Transcript: Islam, Gender and the Future of Multi-cultural Citizenship

Abstract

Canada has a well-deserved reputation as a multicultural society. This reputation, moreover, is not just a self-serving Canadian myth: the 2006 Census discloses some remarkable statistics about the ethnic composition of Canada. According to the 2006 Census, Canadians reported belonging to more than 200 ethnicities as compared to the 25 ethnicities they reported in the 1901 Census. The proportion of Canadians belonging to visible minorities was 16%, or approximately 5 million (out of a total population of 34 million), as compared to 13%, or slightly less than 4 million, in 2001. That translates into a five-year growth among visible minorities of 27% compared to 5% growth for the rest of the Canadian population.