If asked at a dinner party in front of strangers, many Canadians would likely think twice before saying they disagree with Official Multiculturalism in Canada. Failure to answer that question “correctly” might very well cause a bullseye to be drawn on one’s forehead, followed by a series of “Racist” barbs soon after.
Stepping back a moment though, when someone says they support “multiculturalism”, what exactly are they actually stating they believe in? Many undoubtedly think they’re affirming “support for multiple ethnicities in Canada”. But that’s not what multiculturalism means whatsoever!
Official Multiculturalism proponents in our country firmly believe that all cultures around the world are exactly the same; no better or worse than Canadian culture. Furthermore, anyone who does not believe this baseline premise is tarred & feathered with any number of pejoratives such as: Racist, Bigot, Xenophobe, etc.
I, for one, think such Multicultural views are absolute nonsense. Turns out that some immigrants do too. In fact, some moving to our country don’t appreciate our federal government trying to guide them into the sub-culture of their homeland and much prefer being an unhyphenated Canadian.
This past weekend I had the great honour of being a guest on Roy Green’s radio program, along with two ladies, Carmen & Sara, who left Egypt to move here, plus a regular guest on the show, William Gairdner. You can listen to the entire segment here.
The central issue, and deliberate confusion by the politically correct, is that between culture and race.
The dinner party guest can finesse the question with the statement: I am for a multi-racial society, but a multi-cultural society is an impossibility; do not confuse race and culture.
I have found this statement very effective in disarming the bad guys.
From Miriam Webster:
Definition of MULTICULTURAL
: of, relating to, reflecting, or adapted to diverse cultures
— mul·ti·cul·tur·al·ism noun
— mul·ti·cul·tur·al·ist noun or adjective
— mul·ti·cul·tur·al·ly adverb
So, in other words …. you’re full of it. I dunno where you got this “Official Multiculturalism” of yours, but it seems likely to have been pulled out of a rather dark orifice.
I’d say it’s a crock of sh*t, maybe that’s why I’m never invited to dinner parties.
Alex, are you actually stating that the most ardent proponents of Official Multiculturalism in Canada don’t believe exactly what I stated they believe?
If so, then you sir, are the one who’s full of it. The only thing I can’t decide is whether you’re more ignorant or naive.
From Miriam Webster:
Definition of ALEX
: of, relating to, reflecting, or adapted to Stuck on Stupid
— Alex noun “I am as dumb as an Alex”
— Alexed adjective “I am so dumb, I am Alexed”
Get a life ya dummy.
“Alex, are you actually stating that the most ardent proponents of Official Multiculturalism in Canada don’t believe exactly what I stated they believe?”
If you’re going to call those idiots “the most ardent proponents of Official Multiculturalism”, then we may as well call Fred Phelps “the most ardent proponent of Official Christianity”. Fair’s fair.
Alex, I honestly don’t know where you’re coming from other than you seem to enjoy disparaging and belittling others. Not very useful and ultimately boring.
This explanation from Mark Steyn might be interesting to those with intellectual curiosity on the subject.
“Alex, I honestly don’t know where you’re coming from other than you seem to enjoy disparaging and belittling others.”
Easy: I hate liars.
Alex. Me and my buddy’s will be right over to rape your wife(if you have one) and your daughter,then kill them for allowing it to happen.After all,that is a tribal right,and my culteral right,which according to you is a Canadian’s right.
I would call you a twit,but that would be insulting to twits.
Excellent post and Robert of Ottawa is also spot on. Alex, educate yourself for your own sake, for your lack of understanding as to Official Multiculturalism in Canada is telling.
I also doubt that most Canadians are aware of the meaning of official state multiculturalism. Must confuse it with accepting various races and ethnic groups, which has nothing to do with our government’s official policy. The supporters of real multiculturalism maintain that all cultures are equal and no one can criticise any of them – the only exception being Western culture. Were that the case then we must accept things such as cannibalism, polygamy, submission of women, forced marriages and honour killings to name but a few.
Kate, how did you teach a vegetable to type?
