The Toronto Sun has an article today lamenting the flaws in multiculturalism as being one that creates “ethnic ghettos”, instead of the benefits that would come from the mixing of cultures in true “diversity”. “If ever all these ethnic groups mingle into a single entity”, the writer opines, then Canada would have created a “miracle race”. Unfortunately, the scenario in Canada’s big cities appear to show more of a compartmentalized nation, and the rapid ghettoization is clear in large cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. It isn’t real diversity, except perhaps in glowing governmental brochures and high school essays. No, what we are witnessing is the emergence of vast self-contained communities which survive independent from Canadian culture at all. Communities so large that their isolation is self-sustaining because of the relative autonomy they have, represented by their politically elected ethnic leaders, sustained by their ethnic economy servicing others like them, and isolated by a need to keep together in these pockets throughout Canada.
Was this piece written by a white Canadian of European ancestry lamenting the gradual shift to a mosaic of cultures too different from his own to understand? An intolerant bigot, to be written off as nobody more than another standing in the way of the inevitable changes of our demography?
It would be too easy if it were so. But unfortunately for those kind of critics, the article was written by Gurmukh Singh, a person belonging to one of the ethnic groups he speaks about in his article. The problem, he says, is the lack of interaction between cultures, not just between immigrant clusters and Canadians, but between each cluster:
The Chinese of Markham have little interaction with the Indians of Brampton or the Pakistanis of Mississauga or the Sri Lankans of Scarborough or the Somalis of Islington.
Forget about the mainstream white society. These ethnic groups have little to do with them.
As mentioned earlier, there are no compulsions for people in these ethnic enclaves to leave their comfort zones. In addition, the Canadian government has given them enough incentives to stay in their ghettos with a beautiful thing called multiculturalism.
This well-meaning policy may have been aimed at helping newcomers preserve their language, religious traditions and culture, but it seems to have served the opposite purpose.
Basically this policy says: Be the way you are, and stay in your ghetto. Bluntly speaking, it breeds isolation.
Gurmukh Singh goes on to lament that this isolation is propped up by politicians who understand that they can target an entire voting bloc by pandering to isolationist policies. These liberal-style ethnic donations aren’t just reserved for the Chretien-Martin years, but have infiltrated the Conservative stratagem. And the main argument for immigrant communities, that their children will eventually integrate and the problem will be solved, is a fallacy in the face of the fact that Canada’s record immigration numbers, accomplished under a Conservative banner, replenish the numbers of immigrants leaving the ghettos with new ones. Meaning that there is a permanent state of ghettos in Canada that are completely isolated from everybody else.
Not only does isolation create a problem within Canadian cohesiveness, but as Mr.Singh explains in his article, Toronto winds up becoming the battlegrounds for battles best left on the shores of the countries they abandoned. The Tamil Tiger demonstrations in Ottawa and Toronto this spring are a perfect example of it.
This realization of the failings of Canada’s multiculturalism and immigration comes at a time when a Canadian think-tank has said that immigration is not the answer to our future problems. In short, Canadians need to start having children, not outsourcing our population growth to new immigrants who will merely fill ethnic communities. A study by the C.D. Howe Institute found that even vast increases of immigrants has little effect on the age dilemma facing Canadians from the baby boomer generation retirement as our demographics shift to an aged nation. What this ultimately means is that the more we outsource our population growth, the less sustainable our social security will be in the future. A change in our thinking about immigration could be necessary in a very short time.
July 5, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Okay, again I’ll get on my personal soapbox. We need a multiethnic Canada not a multicultural one, for all the reasons the writer mentions most mostly because multiculturalism is divisive to our social unity. Instead the government should invest in institutions that foster unity rather than diversity, national institutions like the military, like sport (one of the only things uniting french and English Canada is hockey, for example), and yes, fireworks on Canada day. I think our current Governor General is a perfect example of national service that transcends her own narrower cultural beginnings, and I think the government should leverage her abilities more in the cause of national identity.
July 5, 2009 at 3:41 pm
You’ve become a noticeably better blogger since you stopped sucking up to lib-left bloggers like Red Tory and the like.
For my money you’re the best – possibly only – conservative blogger in Canada with a readership to speak of. Not exactly high praise, and I still think you’re a complete wanker, though.
July 5, 2009 at 3:47 pm
lol. A better backhanded compliment I have yet to see.
