On Canadian Multiculturalism Day, June 27, Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrated Canada as a mosaic of many peoples and cultures, calling differences a source of strength. Former MP Kevin Vuong counters that a mosaic is only half a thought—being different from your neighbour is not the same as having an identity.
The Mosaic Without Mortar
Vuong argues that for decades, Canada has told itself diversity is our strength, but a mosaic holds together only because of the mortar between the tiles. We have celebrated the tiles and forgotten the mortar, which is now cracking. The choice of mosaic over melting pot was meant to ensure no one surrenders who they are to belong, but the metaphor has curdled.
According to Vuong, multiculturalism as practised means every culture set down beside every other with nothing required to hold them together. The threads that should unite the picture—democracy, equality before the law, equality of women and men, human rights, the rule of law, and the responsibilities of citizenship—have been cut in the name of anti-racism. These are Canadian values, the price of admission and the promise of belonging.
Integration vs. Enclaves
Vuong shares his family's story: his parents came as Boat People with nothing, learned an official language, laws, and expectations, and became Canadian by binding themselves to something larger. He warns that integration is quietly disappearing as newcomers increasingly integrate into ethnic enclaves, living, working, and worshipping without fully entering Canadian civic life. Some even import grievances and hatreds that should have been left at the border, leading to foreign flags raised in Canadian cities, harassment for faith, and celebration of ideologies hostile to Canadian mortar.
This is not a failure of immigrants but of leaders who have stopped asking anything of anyone. Vuong emphasizes that not all cultural practices are equal. The Taliban's gender apartheid, female genital mutilation, and teachings demanding hatred of neighbours are acid poured on the mortar. A Canada confident in its values must say plainly: not here.
Retiring Multiculturalism for Pluralism
Vuong proposes retiring multiculturalism as an official doctrine that treats every culture as equal and every thread as optional. In its place, he advocates re-centring Canada around pluralism. Multiculturalism asks only that cultures coexist; pluralism asks more: many peoples, many faiths, many origins, but woven into one civic fabric bound by commitments not up for negotiation. You may keep your culture; you must accept our threads.
Pluralism does not flatten difference but anchors it. It welcomes newcomers while asking something in return, and it tells all Canadians that their values are worth defending vigorously, not apologetically—because they are right. Vuong concludes that his parents did not cross an ocean for a country that asked nothing of them; they came for one that stood for something. Every newcomer deserves that same Canada.