“Kate, how did you teach a vegetable to type?
Posted by: Alex at May 12, 2011 10:41 PM ”
You have to ask Kate how she taught you to type?
Actually I am curious.How did you do it,Kate? My cat would like to know.
I just trll folks I’m against tribilising Canada like Africa.
Thats what Multiculturism meams to me.
Every group for themselves. Except the people born here.
Than we pay for our own demise as a culture, under a ton of trash of murderious ones.
JMO
It doesn’t surprise me that “multiculturalism” came to the fore in Canada as there is no such thing as a Canadian identity. This is in marked contrast to the US where there is a very clear American identity and immigrants are welcome as long as they become American. I’ve lost track of the number of times when I’ve been talking to obviously non-white people in the US and gotten the answer “I’m American” when I ask them where they’re from. When I press they’d tell me they were from the Phillipines or Vietnam but, once they’d obtained their US citizenship they were American. There used to be very few hyphenated Americans.
When I grew up I felt Albertan first, Ukrainian and Croatian next and then realized I was in Canada. I found I had very little in common with most people in Ottawa as my anti-communism and anti-Russian views weren’t too popular at universities. The impression I got in Ottawa was that being Canadian meant someone who lived in Ontario or Quebec.
Schools did a really lousy job of teaching enlightenment values to students which used to be the basis of Canadian culture. I think by having no set idea of what it was to be Canadian, people like Turdeau could impose their view on Canada. Canada had nothing like the US where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution made it quite clear what the basis of American values were.
So what we have in Canada is a large number of groups of hyphenated Canadians many of whom forget about the “Canadian” part. As long as most of the immigrants were from countries that had been affected by the enlightenment, there were few problems ie European immigrants. Now that muslims are allowed to immigrate to Canada, it’s just a matter of time before there will be nightly carbacues in the streets and the best way to prevent this problem is to keep them out.
In a dinner party situation, I have no problem discussing which cultures I think are advanced and which are primitive. I keep race out of it as people of all races can accept enlightenment social values.
Multiculturalism only works when immigrants want to integrate into our culture and become Canadians. That means living in our neighborhoods not mono-cultural ghettos, sending their kids to public schools, letting them socialize, date and marry other cultures, learning our language, participating in community activities, wearing ‘normal’ clothing in public, not expecting cultural entitlements or special treatment etc. What they do in their homes or places of worship is their cultural right, but in public they have to try to be Canadian.
Multiculturalism does not work if immigrants want to isolate themselves, wear costumes in public, try to live like they did in the old country surrounded by only ‘their’ kind of people, and pursue customs that violate our cultural view of human rights. If they act like that they will be, shunned, ridiculed, and rejected by good, honest, normal Canadians.
If that’s racist and bigoted then tough shift, cuz I ain’t gonna change no matter what socialist laws they pass.
Half British , half Greek.
Moved here age 35 – proudly Canadian.
Multiculturism can kiss my bum.
My children were born here and are Canadian with no hyphens attached.
Have you listened to Carmen and Sara’s take Alex? They’re talking literally about Canadian officials directing immigrants into race-specific groups. The radio segment is really interesting, if you care.
loki; Canadians do have a very well defined identity. I know this from all the beer ads I’ve seen over the years.
In a way it reminds me of the quips about how the Scots became greater English imperialists than the English themselves after they confederated. Immigrants like Sara are often prouder Canadians than people born here.
As an avowed Racist, Bigot, Xenophobe, etc. I have to say that I love Canada and all those who came here from all over the world to be Canadians, speak English, maybe have a beer, watch a hockey game once in awhile.
Go out West or down East and check out the Rockies, or Cape Breton Island … go camping, fishing, getting a hit of culcha in the big beautiful cities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver … I think It’s save to included Calgary in that line which happens to have a Muslim mayor FYI …
But anyone who came here to cling to a piece of their former turf, can get the hell out and back to where you came from.
