Uneasy Partners

Janice Stein, David Robertson Cameron, John Ibbitson, Will Kymlicka, John Meisel, Haroon Siddiqui, Michael Valpy

Description

After decades of extraordinary successes as a multicultural society, new debates are bubbling to the surface in Canada. The contributors to this volume examine the conflict between equality rights, as embedded in the Charter, and multiculturalism as policy and practice, and ask which charter value should trump which and under what circumstances? The opening essay deliberately sharpens the conflict among religion, culture, and equality rights and proposes to shift some of the existing boundaries. Other contributors disagree strongly, arguing that this position might seek to limit freedoms in the name of justice, that the problem is badly framed, or that silence is a virtue in rebalancing norms. The contributors not only debate the analytic arguments but infuse their discussion with their personal experiences, which have shaped their perspectives on multiculturalism in Canada. This volume is a highly personal as well as strongly analytic discussion of multiculturalism in Canada today.

Sujets

• Multiculturalism
• Political science

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554581368
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Uneasy Partners

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Uneasy Partners

Multiculturalism and Rights in Canada

Janice Gross Stein

David Robertson Cameron John Ibbitson Will Kymlicka John Meisel Haroon Siddiqui

Michael Valpy

With an introduction by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing pro- gram. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Uneasy partners : multiculturalism and rights in Canada / Janice Gross Stein … [et al.].

Includes bibliographical references. isbn978-1-55458-012-5 (pbk.)

1. Multiculturalism—Canada. 2. Civil rights—Canada. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I. Stein, Janice

fc105.m 8u542007

305.800971

3. Canada.

c2007-902358-4

© 2007 Janice Gross Stein, Haroon Siddiqui, John Ibbitson, David Robertson Cameron, John Meisel, Michael Valpy, and Will Kymlicka Introduction © 2007 Frank Iacobucci

Cover design by Blakeley. Cover image by Nguyen Thai. Text design by P.J. Woodland.

Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

' ● This book is printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper (100% recycled).

Printed in Canada

post-consumer

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopy right.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Contents

Acknowledgements|vii Janice Gross Stein

Introduction|ix Frank Iacobucci

Searching for Equality| 1 Janice Gross Stein

Don’t Blame Multiculturalism| 23 Haroon Siddiqui

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie| 49 John Ibbitson

An Evolutionary Story| 71 David Robertson Cameron

Canada: J’accuse/J’adore: Extracts from a Memoir| 95 John Meisel

Seismic Tremors: Religion and the Law| 119 Michael Valpy

Disentangling the Debate| 137 Will Kymlicka

Contributors| 157

Index| 161

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Acknowledgements

Bronwyn Drainie, the indefatigable editor of theLiterary Review of Canada,called last spring to ask me to review a book. I declined po- litely, but I told her that I wanted to write about the controversy over the Danish cartoons, as an exemplar of the growing tension between religion and rights. Bronwyn declined politely in turn, telling me this was a well-explored subject and she doubted that I had anything new to say. I had no ready response to that comment. Two months later, Bronwyn was back. She had reconsidered and encouraged me to try my hand at a broader essay about religion, mul- ticulturalism and rights, particularly in a Canadian context. When I produced a draft, she turned her editor’s eye to what I had written. The essay that she published in the September 2006 issue of the LRC re- sembled my original draft just enough for me to be able to claim au- thorship. John Ibbitson and Haroon Siddiqui, both readers of the LRC , were sufficiently provoked that each wrote a column—John forThe Globe and Mail, Haroon forThe Toronto Star—making clear their disagree- ments with parts of my argument. Shortly thereafter, Brian Hender- son, the director of Wilfrid Laurier University Press, called to talk about a book that would follow from the article in the LRC .We con- curred very quickly that we wanted a multiplicity of voices. John and Haroon agreed instantly to turn their columns into articles. David

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Acknowledgements

Cameron, with his customary grace, agreed to put on paper his reser- vations about what I had said, as did Will Kymlicka, Canada’s fore- most scholar of multiculturalism. Michael Valpy, after one lunch at Massey College, consented to write on religion and rights, one of his long-standing interests. John Meisel generously agreed to excerpt a chapter from his forthcoming autobiography, in which he writes about his experience as an immigrant to Canada. No eye is gentler or keener. We all owe a special debt of gratitude to Justice Frank Iacobucci for writing the foreword to this volume. My conversations with him began one morning over breakfast at a conference and have continued over time. These conversations have been a very special treat. I am deeply grateful for his judicious thinking, his wisdom and, above all, his friendship. Without Bronwyn Drainie and Brian Henderson, this volume would not be. Bronwyn, with the help of copy editor Madeline Koch, edited the chapters and improved them immeasurably. Brian nurtured and supported the project from the very beginning. We thank them all and hope very much that this volume contributes to the ongoing conver- sation about our shared future. Janice Gross Stein University of Toronto April 28, 2007

Introduction

Frank Iacobucci

While growing up in Vancouver in the late1940s, I remember vividly taking my homemade panini sandwiches out of my lunch bag and being embarrassed. My sandwiches were brimming with a com- bination of egg, tomatoes, cheese, peppers and prosciutto, whereas most of my Anglo-Saxon classmates had neat and tidy store-bought white bread with slim fillings. It was an awkward feeling: my sandwich being out of step with the “majority sandwich” gave me a sense of not belonging. Later, while an undergraduate at the University of British Colum- bia in the 1950s, I had a disturbing conversation with my economics statistics professor, Tadek Matuszewski, for whom I was working as a teaching assistant. He asked me one day what I wanted to do with my life, and I answered that I wanted to go to law school. To my surprise, Matuszewski said I should not do that; and when I asked him why, he replied that I did not have the right name to be a lawyer. Granted, my name was, like his, difficult to spell and pronounce, but I did not un- derstand why that should disqualify me from pursuing legal studies. Upon seeing my consternation, Matuszewski suggested that we make an appointment to see John Deutsch, then chair of the combined po- litical science and economics department atubc(later to become vice- chancellor of Queen’s University).

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