But while I appreciate the praise, there are many giants above and beyond my reach. More popular Canadian conservative blogs with huge readership:
Dust my Broom Small Dead Animals Blue Like You Western Standard Shotgun Five Feet of Fury Stephen Taylor Blazing Cat Fur Jay Currie
Just off the top of my head.
July 5, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Joe,
I think that working on more integrated, nationalistic policies on immigrants could only be a good thing. Funding for ethnic communities should end. Funding for ethnic lobbies and organizations should end [yes, the Israeli lobby included]. We need to nurture a true sense of diversity here. That, or reduce immigration, which would allow the ghettos to thin out of their own accord.
July 5, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Immigration should be set to exactly what the country needs to maintain a stable population, no more and no less.
July 5, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Canada currently has two different immigration policies working in different directions. Quebec, which has its own immigration ministry and issues its own certificates of immigrant selection, favours a policy of cultural integration while the rest of Canada advocates a policy of multiculturalism, which produces the results you point to.
If Canada wishes to pursue a policy of mass immigration, it may wish to consider Quebec’’s example if the objective is cultural cohesion rather than multiple separate identiities.
July 5, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Impressed Says: “…..better blogger since you stopped sucking up to lib-left bloggers like Red Tory and the like.”
I agree with this.
July 5, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Dust my Broom – race hustler, not conservative
Small Dead Animals – single issue muslim hatin’ warblogger, not conservative, aligned with Bnai Brith and CJC, two biggest anti-free speech entities in Canada.
Blue Like You – somewhat conservative, but a bit of a pushover. Not tough enough to be conservative.
Western Standard Shotgun – very much the opposite of conservative, much of the staff admitted in a recent thread they support ramming gay marriage down the electorate’s throat even in the case where it is defeated by referendum (ie Prop 8 in California) – that’s not conservative, or libertarian.
Five Feet of Fury – open immigration supporter, feminist, hates Conservatives, conservatives, spam blogger
Stephen Taylor – not conservative in the slightest, comic book reader. Once threatened to ban someone from BT forums for referring to Vancouver as Hongcouver, a term the CBC coined in a widely viewed documentary – he’s more politically correct than the friggin’ CBC! Immature, unread.
Blazing Cat Fur – single issue, open immigration supporter, aligned with Bnai Brith and CJC, two biggest anti-free speech entities in Canada.
Jay Currie – voted NDP in last election and not for the first time, I have a seven year old niece more conservative than him, likely closeted gay, absolutely loathes the Conservative party and Harper and has for years. Why anybody thinks this pseud is conservative in the slightest is beyond me.
You’re more conservative than every one of the above, Raph, not that it’s hard to be. Actually I’m beginning to think conservative blog is an oxymoron, sort of like conservative lawyer or conservative judge. They simply don’t exist.
July 6, 2009 at 2:48 am
My “handle” says it all! Celebrate your origin, religion, etc. but when push comes to shove stand up for Canada first .
July 6, 2009 at 4:39 am
impressed. i’m not. i am a real live conservative. maybe the only one alive in canada.
July 6, 2009 at 8:52 am
As the daughter of immigrants, I think it’s natural that newcomers would socialize with people from the same ethnic background, BUT there is a huge problem when their children and grandchildren also identify themselves primarily with that ethnic group (which is what’s happening).
Cutting off government funding to ethnic groups and causes would be a good start.
July 6, 2009 at 11:47 am
Racial, religious and ethnic enclaves is an issue we will never be allowed to address, in private we can discuss it but once it becomes a public issue the left will shut down dialog. It’s in the Modern Left’s best interest to let those enclaves fester in poverty, violence and dispair for the vote. To tackle the problem and dismantle said enclaves would require relocating them into other communities and I suspect they would not be willing to be relocated into communities that weren’t enclaves. Circ logic stands in our way, housing them as groups in subsidized housing is a receipe for violence, I truely lament for those who wallow in those communties because when financial resources become scarce will their be uprisings demanding the rest of Canada finance their enclaves? Toronto is already demanding we move industries within the enclave areas because the residents don’t want to seek work outside of their communities. Immigrants of lore were migrants and traveled across this vast land to work and feed their families, alas the new immigrants expect everything to be delivered to their door as per our multiculture policies dictate via grants and multicultural funding.
What is the solution?
