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Canada’s fundamental freedoms today face challenges that have not been seen before. The question is now being asked if multiculturalism has been used to create different groups in Canada that contest our tolerant democracy.

What started as a policy to accommodate bilingualism while acknowledging other ethnic groups’ contribution to the makeup of Canada is now tested to deal with global or foreign organizations that are using the multiculturalism framework to advance their own agendas. What was intended to make Canadians culturally richer and bring us closer together while integrating people of different cultural backgrounds as proud Canadians has now been transformed in large measure into segregated communities.

The lack of debate around what multiculturalism is or was intended for has seen activists promote group traditions as having more importance than individual freedoms. The absence of discussion about our diversity has also by extension created a concern about religion and its relationship with the state. Among many, a quiet intolerance has replaced acceptance. Lack of debate on multiculturalism, freedoms of a pluralistic society, and freedoms of a democratic state is turning into a serious issue that could challenge and undermine our national identity.

Canadian society acknowledges ethnicity as part of our Canadian identity. This uniquely Canadian idea has now become distorted for many newcomers; what was intended as a way to celebrate our differences as part of being Canadian has been muddied by permitting others, including religious orders in distant lands, to dictate how one must act, dress, eat and vote. Celebration of our diversity has turned into a policy allowing for divisions. Forced and arranged marriages, honour killings and teaching of hate towards other religions or toward homosexuals, or death warrants against apostates, are the result of the lack of discussion and understanding of the intent of a pluralistic society.