David Empey

Saturday’s Globe and Mail included an article, prompted by the recent events in France, about racial integration in Canada. Quoting an Institute for Research on Public Policy study by Jeffrey Rietz, the article suggests that the children of immigrants to Canada feel less integrated into Canadian society than their parents were. The reason, according to Reitz, is that they expect equality and do not find it (unlike their parents, who never fully expected equality).

Reitz’s idea sounds obvious on some level, and seems intuitively true. Anyone born here expects – one would hope reasonably – to be treated like a Canadian (that is, in the same way as the rest of us). It is perhaps an indication that we still have a long way to go that reality falls short of this expectation.

Many of us are guilty of contributing to this problem. When we see someone who isn’t caucasian, we wonder where they may be from. When we meet them, it is often our first question. This isn’t all bad – to be Canadian shouldn’t mean losing one heritage – whether it is European, Asian, African, etc. But it is a problem when we treat people different because of race. The line is likely very hard to draw, and it seems many of us are not doing a very good job. Part of this problem is likely education, and part of it may be simple thoughtlessness. But we need to do better.

Canada claims to be a multicultural society – indeed, many of us would include such a claim in any definition of our country, and what it means to be Canadian. But if we are truly going to live up to the claim, then race can’t be part of the definition of what it means to be Canadian.

The gist of the article is correct: We aren’t so different from France, and we shouldn’t think it could never happen here. Moreover, we ought to think this is a problem worth solving because it is the right thing to do. Canada can be the place we want it to be.