In Canada as a whole, multiculturalism is:
sandorski @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:00 pm
hwacker hwacker:
Wada Wada:
hwacker hwacker:
Wada Wada:
"Mingle"? Who's not mingling? Bring out the mingle police, eh. To blame lack of mingling on Multiculturalism is kind of disingenuous, is it not?
you need to come to a real city.
I lived 10 years in your real city and never had trouble mingling. Do you?
Are you a minority?
and back in 1953 when you were in a real city Canada was still Canada.
Canada still is Canada.
hwacker @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:01 pm
sandorski sandorski:
Brenda Brenda:
sandorski sandorski:
Brenda Brenda:
Multiculturalism is BS, and should be non-existend. Multiculturalism makes minorities stay minorities and not fit in the way they should.
I have seen no evidence to support that.
Okay, let me say it differently:
I think Multiculturalism is BS, and should be non-existend.
I think it makes minorities stay minorities.
We are all living in the best country in the world, out of free will, why would anyone not be a complete part of that, by just sticking to what you know (ie language, habits, holidays) and not mingle?
I still see no evidence of this. What makes you think they are not "mingling"?
Are you blind, NM don't answer that.
hwacker @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:02 pm
sandorski sandorski:
hwacker hwacker:
Wada Wada:
hwacker hwacker:
Wada Wada:
"Mingle"? Who's not mingling? Bring out the mingle police, eh. To blame lack of mingling on Multiculturalism is kind of disingenuous, is it not?
you need to come to a real city.
I lived 10 years in your real city and never had trouble mingling. Do you?
Are you a minority?
and back in 1953 when you were in a real city Canada was still Canada.
Canada still is Canada.
see other post.
Joe_Stalin @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:02 pm
Delwin Delwin:
Multiculturalism is necessary when the birth rate of a country is too low to support the aging work population.
It would be nice if Canadians were having enough kids that we did not have to integrate newcomers all of the time.
Unfortunately, since the average worker can no longer raise a huge family on a single salary, there is less time for our women to have kids, and we have to import workers.
It would be nice if Canadians were having enough kids that we did not have to integrate newcomers all of the time.
Unfortunately, since the average worker can no longer raise a huge family on a single salary, there is less time for our women to have kids, and we have to import workers.
Scratching my head here.
Multicult is designed to preserve the newcomer's language and culture. You can see the results today where people can function in their own language without ever knowing a word of English. Examples are Richmond and Surrey.
Immigrants are required as our birthrate drops but the melting pot is the right approach.
Multicult arose out of bilingualism.
IMHO, Trudeau and his cronies, Marchand and Pelletier sought to undermine the supremacy of English in Canada. If the country could be Balkanized with huge blocks of diverse people, the language and customs guaranteed and even funded by taxpayers, the influence of Anglos would be drastically curtailed.
Also the strongest homogenous society, the French, would emerge as the most influential block. Checkout how many recent Prime Ministers hail from Quebec. Checkout how many judges on the Supreme Court have French as their mother tongue? (The majority).
Look at Multicult in action in Britain and France. Muslims run their own neighbourhoods. Police seldom enter various districts in France. The unintended fruits of Multicult by devious or stupid politicians.
Muslims are not a problem in the USA. The melting pot has made Americans out of them, not Yemeni-Americans, Saudi-Americans or Canadian-Americans.
Multicult must be discontinued immediately if not sooner. Language is the glue that holds a country together. Fracturing it by not encouraging integration is the liberal leftist approach. A recipe for national disaster.
kal @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:06 pm
"In Canada as a whole, multiculturalism is:"
Minorities whining and bitching that we won't change our laws to suit them.
Wada @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:08 pm
Joe_Stalin Joe_Stalin:
Delwin Delwin:
Multiculturalism is necessary when the birth rate of a country is too low to support the aging work population.
It would be nice if Canadians were having enough kids that we did not have to integrate newcomers all of the time.
Unfortunately, since the average worker can no longer raise a huge family on a single salary, there is less time for our women to have kids, and we have to import workers.
