Multiculturalism in Canada: A Slovak Perspective (1)‪.‬

The Canadian federal government's multiculturalism policies have been controversial since their implementation. (2) I propose to show their impact on one of Canada's smaller ethnic groups, the Slovaks, principally in the Province of Ontario, where more than half reside. (3) Slovak individuals and communities in Canada have been avid supporters of the federal government's multiculturalism policies from their inception to the present, although funding for Slovak projects seems to have dried up after the year 2000. In response to Quebec's "Quiet Revolution," when that province began to demand more home-rule, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson established the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1963. (4) The intent was clear--to define Canada as a bilingual (English and French) and bicultural (English and French) society. Alarmed Slovak leaders hastened to testify before the commission. Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum, one of the intellectual leaders of the Canadian Slovak community, even addressed the commission in French when it met in Toronto. (5) Kirschbaum and his colleagues from the Canadian Slovak League spoke in favour of bilingualism, but not of biculturalism, as did leaders of the Ukrainian, Polish, and other Eastern European communities. Instead, they stressed that Canada was a multicultural society. (6) After Book IV of the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission, which echoed this sentiment, was published, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau proclaimed in October of 1971 that henceforth the Government of Canada would promote a policy of bilingualism and multiculturalism. (7) Indeed, the government then appointed the first Minister of State for Multiculturalism in Canada, the Polish-Canadian Stanley Haidasz (1972-1974). Under his direction some of the sixteen recommendations from Book IV of the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission were initiated. (8)