* THIS – IS – CANADA * (the visual is me kicking you into a deep pit). The same goes for the elitist idiots who welcome the disgusting turfers in their foreigner ghettos that some immigrants have brought and are encouraged to squat in and collect the money of hard-working tax-paying Canadians forever.
Alex, I kick you into the pit with whatever vermin it is you are defending.
The Trudeaupean lunacy must end with this generation or Canada is gonzo. I think there are now enough of us to make it happen.
followed by a series of “Racist” barbs soon after
Is culture race?
Is race culture?
No to both.
(is no such thing as race)
Where are you ET?
If we were to hypotheticly stipulate that the quote above was truth, if being against multi-cult is racist, then being for multi-cult is racist too.
In fact if culture is race then multi-culturalism is a racial policy.
Official racism
I grew up believing we were all Canadian, but then had that idea dashed when my first child was born. My wife informed me that the hospital needed the ethnic origin of the child, not knowing any better I said Canadian. The next day when I went back to the hospital my wife was crying and said she was told that if we didn’t declare the ethnic origin that we would not be able to take the child home. My problem was that the child was fourth generation Canadian and his Great-Great grandfather migrated through Warsaw so by Canadian Law he was Polish, although that may not be true. So we listed our son as Polish. When the second was born my wife forgot what the ethnic origin was so I told her Ukrainian and he was listed as Ukrainian. If we would have had another child it would have been German and so o n. This to me was as stupid as it gets.
One of the tasks I had was the welcoming of the new class to our program on the first day of classes. After I had completed the task I went back to my office and sat down to look at the class list and to my amazement it indicated that there were three visible minorities in the class and I could not remember seeing them when I addressed the group so I asked the department head what that was about and he informed me tat there were three students of Asian descent and I guess I just assumed that they we Canadians since they have always been present in the society that I lived in, from the Owner of the Store in the small prairie town that I grew up in to the classmates in my university classes, the people I worked with, the people in church or the children my children played sports with. Boy was I surprised.
I believe it is crap like that that stands in the way of a true Canadian identity.
The likes of Alex Da Troll are too filled with arrogance & hate to ever be open minded enough to actually *listen* to another person’s views but I think great respect & time should be given to listening to Carmen on the podcast. Though she moved here from another country, she truly **GETS** what it means to be a Canadian! Sadly, much more so than a lot of people born here. 🙁
Robbie, you’re so open-minded your brains have fallen out. There’s no such thing as “Official Multiculturalism”. There’s no SEEEKRET GUBERMENT CONSIRAPCIE!!! to separate Canadians based on cultural or ethnic lines. It doesn’t matter how many times you twits repeat these lies, they won’t magically become true. Your “views” are completely irrelevant when they’re invented whole-cloth and completely inconsistent with reality. I actually DID immigrate here, so I’m quite familiar with how the system works, and I know for a fact that you’re simply lying. No amount of weaseling or calling me “closed minded” is going to change the fact that you’re a liar who makes up ridiculous accusations in order to excuse his own bigotry.
ryan, if you’re referring to the Molson ad, I found it so offensive that I’ve never bought a Molson product since it came out.
Every time I’ve gotten into a discussion with people about Canadian culture, the main thing I seem to get is what Canadians are not and, when I lived in Ottawa, it seemed to be especially important for many people to point out that we’re not Americans. Lost track of how many times I got the comment “why don’t you move to the US where you’ll be more at home”.
What constitutes Canadian culture depends on where you happen to live. Growing up in Alberta, it was shooting gophers as a kid, barbecues, beer, guns, spending lots of time in the bush and a degree of freedom that is no longer present. Never learned to skate till I was over 30 so hockey wasn’t part of my childhood and I considered official bilingualism a perversion that might hopefully be rectified in the future.
Now I do refer to myself as a Canadian, but it took quite a few decades to determine that what Canadian culture represents is a toned down version of enlightenment values (compared to the US). I’d like to see Canada get a lot more libertarian in the future.
The absurdity of “Official multiculturalism” is that a whole governing system is a part of a culture. not the other way. The myth of democracy, parliamentary ceremonies, creation of national heroes are all cultural elements.
