{"id":452,"date":"2006-07-01T03:16:08","date_gmt":"2006-07-01T07:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=452"},"modified":"2018-08-22T02:13:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T06:13:21","slug":"saturday-july-1-2006-thoughts-on-multiculturalism-on-canada-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, July 1, 2006 \u2014 Thoughts on Multiculturalism on Canada Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back to the blog! The last month has been rough, with an over\u00adwhelm\u00ading work\u00adload. But things are eas\u00ading off.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cana\u00adda Day, today, and I rode my bike around down\u00adtown, aim\u00adless\u00adly, to enjoy the per\u00adfect weath\u00ader and look at the crowds every\u00adwhere, pic\u00adnick\u00ading, lis\u00adten\u00ading to con\u00adcerts in parks, and gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly enjoy\u00ading the nation\u00adal hol\u00adi\u00adday. Peo\u00adple seem to be hap\u00adpy. If they are sup\u00adposed to be ter\u00adri\u00adfied by the dis\u00adcov\u00adery of a \u201cter\u00adror\u00adist cell\u201d a few weeks ago, they show no sign of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cter\u00adror\u00adist cell\u201d busi\u00adness, was seized on by Amer\u00adi\u00adcan politi\u00adcians as proof that Cana\u00adda is a \u201chotbed of ter\u00adror\u00adism\u201d because of its \u201clib\u00ader\u00adal immi\u00adgra\u00adtion laws\u201d (!). But it was tak\u00aden with remark\u00adable calm\u00adness by the Cana\u00addi\u00adan pub\u00adlic. Most peo\u00adple could see at a glance that there had nev\u00ader been any sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant dan\u00adger. The \u201ccell\u201d con\u00adsist\u00aded of a hand\u00adful of extreme\u00adly stu\u00adpid sub\u00adur\u00adban teenagers who would have had dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adty orga\u00adniz\u00ading a sur\u00adprise birth\u00adday par\u00adty, let alone \u201cbehead\u00ading the prime min\u00adis\u00adter\u201d or blow\u00ading up sky\u00adscrap\u00aders in the finan\u00adcial district.<\/span><\/p>\n

But one of the annoy\u00ading side-effects was the incred\u00adi\u00adbly stu\u00adpid kind of \u201cjour\u00adnal\u00adism\u201d that fol\u00adlowed. Was \u201cmul\u00adti-cul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adism\u201d to blame? Did it bring Cana\u00addi\u00adan poli\u00adcies of \u201cmul\u00adti-cul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adism\u201d into ques\u00adtion? What nonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be hard to find a lamer con\u00adcept than the \u201cmul\u00adti-cul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adism\u201d idea, as it is inter\u00adpret\u00aded by the media and bureau\u00adcrats. What Cana\u00adda offers to Cana\u00addi\u00adans \u2015 ALL<\/span> Cana\u00addi\u00adans, whether they are descend\u00aded from mam\u00admoth hunters who fol\u00adlowed the melt\u00ading glac\u00adi\u00aders, or from the French and Scot\u00adtish adven\u00adtur\u00aders and refugees who came lat\u00ader in boats, or they just stepped off an air\u00adplane from Mogadishu last month \u2015 is free\u00addom. \u201cMul\u00adti\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal\u00adism\u201d is mere\u00adly an inci\u00adden\u00adtal bi-prod\u00aduct of the much more impor\u00adtant con\u00adcept of indi\u00advid\u00adual lib\u00ader\u00adty. In a free coun\u00adtry, inhab\u00adit\u00aded by free peo\u00adple, nobody has the right to tell you how to live your life, how to dress, what to eat, what god (or no god) to pray to, what to read, what music to lis\u00adten to, what dances to dance, what thoughts to think. Peri\u00adod. The most impor\u00adtant human free\u00addom is the free\u00addom from the Group, the Mob, the Horde, the Crowd. True civi\u00adla\u00adtion is that which ele\u00advates us from the most dread\u00adful of human per\u00adver\u00adsions, conformity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cana\u00adda is