Description
On October 8, 1971, Pierre Elliott Trudeau made a statement to the House of Commons that served as the point of genesis for official multiculturalism in Canada. Since that period multiculturalism as a concept, policy, ideology and topic of debate has had uptake, albeit in different ways and to varying degrees, in other countries. In the last decade, global migratory movements, including those of refugees, have been on the rise. In the same period, liberal democracies have witnessed unprecedented mobilizations around issues of identity, diversity and discrimination such as Black Lives Matters, Idle No More, the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, Rhodes Must Fall, and the Catalan independence demonstrations. While it would seem to be the right moment for multiculturalism to be advanced as a robust solution for minority recognition and empowerment, the term itself has been noticeably absent in public discourse. This might suggest that multiculturalism has run its course as a rallying point and that it may not be seen as the politics of diversity best suited for the 21st century. Does Canada (and do other countries) need a new politics of diversity?