Multicultural Policy Essay

The 1971 Multicultural Policy, the by-product of recommendations seen in Book IV of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism report, gave Canadian society a new image. The policy sets out to assist cultural groups to retain and foster their own identity, overcome barriers to participate in society, promote creative exchanges among Canadian cultural groups, and assist immigrants in acquiring at least one of the official languages. The Environics Institute for Survey Research conducted a survey that found 56% of Canadians saw multiculturalism as one of the core symbols of Canadian identity, up nearly 15% from 10 years prior however, there is still high skepticism for the Multicultural Policy. As a result of Canada’s Multicultural

Whilst multiculturalism is considered to be one of the core values of Canadian society, multicultural critiques outweigh the benefits. Multiculturalism is promising in providing individuals from unique cultures a chance to express themselves with funding from the governments to publicly present themselves and contribute to the larger Canadian cultural picture. This cultural picture is flawed as there is little unity and a lack of a coherent culture due to the government’s recognition of differences, cultural clashes, and an emphasis on material culture over core cultural values. By recognizing differences there is an implied hierarchy of cultures where all “other cultures” are placed below the true white “Canadian-Canadians”. Cultural clashes that tend to arise in times of economic disparity stimulate prejudice dialogue that increase cleavages between cultures and weaken a sense of unity and coherence. Lastly, by celebrating the materialistic subjects of culture there is a loss of true culture. Many groups tend to not celebrate aspects of their culture outside of the 3 D’s and this causes a lot of confusion between communities. The misrepresentation of culture in this case prevents the overall Canadian culture from benefiting and achieving the intended goals of multiculturalism. In theory, this policy was originated to protect the Canadian cultural landscape instead what it has done is perpetuate differences and weakened the national unity and