Discontinuities of Multiculturalism‪.‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME Lauded as a successful federal policy, multiculturalism is both simple in its public appeal and complex in its personal meanings for people. Liberal humanists celebrate a multiculturalism premised upon equality and respect for difference. Missing from such debates are illustrations of the tension between abstract vision and the subjective experience of multiculturalism. This essay substantiates this discontinuity through the presentation of excerpts from twenty-four interviews with monocultural parents about their responses to the "sudden multiculturalism" of their neighbourhood public school. The personal experience of many parents arouses some concern about the project of multiculturalism when it transcends abstract discourse to become a dynamic of everyday life.