Since COVID-19, we have witnessed a rise in hate crimes and xenoracism globally. Some commentators on COVID-related racism claim that this hate is apolitical. We question this claim, and in this paper, we strive to reveal the underlying politics especially around the ramifications and impact of this hate on racialized (im)migrants and the multiculturalism ideal. Drawing from Foucault’s construct of biopolitics and using Canada as a case study, we wonder how Canadian multiculturalism, which is a source of national pride, has been politically constructed to serve white settler hegemony from its inception to the present. We link political debates around the emergence of a multiculturalism policy in 1971 to the recent debates on multiculturalism and immigration during the 2015 and 2019 federal elections, and the current COVID-19 related national border policies in 2020. Our critical analysis illustrates how immigrants and racialized minorities have been systemically positioned in our legislation as a site to demonstrate the politics of governance, often scapegoated for national unrest and questioned on the legitimacy of their belonging and contribution to the nation. Meanwhile, the very ideal of multiculturalism in Canada has been evoked as the centre of biopolitics to govern ‘Others’ and all.

自COVID-19以来，我们目睹了全球仇恨犯罪和种族主义的上升。一些与COVID相关的种族主义的评论家声称，这种仇恨是不政治的。我们对此主张提出质疑，在本文中，我们力求揭示潜在的政治，尤其是这种仇恨对种族化（im）移民和多元文化主义理想的影响和影响。借鉴福柯的生物政治学构想，并以加拿大为案例研究，我们想知道加拿大的多元文化主义是一种民族自豪感的来源，从一开始就一直在政治上服务于白人定居者的霸权。我们将围绕1971年多元文化主义政策兴起的政治辩论与最近在2015年和2019年联邦选举中关于多元文化主义和移民的辩论联系起来，以及当前与COVID-19相关的2020年国家边界政策。我们的批判性分析表明，移民和种族少数群体如何在我们的立法中被系统地定位为展示治理政治的场所，常常被国家动荡所束缚，并质疑其合法性。他们对国家的归属和贡献。同时，加拿大多元文化主义的理想被唤起为治理“其他”和所有人的生物政治中心。