July 6, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Real old white guys capitalize, phoney, and don’t call themselves old white guy. I’ve long suspected you of being a false flagger from your posts at SDA; all you do is warmonger and make white people look bad.
“What is the solution?”
Self determination for all peoples, black, Jewish, Anglo, French, Tamil, whatever. It’s a big country; let’s admit we tried and failed, and carve it up into ethnic enclaves, as is our right under international law.
If Anglo Canadians were to invoke their right to self-determination via a Unilateral Declaration of Independence there is little that could be done under international law. I for one would support such an initiative.
Lucien Bouchard was right: Canada is not a country and never was. Founded on a land speculation scam, it is an anachronism of colonialism, and now a modern day Babel. Our head of state is the friggin’ Queen of England, for heaven’s sake, and the vast majority of us, myself included, come from ethnicities, partially or wholly, with genuine and legitimate grudges against the British Empire.
Fail. Canada is fail. Shut ‘er down and let’s carve it up. I take the hostile ethnics at their word that they hate us and think we are racist: fine, you go your way and we’ll go ours, best of luck to you.
July 6, 2009 at 12:39 pm
The solution is to educate the first generation and possibly when people are applying for grants, benefits, pension,etc. there be a Citizenship box with only two choices, Canadian and Non-Canadian sand if you select Non-Canadian you are asked; In your country of origin would you be eligible for this government handout.? Of course none of the “solutions” made in this posting will ever come into place but some people try….the owner of Mandarin spent something like $500K to feed Canadian citizens.
July 6, 2009 at 1:34 pm
As I pointed out in an earlier post , my background is North American Indian on my fathers side but because my Mother was less brown I appear to be White until the summer time when I go dark very fast because I rarely get a sunburn.
It’s amusing to hear all the career-whiners pull out the Victim-card and excuse away all their shortcomings as the faults of canada and White Canadians.
Presently I’m applying for a Visa-exempt Status to travel to the USA as a Child of an American Indian born in canada , the 1794 “Jay-Treaty” applies to my dad and his relatives that populated the North Eastern USA which was split-up against my dad’s peoples will and the 45th Paralell now slices apart Vermont and Lower Quebec just 1/4 miles from my relatives homeland birth place.
I have no time for yahoos like Dr.Elmasry or Dr.Sheema Khan who hijacked the native issue to justify bring about Sharia Law in canada and making it one big Caliphate run by murderous Mullah, I also have no time for Olivia Chow or John Clark who now victimize a new generation of people by telling them how pathetic and useless they are because of White-People which now own them a living plus Free-Housing and Welfare.
I often hear the “racist” slirs at me and i even had a young black muslim co-worker tried to get me fired or face the OHRC for my views on the Welfare trap that sucks the life out of people as “Wards Of The State” in perpetuity, until he relaized how stupid he’d look as a Blcak/Muslim attacking a Native American Indian.
I’ve hear many funny jokes about natives which didn’t offend me to run to Barbara Hall for protection to my fragile ID, but I also saw the Racism and Bigotry from Immigrants of all stripes and it was 20 years ago I asserted that the Ghettos would happen and that Crimes would be tolerated from some Minorities because the Moral-Bar is lower from the Liberal arrogance to assume they are prone to violence by the oppression that makes poor people riot and kill.
Other than the Ethnic eateries , I rarely get a warm welcome to minority areas merely from the assumtion that my White Skin = Racist/bigot .
And for the record, I did not want a Indian-Status ID card because I would be signing away my Rights to be treated equal, I have been hired or fired by my work ethics so I would learn from it which was better than being Pidgeon-holed as a minority that must be Hired and Can’t be fired.
As for the current issue for the Ghettos, nobody forced the Immigrants to take the hand-outs and Self-Segregate to be with Theirown-Kind and this means they were a Willing participant to accept Bigorty and division for their Canadian born children.
Just look at the 3 Muslim terror cells caught within our borders , 2 of them were foreign pakistani Muslims bent on slaughtering civilians in mass, and the 2006 Muslims were Canadian born Pakistani Muslims with one Hindu convert they brainwashed.
Nobody ever wondered how the Pakistani canadian population could not know about Jihadist Muslims at their Mosques, unless they learn from the Sikh Terrorism in B.C. that slaughtered 240 canadians because few Sikh’s opposed it .
