What's eating Canada's multiculturalism?

Robert Putnam takes on the issue of multiculturalism in his most recent book, E Pluribus Unum. The sobering conclusion is that with greater ethnic and cultural diversity comes more conflict, less social trust, a decreased willingness to volunteer and engage in cooperative ventures with fellow citizens. But, Putnam is an American scholar and his analysis is based on the research of American cities: 41 to be exact. Would the same conclusion fit Canada?

It turns out it might. Maclean's recently published an article titled: Canada: A nation of bigots?. The article points out that to an increasing number of Canadians (mostly Quebers), "reasonable accomodation" for foreign-born people should be limited as much as possible. The general sentiment seems to be: "if you want to live in our country, you must forget your old practices and assimilate". This feeling expresses itself, in part, in the ways Putnam describes in his book: conflict, decreased social trust, etc. It also alienates ethnic groups, making them feel as if they were trespasers. They consequently sequester themselves, worsening the threat to social trust.

Here are two more articles, from another Canadian magazine, that discuss the same phenomenon: 1, 2