Diverging Policy Approaches to Diversity in a Bi-National Country: The Case of Canada

This article deals with Canada’s policy approach to immigration- and minority-related diversity in light of its federal structure and the contrast between the predominantly French-language province of Québec and the mainly English-speaking rest of the country, with a particular focus on the province of Ontario. While the two parts of the country share many common features, some contrasts are quite significant. Canada is bilingual at the federal level, but French is Québec’s only official language and the Charter of the French Language, which regulates the use of language in many areas of social life, has constitutional status in that province. A long-standing agreement lets Québec handle the selection of its own immigrants with a similar system than the one used by the federal government for Ontario and other provinces, but with different weighing assigned to language skills. Also, religious diversity is treated differently in the two Canadian provinces, on account of diverging views on secularism, even if both share a public commitment to the protection of minorities. Likewise, there is a difference in their policy approaches regarding the promotion of cultural expressions and the arts, partly because of the French-speaking people’s nationalist outlook. In sum, Canada’s case demonstrates that a country can embrace more than a single approach to diversity. Québec has taken a different path and, in a way, showcases a “third way” between North American multiculturalism and European-like integrationism