue ("Discussion Papers"), which also includes the comments of one of the presenters.

The balance of the issue consists of peer-reviewed papers, several of which began as presentations at the conference. The papers cover a wide spectrum since it is the policy of CESA/SCEE to include as broad a range of topics in its conferences as possible. On behalf of the journal and personally, I wish to thank all those who submitted papers for this special issue; all underwent the same scrutiny as do all the submissions to the journal. I am especially pleased by the number of graduate students who presented papers at the conference and whose subsequent articles were judged suitable for publication.

Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada gratefully acknowledges the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts Endowment Fund for assisting in funding this special issue.

Ce numero de Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada se differencie de plusieurs manieres des numeros precedents. Premierement, c'est un numero special qui inclut des articles et d' autres ecrits correspondant a des communications donnees a la dix-neuvieme conference ...