Canada: the standard bearer of multiculturalism in the world? An analysis of the Canadian public debate on multiculturalism (2010–2020)

ABSTRACT

The academic literature features a growing critique of multiculturalism in the public sphere, especially in Europe. What about Canada, historically a pioneer in this field? This study analyzes how the term “multiculturalism” was perceived in Canadian newspapers between 2010–2020. It shows that: 1) Unlike in other Western democracies, there was no increased criticism of the term “multiculturalism” over time in Canadian public debate. Newspapers that supported multiculturalism maintain that positive view over time. 2) There is a sharp ideological divide between the left and the right on this subject, the former being largely in favour of multiculturalism, and the latter being clearly hostile to it. This finding contradicts the thesis of a “Canadian exceptionalism” in the shape of a cross-party consensus between Conservatives and Liberals in support of multiculturalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiculturalism
• Canada
• Quebec
• newspapers
• discourse analysis
• immigration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The vast majority of articles analyzed do not define the term "multiculturalism". Therefore, the way in which this term is perceived and interpreted thus constitutes in itself an object of analysis, and one which tells us something about the ideological positions of the author of the article.

2 It should be noted here that although the Toronto Star, the National Post and the Globe and Mail all have their headquarters in Toronto, the readership of these three newspapers is not limited to this area, but reaches different geographical segments of Canadian society.

3 We did not include Le Journal de Québec in our study because we found in our corpus that more than 92% of the Journal de Québec articles dealing with multiculturalism were also published in the Journal de Montréal. The two newspapers are owned by the same agency: Quebecor Media Information (QMI). They have very similar editorial lines, and therefore the same articles and the same journalists write in both newspapers. To avoid duplication, we have therefore chosen to integrate only Le Journal de Montréal in our corpus. Following the same logic, we excluded the Ottawa Sun from our analysis, because we found that the articles in this newspaper are very frequently the same as those in the Toronto Sun.

4 For reasons of feasibility, we decided not to extend our corpus beyond these nine newspapers, as we reached a total of 892 articles (see below). This is a substantial number for a qualitative analysis that includes double coding.

5 We entered the term "multiculturalism" into the database and selected articles that contained this term, either in the article's title or in the first paragraph of the text.

6 We have included in our analysis the letters to the editor published by the newspapers. We have considered them as reflecting the editorial line of the newspaper, even when critical of it.

7 Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (also called notwithstanding clause or derogatory clause) allows Parliament or provincial legislatures (such as Québec) to temporarily override certain portions of the Charter.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.