Canadian Multiculturalism Quotes

After a year or two of keeping my head down and trying to pass myself off as a normal person, I made contact with the five other people at my university who were interested in writing; and
through them, and some of my teachers, I discovered that there was a whole subterranean Wonderland of Canadian writing that was going on just out of general earshot and sight. ~ Margaret Atwood

I feel like Canadian movies should be as good or better than the competition because of the talent we have here. Someone like Ryan Gosling shouldn't have to come back here because it's a Canadian movie. He should want to come back because some of the best movies are being made here. ~ Kevin Zegers

We are not born to accommodate tyranny over our hearts, minds, bodies, or souls. We are here to confirm an abundance of love-inspired possibilities greater than such restrictions. ~ Aberjhani

It has been our experience that American houses insist on very comprehensive editing; that English houses as a rule require little or none and are inclined to go along with the author's script almost without query. The Canadian practice is just what you would expect
a middle-of-the-road course. We think the Americans edit too heavily and interfere with the author's rights. We think that the English publishers don't take enough editorial responsibility. Naturally, then, we consider our editing to be just about perfect. There's no doubt about it, we Canadians are a superior breed! (in a letter to author Margaret Laurence, dated May, 1960) ~ Jack McClelland

Real Canada is where people wear sweaters for survival, not style. ~ Mark Leiren-Young

The problem with multiculturalism is it's kind of arrogant. The arrogance is the assumption that everyone will buy into our values, because they have to be Superior. What is different about Islam is it's not just a type of food you ate or the way you dress, it's a total system of life driven by values. ~ Mark Durie

A peregrine falcon," a passenger said, "lives at 2180 Yonge Street in Toronto, on the corner of Yonge and Eglinton. It sits high on the Canadian Tire building, hunts from there, brings prey, and in full view of everyone in the offices, tears it to pieces. Blood everywhere. ~ Kathleen Winter

I'm a regular Canadian girl. I enjoy staying home. In the summer I've got a garden. I'm very much a homebody, a normal, family-oriented girl. But I do have this other incredible side of my life that involves acting and traveling. ~ Elisha Cuthbert

Let us build for the tomorrow, build a nation strong and free; and the Lord who dwells above us, He will bless our destiny". ~ P. J. Peters

I've answered those questions a thousand and one times; I told you I mean what I am saying and I'm not using any code. You're just so unjust and so paranoid. You're taking advantage of me being from a country with a dictatorship. If I were German or Canadian, you wouldn't even have the opportunity to talk to me, nor would you arrest me. ~ Mohamedou Ould Slahi

I worked for [Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee] Tommy Hunter. It was a wonderful training program at the CBC, because they made sure they never paid you very much, so you had to do a lot of things, and that way you made some money. [A phone rings.] That's my agent right now telling me I've got a 13 cent residual from Tommy Hunter in 1969. ~ Alan Thicke

The Canadian version of Julius Caesar's memoirs? I came, I saw, I coped. ~ Clive James

A loon called from across the lake in the hushed stillness of the rising moon. ~ R.J. Harlick

After centuries of marginalization and neglect, we need to cast our own movements, projects, and ideas as a battle for relevancy in the face of historical manipulation, exploitation, and oppression. We need to fight, tooth and nail, for equity in all areas of social life. One point to make clear, ethnic and racial minorities are not looking for scraps or a handout from the old paternalistic system but an equitable, stable, and leveled playing field. ~ Martin Guevara Urbina

Senior managers at the Royal Bank of Canada were now arguing that the bank should create a Canadian dark pool, route their Canadian customers' stock market orders into it, and then sell to high-frequency traders the right to operate inside the dark pool. Brad thought that it made a lot more sense for RBC simply to expose the new game for what it was, and perhaps establish themselves as the only broker on Wall Street not conspiring to screw investors. "The only card left to play was honesty," as Rob Park put it. ~ Michael Lewis

You feel well, Ali? You have a very faraway look on your face, beta,' my dad said. 'Like you have left your heart behind.'

He fixed me with eyes as liquid black as mine and for a moment I felt exposed, like he could see right through me. That irrational childhood thought that he could read my mind maybe.

'What nonsense, his heart is here with his mother and his family. Tell him, Ali,' my mother said.

'Begum, this generation of boys and girls, you know how they are.' My dad never said my mother's name; she was always Begum, the generic term for 'wife'. ~ Ruth Ahmed

It's really hard as a Canadian actor to make a footprint in the States, because of the visa stuff. ~ Shenae Grimes

She's twenty-one and just by her hairstyle you can tell she's saving IT for the man she will marry. It's short at the sides and high on top, with a sideburn-length curl in front each ear. Look around you next time you're out strolling, there's hordes of them like her. They all wore braces when they were kids, played a lot of sports, were considered tom-boys, spent endless hours worrying about pimples, black-heads and acne, and wanted only one thing out of life-- get married and be a loving motherto both their children and their husband. In the meantime, they work at meaningful jobs like teaching and nursing until the Right Man comes along.
They're the reason Canadian men are amongst the most neurotic, childish and apathetic males on the Western continent. They need the challenge of a mature woman in order to bring out their maturity, and instead they're offered mamas. Yet it isn't the girls' fault. After all they're only being what men want them to be, what they think men want them to be. And vice-versa. Both sexes being what they think the other wants them to be and neither one really knowing because they've never asked their opposite what they would like, and this total absence of communication being the root cause of this great void between modern man and woman ~ Juan Antonio Butler

