To what extent have Canadian schools incorporated notions of multiliteracies into their curricula and instruction? What pedagogical options are implied by a multiliteracies perspective? How might consideration of multiliteracies affect policies and practices at various levels of the educational system--ministries of education, faculties of education, school boards, schools, preschools? How does consideration of multiliteracies intersect with equity issues? The author's intent in this article is to raise these questions, point to gaps in the way everyone is thinking about literacy in Canadian education today, and sketch some potentially fruitful directions for addressing these gaps. The absence of serious policy consideration to address linguistic diversity at all levels of the educational system has resulted in the "normalization" of some highly problematic assumptions and practices that risk compromising Canadian schools' commitment to equity. Here, he presents these problematic assumptions which include: (1) Provision of instructional support for English language learners (ELL) is the job of the ESL teacher; (2) "Literacy" refers only to English literacy; and (3) The cultural knowledge and home language proficiency that ELL students bring to school have little instructional relevance. Among other things, he presents a set of questions that might stimulate discussion of language policies and belief systems at multiple levels of the educational system. (Contains 11 notes.)