Canadian culture? Are the mating rituals same in Toronto and Moose Jaw? Are drinking habits shared in Whitehorse and Montreal?
Distinct culture in Quebec? yeah big deal, so is Mid-west, Pacific or even some small hamlets in Saskatchewan have distinct culture.
People confuse culture not only with a race , but also with a national identity.
The “multicultural” notion that no culture is better or worse than another is nonsense. The standard one uses to judge cultures is to what extent they are coercive. A culture in which coercion is prevalent is a primitive one. A culture of freedom is a superior one. Many cultures are a mixed bag, and each of their many aspects must be judged separately.
The fundamental moral principle of a civilized society is that no person has the right to inititate the use of force or fraud on any other person. One standard leftist trick is to blur the distinction between voluntary and coerced (for example, referring to lottery tickets as a “tax”). The “multiculturalist” notion that all cultures are equal is just another example of this tactic. It would lead to the belief that North Korean communist culture is equal to our own, which is clearly false. But the extreme left cannot allow people to believe that it is false, because then the people would reject leftist totalitarianism. So they use diversionary tactics like multiculturalism in an attempt to confuse.
Many ethnic and religious cultures have their own music, dances, clothing, food, etc., which are in the main not morally objectionable. Anyone may celebrate his own culture, as long as he does so at his own expense. Which is why the “official multiculturalism” grant industry should be closed down.
loki: “Schools did a really lousy job of teaching enlightenment values to students which used to be the basis of Canadian culture”
That’s because the Enlightenment has been endarkening itself since Immanuel Kant came along.
Stop feeding the troll. Multiculturalism is the official policy of the federal Canadian government.
Here Alex.
nv53 …
The “multicultural” notion that no culture is better or worse than another is nonsense.
No, it could be a cultural value, although taking human nature into account it is hard to hold a cultural belief that it can be a cultural attitude:))
Good points xiat – I like your use of degree of coercion in a culture as a metric of how advanced it is. There are subtle means of coercion; eg “citizen” vs “subject” with a “subject” being explicitly subservient to a hereditary monarch whereas “citizens” are independent and legally equal. By this classification the US used to be more advanced than Canada given that there was less coercion in the US, but the “war on terror” and “war on (some) drugs” has led to a substantial decline in American cultural advancement. When one looks at islamic cultures, especially those of the Wahabbist persuasion, they are the most backward of all world cultures.
I’d disagree about Kant and would put a large share of the blame on Rousseau who is probably the most corrosive intellectual influence around. The “noble savage” myth is at the root of all “environmentalist” ideology.
Anyone can type, but not everyone can make sensible points and contribute to a rational conversation.
Great job, Robert. Ignore the mindless, reflexive negativity.
Just to be clear, I’m referring to Alex, who, somehow, after listening to your POV on Roy Green’s show, accuses you of being a *bigot*.
It’s a sad fact of life that some people are – literally – incapable of parsing the words and utterances of others; their pre-assembled “points” are not altered in the slightest by either evidence or facts.
Well Alex, considering I come from ‘ethnic’ backgrounds of Irish, English, Scottish, Swedish, Danish, and Dutch it would be pretty silly of me to be bigoted. Admittedly, human beings are capable of amazing things good and bad so it is still possible. I’m just weirdly suprised you would accuse me of it based on my comments. So you think the Canadian girls from Egypt were making stuff up about being directed to Egyptian/Arab groups by immigration officals? The point isn’t that it’s a ‘conspiracy’ but that it’s a message – that you are from Egypt, you’re different, here are people like you to connect with here. My reading of that message is that it comes from ‘white’ anglo Canadians who see the majority Canadian culture as a white-specific culture. Because they don’t want to assimilate other cultures through their percieved majority influence they instead want the country to be a mosaic of hermeretic cultural circles without real connections or influence on eachother. In a way, it’s a good and lovely idea and I respect it because I recognize the wrongs like residential schools that it responds to. I find it distasteful and wrong because it assumes races are indelibly different and cannot truly mesh. It’s also blind to the fact that most of the people who come here could have stayed in their own country if they didn’t want to be Canadian. To me Canadian multiculturalism is a success story because it meshes. 100 years ago Ukranians in the praries were a very separate people. There are still a few Ukranian jokes filtered down to me that speak of a time when the European ethnicities were as separated as the continental ethnicities are now – if not much more so.
