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MULTICULTURALISM AS A DISCOURSE OF DISGUISE: A POSSIBLE CANADIAN SOLUTION —t1o> ELIZABETH IROTT" ABSTRACT The idea of Canada has been associated with three different origins: Indigenous, French and British culture. Today the idea of Canada’s culture is constitutionally confirmed as multicultural. This paper will argue that the many cultures need an idea of a whole for them to function. The context of this investigation is idealist metaphysics. A brief explanation of dialectical reasoning establishes the meanings of the key terms ‘culture’ and ‘multicultures’. The main concerns are the agendas promoted and disguised by the discourses associated with multiculturalism. Four authors will be considered: Charles Taylor, Will Kymlika, Colin Mooers, Darryl Leroux. The argument intends to establish a synthesis between the concept of Canada as a single culture and the current promotion of that concept as a multi-cultured state. A synthesis that resists the exploitation of meanings associated with multiculturalism is the concept of place. INTRODUCTION ‘Multiculturalism’ is a term that has risen to prominence ina shrinking world. When faced with multiple communities, some at odds with each other in terms of first principles, no simple declaration, “we are multicultural,” serves as a synthesis for oppositions struggling for self-expression — the presumed manifestation of a functioning, multicultural state. In a CNN interview on 29 September 2019, the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, referred to Britain and its “cultural uncertainties”. Are we promoting myths, ones that disguise a continuing separation of cultures rather than supporting a collaborative community of communities? Ryerson University. Elizabeth Trott, Early Canadian Political Culture: Hegelian Adaptations in John Watson in Susan M. Dodd — Neil G. Robertson (eds.), Hegel and Canada, A Unity of Opposites, Toronto, University of Toronto, 2018, 163-197. + ]] +»
