The B.C. political scandal involving public servants allegedly wooing the ethnic vote is a sign of the times. Multiculturalism in Canada is a fraud used for political gains.
The Liberal Party of Canada created multiculturalism in the 1960s to integrate new immigrants into Canadian society. The stated goal was to encourage and celebrate cultural diversity within a bilingual Canada.
But beneath any good intentions was a political strategy to buy ethnic votes. Multiculturalism became a state-financed marketing program. The government used tax dollars to buy photo ops with ethnic leaders – usually in culturally diverse cities such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It would translate into broader support in general elections.
Although the Trudeau Liberals introduced the strategy, successive governments of different stripes led by Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper also embraced it to exploit the voting potential of so-called ethnic Canadians. The policy has been around for half a century and its results paint a disturbing picture. Although we Conservatives refer to it as “outreach” to the ethnic communities, I’m afraid we’re continuing the Liberals’ policy of profiling Canadians based on race, colour and religion.
My parents were targets of the policy when they arrived in Canada in the 1950s. Like most Canadians who aren’t of French or British origin, they learned the policy was not only misguided but derogatory.
Its biggest achievement seems to be the creation of hyphenated Canadians. My parents remind me that people – usually politicians – always call them Greek Canadians. Others are called Italian Canadians or Chinese Canadians. They went through a period of “integration” with this label that created more confusion and challenges than any benefits. The hyphenated labels made it harder for ethnic communities to adjust and achieve success in their new homeland.
I am a Canadian who is of Greek origin – my nation is Canada, my nationality is Canadian and my cultural origin is Greek. Canadian governments should not tolerate the classification of our citizens based on racial profiling.
Canada is a bilingual, multicultural and multifaith society but one made of equal citizens. We should replace multiculturalism with a policy of integration. We should find ways to help newcomers settle in Canada and assume their responsibilities as citizens. We should be more rigid in expecting new Canadians to share a commitment to uphold our fundamental liberties, to respect the rule of law and to respect human rights.
Members of various ethnic communities are fed up with platitudes. They are active members of our society at all levels, and they demand no special status – they just want an equal opportunity to contribute to the continued development of their communities. That’s what they should expect and that’s what we should demand of them.
Our policy of multiculturalism is outdated and doesn’t respond to the challenges faced by new immigrants to integrate and adapt. Multiculturalism insults our status as Canadians. The most recent statistics reveal that 28 per cent of the population is of British origin, 23 per cent is French, 15 per cent is European, 6 per cent is Arabic, 2 per cent is Amerindian etc. Yet, the most remarkable statistic is that 26 per cent of the population is of a variety of mixed backgrounds – should these be double-hyphenated Canadians, or should we abandon this demeaning policy?
(Leo Housakos is a Conservative senator. This comment is being re-published with the author’s permission.)
Hi
I think there is truth to the article written. I am not a Conservative and would never vote for them politically speaking (i dont support any party!!), as they are as unethical, money and power driven as the Liberals are, but case in point remains that Multiculturalim is a sham.
Since immigrating to Canada from Germany, I have noticed that multiculturalism is really superficial at best. People often state or even boast how open -minded they are, but its a smokescreen, in reality outwith the context of work they shun socially interacting with people of other races, they rather stick to their own.
If you want to get a snapshot of this, on any given day take a ride on the TTC subway in Toronto, and you will rarely ( if at all) see any white Canadian woman together with Black Canadian man , or vice versa you will never see an Arab Canadian woman together with an Asian or English Canadian man etc, or alternatively go to any of the fancy watering holes downtown, all glitz aside, also here races stay apart because of the cultural baggage they carry and the programming of sorts they are imbued with.
This is what also reduces mulituralism to a sham. When all these various ethnicities have nothing in common, it comes as no surprise that segregation / alienation unfortunately become the unintended consequences of this policy.
The real problem is that what I just said cannot be broached as a topic with most people, who are kind of hypocritical and take offense with critque, yet these same people reinforce everything i mentioned above. Something is fundamentally wrong and being politically incorrect is NOT the worst thing that can happen to Canadians for a change.