I was in Northern Ontario the last couple days and my hotel did not have Internet acces (what the heck!) so I am just catching up now. I watched the CBC National last night and I recommend the Mark Kelly documentary piece at about the 26 minute mark. It is a perfect snapshot for how both sides on the multi-culturalism issue can be literally 2 feet from each but cannot here a word the other is saying.
I think (hope?) that the European and North American experiences are different due to the reason I outlined a couple of days ago. There is no such thing as a Canadian race - only Canadian beliefs. The (not so) underlying rascism exhibited in this piece is not as bad here. But, as shown by the satellite dishes in that Dutch-Muslim community, assimilation is just as important here as anywhere. Just where the line should be drawn between diversity and fitting in will be a debate for the ages.
One note though. Mark Kelly expalined that the "TSN turning point" in the Netherlands was the murder of Theo Van Gogh however the divisions in Dutch culture were readily seen in the assasination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn.
Comments (1)
Got to disagree with you here, Greg. Kelly’s piece was just awful. He was way out of his depth. Canada has absolutely nothing to learn about how to treat immigrants from the Europeans. If you want, I will give you my master’s thesis which dealt with French and German immigration policy, back in the 1980’s. It makes good bedtime reading, believe me. ;)
Posted by Greg | June 8, 2006 9:36 AM
Posted on June 8, 2006 09:36