O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the True North strong and free!

Of course, that is the national anthem of the country; we call home, the True North strong and free.

When Celissa Michel and roughly 100 other black guys went to work in Quebec in 2000 through to 2001, they found that there was a cafeteria for the whites and a cafeteria for Blacks.  And as Mr. Michel puts it, as soon as he arrived he had the sense that he could not go to the whites only cafeteria. This is the beginning of the new millennium and there is much talk in Canada about diversity and the supporting of other cultures so that they can be part of this great country call Canada.

Unfortunate we are no further ahead, when an employer in this Canada can hire two superintendents for cleaning, one for the whites and one for the blacks, something is radically wrong.  Mr. Michel and three of his brothers complained to the Quebec Human rights Commission and won, Judge Pauze in giving her ruling heaped scorn on the defendants in their treatment of Blacks.  The Clerk of the Commission said that she thought that this was the worst case of discrimination that they have ever seen, commenting that it seen liked a movie about the way Blacks were treated in the United States of America.

While they won their case and was awarded $12,000, this just shows that racism is still a major issue in Canada.  While we continue to aspire towards a civil society, incidents like these reminds us of the harsh realities we as Black people have to face.

The diversity of Canada is exploding.  This diversity includes not just characteristics such as age, education, gender, language, sexual orientation, mental and physical disability, religion, ethnicity but most importantly race.  Diversity is all the differences and dissimilarities among people. These differences and expectations are based on characteristics that help shape a person’s attitude, behavior and perspective.  Diversity should be inclusive.

How we manage this explosion of diversity will have a direct impact on the future of Canada.  Canada is uniquely positioned to adopt and pursue this new proactive paradigm of diversity in innovative and creative ways.  The new thinking must move beyond the old and limited paradigm of merely reacting to and addressing in an inadequate fashion the present and residual effects of discrimination and inequalities.  The utilization and enjoyment of the positive attributes of diversity requires the pro-active efforts of the government of Canada to not merely recognize and tolerate this diversity, but to respect, value and nurture it. 

On the other hand, the negative attributes of diversity-the inequality and discriminatory practices- requires the proactive efforts of the government of Canada to address and eliminate them.

My Name is Clyde Mc Neil for viewpoint.