Canadian Broadcasting and Multiculturalism: Attempts to Accommodate Ethnic Minorities

This article examines the inter-relationships between English-Canadian broadcasting, French-language broadcasting, United States television programmes and the role of ethnic and racial minorities. This article suggests a framework for the analysis of the role of ethnic minorities in Canadian broadcasting. It also takes into consideration the divergent underlying cultural and linguistic policies of the Canadian and Quebec governments.

The author of this article, Eric Thomas, suggests that a number of studies have established the fact that the demographic reality is ill represented in the Canadian broadcasting system in respect to "personnel within the industry and in the depictions created for the screen." He mentions that presently "over one out of three Canadians is of ancestry other than British or French."

Thomas believes that broadcasting policy in Canada intends to foster a sense of nationhood, one that is "capable of limiting the pull of continentalism and American economic, cultural, social, and political influences." He further
states that "broadcasting in Canada has gone a long way in favouring a North-South link at the expense of indigenous cultural expression." He further lays out some of the historic processes which led to the current situation. Thomas suggests that the Canadian political economy has often evolved around analyses stemming from the ideological construct of a `White Settler Colony." His article seeks to offer insight into some of the policies and practices that have led up to the current cultural policies faced by ethnic minorities in Canadian society as well as the challenges they currently face.

Thomas suggests that immigration, as a component of the Canadian National Policy was of interest "not in the people themselves but rather in their use as a resource." As one example, Thomas makes reference to the transcontinental railroad which included "the inhuman exploitation of thousands of Chinese immigrants."

Thomas refers to a study that was conducted by Arthur Siegel in 1977 which determined that 17.2% of Canadian news aired on CBC dealt with Quebec compared to 55.2% for Radio-Canada. Further, "only about 15% of news stories were common to both French and English newscasts. These statistics reflect Quebec's position on multiculturalism which is described as being attributable to the fact that it already possesses a distinct cultural identity that it seeks to preserve. As a result, according to Thomas, "Neo-Quebecers are expected to adopt the French language and integrate into the Francophone core culture..."

One of Thomas's key points is that English and French broadcasting operate as two mutually exclusive systems and the only common ground they share is in the importation of American drama. As a result, Thomas suggests that "such conflicting broadcasting tendencies, cultural and linguistic policies, and diverging expectations towards the roles that ethnic minorities are to play within them, make the integration of ethnic minorities within Quebec society a far more complex issue than anywhere else in the country."

Thomas suggests that it is the "economic imperative" in broadcasting which poses a threat to ethnic and racial minorities because broadcasting has often appealed "to the lowest common denominator in order to maximize audience and market shares." As a result, this practice has tended to exclude ethnic and racial minorities from television programming on the basis that their numbers were negligible. "Paradoxically, the same market approach that favoured the exclusion of ethnic and racial minorities from broadcasting is now being used by various pressure groups to convince advertisers and broadcasters that minority groups represent a significant untapped market."

Thomas concludes with this comment, "the present state of the Canadian broadcasting system is perhaps not as much the result of a dysfunction, but rather a deeper reflection of a vision of the Nation created by the State and based on a political rather than a cultural nationality."