Today, many countries have realized the importance of embracing multiculturalism, and many have already claimed to be multicultural. Incidentally, I have recently heard a few people claiming that their own countries being multicultural, including this one:

Honestly, merely having some immigrant’s children attending some public schools does not make a country multicultural. In fact, even if the whole classroom is filled with students from different cultures does not mean anything. So what makes a country truly multicultural?

Personally, I believe that a multicultural country must respect, support, and be sensitive to different cultures. It is probably very difficult to achieve all these at the level of individual citizens, but at least the government must adopt policies in doing so.

Here is a brochure downloadable from the website of my regional government. Apart from English, it is also available in 7 other languages. Remember, this brochure is only written for people living in my region. It is irrelevant to those living outside my region or even the whole world.

This Wednesday, my provincial government just launched a telephone information service, and it supports more than 120 languages!

“The EatRight Ontario team of Registered Dietitians is available by phone Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST. The service is available in over 120 languages including Mandarin, Korean; Polish; German; Spanish, Ukrainian; Punjabi; Hungarian; Portuguese; Italian; Arabic.”

This is what I call true multiculturalism, and I am proud of being part of it.