The Toronto Mayor and Mombassa Natives (Mel Lastman‪)‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME Speech act theory and impression management are used as the analytical bases for declaring that utterances of a public official in Canada are racist. The exploration is applied to language emanating from the highly visible Toronto mayor, Mel Lastman. It is followed by an examination of radical democratic, corporate, and liberal multiculturalism, the latter two of which are prominent in Canada. It is argued that their presence, particularly the much touted liberal form, is ineffective in designifying the racism conveyed in the mayor's remarks.