Topic > Bilingualism in a Multicultural Framework - 984

Bilingualism often drives immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. According to author Eve Haque, who wrote "The Bilingual Limits of Canadian Multiculturalism: The Politics of Language and Race" in Critical Inquires: A Reader in Studies of Canada, bilingual constraints have been placed on the country's multicultural policies. Haque's article provides an interesting perspective, which focuses on how bilingualism has negatively framed the development of multiculturalism in Canada. This article will provide an answer to this statement, since bilingualism is included in multiculturalism. It provides a basis for development in a country that has become rich in ethnic diversity and has consequently undergone political changes to reflect and maintain an all-encompassing society. This can be seen through the genealogy, history, and construction of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (RCBB) and its findings, which reflect a necessary bilingual binary for the dynamic multicultural nation that is Canada. Eve Haque illustrates the genealogy of royal commissions through Foucault, who argues that it “operates on a field of tangled and confused parchment, on documents that have been scratched and recopied many times” (Haque 19). This intertwined network demonstrates the intrinsic value of history through genealogy and how it impacts commissioned work. According to Foucault it can be delineated by three main elements of the method: eventalization, decorum and emergence (Haque 19). However, recording single events, even if absent, is a challenging concept. Discursive and non-discursive ways of understanding eventuality force us to reconsider how historical moments have shaped society and…at the heart of the paper…the art of interpretive framework and national history” (Haque 20 ). When the report's findings produce findings that translate into policy, it sparks a wider discussion, as seen with the Royal Commission into Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The findings of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism laid the foundation for what would be Canada's first policy on multiculturalism. . It was on October 8, 1971 that Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau addressed the House of Commons and announced that Canada would be “multicultural within a bilingual framework” (Haque 18). According to Eve Haque, the use of the term multiculturalism has become increasingly elastic and has been used again and again across the Canadian political spectrum. It has been used to indicate both success and the end of the country (Haque 18). It was used to identify: