(Canscene) — Seems like the diehards and closet bigots who have been working in the shadows to bring down he official policy of Canadian multicuturalism have been bypassed by the growing acceptance of the word “diversity.”

We know that diversity and the ‘M’ word don’t exactly mean the same thing. The first is a fact. The second is a philosophy for co-existence that’s been with us since even before 1971, as proposed by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

What it all boils down to is the recognition that Canada is a land peopled as it has been for centuries, by humans from a variety of cultures: first by those we term Aboriginal peoples, then French and English and finally through immigration, men. women and children from an estimated 170 different countries.

While the opponents’ of multiculturalism offer only the old arguments and advocate total assimilation, our governments, public institutions and corporations are devoting increasing attention to understanding and accepting diversity in a culturally sensitive manner.

And they can no longer point the finger at the once-celebrated “melting pot” that was the United States, where diversity is now the buzzword, although it mirrors more a concern for the management of relations with the Latino and Black populations than the many other ethnocultural communities.
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