Charter Of Rights And Freedoms: National Narrative

Legal Norms Dept: It took one such multi-cultural person, Mayor Naheed Nenshi of Calgary, to remind us of the pervasiveness and normality of Canadian multiculturalism when he spoke recently in Toronto. He said and I paraphrase : as a son of East African immigrants, I grew up in a working class neighbourhood, went to excellent public schools, spent my youth in a fabulous public library, tried and failed to learn to swim in a marvellous public pool, played in a beautiful public park, then went to Harvard and am now the mayor of Calgary. This simple statement says it all, according to The Star. Multiculturalism does not mean accepting or rejecting all and every value. It means negotiating our differences within a common legal and rights-based framework. In Canada it means the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a duty to accommodate each other within that framework. Those who break the law suffer the consequences and those who refuse to negotiate end up isolated and often outside the social and legal norms and i have news for non-Canadians. Multiculturalism is alive and well in Canada. It could be better, but it is alive. Both multi and cultural are here we are in the streets, in the neighbourhoods, in workplaces, in schools, colleges and universities, in community centres, in shopping malls, in food and music and some of us are even in our governing bodies albeit sporadically. First Germany and now Britain's leadership is claiming that state multiculturalism has failed in their countries. As Nenshi says, I am not sure what the reasons are for that but let's show them by example how it actually works. In my opinion, what makes it work is a strong public sector, a society that provides the best social supports to everyone but particularly to those who are most vulnerable, a private sector that embraces and champions diversity and inclusion as both a business imperative and the right' thing to do, and a national narrative that is flexible and amenable to pluralistic and negotiated authorship. As reported in the news.
@t canadian multiculturalism, mayor of calgary