Canadian government equals South African one regarding racial profiling?

I got astonished when I read this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_minorities
"Visible minority", according to Canadian government: "persons, other than Aboriginals, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour". It's interesting to see how arbitrary and simplistic is the Canadian definition of what is a "Caucasian in race or white in colour" person. Among the "visible minorities" options are "Arab". Apparently, the Canadian government ignores that Arabs are indeed Caucasians, the great majority of them. Apparetly, the Canadian government ignores that many Arabs are white in coulor and can't be distinguished from a Southern European. Apparently, the Canadian government ignores that a large percentage of Latin Americans are descendants of Europeans, and naturally those can't be distinguished from Europeans. An interesting question is what makes them different from Europeans so that they receive the non-white, non-Caucasian status. Any Canadian here to explain?
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Perharps, a white Latin American is less Latin American than other Latin Americans, is it? What about black Latin Americans, to what group they belong? Blacks or Latin American? The same question about black Arabs.