It’s never a clean and easy process. Absent a strong enough unifying message and with people who don’t want to see it happen because they patronizingly think it’s racially ‘their’ culture and so for ‘others’ to join is for them to lose themselves how can it happen? Time and the Canadian ethos may work the same magic but there’s the risk it won’t. And then we’ll no longer be the greatest example of how people can be together but become a shallower example of how people can live near eachother – if that ghettoization doesn’t end up sharpening racial lines so much we’re no longer an example at all. You could see immigration officials telling people about their culture/race-specific groups in the country as a smart way to find social support for newcomers. But without a larger, Canadian identity message it becomes a real worry for what the country will become.
I believe that multi-culture is a term used to describe the many different types of yogurt now available on grocery store shelves. When I was young we could only buy yogurt from the local creamery, now it comes in flavors and colors and under various name brands.
Posted by: Black Mamba at May 13, 2011 1:32 AM
And which part of that, pray tell, says anything about no culture being any better than another?
It’s hilarious to watch you idiots argue against something you yourselves have made up. It’s like watching the crazy guy on the street corner, arguing with himself.
Liberals confuse multiculturalism with cultural ancestry. They really do think of multiculturalism as “more pavilions at folkfest” and believe that culture is somehow benign. They completely miss the fact that immigrants come to Canada (or elsewhere) to escape the culture they are from. Cultures are not benign, they are by definition, coercive. A culture is the expression of the local identity politics – the tribal separation of one group from another, for survival, for gain. Multiculturalism means maintenance of discrete tribal identities, and by extension, the coercive toxic elements that ensure the separation of those identities. They can never be compatible because they exist to be incompatible.
When liberals talk of multiculturalism they are really talking about cultural ancestry – maintaining the identity and tradition elements that are the art of cultures that belonged to forefathers of the immigrants. Sort of trying to make a pluralistic society a living museum of its elements – pavilions at folkfest. Canada, nor any pluralistic nation, can’t be multicultural – the cultural identities are inherently mutually exclusive. Balkanization is always the end result, and that’s never been a good thing.
Alex, now that you’ve outed youself as a non-native Canadian, tell us what your cultural ancestry is. I think I can guess fairly accurately by your condescension and demeanor. Tell us and lets see if my “inherent” white bigotry is right…
Multiculturalism is the Homogenization of Humanity. The UN is the Human Resources Dept. of the Multinational Corporation, and the organ of the world’s elite. One of their foremost programs is the elimination of the Nation State. In order for this to succeed the Nation State must go, borders must fall. National Armies, and Treaties must be signed acknowledging the UN’s paramountcy over the Nation State. Multiculturalism is Homogenization of humanity. It is only employed as a tool against the Western World. It is never employed in the developing world, ie, China, India, Africa etc. It is Cultural Genocide on a grande scale being committed against the West. Perhaps we should say Cultural Suicide as the adherents are willing dupes. You must never, never, never be proud of being White that is now Criminal.
For Alex, the fact that Multiculturalism is embedded in the Canadian Constitution 1982 makes it an obvious fact. That Canada legally has a program of Official Multiculturalism, the courts are commanded to uphold this Official Document of Canadian Law. And it is Officially taught in all our schools. And it is Officially Funded by law by all Taxpayers mostly against our will but funded just the same. Suck it up Princess Alex. You lost the argument.
Robert, my question is why are you having dinner with such @$$holes? ~:D
Multi-culturalism became government policy when Trudeau came to power, right along with metric and the destruction of the military. As I recall from having lived through it, the original purpose was to beat up on all us WASPs for having been mean to the French. We made them “second class citizens” you see, so we all needed to be punished.
