This study investigates the role of public education in multicultural societies, specifically Canada and Quebec. The paper explores the response of the Canadian society to the cultural and religious differences of minority groups, as well as the extent of validation of this difference in the public schools. The study, based on an holistic, multidisciplinary theoretical framework, developed a multi-layered sociological and constructivist perspective both for the analysis and for solutions of multicultural education in Canada. Part 1 highlights the various levels of exclusion of immigrants/citizens at the structural, institutional, and educational levels of institutional multiculturalism. Part 2 describes the replication of institutional multiculturalism in the education system by discussing the essentialist ideology of "la culture publique commune" (the public common culture) at the core of curricula content and educational strategy of multicultural education. Part 3 challenges the prevalent "dirigiste" multicultural education in Quebec, Canada. Proposals are offered for an action reform plan to broaden the application of multicultural education in its truest sense. Contains 28 references. (EH)