Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

Working Papers Series produced jointly by the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS) and the CERC in Migration and Integration at Ryerson University, 2021

Canada’s Conservative Party and former government’s (2006-2015) attempts to define and at times shift Canadian identity and notions of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism to the right have been part of a significant political project featuring a uniquely creative and Canadian form of authoritarian populist politics in these realms. Their 2006 minority and 2011 majority election victories represented the culmination of a long march to power begun with the 1987 founding of the Reform Party of Canada. While they have at times purged themselves of some of the most blatant, anti-immigration elements of the discourses of their predecessor parties, continuities in its Canadian brand of authoritarian populist politics have continued in new forms since the founding of the new Conservative Party in 2003. This political project’s features and contradictions are constitutive of a disciplinary neoconservative variant of multiculturalism and Canadian nationalism. These are examined through a mix of critical discourse analysis of leading party figures’ speeches, platforms, government documents and policy analysis. This paper outlines characteristics and realities of neoconservative multiculturalism, including references to the Conservatives’ time in office and dynamics since their defeat in the 2015 election. These characteristics include 1) pragmatically adapting themselves to common sense notions of multiculturalism and immigration in Canada while also seeking to shift the politics of multiculturalism in Canada rightward by 2) seeking to empty it of anti-racist content and bind its remnants to a neoconservative worldview and 3) engaging in practices and discourses of exclusion, including a) engaging in clash of civilizations and Islamophobic discourses and policies, b) re-ethnicizing Canadian citizenship, c) targeting asylum seekers and 4) bolstering and collaborating with anti-multicultural civil society voices and actors. Overall, neoconservative multiculturalism is a creative and flexible ideological project enforcing and advancing a highly regressive form of politics and public policy. In part conceding to public opinion in favour of multiculturalism and Canada’s demographics, it includes pragmatic nods to diversity but hollows out potentially more progressive interpretations of multiculturalism while demanding adherence to disturbing forms of nationalism and patriotism that police and weaken public debate. While the party’s direction is somewhat open with Erin O’Toole having been chosen as their new leader by the party membership in August of 2020, on many fronts Conservative Party and extra-party right discourses have continued to degenerate in this realm since the party’s 2015 defeat.

2015

Overall, the Conservatives engage in a project of neoconservative multiculturalism, a creative ideological project enforcing and advancing a highly regressive form of politics and public policy. Conceding to public opinion in favour of multiculturalism and Canada’s demographics, it includes pragmatic nods to diversity, like greetings in multiple languages and the wearing of diverse clothing, but demands adherence to a disturbing form of nationalism and patriotism that polices and weakens public debate. Substantively, its associated policies have made life more difficult for many immigrants while further closing Canada’s doors to refugees. Original at http://www.theethnicaisle.com/new-blog/2015/9/24/moving-multiculturalism-to-the-right .

2001

Review of D. Forbes' Multiculturalism in Canada, *Academic Questions* 34/2 (Summer 2021).pdf, 2021

Central European Journal of Canadian Studies, 2010

In his analysis of multiculturalism and social integration, Keith Banting asserts that it is the question one asks in relation to whether or not Canada has a problem of cultural identity: “Who is us?” or, “How do we live together?” Banting suggests that if Canadians only ask “Who is us?” then Canada has a problem in relation to multiculturalism and social integration. Statistical analysis would seem to indicate that Canadians are not seriously divided on the notion of “How do we live together?” (Banting). In this paper, I pose the question, “Are we managing?” This question is very much related to Banting’s second question, “How do we live together?” Based on observations in the media, and the “Post Your Comment” sections of mainstream news media internet sites like CBCNews.ca, TheGlobeandMail.com, and NationalPost.com, one gets the growing sense that in the current socio-political environment in Canada, a good many Canadians (including the current federal government) are not asking “How do we live together?” but instead have consciously or unconsciously directed their energies into the notion of “Who is us?” If this is indeed the case, then perhaps Canada is not managing very well, and in fact, maybe Canadians do have a problem because they are asking the wrong question of themselves.

Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, 2000

Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel gebe ich einen Überblick über die Entstehung und Entwicklung des kanadischen Multikulturalismus als gesellschaftliche Zielvorstellung. Besondere Aufmerk-samkeit widme ich den Beziehungen zwischen " nationalen " und " ethnischen " Gruppen-kämpfen. Multikulturalismus wird hier weder als eine altruistische Umdeutung des Nationenverständnisses noch als eine Ideologie der Minderheiteneinhegung betrachtet. Vielmehr ist es ein sozial konstruierter Kompromiss, welcher aufgrund der Besonderheit des kanadischen Kontexts ungleiche Gruppenbeziehungen, ethnische Vielfalt und den Wunsch nach nationaler Einheit sowohl überbrückt als auch reproduziert. Zunächst behandele ich Kolonialisierung, Eroberung und Einwanderung bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg. Dann unter-suche ich die Uminterpretation der kanadischen Identität vom Dualismus zum Plura-lismus. Mein Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf den Ereignissen seit den frühen 1990er Jahren, als Kanadas " postmodernes Experiment " besonders attackiert wurde. Derzeit floriert der kanadische Multikulturalismus als Gesellschaftsbild, seine institutionellen Parameter haben sich aber grundlegend geändert. Résumé Dans cet article, nous proposons une vue d'ensemble de l'émergence et de l'évolution du multiculturalisme canadien comme projet sociétal. Nous accordons une attention particu-lière aux relations de lutte entre groupes « nationaux » et « ethniques ». Ici, le multicultu-ralisme n'est ni une redéfinition altruiste de la nation, ni une idéologie de l'enfermement des minorités. Il s'agit plutôt d'un compromis socialement construit qui, étant donné la particularité du contexte canadien, concilie – et reproduit – les relations de groupes iné-gaux, la diversité ethnique et le désir d'une collectivité nationale unifiée. Tout d'abord, nous abordons la colonisation, la conquête et l'immigration jusqu'à la Première Guerre mondiale. Ensuite, nous examinons la redéfinition de l'identité nationale canadienne du dualisme au pluralisme. Nous nous concentrons sur les événements depuis le début des années 1990 lorsque l' « expérience postmoderne » du Canada se voyait attaquée. De nos jours, le multiculturalisme canadien prospère en tant qu'imaginaire social, toutefois ses paramètres institutionnels se sont transformés de façon importante.

2000

2005