Canada officially adopted a policy of multiculturalism in 1971. Since then, immigration patterns have changed. The number of immigrants has increased, and the major source has shifted from Europe to Asia, Africa, and their diasporas. Indeed, a fifth force has emerged. Examples from the 1993 federal election, from conflicts especially in metropolitan Toronto and Vancouver, and the observations of writers on multiculturalism suggest that the laudable ideal of multiculturalism has neither prevented racism nor helped English Canadians establish an identity. English Canadians face a challenge in melding diverse cultures into a unity that all can share.
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2. Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, The Cultural Contribution of the Other Ethnic Groups (Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1970), p. 10.
3.
3. Doubt about the future of Quebec contributes to the identity problem. The term “English Canadian” also poses problems. It can mean simply Canadians who speak English, the sense used here, or can apply specifically to those with roots in England. The latter are seldom mentioned in a multicultural context.
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6. “South Asian” is a collective term for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, but some South Asians came from Africa (especially Uganda), Fiji, and the West Indies.
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28.
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58. In Oct. 1993, British Columbia announced that baptized Sikh members of municipal police forces may wear turbans and carry kirpans (ceremonial daggers).
59.
59. The Reform Party dropped references to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police dress code in its 1991 platform statement. The turban was again controversial when the Canadian Legion in Newton, B.C., a Vancouver suburb, invited Sikh veterans to march in a Remembrance Day ceremony in Nov. 1993 but refused to allow anyone wearing headgear to attend the reception that followed in the Legion Hall.
60.
60. Bissoondath, “Question of Belonging,” p. 378.
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