Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is an odd word. Why should there be an “ism” about this? Why is our government spending money essentially dividing our country into cultural fragments? Immigrants don’t expect to maintain their culture when they go to another country. They are trying to escape deprivation, was, persecution or just seeking a better life. It takes a lot of courage to leave your country behind and adopt a new one.

Whenever I travel to another country I certainly try to conform to local customs and even learn some of their language. If I moved to another country, would I expect the government to spend taxpayer’s money to support my culture? Of course not! “When in Rome” and all that. If I wished to keep my culture, it would be no big deal to join some expat group or just observe some familiar practices in my own home. One only has to see the array of cultural centres that exist in any city to realise that.

I love going to the Edmonton Heritage festival and sampling other cuisines, listening to music and watching the entertainers. This is a great way to learn about other cultures but I pay for that pleasure. These sorts of things are ways for locals to make money as well as expose their culture. But if it’s not economically viable then it shouldn’t happen.

Why do we have a whole ministry to support cultural pluralism? It seems shocking to think that we are spending millions of dollars supporting an unnecessary bureaucracy that is essentially destroying our culture from within. Culture is a dynamic thing and it doesn’t need any interference from some unnecessary, overpaid public servants to exist, educate, integrate or evolve. I knew some people who emigrated here and told me that they are not keeping their own culture just so they feel more at home here – so they “fit in”. That was their choice but it makes one think that maybe we just don’t need a Ministry of Multiculturalism – whatever that does.

According to the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, one of the reasons that this odd Ministry was brought into existence was "to recognise all Canadians as full and equal participants in Canadian society". This is a fair enough goal but not one that needs an entire Ministry to achieve. The ideal behind this is not to create a melting-pot society but to build a “mosaic” of cultures. Can there be any more fractious or divisive cultural policy? Just look at how the French behave. Tolerance is achievable only through education and integration into a new blend - not by a concerted effort to label us as the Census does. In the 1981 census, 1.2 million people identified themselves as of a specific ethnic origin. In 1996, 10.2 million people identified their ethnic heritages. Part of this was due to an expanded list of ethnic origins but it also shows that people are thinking of themselves in more divisive units now. Why should the Census want to know this? What difference does it make?

Canada has always be a mosaic of cultures but with the elusive “Canadian” identity to bind them together. Now, it seems, we are trying to destroy that identity in favour of a mixture of self-absorbed sub-cultures. We don’t need to celebrate our differences but our similarities. Multiculturalism doesn’t break down discrimination; it promotes it by keeping distinct cultural identities intact. One day, this wilful interference in the natural evolution of our culture will come back to haunt the government by destroying it.