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with the ‘host’ society, as Pietrantonio dis- seen as a means of limiting the importance
cusses earlier in this chapter, Québec’s inte- of the French origin group, especially outside
gration policies for ethnic minorities are Québec. The content itself of the policy has
premised on integration into the French- changed over time, from stressing cultural
speaking Québécois community (Juteau et al., (‘folkloric’) maintenance to promoting inter-
1998), articulated increasingly as a ‘universal’ cultural understanding. Critiques of multicul-
national one (Juteau, 2002). While the French turalism have a number of bases: that
language charter in Québec, which has made multiculturalism threatens the legitimation of
French the official language in that province, an official and distinctive status for the lan-
can be considered a measure reducing linguis- guages of the two ‘founding’ settler ethnic
tic diversity and contradicting the spirit of the groups; that the principle of promoting any
Official Languages Act, it must be contextual- ethnic diversity should be rejected; that the
ized as the strategy of an ethno-linguistic policy implementation only promotes short
minority to maintain an official national lan- term cultural pluralism and masks assimila-
guage, French. Thériault discusses this more tion; that emphasis on the cultural obscures
fully in the next section of this chapter. systemic discrimination in the fields of
Parallel measures are unnecessary for the housing, employment and relations with
maintenance of the other official language, civil authorities (e.g., Abu-Laban and Gabriel,
English, elsewhere in Canada, in view of its 2002; Dua and Robertson, 1999; Li, 2003,
international hegemony. On the other hand, 2003a; Porter, 1974 [1972]; Rocher, 1973).
the legislated obligation to air Canadian con- These heated debates about official bilin-
tent (of any language) in the media could be gualism, about multiculturalism and the
analyzed as an equivalent strategy of resist- Québec interculturalism policy, about levels
ance to (American) cultural hegemony by (and composition) of immigration, together
Anglophone Canadians. These Canadian con- with views reported in public opinion polls on
tent regulations are, however, much less con- these subjects, combined with experiences of
tentious for English-speaking Canadians than discrimination by ethnic minorities (e.g., Bobb
either official bilingualism or the legal Smith, 2003; Dua and Robertson, 1999; Henry,
predominance of French in Québec is. 1994; Henry et al., 2000) lend support to the
Official bilingualism is criticized outside analysis of the government as proactive rather
Québec, especially in Western Canada, for than reactive. Such analysis must, however, be
imposing ‘unnecessary’ obstacles on the nuanced: beginning in the 1960s, government
career advancement of federal public ser- policies were clearly both proactive and more
vants, by requiring that they demonstrate the inclusive, shifting towards liberalism and
ability to deal with professional matters in humanitarianism. Since the 1980s, however,
the ‘other’ official language. Within Québec, there has been a further shift – these tendencies
as Thériault discusses in the next section, it is now vie with strong government propensities,
criticized for diluting the use of French. encouraged by private sector pressures, to
Commentaries about multiculturalism have promote a reactive (and exclusionary) vision
also been varied (and, to some extent, mutu- of globalization based on neo-liberalism,
ally contradictory). On the one hand, the economic self-sufficiency and ‘diversity’ con-
introduction of multiculturalism has been ceived of as an economic benefit for trade, not
analyzed both as a response to the vocal oppo- as a more intrinsic social benefit (Abu-Laban
sition by those of other non-Aboriginal origins and Gabriel, 2002; Li, 2003). Some would ask
to the emphasis in the Royal Commission on whether this change also spells the demise of
Bilingualism and Biculturalism on the rights national settler societies, but continuing claims
and contributions of the ‘charter’ British and of national identity and sovereignty suggest
French origin groups. On the other, it has been that such a conclusion would be premature.