Canadian multiculturalism is a true social gift
Having grown up in a Pakistani-Muslim, European-Jewish home in Montreal, multiculturalism has always been close to my heart. It wasn’t an ideology or a topic to be debated; it was merely a statement of fact. Passover and Eid fit together like pieces in a puzzle and served as a fabulous excuse to skip class many times a year.
I benefitted from the beauty and warmth of Shabbat dinners alongside colourful, vibrant Pakistani weddings. And while “fitting in” on either side was tough, I can now confidently say this multi-faith and multicultural life was the greatest gift my parents ever gave to me.
My parents met in Montreal in the 1970s, when cultur- al diversity was not the norm. My mother joined an insurance company where my father was employed at the time — and she caused quite a stir. “News-rat” they called her. Her first name is Nusrat, and while she doesn’t go by that name, it is “unfortunately” (as she would say and I wouldn’t disagree) the name on all of her legal documents.
My father, a bit of a playboy, a divorcé, and a blossoming “rebel” among his peers in the Jewish community, was completely captivated by her.
He persistently asked colleagues “who is this Newsrat?” He needed to know where this tiny, foreignlooking brunette with long hair down to her waist and big round glasses had come from. Once he tracked her down, she made him guess, and shockingly, his answers weren’t too far off. He named a couple of Asian countries and when she said Pakistan, he replied, “Rawalpindi?”
Her ears perked up, eyes widened. It turned out he wasn’t an average schmuck hitting on her after all. Well, hitting on her he was; and the rest is history. A messy but meaningful history. Ever since the 1970s, there have been few countries that have embraced multiculturalism like Canada. In Canada, you don’t need to assimilate, or aspire to an “American dream” with melting-pot ideals, to fit in. In Canada, you can see Judaism as more than a religion, as a race, as an ethnicity. In Canada, you can have entire neighbourhoods with Chinese street signs and RCMP Mounties wearing Turbans because they are Sikhs.
And this is what makes Canada beautiful. This is what differentiates Canada from the U.S., where cultural and linguistic assimilation have historically been encouraged, and where racism and ignorance is often rampant outside of metropolitan cities. In a world where Pauline Marois’s Parti Québéc ois values are the laws of the land — with a Québécois constitution that codifies the Charter of Quebec Values, where pasta must be pâtes, and where the language police would roam free — the beauty of Canada disappears. We lose our intrinsically Canadian ability to have strong connections to other identities, even as we celebrate what unites us as Canadians.
Immediately following the inception of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, Canadian policies helped to promote integration and provide funding and rapid-settlement services to immigrants. Defenders of the federal charter fought to ensure a constant respect for diversity at all levels of government at all times. And the creation of human-rights commissions at the provincial and federal levels displayed the government’s sincerity in upholding the law of the land.
So while many societies around the world are perplexed or even torn apart by diversity, in Canada, we celebrate and derive strength from it. This is one of the defining features of Canadian multiculturalism — and one of the many reasons I am proud to be Canadian.
I am Muslim and Jewish and when asked, “Well, which one are you?” it is Canada that has allowed me to answer, “Both.”
Vive le Canada!