Multiculturalism In Canada Analysis

Multiculturalism is a debated topic in Canada and around the world due to rising issues of identity and rights for minority groups. Will Kymlicka is a Canadian scholar who “focuses on issues of democracy and diversity, and in particular on models of citizenship and social justice within multicultural societies.” Kymlicka proposes that states should protect minority and cultural rights, attempts to categorize minorities into two groups, identifies that culture is a synonym to a nation and states that minorities in a liberal state like Canada have more equal rights. The following paper identifies that multiple scholars have critiqued his work and determined that government should not protect minority rights, there are more than two categories …show more content…
In a federal, liberal state minority citizens have the ability to participate in decisions made by the state. Multiple authors criticize Kymlicka’s ideas of minority rights in the liberal state. Barry criticizes Kymlicka’s concept of multiculturalism supporting asymmetric federalism stating that federalism is unfair. He identifies that Quebec votes on issues not related to them, but does not allow others to vote on issues in Quebec. Kymlicka believes since Quebec is a distinct society they should have additional powers resulting in the asymmetric decentralization of state power. But, Barry believes this is causing two classes of citizen in one country. Kymlicka dismisses his claim. Similarly, Gilian Brock states that a shared identity is not enough for authentic deliberation in a country. David Held believes that culture and cultural life is an obstacle to self-governing because then there is no democracy. Therefore, everyone should be involved in the decision processes because everyone’s points of view are beneficial. Betto van Waarden argues that a state must promote multicultural “participation rights” for all minority entities rather than “accommodation rights” for polyethnic groups and “self-government rights” for national minorities because with participation rights for all, individuals can thrive in the culture, rise above the dominant culture and, as a result, balance the different identities in the society. Moreover, Kymlicka argues that liberal equality defends cultural rights. According to Talukder, Kukathas argues that we must determine whether the culture is liberal and whether all minorities face the same inequalities. Contrary to the other critics, Bhuiyan indicates that the unjust treatment of minorities can be eliminated through the nation-building process like in Canada, but it is more difficult in other countries like Africa because some states have no majority