Unless we learn to know ourselves

“The protest at the Peel Board is an indication of policies having a tilt towards a particular community that has left others offended as the Board has not been able to justify the need for saying prayers during the school hours; and the cases so cited by Grewal and Sahota hint at discrimination that still needs to be addressed.

Are government policies in line with an ever expanding cultural ethnicity of Canada? Are policies in Canada consistent with the cultural pluralism and to promote national unity? Is there a feeling among the ethnic groups that these policies are suppressing the individual’s need for identity?  These questions have become important considering three important happenings in Canada.

At the Peel School Board meeting last week the police had to get into action. Off late the cops have been at stand by for almost all the meetings of the Board, however this time they had to clear the room after about 80 protesters could not be calmed down. The situation took an ugly turn when one of them ripped up a copy of the Quran and to make matters worse clumped on it. All this happened when others yelled anti Muslim comments.  The reason for such a deplorable outrage has been a practice that has been going on for close to two decades in some of the public schools in Toronto. Providing space to Muslim students to pray as a group on Fridays has been under criticism by way of protest and even petitions. What prompted the protestors to take such a drastic step? The demand for keeping religion out of school has been gaining momentum and the authorities have been unwilling to do much in this regard.

At the same time two leaders from the Peel region came forward to address two other but similar causes.

Raj Grewal, MP for Brampton East touched upon another issue that has been in discussion for long. Grewal in a press release claimed that last week he met students in his riding and some of them shared that they are now being asked if they were extremists, simply for practicing their Sikh identity. Raj Grewal in his release shares that he too has faced similar questions.

The very same day, Ruby Sahota Member of Parliament from Brampton North in the House of Commons went down her memory lane and said that she as a child could not help to “just wanting to fit in”. She wondered why her parents could not just wear western clothing on parent teacher meets. She did make an elaborate reference to ethnic clothing and the discrimination so associated with it. She expressed her anguish over ethnic dresses being called “costume”.  She was forthright in asking, “I wonder if my colleague is offended that I am wearing his costume right now. Would he call a business suit a costume? Should I ask people from around the world what they think about me wearing a white man’s costume? Are you offended, because I am incredibly offended that again and again I hear reference to our clothing as costumes? It is not a costume; it is clothing we wear every day, day in and day out. Indians wear that clothing, and it is nothing compared to a uniform of a police officer.”

Both Grewal and Sahota have touched issues that have been live on the nerves of many immigrant groups. And the issue in the Peel School Board is not different either. Impromptu use of Phrases like, “visible ethnic group”; “of (particular) descent” in casual conversation and even in media is keeping the immigrants alienated and has made their integration difficult.  Canada and various provinces may be able to boost about a number of immigrants, ethnic groups that have found representation in various elected houses, however those representatives are not enough as a “good sample” size to critically evaluate the ground realities.  The protest at the Peel Board is an indication of policies having a tilt towards a particular community that has left others offended as the Board has not been able to justify the need for saying prayers during the school hours; and the cases so cited by Grewal and Sahota hint at discrimination that still needs to be addressed.

These vocal elected representatives have sent a strong message to Canadians from all walks of life. “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.” Somewhere down the line, we need to shun the tendency to draw a conclusion about a person from his appearance and ethnic group he or she belongs to. Canadians will have to do a little more than just acknowledging itself as a multicultural society. There is a need to nurture diversity, by recognizing and claiming the wealth of values it represents for all.  Two elected representatives have done a yeoman service by letting us remind that “Unless we learn to know ourselves, we run the danger of destroying ourselves.”