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Multiculturalism & Multicultiphobia

Do you have anxiety of losing English Canada? Then it is time for a dialogue

Interview with Phil Ryan, author of Multicultiphobia, and associate professor at Carleton University

Interview & photos by Myungsook Lee

Summary of Multicultiphobia

What do Multiculturalism critics say?

Multiculturalism generates ghettos and divided loyalties.  

Most newcomers can now easily preserve and enhance their cultures by themselves. Multiculturalism pushes all Canadians into separate boxes. Many multicultural groups don’t practise multiculturalism. They practise what can best be described as mono-culturalism. Multiculturalism invents a duty not to merge with the Canadian mainstream (Neil Bissoondath Selling Illusions, Richard Gwyn Nationalism without Walls).

Multiculturalism is a cult.

Anyone critical of multicultural polity is immediately branded a racist. Minorities who feel disadvantaged are allowed to speak out, but majorities are not. Members of the majority who disagree with any minority claim will be labelled racists or bigots. (Neil Bissoondath).

Multiculturalism encourages frozen identities and separation.

Multiculturalism is an article of faith for politicians of all stripes and for educator. It must be defended and protected, and whatever threatens it must be rooted out, even if that threat is the teaching of Canadian history. Canadians try to demonstrate to themselves and theworld that we are a deeply racist society. (Jack Granatstein, Who Killed Canadian History?).

What questions must address the shared-values approach which is the basic need for a social cohesion (successful Multicultural society)?

- Which exactly are the values that must be shared?

- At what level of specificity must they be shared?

- What are we asking of immigrants: Do as we say, or do as we do?

- How are shared values to be inculcated? Can we avoid an authoritarian approach to the promotion of those values?

(The end)

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