Multiculturalism, Jews and Identities in Canada

Some have called Canada, the first post-modernist society. Canada is widely acclaimed as a multicultural and immigrant experiment. In this lively collection of essays, Canadian scholars provide a wealth of information and analysis on how those abstractions actually operate in practice. The history of immigration to Canada and the legal decisions, legislation and policies that have created Canadian multiculturalism are succinctly presented. Recent constitutional debates and the 1992 federal referendum focusing on Quebec as a "distinct society" are analyzed. In all cases, the significant roles of Jews and Jewish organizations and the impact on them of those critical events in Canadian national life are dissected. These developments have not been without tensions and controversies. Anti-semitism arose in the provocative Show Boat affair.