Then came the huge wave of immigration, and multi-culturalism shifted magically from including French to including -everything-.
Over the years, Official Multi-Culturalism has changed its aims. It changed from trying to “broaden” Canadian culture to trying to -destroy- Canadian culture. As we all remember from the 1990’s and 2000’s, “Da Canadian Values” to quote Prison Mouth Chretien include socialized medicine and provincial parks, but not farming, churches and hunting.
And of course now we have a whole new bureaucratic machinery of oppression to speed the destruction of traditional Canadian culture, the Human Rights Commissions. Re-tooled from their original purpose of insuring the New Canadians a fair shake at an apartment in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, they now insure that the Christians (the majority, in other words) are circumspect about what they say in public.
Presently our shiny new Conservative majority is set to back out of the driveway and into a telephone pole with the proposed Crime Bill. This takes multi-culturalism out of the non-judicial hands of the HRC kangaroo courts and puts it firmly in criminal courts. Cops will be reading your email and perusing your web surfing habits without a warrant, and bloggers will go to jail for linking to a site which contains “hate speech”.
This is because the peckerheads who write these bills and set regulations are not elected Conservatives, they are Ottawa mandarins who were appointed 20 years ago by the Liberals, and they are not about to let a little thing like a Conservative majority derail their agenda. They set out to destroy traditional Canadian culture, and they are by G*d going to do it.
If you want to know what they have in mind for your future, just watch CBC like a good little robot. You’ll be living in Little Mosque On The Prairie, and you will be pretending you like it.
*
had ctv’s “canada am” on in the background this morning… and they were interviewing
“canadian” figure skater patrick chan… who said that he is going to start learning
chinese.
apparently patrick, on his last visit to china… felt humiliated, or alienated… and wants to
embrace his ethnicity.
being canadian, it seems, is some sort of step down the multicultural ladder.
thanks for that, p.
*
Thanks, Black Mamba, for providing the FACTS about what OFFICIAL multiculturalism is, right from the horse’s mouth:
“The Canadian Multiculturalism Act affirms the policy of the government to ensure that every Canadian receives equal treatment by the government which respects and celebrates diversity. The Act also:
. . . recognizes equality rights regardless of colour, religion, etc.”
Of course, the act means no such thing: it was crafted by and has been wielded (like a bludgeon) by our politically correct masters, who hate the British, Judeo-Christian dispensation that’s the political, judicial, and moral foundation of this country—and most of the free, prosperous world. The “Act affirms the policy of the government to ensure that every Canadian receives equal treatment by the government . . .”? Ask a traditionalist, male Christian (Stephen Boissoin), who objects to homosexual propaganda in the schools (I’ve seen it up close and personal) or who’s not in favour of same-sex marriage (Damian Goddard, in the last two days).
Have these dissenters from political orthodoxy been treated equally to Muslims, who also, a propos their religious belief, object to homosexual propaganda and same-sex marriage? NO. It’s white, Christian (and, in Ezra’s case, Jewish) males who are hauled before our draconian Human Rights (sic) Commissions or have lost their jobs because they’ve had the audacity to express both the inconvenient truth of our politically correct gulags and their religious/philosophical beliefs. Some equality!
Mark Steyn’s pointed out that (hat tip to Robert Frost) trying to discuss this issue with relativist dupes, who have actually fallen for the multicultural ruse—its purpose is actually to destroy the host culture, not just be nice to everyone—is like playing tennis without a net. Rules don’t count. Hey, the game itself doesn’t count. Just my feelings count. What rubbish!
Actually if you ask Canadians on the street, excluding multiculting loving Tarrana, what they think of Multiculturalism they’ll tell you they think it sucks. I often hear people opining that they’re sick of immigrants in Canada demanding we support their beliefs whilst they publicly shun our beliefs. Outside of the Ottawa Tarrana bubble Multiculturalism is sneered at for good reason, not all cultures are even remotely equal to our culture.
If I were a cartoonist:
First Frame: Relativist kicking British, Judeo-Christian wolf out the back door.
