Food for Thought

Ol' Fisky

Well, as my old chum Rick Salutin wrote in my second least favourite Canadian newspaper last week, "Canadians are always pushing the panic button over unity but it never works because, the moment you mention it, Canadians realize how diverse they are and start worrying. I hate that Canadian-values thing." Me too. The fact is that when I queued at immigration in Montreal for my visa, I was as mystified by the words of the Canadians around me as I was on Canada Day. This is because I do not speak Ukrainian, Mandarin or Urdu. Nor Afrikaans. Nor Hindi. Nor Tagalog. And that's part of Canada.

Because Canadians don't want to be the "melting pot" that the US boasts – where you're an American first and a Nigerian or a Burmese or a Latvian second. They believe – or the "multiculturalists" believe – that Canadians should be encouraged to keep their own languages and traditions and religions intact. You can be a Syrian-Canadian Muslim and speak your own language and read your own Arabic language newspaper or watch Arabic movies but still enjoy and support the freedoms of Canada under the maple leaf flag.