Professor Will Kymlicka (Queen's University, Canada) will be giving the Centre of Canadian Studies 40th Anniversary Lecture. Will Kymlicka is the most celebrated theorist of multiculturalism whose influence reaches far beyond the shores of his native Canada. If you are interested in attending, could you register via this link.
Free registration at http://tinyurl.com/j6zlww5
Date: Friday 5 February 2016
Location: Lecture Theatre G.03, 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Time: 3 pm – 4.30pm
The event will be followed by a reception in 6th Floor Staff room, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15a George Square
5pm – 7.15pm
The Near Death of Multiculturalism in Canada
Will Kymlicka assesses the recent experience of multiculturalism in Canada.
Canada is widely seen as an exception to the retreat from multiculturalism, as one of the very few countries where public opinion remains broadly supportive of high immigration and multiculturalism. Yet during both the 2014 provincial election in Quebec and the 2015 federal election, the governing party advanced proposals that contradicted core tenets of Canada’s multiculturalism framework, hoping and expecting that these proposals would help their re-election. And, for a brief moment in both elections, this strategy seemed to be working. Yet, in the end, both Quebecers and Canadians, by unexpectedly wide margins, rejected the politics of division, and elected parties committed to defending diversity. Multiculturalism has survived, for now, but this near-death experience raises important questions about the nature and limits of the Canadian experiment with multicultural citizenship.