June 27 is celebrated in Canada as Multiculturalism Day. But what does multiculturalism really mean? It means different things to different people, but the summary of it is the mosaic of different ethnic groups and cultures co-existing. It implies the acceptance, recognition, and encouragement of Canada’s cultural mosaic by its government and people. This means multicultural communities like every other, enjoy the right to celebrate their culture, use their native language, practice their religion, and celebrate their heritage, no exception.
This is undoubtedly why last weekend, Edmonton witnessed the largest ever, and I must say, fantastic Filipino Fiesta in Edmonton as part of the Filipino Heritage Month. On July 12 to 14, Edmonton will celebrate with the African and Latino communities, the exciting Africanival and the vibrant Edmonton Carnival respectively. The Caribban colourful Cariwest Festival will rock Jasper Avenue on August 9 to 11, and the largest multicultural festival in the world, the Edmonton Heritage Festival will crown it all on August 3 to 5, 2019. Chinese Lunar New Year, Diwali, Black History Month, and many others, constitute the Canadian multiculturalism pride.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Canada has attracted talented, skilled, accomplished, recognised, passionate, and appreciative people from all over the world and is indeed a very multicultural country – the envy of the world. However, a country built for “uniculturalism” in the early days, embracing multiculturalism these days will certainly come with its own challenges as different cultures, customs, traditions, values, believes, languages, and perceptions clash, compete, and some “unfavourable” cultural practices forced into extinction using state institutions that are managed and controlled by the majority, at the expense of the minority.
Festivals and events are the most visible celebration of multiculturalism in Canada, and the most widely supported as it presents that golden opportunity to “look good or feel good”, rather than to “be good or truly good”. Multiculturalism does acknowledge the fact that there are other cultural groups in Canada that should be respected, but does not stipulate the importance of the resulting synergistic strength as a result of the interconnectedness of the different multicultural groups that now call Canada home. It does not appreciate the interdependence of the cultures, and the tendency for people to give their best, and contribute whole-heartedly to help build a country where they feel happy, and welcome.
The drawbacks of multiculturalism has invited the question of proper integration of multicultural communities into Canadian mainstream society, the sense of belonging, the quest for opportunities, prejudices, stereotypes, racism, discrimination, and general feeling of “you are welcome be my guest for ever”, rather than “you are welcome, this is your own room, join us for dinner, please feel free to walk around and make yourself home”.
Multiculturalism unfortunately dos not prescribe the need for multicultural representation in positions of political and economic power, the reason why minorities are a rare species in top positions in government, industry, as well as, elected positions. It’s easy to dismiss this as wanting opportunities to be handed to people who have not earned it. The question is how do you compete and earn a position when your once shinny experiences, credentials, accomplishments, and recognition, are considered good enough to get an invite to the party but not good enough to join the line to the buffet? How do you compete when the goal post keeps moving when you get to the goal? How do you compete when your accent is more of a barrier than your talents and skills? How do you compete when you are made to waste useful time learning English even though you came from a country with English as a first language? How do you compete when your start to life in Canada is greeted with a burden of debt to pay for transportation to Canada from the refugee camp?
The answer to these questions is the reason why only very few minority gets to the top and the top stays whiter than snow. There is indeed need for an evolution of the Canadian version of multiculturalism to level the playing field. Hopefully that day comes sooner than later.
