Multiculturalism in Canada: Exploring Culture, Identity, and Equality

This assignment delves into the concept of multiculturalism in Canada, focusing on the initiatives and policies that support diverse cultural groups. The student analyzes an article discussing the election of Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh leader, and how this event reflects Canada's commitment to multicu...Read More

Running head: MULTICULTURALISM IN CANADA
MULTICULTURALISM IN CANADA
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Briefly introduce the service/initiative and the specific cultural group that it helps. Discuss
how the ideas in the article relate to course concepts learned so far.
The respective article “India’s Sikh Sensitivities and Canadian Politics” exhibits the reform
policies taken up by the government of Canada to allow or permit a culturally, linguistically and religious
minority group to represent themselves in the federal Canadian parliament (Thediplomat.com, 2019).
The news article discusses about Jagmeet Singh, a 38 year old Sikh lawyer, who was elected as the leader
of Canada’s New Democratic Party, creating history by becoming the first non-white politician to lead
and head such a major political party of Canada. Jagmeet Singh has been elected on the first ballot to
head the New Democratic Party against Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the 2019 elections in Canada. The
immigrant Sikh community of Canada who originally hails from the state of Punjab, India, consists of
approximately about 1.4 per cent of Canada’s population. Even after reasonable extremist movements in
Canada, Sikhs have retained their power, respect and position in Canada in the arena of professional jobs
such as academicians and politicians as well as business (George & Chaze, 2015).
Describe how the service/initiative in the article helps to create a just and equal Canada,
using specific ideas from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Ontario Human Rights
Code, AND the Multiculturalism Act.
The new democrats and the progressive Canadians have made the provisions of nominating and
representing an immigrant community to come forward into the arena of politics so that their voice could
be heard. The provision for ethnic minorities in the government of Canada has been one of the reasons
why Canada is considered to be the most liberal, ethnically and linguistically diverse and least
xenophobic nation in North America (Guo & Wong, 2015).The most remarkable and outstanding
characteristics of Canada is that of “building bridges” between multiple cultures, religion and ethnicity,
surpassing all kinds of bigotry and ethnocentrism which marks Canada different from any other Western
nation or state which are often categorized to be racists and believers of white supremacy.

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Multiculturalism in Canada can be termed as “an ideology”, “a policy” as well as “a critique”. However,
in spite of the former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau xenophobic and anti-multicultural
remarks in Ukrainian Canadian Congress in 1971, Canada became the first nation in the world in 1988 to
acknowledge multiculturalism as their policy, ideology, agenda and way of governing (Kymlicka,
2015). The New Democratic Party has been observed to have captured a remarkably unique space in
Canada’s multiparty democratic system of government. The practices of multiculturalism can very well
be exhibited through the whereabouts of the New Democratic Party of Canada. The multiculturalism act
of Canada states that the government of Canada should acknowledge and recognize ways by which
discrimination should be diminished and promotion of acceptance, equality, a sense of attachment to
Canada by the ethnic minorities and encouragement of civic participation by all ethnic groups be done
(Uberoi, 2016). The New Democratic Party of Canada has been fighting and struggling on behalf of the
minority communities of Canada, including the blacks, immigrants, lingual minorities and indigenous
minorities and has shown remarkable and unique progress by providing them a considerable position in
politics and governmental activities, giving them power and respect to enhance their position in the
mainstream Canadian society. It is evident that the new democratic party of Canada has taken up their
multiculturalism agenda on the basis of Ontario Human Rights Code 1961 which protects the Canadian
citizens from the discrimination on the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic affilation,
citizenship, creed, age, sex, marital status, family status or impairment (Pinto, 2013). With the help of
Charters of Rights and Freedom 1982 that grants preservation and enhancement of Canada’s multicultural
heritage, the Sikh diaspora of Canada has subsequently acquired their rights of representation and duties
in the constitution and government of Canada (Black-Branch, 2018).
Explain the relationship between someone’s culture and their identity. Provide a personal
example of how your own culture shapes your identity.

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Culture has always been a dynamic factor in shaping one’s identity. Humans are social animals
and lives in groups. Humans tend to define themselves through the identities of the group where she/he
belongs to both individually as well as collectively (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Various customs,
traditions, social norms and ethics shape a human both internally as well as externally, influencing his/her
food habits, dress code, code of conduct, thought pattern and psycho-social behavior. The dynamic and
interactive approach of human nature helps them to constantly amalgamate and update themselves
culturally in a particular group where he/she belongs to, personally, socially as well as individually. Being
a Canadian and brought up in a multicultural arena, I have been privileged to look at every diverse culture
and ethnicity devoid of bigotry, racism, prejudice and ethnocentric chauvinism. As a Canadian, I can
assume myself to be a by-product of ethnic inclusiveness and cultural diversity and an unprejudiced and
open-minded observer.

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References:
Black-Branch, J. L. (2018). Rights and Realities: The Judicial Impact of the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms on Education, Case Law and Political Jurisprudence. Routledge.
George, U., & Chaze, F. (2015). Punjabis/Sikhs in Canada. Migration, Mobility and Multiple
Affiliations, 94-104.
Guo, S., & Wong, L. (Eds.). (2015). Revisiting multiculturalism in Canada: Theories, policies
and debates. Springer.
Kymlicka, W. (2015). The three lives of multiculturalism. In Revisiting multiculturalism in
Canada (pp. 17-35). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.
Pinto, A. (2013). Report of the Ontario Human Rights Review 2012. Ontario Ministry of the
Attorney General.
Thediplomat.com (2019), India’s Sikh Sensitivities and Canadian Politics, Retrieved 22nd March
2019 from https://thediplomat.com/2019/03/indias-sikh-sensitivities-and-canadian-politics/
Uberoi, V. (2016). Legislating Multiculturalism and Nationhood: The 1988 Canadian
Multiculturalism Act. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science
politique, 49(2), 267-287.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Society, culture, and person: A systems view of creativity. In The
systems model of creativity (pp. 47-61). Springer, Dordrecht.