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Abstract: As a symbolic demonstration of the Government of Canada's attitude toward minorities' communication rights, the Multiculturalism Act (1988) and the Broadcasting Policy Reflecting Canada's Linguistic and Cultural Diversity (1985) are paradigms of state intervention which encourage the public production, programming, and protection of certain forms of ethnicity. After critically outlining the content and historical struggle around these two policies, this paper focuses on how multiculturalism and ethnic broadcasting privilege ethnocultural and racial "diversity" as an integral aspect of Canadian society. "Colour-balanced" media requires the actual implementation, supervision, and monitoring by the CRTC of section 3(1)(d)(iii) of the Canadian Broadcasting Act by people whose minds are open to the recognition, in practice, of equality rights for minority communicators in Canada.
Resume: La Loi sur le multiculturalisme canadien (1988) et La Politique sur la radiodiffusion refletant la diversite linguistique et culturelle du Canada (1985) demontrent de maniere symbolique le point de vue du gouvernement canadien sur les droits de communication des minorites. Ce sont des paradigmes d'intervention de l'etat qui encouragent la production, la programmation et la protection publiques de certaines formes d'ethnicite. Cet article presente d'abord de manier e critique le contenu de ces deux politiques et la lutte historique sous-tendant celles-ci. L'article se penche ensuite sur la maniere dont le multiculturalisme et la radiodiffusion ethnique mettent en valeur la diversite ethnoculturelle et raciale comme aspect integral de la societe canadienne. Le CRTC met a execution la section 3(1)(d)(iii) de la Loi sur la radiodiffusion canadienne et surveille son application pour s'assurer que les medias sont representatifs des diverses ethnies du Canada. Les administrateurs du CRTC ont les esprits ouverts et reconnaissent, en pratique, les droits a l'egalite des communicateurs minoritaires au Canada.
N.B. The ongoing "Colour Balancing" process emphasizes the point that despite Canada's Multiculturalism Act (1988), its 1991 Broadcasting Act, and current Ethnic Broadcasting policies, the media continues to draw colour lines between white ethnic peoples and "others" racially and culturally different from them. Use of the term "Colour Balancing" names or "visibles" the challenges inherent in redressing consequent imbalances from these practices. It draws our conscious attention to the continuing lack of racial inclusiveness in the Canadian broadcasting system, despite legislative efforts to create structural and institutional changes.
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