(Multiculturalism Act 1989)

Canada is a country with a strong reputation of being open minded and welcoming people with warm hands. Many stereotypes suggest that Canada encouraged people to immigrate to their country and to be Canadian citizens. Canada has always been famous for being a diverse country (Department of Canadian Heritage, 2002). However, there will always be conflict or racism when going through the process of officialising multiculturalism. If we look closer at the Multiculturalism Act of 1989, we see it is still selective in who is included in the nationalism it puts forward. The government has tried to play an important role to make sure that racial and ethnic divisions are reduced and that Canadian nationalism treats everyone with respect and equality. The goal of the act was to legislate multiculturalism as an official value, reduce discrimination and acknowledge the diversity of Canadian Heritage. The Multiculturalism act is also related to the Official Languages Act (Department of Canadian Heritage, 2002). 

In his argument about white civility, Coleman suggests that projects and policies about nationalism are made to maintain the status quo of a white society, and maintain white power. He says that these either explicitly or implicitly prevent specific other non-white groups from having social mobility in order to keep the nation-building idea of Canada as a white nation. It is also about “civilizing” non-white people to adhere to the status quo of white power. On one hand, Coleman’s argument can apply to the Multiculturalism Act because it seems to be more focused on acknowledging racial and ethnic minorities, but those who are immigrants. The relationship between First Nations and Canadian nationalism is not mentioned, and First Nations languages are not included in the language act, suggesting the idea of Canada as an originally white nation with diversity arriving later is strong. So the status quo is still maintained with white people as majority and immigrant minorities included but not so much First Nations and Métis. 

However, I don’t really agree with Coleman’s theory because I believe that multiculturalism has de-racialised Canadian nationalism to an extent. It is not a one way road. Even though minorities like First Nations are routinely silenced, other non-white groups have brought more diversity to Canada. After they share with each other it creates a whole new culture. For instance, we see many fusion foods becoming popular in Canada. Multiculturalism doesn’t necessarily mean that white culture is prescribed onto another one. Other races and ethnicities have brought their own culture and brought it to Canada. 

All in all, I think Coleman’s argument about white civility is somewhat applicable to the Multiculturalism Act, but not in such a clear cut way as his argument. There is still room for minorities to be included in a multicultural nationalism. 

References:

CanLit Guides. “Reading and Writing in Canada, A Classroom Guide to Nationalism.” Canadian Literature. Web. April 4th 2013.

Department of Canadian Heritage. “Annual Report on the Operation of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act”. Web. 2002. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/16ee/f3493653a9af2d8bc6c539fc93aa423aadee.pdf