Choice Award 2022: Outstanding Academic Title The multiculturalization of Canada has catapulted it into the front ranks of countries in advancing a principled diversity governance. Fifty years after the inception of a multicultural governance model that seemingly works and is relatively popular, Canada remains one of the few countries in the world to believe in multiculturalism. Yet the irony is inescapable: Notwithstanding its lofty status as a Canadian icon and an aspirational ideal, an official multiculturalism remains misunderstood both in Canada and abroad in terms of what it means, how it works and for whom, and why it endures. If anything, as the book explains, the idea of multiculturalism remains shrouded in the conceptual fog of a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’. An interplay of polite fictions that mask inconvenient truths puts the onus on deconstructing Canadian multiculturalism by conceptualizing strengths (including a probe into why multiculturalism ostensibly works in Canada but rarely elsewhere), analyzing weaknesses, critically assessing its worth, and envisioning its future in responding to the new realities and demands of a post-multicultural world. That Canada’s multiculturalism remains a work in progress, albeit one with innovative possibilities, provides a fitting tribute.

Table of Contents:
Preface List of Tables PART 1: Framing Multiculturalism 1 Demystifying Canadian Multiculturalism: Politics, Puzzles, Paradoxes  1 Introduction: Multiculturalism in the Age of Disruption  2 A Contested Domain: More Questions Than Answers  3 Deconstructing an Official Multiculturalism: ‘It’s Not What It Seems’  4 Overview and Contents  5 Putting It into Perspective 2 Conceptualizing Multicultural Governance Models  1 Introduction: Uncertainties, Confusions, Contestations  2 Problematizing Multiculturalism: A Concept in Search of Clarity  3 Models of Multicultural Governance  4 Canada’s Official Multiculturalism: A Liberal Model of Multicultural Governance PART 2: Canada’s Official Multiculturalism 3 A Monocultural Canada: From Pro-Whiteness to a Proto-Multiculturalsim  1 Introduction: Seeing Canada through a Monocultural Lens  2 Monoculturalism as Anti-Minority/Anti-Diversity Governance  3 A Monocultural Canada: From White Settlement to a Settled Whiteness  4 Towards a ProtoMulticulturalism: The Incipient Phase 4 Canadian Multiculturalism, Quebecois Interculturalism  1 Introduction: Deconstructing a State-Centric Multiculturalism  2 Canada’s Official Multiculturalism: Multilayered Meanings  3 Interculturalism in Quebec: Rebranding Multiculturalism or a Paradigm Shift?  4 Summing Up: Plus ça Change … 5 Canada’s Multiculturalism Model: Why It ‘Works’?  1 Introduction: Framing Canadian Multiculturalism  2 Laying the Foundation of Canada‘s Multiculturalism Model: Debunking Myths  3 Canada’s Multiculturalism Model: ‘Making Canada More Inclusive, Not More Multicultural’  4 Why Multiculturalism Works in Canada, But Not in Europe PART 3: Putting Multiculturalism to the Test 6 Applying Multiculturalism: Institutional Inclusiveness  1 Introduction: Putting Multiculturalism to Work  2 Applying Multiculturalism to Institutional Practises  3 Rethinking Institutional Inclusiveness: From Inclusion to Inclusivity  4 Inclusiveness Goes to School: Multicultural Education and Anti-Racism Schooling  5 Anti-Racism Schooling: Beyond Multicultural Education  6 Multicultural Education and Anti-Racist Schooling: Binary or Continuum? 7 Taking Stock: Surveys and Attitudes, Benefits and Costs, Successes and Failures  1 Introduction: The Fraughtness of Canadian Multiculturalism  2 Framing Canadian Multiculturalism: Progressive? Regressive? Oppressive?  3 Surveying National Attitudes: What Do the Polls Say?  4 Public Perceptions, Public Support, Public Confusion  5 Critical Reactions: The Good, the Bad, the Inbetween  6 It ‘Works’: Successes and Failures  7 Benefits and Costs: You Can’t Have One without the Other 8 The Politics of Culturalism: Multiculturalism’s Achilles Heal  1 Introduction: Contesting the Culturalism in Multiculturalism  2 What Is Culturalism?  3 Culturalism as Cultural Defense: Culture Matters  4 Is a Commitment to Multiculturalism a Betrayal of Women?  5 Toeing the Multicultural Line: Gender, Religious Diversity, and a Duty to Accommodate  6 Cultural Appropriation in a Multicultural Canada: It’s Complicated 9 Accommodating Religious Diversity in a Pro-Secular Canada  1 Introduction: The Politics of Religion  2 Religious Diversity in a Secular Canada  3 Secularism as Quebec’s New ‘Religion’  4 Reasonably Accommodating Religion in a Secularized Canada  5 Making Religion Public Again: Toward a Postsecular Governance PART 4: Beyond Multiculturalism 10 A Postmulticultural World  1 Introduction: Multiculturalism in Crisis  2 From a Multicultural World to a Postmulticultural Reality  3 Framing a Postmulticultural World: New Realities, Evolving Demands  4 From a Multicultural World to a Postmulticultual World 11 Renewing Multiculturalism  1 Introduction: Populism vs Pluralism as Diversity Governances  2 A Postnational Frame of Mind: From Nation-State to 'Notion-State’  3 A Postnational Canada: Resetting the National Brand  4 The Idea of Postmulticulturalism: A Governance Ideal for Postnational Times  5 Governance Principles for a Postmulticultural World: A Project in Progress  6 Toward Multiculturalism 2.0: Incorporating an Interculturalism Dimension  7 Multiculturalism 2.0: A Reset Whose Time Has Come Epilog: Assessing 50 Years of Canadian Multiculturalism: A Riddle, a Mystery, an Enigma  1 Introduction: Problematizing Canada’s Brand  2 Multiculturalism as Riddle: What Does It Really Mean?  3 Multiculturalism as Mystery: Is It Working?  4 Multiculturalism as an Enigma: Has It Been Worth It?  5 Conclusion: Living Differently Together with a Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma References Index