REDAKTIONELT - Anglo Files

22
used his great prestige as
analyst of the vertical mosaic
to inveigh against any recognition
by government of ethnic
and cultural differences. To him
ethnicity and culture were
synonyms, and culture was either
already mythical or quickly
becoming so: he was explicitly
assimilationist.
It was apparent in the criticism
of the policy of multiculturalism
that it was being interpreted as
doing what ethnic group spokesmen
had demanded during the 1960s:
giving support to the other
ethnic groups for the retention
of their cultures and languages.
A reading of Hansard for 8
October 1971 suggests that the
government's intention was rather
to increase interaction among
ethnic groupps and to remove
barriers to full participation
in Canadian society. If the word
multiculturalism seems inappropriate
to clothe this intention,
it was used because the Royal
Commission on Bilingualism and
Biculturalism and after it the
framers of the policy of multiculturalism
regarded ethnic and
cultural as synonyms. Under the
policy a programme for cultural
retention was explicitly based
on the assumption that security
in one's ethnic identity made for
acceptance of others. New though
the word multiculturalism was,
however, the government was not
able to make it mean what the
government chose it to mean. For
scolars, journalists, spokespeople
for ethnic groups and the
general public it meant cultural
and linguistic retention.
The general public of course
became aware of the policy only
slowly, as it becomes aware of
most policies other than tax
increases. Surveys in 1973 and
1974 revealed that only about one
respondent in five knew about the
federal policy of multiculturalism.
But with the repeated
discussion of the policy in the
press, by both proponents and
opponents, and the lauding of the
policy by prominent visitors,
including the Queen and the Pope,
knowledge spread.
Opinions among the public were
no more unanimously favourable
than among scholars, ethnic
spokespeople and journalists. The
letters to the editors of major
newspapers contained many worried
or hostile comments. Fears that
governmental support for cultural
differences would lead to
balkanization or ghettoization,
indignation that public funds
were being used to support
activities that had previously
gone on without government aid
and suspicion that the only
motivation for the policy was a
quest for "the ethnic vote" were
all frequently expressed. The
word multicultural entered into
everyday speech, usually as a
euphemism for ethnic, which in
turn was, as a character in one
of Rohinton Mistry's short
stories explained to another, "a
polite way of saying bloody
foreigner" (6); but many who
accepted a multicultural society
had misgivings about a multicultural
policy of government.
Ethnic and linguistic differences
should be maintained, they felt,
but by the family and the ethnic
group and not out of the public
purse.
The proclamation of the federal
policy of multiculturalism was
followed not only by the adoption
of multiculturalism in a number
of provinces but by several
related measures. A new Citizenship
Act removed the few
remaining privileges accruing to
British subjects. A Human Rights
Act affirmed the principles of
non-discrimination within the
country. A new Immigration Act
removed all formal discrimination
on racial and ethnic grounds
regarding entry.