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CONFLICT AND DIVERSITY: CANADA / QUÉBEC 453

human diversity – including its constitution NOTES
and transformations – invisible, perhaps
because such complexity is so difficult to 1 Authors’ names are listed alphabetically. All
consider. Before giving up in the face of contributed equally to the joint segments of this
seemingly impossible challenges that this chapter, in addition to writing their respective
approach presents, however, we should sections, and all participated in the overall revision of
the chapter.
remember that it is only relatively recently
2 Until May 2006 it was a Department of
that sociologists have begun tackling them. Sociology, rather than the joint Department of
The foregoing analyses have situated the Sociology and Anthropology it now is.
ethno-linguistic diversity and tensions of 3 Notably absent from this collective effort is any
Canada/Québec within an international con- substantial discussion of Canada’s First Nations.
4 In fact, in the spirit of communicating the
text, highlighting both their distinctive features
bilingualism, at the conference two of the papers
and the fact that our experiences may offer were presented mainly in French, two mainly in
insights about potentials and pitfalls in the English, and one equally in the two languages. Visual
management of ethno-linguistic diversity aids assisted the understanding of the French papers,
within a framework which, formally, is com- since all in the audience understood English.
5 In 1970, in Comparative Ethnic Relations: A
mitted to equality. That equality can be both
Framework for Theory and Research, Schermerhorn
an individual and a collective right, results in contrasted normative pluralism with political, cul-
tensions and in contradictions. Furthermore, tural, and structural pluralism. He encouraged us to
national cultural policy may be premised on conceive of a single form of normative pluralism:
intra-national homogeneity, combined with either it is or it isn’t. The new discourse on the diver-
sity of cultural policies allows us to see that we
international diversity, or on a recognition of
should be attentive to different configurations of
intra-national diversity. In fact, the political those policies, and certainly to the uses that develop
boundaries of national jurisdictions as well as from the notion of diversity.
the realities of transnational border crossings 6 On this subject, see the document prepared by
need to be factored into both our analytical the jurists Ivan Bernier and Hélène Ruiz-Fabri (2002).
7 Published on the Internet at http://www.
and policy frameworks as we address issues of
mcccf.gouv.qc.ca/diversite-culturelle/eng/index.html.
ethno-cultural and linguistic diversity in the This url includes the Newsletter on the Diversity of
twenty-first century. This chapter’s overview Cultural Expressions.
of Canada and Québec’s ethno-linguistic 8 The objective of the ‘Secrétariat gouverne-
dynamics has been necessarily selective, as mental à la diversité culturelle’ is to ‘inform and sen-
sitize people from all backgrounds to issues of
we have already noted. Canada’s scores on
cultural diversity’; ‘provide expertise on the links
the quantitative indices of diversity alert us to between trade and culture’; ‘guide relevant works
some of the particularities of the Canadian and studies’; ‘participate in interdepartmental coordi-
case, but in themselves they do not tell us nation’, and ‘advise departmental and governmental
much about how ethnic and linguistic cleav- authorities’. See also the Internet site of the
Secretariat, whose url is given in Note 7.
ages are structured, how they change over
9 Reports also published on the Internet site of
time, and how the whole picture is framed. the network at http:www.incp-ripc.org/index_e.shtml
We have tried, in this concluding section, 10 A remark found particularly in the study ‘Sur la
to tease out what it means, in terms of faisabilité juridique d’un instrument international sur
research practices, to take into account the la diversité culturelle’ (On the Legal Feasibility of an
International Instrument on Cultural Diversity) by the
diversity of diversity, and the many chal-
jurists Bernier and Ruiz-Fabri (2002).
lenges of attempting to do so. We conclude 11 La politique québécoise du développement cul-
that the heuristic value of the concept of turel Vol I – De quelle culture s’agit-il? This is an excep-
diversity remains an open question, particu- tional policy in many respects that raised the question
larly if we consider conflict, competition and of the institutional presence of diversity and its
political recognition. In this official text, culture is not
cooperation as they impact on any concept of
merely the fact of ethnicity; it is also seen as including
diversity. It is a question which, we feel, gender and other forms of social differentiation,
merits further exploration. including language.