Is Canada a country of equal and peacefully coexisting identities, working towards what Charles Taylor has called a 'post-industrial Sittlichkeit'? In this analysis of the history of Canadian diversity, Richard Day argues that no degree or style of state intervention can ever bring an end to tensions related to ethnocultural relations of power.

Using Foucault's method of genealogical analysis and a theory of the state form derived from the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Day creates a framework for his exploration of the construction of human difference and its management over the years. He argues that Canada's multicultural policies are propelled by a fantasy of unity based on the nation-state model. Our legislation, policies, and practices do not move us towards equality and reciprocity, he reveals, because they are rooted in a European drive to manage and control diversity.

Day challenges the notion that Canadian multiculturalism represents either progress beyond a history of assimilation and genocide or a betrayal of that very history that supports the dominance of Anglo-Canadians. Only when English Canada is able to abandon its fantasy of unity, Day concludes, can the radical potential of multiculturalism politics be realized.

Richard Day is Associate Professor of Sociology at Queen's University, Kingston. He is a founder of the Critical U. community education project in Vancouver and had participated in food, housing, and financial co-operatives. He is also active in the anti-globalization movement and in defending the university as a public space for critical thought.

Richard J.F. Day's profile page

'This analysis offers an instructive and provocative overview of the evolution of Canadian discussions of immigration issues... While readers will take issue with some elements of its analysis, the book is engagingly wirtten and a distinctive addition to the literature on Canadian multiculturalism.'

Ethnic and Racial Studies

'This is a challenging book in which historians, political scientists, and social scientists generally will find much to ponder and debate. Although many will find much with which to disagree, or may conclude that its ideological perspective results in some distortion in the interretation of evidence, nonetheless, its fundamental challenge to the very foundation of Canadian cultural policy makes it required reading.'

Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism