EDITORIAL: Want multiculturalism? Turn up the heat (07/14/96)

EDITORIAL

Want multiculturalism? Turn up the heat

Since December 1995, the Ukrainian community in Canada, other non-English/French/aboriginal ethnic groups, and the Canadian Ethnocultural Council have been banging pots and pans to get the present Liberal government's attention on multiculturalism, and to ask the government to reaffirm its support for the policy.

Since multiculturalism is recognized as the country's demographic reality, is enshrined in specific federal legislation, and even has a clause devoted to it in Canada's Constitution, this kind of alarm would seem to be superfluous.

However, hostility to multiculturalism as an official policy voiced by likely sources, such as members of the nativist and occasionally openly racist Reform Party, and by unlikely sources such as Liberal MP John Nunziata and by prize-winning author Neil Bissoondath, suggest that times are changing for the worse.

A sure sign of trouble was that Mr. Bissoondath's book criticizing multiculturalism, "Selling Illusions," was lionized by the Canadian literary establishment and given the 1995 Gordon Montador Prize for being the "Best Canadian Book on Contemporary Social Issues."

Thanks to Dr. Manoly Lupul's warnings to the Ukrainian community about the ramifications of the Alberta-based Reform Party's status of de-facto official opposition to the government on matters of national concern, and red flags by Drs. Elliott Tepper and Stella Hryniuk waved before the CEC at a meeting a year later, both the CEC and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) seemed to take seriously an editorial that appeared on this page almost exactly a year ago ("A Multicultural Wake Up Call," July 9, 1995).

UCC President Oleh Romaniw and the umbrella organization's Multiculturalism Committee Chairman Adrian Boyko helped the CEC, led by its president, Dmytro Cipywnyk (since succeeded by Emmanuel Dick), prepare a brief called "The 42 Percent Solution." The brief's title refers to the percentage of non-Anglo-Celtic/French Canadians who are citizens of the country, and thus (theoretically) the share of the national assets to which the aforesaid 42 percent have a claim.

Thanks to this brief (submitted in January) and to the need for the centrist Liberal Party to maintain good public relations with its traditional support-base among "ethnic" Canadians, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Hedy Fry issued a rousing speech in defense of the policy on May 25.

Time to go back to sleep? Hardly.

First, while Secretary Fry utters fine words, the bureaucrats of her department are still slashing budget appropriations for multicultural programs.

Second, in their July 1 (Canada Day) press releases, neither Secretary of State Fry, nor newly re-elected Heritage Minister Sheila Copps (who is also responsible for implementing policy in this area) could bring themselves to mention the dread word "multiculturalism," and neither listed off the many nationalities that make up the country's mosaic, as is their wont.

Instead, they both emphasized that National Aboriginal Day was officially celebrated this year on June 21, and that Saint-Jean Baptiste Day (June 24) is a national French Canadian (read: not only a Québécois) holiday.

A cynic might suggest that since Canadian Natives have met with increasing success in the courts over land claims and natural resource title battles, and since Lucien Bouchard and the separatist Parti Québécois continue to scare the federal government silly, it is logical for the government to respond to political pressure in this fashion.

If that is the case, the lesson for Ukrainian Canadians is obvious. Turn up the heat, or you'll be shut out.

[A question to ponder: Why is the government finding it so difficult to praise and/or recompense the "ethnic" communities of Québéc for saving the country in the October 1995 referendum? Separatist former-Premier Jacques Parizeau found it easy to blame them for his loss, wouldn't it be logical for their federalist antagonists in Ottawa to show some public - dare we say financial? - gratitude in winning?]

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