Second Frame: Relativist running to the front door to greet Muslim crocodile with open arms.
Relativist: IDIOT!
My family was very multi-cultrual until I married a Malay Muslim, talking the talk was a lot easier than walking the walk.
Biologically, there’s no such thing as ‘race’, understanding that term to suggest a separate species. There is one species: homo sapiens, with many adaptations, which include skin colour, hair, height, fat distribution etc. Usually, a biological reason can be found for these variations; i.e., they are adaptations to a specific climate, sun, foods etc.
But there ARE numerous cultures, which are the set of beliefs and behaviour of a population located in a particular geographic domain. And of course these can each be evaluated, since they are creations of the human mind.
Multiculturalism – please note the ‘culture’ within the word – is an official policy in Canada. There’s not only the 1988 Official Act as pointed out by Black Mamba. It includes such niceties as:
“acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage
make use, as appropriate, of the language skills and cultural understanding of individuals of all origins;”
So, doesn’t this mean that if my ‘cultural heritage’ includes insisting that my wife wear a veil..then…
And if my ‘cultural understanding’ includes a rejection of the laws of Canada…then..
And, not only is there this ‘Multicultural Act’ but multiculturalism is also embedded in that other travesty: The Charter of Rights.
Section 15/2 rejects equality rights of individuals IF the ‘law, program or activity [that]has as its object the amelioration of condictions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability’.
Note: ‘disadvantaged’ is subject to interpretation.
Note: the focus is on GROUPS. That is, you can have a program or law (!)that applies only to members of a specific ‘race’ or ethnic origin! To ‘better’ their ..whatever. This section on Equality Rights specifically rejects equality of individuals if that individual is a member of a ‘special group’.
And, then there’s Section 27 of the Charter: “This charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians’. Hmm. Not the culture of Canada but of wherever your ancient ancestors came from…you don’t even change those old ways; you come to Canada to preserve the old mindset.
And this focus on ‘differences’ and ‘inequality’ applies to the workforce. Try getting a government grant without showing proof that you have included a strong ratio of ‘visible minorities’ and various other ‘different groups’ in your team. The focus isn’t on merit or ability; it’s on CULTURE…and these had better be different. Or..no grant.
And how about the Liberal heritage of giving vast federal sums to immigrant groups for ‘community centres’ and ‘heritage language instruction’…[as long as they vote Liberal]…
Multiculturalism was a political strategy to divide and conquer anglophone Canada. Quebec took charge, alone of all the provinces, of its own immigration, and the result is – the lowest proportion of ‘visibles’ in all of Canada (and 99% in Montreal only)..and in insistence on integration.
Are cultures equal? Of course not. Any simpleton, when presented with the facts of: the ability of that set of beliefs/behavior to support and continue its population in health and capacity to work with other peoples ….has to EVALUATE that culture.
Note the ‘capacity to work with other peoples’. That’s important. A set of beliefs and behavior that can only function in isolation from all others…is dysfunctional; it shows that the beliefs and behavior lack any tactics for adaptation. Sounds like a certain culture with which we are familiar, doesn’t it..
ET! We missed you! Slay Alex for us!
canucklehead – “Well Alex, considering I come from ‘ethnic’ backgrounds of Irish, English, Scottish, Swedish, Danish, and Dutch it would be pretty silly of me to be bigoted.”
So in other words you’re about as white as it’s humanly possible to be 😉
But no, of course I understand you, so am I. To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke (because I don’t have time to look up the actual quotation), people came here to get away from foreigners.
Alex is doing this thing of latching onto an obscure, pointless detail, i.e. we must find the official document where it explicity states in exactly those words that all cultures are to be considered equal, when in fact it’s already been demonstrated that “multiculturalism” has been government policy for decades and non-WASP cultures are given priviledged status by the state. If we could find that one precise phrase we would instantly convert Alex, but otherwise we are liars with the IQs of vegetables.
The Left having no good arguments, it’s always Revenge of the Nerds time with these guys now.