Welcome to Canada

To everyone who just arrived, welcome to
Canada. First thing you have to know about
Canada is that Canada is a multicultural
country. We embrace different culture, and
we like to meet new people.
Recommendations for Becoming
Canadians
Before you become a Canadian citizen, you
need to know several concepts which will help
you understand Canada.
-of reasonable accommodation- a legal and
constitutional concept that requires Canadian
public institutions to adapt to the religious
and cultural practices of minorities as long as
these practices do not violate other rights and
freedoms.
Contending Loyalties
Loyalties that compete. In this brochure, we
will illustrate two examples of contending
loyalties.

Cultural Pluralism
Many immigrants came to Canada because of
Canada’s cultural pluralism-encouraging
collectives to affirm and promote their unique
cultural identity. See examples at next page.

Reasonable Accommodation
There are always some issues with how much

immigrants should fit in. Those issues are


Inuit’s loyalty
The Inuit of South Baffin Island affirmed their
nationalist loyalties by the South Baffin Place
Names Project. Inuktitut is the language of the
Inuit, Inuktitut names were often ignored by
Europeans. For example, Iqaluit, the capital of
Nunavut was named Frobisher Bay. Then 1987, it
was changed back to Iqaluit. Many Inuit have
returned to using their own Inuit names.
Traditionally, Inuit had only one name. In the
1930s, the Canadian government decided to
assign a personal number to each Inuit. These
numbers were used in dealing with the federal
government. In 1969, by the great effort of Kiviaq,
the number system was abolished.
Dhillon and RCMP
Baltej Singh Dhillon, an immigrant from Malaysia
faced a challenge. He was accepted into the RCMP’s
training program, but he had to cut his hair, shave
his beard, and remove his turban in order to wear
the Stetson. Dhillon’s opinion was that the turban is
a religious duty for him and all Khalsa Sikh men.
Before Dhllion had argued this, in the early 1980s, a
Sikh employee of RCMP must follow the safety rule.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that safety
comes first and wearing a turban is not a
reasonable accommodation.
Later in 1990, the federal government agreed that
allowing Sikh RCMP officers to a turban rather than
Newfoundland and Quebec
Newfoundlanders celebrate Canada Day
differently, since for them July 1st is also
the memorial day for the Battle of
Beaumont-Hamel which had cost 1,300
young lives. Rick Mercer, a Newfoundland-
born comedian described it ironically that
Canada Day is actually an official day of
mourning in Newfoundland.
Quebec was at first a French colony. In
1759 the English took it over. From that
point onward, French culture kept
influencing Quebec. In 1977 the Pati
Quebecois passed Bill 101. For many
Quebecois, carter was a symbol of
nationalism. In 1995, a referendum on
separating of Quebec from Canada. This
referendum challenged Quebecois’
loyalties to Canada and Quebec.
In order to reconcile the contending
loyalties of Quebecois, Canadian
Government will build a museum for
memorials of Quebec history. To
accommodate Newfoundlanders on Canada
Day, we will invite one Newfoundland family
that is connected to the Battle of
Beaumont-Hamel to CBC to talk about how
does the Battle affect their lives.
a Stetson is a reasonable accommodate.