Selling Multiculturalism: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada

John Stanley is a policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

Multiculturalism has been an object of attack since its conception in
1967, in the report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and
Biculturalism. As an important literary figure, and as one of the
“ethnics” who presumably benefits from multicultural policies and
programs, Neil Bissoondath carries weight as a critic.

Unfortunately, his book is marred by minor slips (Elaine, not Diane,
Ziemba is the Ontario Minister of Citizenship), sleights of hand,
misleading juxtapositions, and simple ignorance. Bissoondath discusses
Prime Minister Trudeau’s introduction of a multiculturalism policy but
immediately quotes from the Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988),
legislation from Mulroney, not the Trudeau government. Moreover,
Bissoondath accepts without question the Quebec nationalist explanation
for Trudeau’s policy; he does not even mention the view that Trudeau
introduced multiculturalism in order to balance a bilingualism policy
for Quebec with a multiculturalism policy for the West, a region with a
very different history of settlement and almost no francophones.

Bissoondath also boldly states that Canada, a country without a state
religion, is devoted to the separation of church and state. Any reader
of the British North America Act (1867), or the Act incorporating
Newfoundland into Confederation, would recognize that this American
doctrine has almost no role in Canada. In discussing the famous 1993
advertisement for an Ontario government senior management position aimed
exclusively at equity groups, the author confuses employment equity and
anti-racism policies with multiculturalism, which was hardly favored by
Ontario’s NDP government. Somehow, even book-banning in Alberta school
boards and the “culture of victimhood” get tied to multiculturalism!

Ultimately, critics of multiculturalism, whether from the right or from
the left, are in the same camp, refusing to acknowledge the diversity
inherent in Canadian cultures. Policies of multiculturalism, employment
equity, and anti-racism are designed to ensure social justice and to
promote the “peace, order, and good government” that are among the
traditions all Canadians cherish. The importance of Bissoondath’s book
lies not in its inconsistent arguments but in its reflection of our
difficult times.