Abstract

Canada defines itself as a multicultural country. Within its borders, people from varied ethnic backgrounds co-exist, making the country linguistically and culturally diverse. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act is intended to ensure mutual acceptance among the different ethnocultural groups that belong to Canadian society. According to Berry (1984, 2006), who drew on P. E. Trudeau’s words, this goal is achieved as long as ethnocultural groups in society maintain and develop themselves as distinctive entities, have contact and share with other members of other ethnic groups and learn the official languages of Canada. The current study investigates the extent to which these three components of multiculturalism help achieve the policy’s goal. A small sample of the Colombian community living in Canada participated in the study. Results revealed a significantly strong relationship between intergroup contact and sharing, and mutual acceptance and tolerance. The findings of the study, its limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.