Comment 42047

By Kiely (registered) | Posted June 16, 2010 at 14:40:42

But one thing comes to mind when I head people shake their head at "lack of diversity": time - Kenneth

Very true Ken, these things do take time, that is why I brought up the findings of the Spicer commission… that will be 20 years ago next year. 20 years is a significant amount of time, I would have hoped to see more things change. The Spicer Commission was very clear about a lack of involvement in institutions. Many of these institutions have appointed boards, therefore no obstacles such as elections, and the prohibitively costly election campaign exist, yet we still can't achieve diversity. There is no excuse for that.

Nevertheless, I think that it's a little bit early to start wondering why there are no Tamils or Afghanis on city council - about two generations too early. - Kenneth

This also is true, but what about Vietnamese, Chinese or Jamaicans? In 1991 there was 1/4 million Caribbean and 1.1 million Asian immigrants in Canada. 20 years later they still are not sufficiently represented.

I understand the time issue and realise not every new wave of immigrants is going to be able to be instantly represented. But we can't wait for the inclusion (for lack of better word) of immigrants to simply happen the way we once did. Even if we consider we have done an okay job in the past (which obviously I do not believe we have) we need our new immigrants to find their place in our society quicker than we have in the past. They are a valuable resource that we can't just allow to struggle on their own to make it. They are no longer coming to the fabled "land of opportunity".

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