I know exactly what Islam and Muhammed have in store for us Natives because Hezbollah and Hamas show us exactly what islam thinks of the Natives in the Middle east that the Palestinians in canada have demonized and want to kill as Muhammed Elmasry opined awhile back.
My people survived for over 8000 years in N.A. and will outlast the newcomers because we have the Survivor DNA to question motives and be slow to trust strangers, this includes me not buying into the tripe about Islam=Peace because the Quran makes it clear to Muslims to kill all the enemies of Allah and Islam to get that peace.
This crisis is the Liberal’s mess and Iggy better fess-up and try to repair it rather than blame Whitey or the rednecks out West.
You broke it….you bought it!
July 6, 2009 at 3:26 pm
If we carve up Canada we’ll end up like the Balkins and we know how successful that experiment was. Could the answer to the problem by “Changing the Charter” and enshrining Canada Culture as an absolute. Before I get called every name in the book let me state I assert dozens of cultures created our Current Culture i.e the Chinese united this great land they are part of our culture. The Natives are part of our culture, the French, the English, Blacks who came via the under ground railroad bla blah. However in the past two decades those that emigrated to Canada haven’t added to our culture they’ve sucked it dry under Multicultural Policies and cradle to grave welfare scams. A host culture cannot survive Multculturalism, only one culture can sustain our identity thus diversity or democracy but we can’t have both. Europe is a prime example that allowing enclaves to flourish and calling those ghettos and poverty pits diverisity is assinine it’s a socialist experiment gone amok amid violence where anarchist run amok.
Carving up Canada isn’t the anwer because the provinces with the largest enclaves will be war zones in a couple of decades, France is a prime example of what happens when the cradle to grave welfare recepients get bored and feel entitled to a better lifestyle.
Immigrants boldly shun our culture and admit they will never integrate into our society, thus why are we still importing what could cause civil unrest? I guess I’m tired of so called Canadians bringing their old feuds, holywars and hatred into Canada and I am told I have to accommadate their hatred and violence or I’m a racist bigot.
July 6, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Thank you, Alexander, for writing about this.
I’m immigrant by myself. But not a mainstream immigrant.
I think the biggest problem is in disproportional immigration policy in Canada.
Each country should have same quota of immigrants per year. For example, they let two thousands of immigrants from Russia, but tens of thousands from Pakistan. Both countries are equal in population.
Those two authors of original article you were commenting at are not telling the truth.
Even same newspaper was publishing the article about problems at ethic enclaves around GTA. Just few months ago.
It is also known as poverty belt in Toronto. Which is growing in same directions as ethnic enclaves are spreading in this city.
July 7, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Dupmar,
While I find Quebec’s constant whining about statehood and separate but more equal status annoying, they are to be admired the way they defend their cultural enclave from being watered down. They are aggressive about ensuring language and culture is preserved as best as possible and reinforce these views as a unified people. It’s something that is perhaps inherently French. It seems only the Americans are the only English-speaking country that hasn’t been changed more by it’s immigrants than it has changed them. That’s why they adhere to the melting pot theory.
July 7, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Barbara,
I think that even first-generation immigrants rely too heavily on the “ghettos”. There are plenty of examples of first-gen immigrants who managed to integrate successfully and smoothly into Canada without reducing who they are, or their cultural heritage. We should be focusing on integration policies from day one, not on the next generations.
July 7, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Rose,
It’s the modern “culture of entitlement” problem. Politicians are ordered to bring jobs to the people, instead of the natural order of history whereby people migrated to the boom locales.
I mean, sure we’re “all” immigrants in Canada in one way or another. My great-great grandfather stepped off the boat in 1854 [literally] and worked the land in Ontario. His son also worked the land until he lost it to the bank. My grandfather worked all around Ontario, finally moving from the far north of Timmins to the south in Toronto just for work. Back then you couldn’t just hold out your hand or wait for E.I.
And then there’s my own situation. I moved to B.C. when the economy showed signs of tanking in early 2008. The reality is that sometimes you have to make your own prosperity.
July 7, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Impressed,
While I’m certainly not a person who would disagree with self-determination for all peoples, I would amend that to say all individuals. Frankly, I’m sick of assessing skin colour and gender and disability and sexual orientation. We should be judged based on our individual merits, not our similarities to other humans. I don’t have an interest in going it alone with some kind of “white culture”, any more than I prefer these giant ethnic enclaves. I’m sure that 99% of people feel the same way.