OUR SOCIAL CONTRACT
Multiculturalism doesn’t mean no Canadian identity, it means reasonable accommodation
When I was a graduate student a number of years ago, I took a course on multiculturalism. The professor decried Canadian multiculturalism as lacking, referring to it somewhat derisively as “dining-and-dancing-multiculturalism.” Her view was that true multiculturalism could not exist unless broader society was willing to accept the more challenging elements of other cultures, instead of just the food and festivals. I thought she was wrong then, and I still do.
In my opinion, the element lacking in her point of view was the existence of a social contract. The Enlightenment writers — whose ideas act as key foundations to our modern political systems — recognized that for a large political or social entity to exist, the people making up that group needed to “buy in.” Individuals are required to give up certain freedoms in order to be part of the stability that the group can provide. This is why speaking of individual democratic rights without the flip side of collective responsibilities can only ever be half the argument. What is created, however, is a fairly cohesive society wherein the individuals agree on the “big picture” elements of their grouping even if the details vary.
This is why Canadian multiculturalism should be viewed as a tremendous accomplishment. There are few, if any, other places in the world that have successfully allowed so many disparate groups to live as neighbours and friends. Yes, we do get the joy of hundreds of restaurant options, festivals and having ethnic communities that can be like visiting a different country but, at the same time, our cities and towns do not generally have zones that are inaccessible to anyone else including emergency services personnel (as we can see happening with the large immigrant enclaves in European cities). We have freedom of religion and speech, but that does not mean internecine aggression or hate crimes are permitted. It is a matter of balancing individual culture with the larger vision of what it means to be Canadian.
So what does it mean to be Canadian? This is — and should be — an ongoing discussion within our society because it is constantly in flux. As the adage goes, the only constant is change. Despite our commitment to multiculturalism, Canada has never said that every element of every world culture is welcome within the Canadian social contract. It means that cultural/ religious issues such as polygamy, female circumcision and parallel legal systems based on religious codes have been rejected as unacceptable here. This is not unreasonable. However, as Canada’s social contract does expect certain conformity from its populace, I think it is also reasonable to provide fair warning to potential newcomers.
This past summer, some among the influx of illegal migrants coming across the U.S. border were asked certain questions by the RCMP in Quebec. While this action was vilified and declared rogue, perhaps this is something we should do more if we want to ensure a strong social contract. We often hear Canadians declare Canada to be the best place to live in the world. I don’t disagree, but I think that many people around the world would say the same of their own countries.
Refugees and immigrants are not generally coming to Canada because they desperately want to be Canadians, but because they are trying to escape something else. Moving your family and future to an entirely new place is a tremendous undertaking and not something to be done lightly. I suspect they often have no idea how different the culture will be. Letting new arrivals know that they will likely have a female as their boss at some point, that girls have rights and that forced marriage or domestic violence in the name of “honour” are matters subject to law is not Canada being unwelcoming, but explaining some of the “big picture” elements of our social contract. Pretending that we are a society in which individual rights can trump all group expectations means that there will inevitably be individuals who are disillusioned and feel as though they were sold a bill of goods when they arrived. We have seen what can happen when individuals — whether Canadian born or having arrived from abroad — feel disconnected.
As such, when the norm becomes that individual interests simply scream discrimination and demand action, we put our own social contract at risk by refusing attempts at respectful discussion of what it means to have reasonable accommodation. Surely, we can do better than this.