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Possibilities and Limitations

Possibilities and Limitations

Multicultural Policies and Programs in Canada

About the book

In this work, contributors from a variety of academic disciplines write about the extent to which multicultural policies and programs facilitate cultural freedom and equality of opportunities for ethnic and racial minority group Canadians. Areas explored are: (a) the federal multicultural policy and its articulated discourse, intentions and outcomes in today’s Canada; (b) how ethnic, racial and religious minorities and immigrants have fared in a society with official multiculturalism; (c) the limits and possibilities of multicultural education; and (d) the capacity of employment equity to address discriminatory employment practices in today’s cultural context. Contributors demonstrate that instead of opening opportunities for full and effective participation in Canadian society, the current discourse of multiculturalism often operates to homogenize, essentialize, racialize and marginalize ethnic and racial minority group Canadians, and in the process negates individual and intra-cultural group differences as well as cultural variations and complexities of groups. In light of this situation, we observe that there is a need for a paradigm shift that would facilitate the development of policies, programs, curricula, practices, strategies and pedagogies that would bring about equitable conditions for minority group Canadians and immigrants.

Public Policy Race & Anti-Racism

Author

Carl E. James

Carl E. James holds the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora at York University, where he teaches in the Faculty of Education and in the Graduate Program in Sociology. For many years, he taught annually in the Teacher Training Department at Upsala University, Sweden. With an interdisciplinary lens, he explores how race intersects with other identity markers – like ethnicity, gender, class, generational status, etc. – to shape individuals’ experiences and life trajectories. A Distinguished Research Professor and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he also holds the 2022 Killam Prize in Social Sciences, the Outstanding Contribution Award (Canadian Sociological Association), and honorary doctorates. With the belief that that longitudinal studies provide significant, in-depth and valuable insights into people’s lived realities, Carl often conducts follow-up studies with research participants — one of which is represented in the short NFB film Making It. In his work, he highlights the significant ways in which economic, social, and cultural conditions structure institutional policies, programs, and practices which mediate the educational, employment, and career opportunities and achievements of Canadian youth. He seeks to move us beyond the essentialist and homogenizing discourses that are used in the representation of racialized.

Introduction: Perspectives on Multiculturalism in Canada (Carl James)
Canadian Multiculturalism (Clifford Jansen)
Aboriginal People and Stories of Canadian History: Investigating Barriers to Transforming Relationships (Susan Dion)
Immigrants’ Integration in Canada (Patience Elabor-Idemudia)
Citizens of the State but not Members of the Nation: The Politics of Language and Culture in the Construction of Minorities in Quebec (Susan Judith Ship)
Multicultural Education in Canada (Carl James and Maxine Wood)
A Sociocultural & Critical Analysis of Educational Policies & Programs for Minority Youth in British Columbia (June Beynon, Linda Larocque, Roumiana Ilieva and Diane Dagenais)
Accommodating Religious Difference (Lois Sweet)
Employment Equity in Canada: The Paradox of Tolerance and Denial (Audrey Kobayashi)
The Letter: Racism, Hate and Monoculturalism in a Canadian Hinterland (Luis LM Aguiar, Patricia Tomic and Ricardo Trumper)
Conclusion: Multiculturalism: A Discourse of Contradictions (Roger Saul)
Bibliography