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MULTICULTURALISM AS A DISCOURSE OF DISGUISE: A POSSIBLE CANADIAN SOLUTION
On its own, ‘multiculturalism’ has no principle of operation that keeps the
collective of cultures in a multicultural state together, or prevents multiple
cultures from being exploited. Some have recognized this deficiency.
20 years of Multiculturalism, Successes and Failures,* has several articles
declaring there is no idea around which people in Canada can rally. Allan
Smith, “Defining Canada in the Postmodern Age” writes, “there is no idea,
no orthodoxy, no universalizing discourse in terms of which an imperium
of language, ethnicity, culture discourse or race can be imposed.” He claims
that “the open, the accommodative and essentially indefinable” is at the
heart of a way of seeing the world in Canada.*’ How does the ‘essentially
indefinable’ promote an inter-cultural sharing of meanings? Locking cultures
into their original identities, with their own meanings for terms never open
to modification or sharing, can land one in communication difficulties.
Encouraging them to identify with a hyphenated culture such a Jamaican¬
Canadian or, East Indian-Canadian narrows their ‘horizons of meaning’
in terms of growth and development. Hyphenated identities encourage
separation between cultures. Rather than gradually finding out what we
all share in common, cultures live with a discourse of difference and are
rewarded for remaining distinct.
Richard Ogmundson opposes this interpretation of Canadian
multiculturalism. He identifies the rejection felt by those who do identify
with being Canadian, in “On the Right to be a Canadian.” Not everyone
understands their identity to be hyphenated. For some, that characteristic
would require a considerable list.” Ogmundson points out that by not having
a hyphenated identity one can be regarded as “chauvinist, reactionary, racist
and bigoted.” A sense of betrayal by the government can follow. He asks:
“Where can you go and what do you do if you just want to be a Canadian?”
Neil Bissoondath echoes his concerns in his book Selling Illusions: “Multi¬
culturalism on the face of it, insists on diversity — and yet a case can be made
that it is a diversity that depends on vigorous conformity. Trading in the exotic,
it views the individual not as a member of society at large but as a unit of a
55 An article, “Why I have had it with Multiculturalism,” appeared in the Globe and Mail,
5 October 1994.
Stella Hryniuk (ed.), 20 Years of Multiculturalism: Successes and Failures, Winnipeg,
University of Manitoba, St John’s College, 1992.
57 Allan Smith, Defining Canada in the Postmodern Age, in Hryniuk (ed.), 20 Years, 252.
58 Richard Ogmundson, On the Right to be a Canadian, in Hryniuk (ed.), 20 Years, 45-55.
The author of this present article would require four different cultural identities.
Ogmundson, On the Right, 47. When my son was in public school in the 1980s, a day of
multi-cultures celebration happened in the gym. I requested, and was denied, space for
Canadian culture. I arrived anyway, set my card table in a corner with a sign, objects, poetry,
quotes, and pictures, and drew the largest crowds.
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