Canadian identity a focus of Catholic MP

By DEBORAH GYAPONG

OTTAWA (CCN) -- Who are we? What does it mean to be Canadian? Questions of Canadian identity have frequently occupied pundits, academics, and politicians. Now the Conservative government in Ottawa is getting involved.

CCN Jason Kenney, the new secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, stands among students from Grenville Christian College at an event marking the end of Black History Month in Ottawa Feb. 28.

The Canadian identity point person is Calgary Southeast MP Jason Kenney, who was sworn into cabinet Jan. 4.

"It's a reflection of the growing consensus that we need to focus on a multiculturalism that is based on the things that unite us and bring Canadians together rather than ghettoizing them," said the new secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.

Canada has the highest immigration levels in the western world, but also a growing level of ignorance among younger Canadians about Canadian history and values.

Multiculturalism became policy in 1971 and was entrenched in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. In recent years, the liberal establishment has come to equate the Charter and its interpretation by Canadian judges with Canadian values, according to the secular humanist model. That has meant those with traditional values concerning marriage, for example, have been accused of being anti-Charter and by extension anti-Canadian. Kenney opposes that view.

Government should ensure all views `get a fair hearing'

"Arguably governments in Canada have done some harm over the past decades undermining Canada's sense of itself," he said, noting he would be operating first by a "do no harm" principle.

"Pluralism is not this kind of radical secular fundamentalism that denigrates and diminishes the role of faith in culture," said Kenney, a Catholic. Because religion plays a fundamental role in the development of individual identity, he wants to make sure government does not impose an identity, religious or otherwise, but instead allows religions to flourish.

According to University of Ottawa sociology of religion professor Peter Beyer, multiculturalism itself has become a key component of Canadian identity, "right up there with Tim Horton's" among younger Anglophone Canadians.

While multiculturalism in Europe has led to what the Pope has dubbed "the dictatorship of relativism," Beyers sees no relativism in Canada's approach. Over the last several decades, he sees a "clear line of government decision-making" along a "secular humanist" model that "has very little overlap with Christian ways of making these judgements."

Father Richard John Neuhaus, the Canadian-born editor of New York City-based First Things Magazine, said in an interview the idea that we have anything to learn from other cultures or that they have anything of value to offer is a distinctly western phenomenon. This good form of multiculturalism has been lost.

"Multiculturalism has come to mean loving every culture except your own," he said.

Among conservatives though, the question arises whether government should be involved in shaping identity at all. Father Neuhaus said his first response is that government "should stay out of it." Since the Canadian government has already "been in the thick of it" for years, he said, perhaps Ottawa can reshape the kind of multiculturalism Canada has.

He can see a role for government in making sure "all real differences get a fair hearing in the public square." He added, "Multiculturalism is not pretending that our differences don't make any difference."