Challenging education and media in a pluri-lingual society

The objective of this thesis is to show how the policy of multiculturalism in Canada has evolved, and how the policy has communicated its goals through language retention programs, and through media. In 1969, Book IV of the Report of Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, although not mandated to study the idea of pluri-ethnicity, advanced recommendations to preserve the cultural and linguistic contributions of the other ethnic groups since they constituted a significant component of Canadian society. More specifically, Book IV of the Report of the Royal Commission has been hailed as the precursor to the policy of multiculturalism. Later policies that have made reference to Book IV have generated interpretations of multiculturalism that seem to have a philosophical distance from the concepts elaborated in the Book. There seems to be considerable variance of interpretation between existing policies of multiculturalism and some of the observations contained in Book IV. The different interpretations and the diverging views between Book IV and the present multicultural policies have created a vacuum which is undermining the very existence of multiculturalism; lack of elaboration of fundamental principles has left the implementation of multiculturalism prey to many different philosophical and political trends. Canada is, de factor, a pluri-ethnic and a pluri-lingual society. However much the degree of retention by one group or another of language and culture may vary, the fact remains that significant levels are either maintained or revived (through waves of recent immigration). That being the case, pluri-ethnicity is a constant factor that needs to be addressed.