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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 JamaicanCanadian 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: “Multiculturalism 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. + 31 +
