Interculturalism: Ethnic Diversity

Furious Debate Dept: What difference there is between them is mostly semantic. In practice they amount to much the same thing, according to Montreal Gazette. Multiculturalism has been a dirty word in the Quebec nationalist lexicon ever since it was propagated as a Canadian policy by Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s. It was intended essentially to aid the accommodation of Canada's increasing ethnic diversity by recognizing the value of cultural traits of different immigrant groups. It has since been attacked - and misrepresented - by Quebec nationalists who tend to loathe Trudeau and all his works largely for his success in frustrating the separatist movement as an attempt to cast francophone Quebecers as just another ethnic group in Canada, on a par with Canadians of Ukrainian, Chinese, Italian or Arab background and a recent poll found that more than half of Quebecers are unclear on the difference between "multiculturalism" and "interculturalism." For this they can be readily excused. But that hasn't stopped Quebec's chattering class from indulging in a furious debate on the subject in recent years, one that spilled into an international symposium on interculturalism held in Montreal this week organized by historian G rard Bouchard, who co-chaired the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on accommodation of minorities in the province. As reported in the news.
@t pierre trudeau, montreal gazette