not an \u201ceth\u00adnos\u201d and it is not a cult. When you set your foot down on the soil of this vast land, you should be oblig\u00aded to 1) obey laws that con\u00adform to the prin\u00adci\u00adples of uni\u00adver\u00adsal human rights (e.g., you shouldn\u2019t kill peo\u00adple steal from them, punch them in the nose, or go around blow\u00ading up build\u00adings), and 2) obey nor\u00adma\u00adtive laws that must exist by neces\u00adsi\u00adty (e.g. dri\u00adving your car on the right side of the road \u2015 which is no more moral than dri\u00adving on the left side of the road, but we have to pick one or the oth\u00ader). That\u2019s it. Noth\u00ading more. Cana\u00adda is not some stu\u00adpid lit\u00adtle trib\u00adal eth\u00adnic\u00adi\u00adty that per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adates itself by forc\u00ading every\u00adone to wear a fun\u00adny hat or wear a bone in their nose, or demand\u00ading that every\u00adone sing the same songs. Cana\u00addi\u00adans have nev\u00ader even been \u201cunit\u00aded\u201d by a \u201ccom\u00admon cul\u00adture\u201d, or even, for that mat\u00adter, by one offi\u00adcial lan\u00adguage. Cana\u00adda is a much big\u00adger and more impor\u00adtant idea than that kind of prim\u00adi\u00adtive trib\u00adal\u00adism. Cana\u00adda is not a \u201cmelt\u00ading pot\u201d that will fuse every\u00adone into one com\u00admon, pablum-like mush. Immi\u00adgrants to Cana\u00adda are not under any oblig\u00ada\u00adtion to con\u00adform to any\u00adthing oth\u00ader than the uni\u00adver\u00adsal injunc\u00adtions of the law. Nobody has a right to demand that they \u201cassim\u00adi\u00adlate\u201d or \u201cfit into\u201d any\u00adthing. Those who expect them to don\u2019t grasp the most ancient, tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal, and sacred of Cana\u00addi\u00adan val\u00adues, which can be summed up in the holy phrase: \u201cmind your own god damn fuck\u00ading busi\u00adness!\u201d , which is the prop\u00ader Cana\u00addi\u00adan response to any\u00adone who tries to tell you what to do with your per\u00adson\u00adal habits, tastes, and beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, in Cana\u00adda, we make a point in our pub\u00adlic ser\u00advices, cer\u00ade\u00admonies, fes\u00adti\u00advals, and so on, of acknowl\u00adedg\u00ading the pres\u00adence of many cul\u00adtur\u00adal tra\u00addi\u00adtions and cus\u00adtoms. When I go to my neigh\u00adbour\u00adhood pub\u00adlic library, I see walls of books in Tamil, Russ\u00adian, Taga\u00adlog, Chi\u00adnese, etc. The bank machine is equiped to read out in six lan\u00adguages. Both gov\u00adern\u00adment and pri\u00advate busi\u00adness\u00ades rec\u00adog\u00adnize that an elder\u00adly grand\u00admoth\u00ader in a Soma\u00adli immi\u00adgrant fam\u00adi\u00adly can\u2019t be expect\u00aded to mag\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly turn her\u00adself into a flu\u00adent Eng\u00adlish or French speak\u00ader, and there is no sense in mak\u00ading life hell for her (and thus impose a con\u00adstant irri\u00adta\u00adtion and bur\u00adden on a fam\u00adi\u00adly that is try\u00ading get mov\u00ading into a future). We do these things with per\u00adfect ease, prac\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly with\u00adout think\u00ading about them, because we know that our \u201ccul\u00adture\u201d, the essence of Cana\u00adda, is some\u00adthing much deep\u00ader and more impor\u00adtant than a lan\u00adguage, a man\u00adner of dress, or a recipe for pirogies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to the blog! The last month has been rough, with an over\u00adwhelm\u00ading work\u00adload. But things are eas\u00ading off. Cana\u00adda Day, today, and I rode my bike around down\u00adtown, aim\u00adless\u00adly, to enjoy the per\u00adfect weath\u00ader and look at the crowds every\u00adwhere, picnicking, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9516,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/9516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}