Multiculturalism Funding: Feds Allowing Millions To Go Unspent Each Year

OTTAWA - Millions of federal dollars earmarked for multiculturalism programming are going unspent, resulting in what the government calls responsible cuts to program budgets but what critics consider a sign of a worrisome shift.

Figures from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration suggest at least $5 million a year hasn't been disbursed since 2007, and the department's marquee funding program has seen nearly 40 per cent of available funds go unused.

Multiculturalism exposed as a sham

So, is "multiculturalism" dead now?

This is a question that might have come to anyone's mind, while reading through news reports and commentary on the Shafia "honour killings." And I don't just mean after the verdict was announced on Sunday, but from the beginning of the Kingston trial. For the indulgence of "multiculturalism" went right out the first window, on Day One.

Trial by jury is inevitably supplemented with trial by media in a free country. And the media, like their audience, are a hangin' judge. One did not have to be a lawyer to be vexed, while trying to establish what hard evidence the Crown had against Mohammad Shafia, his "second wife" Tooba Yahya, and his son Hamed Shafia, now convicted of the murders of three daughters and the "first wife."

As all three accused consistently and vehemently maintained their innocence, I've tried the mental exercise of looking at the case from the defence side. The evidence presented beyond the courtroom to the public struck me as persistently circumstantial. Which is not to say a huge pileup of circumstantial evidence doesn't make a case.

But, what if? What if the car in the Kingston Mills lock had, somehow, got there by accident? And while we're being hypothetical, what if the accused, and perhaps also their lawyers, had botched their defence from cultural misunderstandings?

An Attack on Multiculturalism

Building a national identity on past heritage obscures our current multicultural reality.

The federal government’s latest effort to highlight the importance of our military history involves the creation of an $11.5-million fund to promote the War of 1812 as a critical moment in our nation’s history. This initiative is part of the Conservative government’s broader strategy to place greater emphasis on our historical linkages to the Commonwealth. We’ve seen this, over the past few months, with the redesignation of the “royal” title to our armed forces, and the return – and prominent display – of the portrait of the Queen of England to Canadian embassies abroad, and to our government buildings.

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The Tories have released their plans for the bicentennial of the War of 1812, with $28 million set aside to help Canadians understand that Laura Secord is more than just a chocolate shop. Read more here.

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The strategy is clear: The Conservative government wants to reconstruct a sense of national identity out of the remnants of our British colonial past. This distinctly English-Canadian version of “nationhood” does not adequately represent our country’s increasingly diverse population. Indeed, this strategy could backfire because some (notably those in Quebec, among First Nations’ peoples, and among non-English, non-British Commonwealth, descendants), could view it as a step backwards – a regression. Perhaps this signals what we have been witnessing in many countries in Europe: a rejection of multiculturalism.

This is not at all to dispute the importance of our military history and our undeniable connections to the British Commonwealth and the British Crown. These are important foundational elements of our country’s past. The pride and reverence that most Canadians feel for their military establishment is evident and demonstrated in the relatively large attendance at Remembrance Day ceremonies, and in the show of support for our fallen soldiers on the “Highway of Heroes.” The British monarchy also remains an important symbol of identity for many Canadians, as evidenced by the throngs of Canadians who greeted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their recent cross-Canada tour. Even some immigrants to this country (particularly those coming from British Commonwealth countries) can be nostalgic for the pomp and ceremony associated with the British monarchy. These histories, these symbols, will remain an essential part of our identity.

Government worried multicultural ‘mosaic’ harmed terror fight: WikiLeaks

OTTAWA — Canadian multiculturalism policies have greatly shaped anti-terrorism and anti-radicalization efforts, but government officials believed it may be hurting them as well, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.

The June 2008 cable from a U.S. official to other departments in that country said Canadian officials believed the government may have gone too far in encouraging diversity — the Canadian “mosaic” — rather than integration — the American “melting pot.”

“Government representatives have commented that they felt people around the world understood what it meant to be ‘American,’ but that Canada lacked a similar sense of identity, making it more difficult to create a feeling of one unified society in Canada — and hence creating greater susceptibility to radicalization,” reads the cable, signed by the deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Canada, Terry Breese.