There is a great new work before us, which is to replace with true knowledge the ignorance that has destroyed human minds. We will construct unity in a world [which] has been brutally torn apart by false divisions of race, religion, gender, nationality, and age. We will heal with unconditional love those souls whose hearts have been disfigured by hatred and loneliness. ~ Aberjhani

As long as I live, I will always remember those wee children standing at the railing on that ship. - John Hanlon, the sailor ~ Deana J. Driver

Canada emerged as a political entity with boundaries largely determined by the fur trade. These boundaries included a vast north temperate land area extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific and dominated by the Canadian Shield. The present Dominion emerged not in spite of geography but because of it. ~ Harold Innis

The increasing tendency towards seeing people in terms of one dominant 'identity' ('this is your duty as an American', 'you must commit these acts as a Muslim', or 'as a Chinese you should give priority to this national engagement') is not only an imposition of an external and arbitrary priority, but also the denial of an important liberty of a person who can decide on their respective loyalties to different groups (to all of which he or she belongs). ~ Amartya Sen

L.A. will never be a hockey town. I'm a huge hockey fan, and people out here do not appreciate hockey as much as they should. I've always been into it. I'm Canadian; that's my sport for sure. ~ Jean-Luc Bilodeau

Because I cannot write my native language and have no native home anymore, and am amazed by that horrible homelessness of all French-Canadian s abroad in America. ~ Jack Kerouac

Being Canadian and from Winnipeg, I have the spirit of a dreamer because of the cold, and being in the basement thinking of possibilities of where else I can be in the world, in a good way! ~ Sarah Carter

An indisputable event, my gallant Ned. Accordingly, people have proposed naming this devil fish Bouguer's Squid.

And how long was it? the Canadian asked. Didn't it measure about six metres? said Conseil, who was stationed at the window and examining anew the crevices in the cliff.

Precisely, I replied

Wasn't its head, Conseil went on, crowned by eight tentacles that quivered in the water like a nest of snakes?

Precisely.

Weren't its eyes prominently placed and considerably enlarged?

Yes, Conseil.

And wasn't its mouth a real parrot's beak but of fearsome size?

Correct, Conseil.

Well, with all due respect to master, Conseil replied serenely, if this isn't Bouguers Squid, it's at least one of his close relatives! ~ Jules Verne

As we flew inland from the coast at about 1,200 feet I looked down to see a strange countryside. What I saw wasn't just a western European landscape, but ravaged terrain. The vegetation cover was so sparse a looked a somewhat burgundy tinge- mud oozing from the turf. I'd never seen anything lke it. It was quite surreal. For a few miles along the flight path and stretching towards the French coast on the Channel, as far as the eye could see, were hundreds of thousands of crater rings. There were so many it appeared almost incomprehensible. Yet, there they were, sullen on the surface of this ravaged landscape. We had heard of no heavy artillery attacks in this area, certainly nothing of this concentration of fury. Then it dawned on us quietly that we were flying over the World War 1 battlefields. It was a sobering sight, which filled us with melancholy for the suffering which must have gone on down there. Yet here we were 26 years after that last war ended, going to fight the same enemy. It took some time to come back to reality."

Sergeant Dan Hartigan, 1st Canadian Parachute Regiment ~ Max Arthur

Canada's political parties spend a few years in opposition and then govern as if it's permanent payback time. ~ Bob Rae

Also, my humor is really dry-witted, Canadian humor, so some people get it and some people don't. I'd be great on "The Office." I would like to be on that show. And, I could see me doing romantic comedy films, and stuff like that. ~ Tinsel Korey

The purpose is to become the best writer in my category (yes, page for page and pound for pound). ~ Georges St-Pierre

If you want to watch TV and also learn the correct way to remodel, evaluating those you hire, and why it's important to pay the right price to get a qualified professional--watch any of the shows that feature Mike Holmes. While they typically deal with Canadian homes, his analysis is usually spot-on in my opinion, and he repairs the shoddy work of others while teaching owners and viewers why he does what he does. ~ Jim Molinelli

Dare I ask Mao and his Communist Party?
I fear my throat will be cut into two pieces.
In the name of revolution, for thought crimes,
Such questions can turn me to ashes. ~ Zoe S. Roy

The Canadian community must invest, for the defence and better
appreciation of the French language, as much time, energy, and money as
are required to prevent the country from breaking up ~ Pierre Trudeau

The issue of racism happens all over the world. Granted, people - especially Americans - don't know the the Canadian culture. But if you look outside this country, it's a problem all around the planet. ~ Stephan James

I remember really bonding with the first generation kids, the Chinese Canadian kids, and in high school bonding with the Latin kids and the East Indian kids. It was very interesting because it made me open to lots of musical sounds. ~ Nelly Furtado