It would be nice if Canadians were having enough kids that we did not have to integrate newcomers all of the time.
Unfortunately, since the average worker can no longer raise a huge family on a single salary, there is less time for our women to have kids, and we have to import workers.
Scratching my head here.
Multicult is designed to preserve the newcomer's language and culture. You can see the results today where people can function in their own language without ever knowing a word of English. Examples are Richmond and Surrey.
Immigrants are required as our birthrate drops but the melting pot is the right approach.
Multicult arose out of bilingualism.
IMHO, Trudeau and his cronies, Marchand and Pelletier sought to undermine the supremacy of English in Canada. If the country could be Balkanized with huge blocks of diverse people, the language and customs guaranteed and even funded by taxpayers, the influence of Anglos would be drastically curtailed.
Also the strongest homogenous society, the French, would emerge as the most influential block. Checkout how many recent Prime Ministers hail from Quebec. Checkout how many judges on the Supreme Court have French as their mother tongue? (The majority).
Look at Multicult in action in Britain and France. Muslims run their own neighbourhoods. Police seldom enter various districts in France. The unintended fruits of Multicult by devious or stupid politicians.
Muslims are not a problem in the USA. The melting pot has made Americans out of them, not Yemeni-Americans, Saudi-Americans or Canadian-Americans.
Multicult must be discontinued immediately if not sooner. Language is the glue that holds a country together. Fracturing it by not encouraging integration is the liberal leftist approach. A recipe for national disaster.
In your case the apple did not fall far from the tree. your uncle would be soooo proud of you.
Joe_Stalin @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:16 pm
Thank you.
Somebody has to be politically incorrect. 
But while I'm at it this paste is aimed at the USA but applies equally to Canada.
$1:
Seven Ways Young People Can Keep Our Country from becoming Officially Screwed
By Doug Giles
Saturday, December 8, 2007
If America continues to
• diss God
• follow cultural coarsening Tila Tequila types
• whiz on traditional values
• weaken in our chutzpah
• stop spitting out babies
• say “muy bien” to this insane illegal immigration invasion . . .
then as a super power we will be in more trouble than a naïve, giggly good-looking drunk chick sportin’ a mini skirt at a Tommy Lee keg party. We will be toast. Period. End of story. The universe will be against us, and we don’t want to tick the universe off.
No civilization has lasted long as King of the Hill when there was a death of faith, a degeneration of morals, contempt for traditional values, a collapse of culture, a paralysis of the will, a decline in its native born population, and foreign invasion that wasn’t resisted. Google it if you don’t believe me, as the aforementioned is well known 411 regarding nations that have Gary Busey-ed their being into cheesy tourist spots.
Hey America . . . we’re not invincible. I know it looks like it, but believe it or not there have been powerful civilizations that are now a cartoon of what they use to be, and it would be the height of hubris to think that this party will never end no matter what we do.
Look, silly fool, if we forego the foundations upon which our country was built and start winging it with “progressive” principles instead of our old school traditional values, substituting God’s eternal blueprint for some secularist wizard’s ideas for a better mañana, then we officially put ourselves in line for historical butt kicking. And we have plenty of enemies hoping that we will blissfully blow off the very nitty-gritty that got us to this place of global greatness. Fo’ shizzle my nizzle.
I think God, in his crazy patience, is giving Americans (at least those who still give a flip about our country) a brief window to cowboy up and go back to the basics. If we do—great. I believe that with a lot of work we can still salvage this thing. If we don’t . . . then we shouldn’t gripe when we see our motherland turn into tripe.
In addition, I believe young people who embrace traditional values are principle players in this momentary stay of execution.
So what can the young God- and country-loving dude do? Well, you (and 45 year old guys like me) can do the opposite of what the secularist weeds want us to do, namely:
1. Embrace our faith like never before.
2. Revolt against the immoral vomit.
3. Cheer on traditional values.
4. Applaud and own our culture.
5. Quit being squishy wusses and steel up our will.
6. Spit out babies.
7. Tell foreign invaders to come here correctly or go back to their sucky countries.
To be continued . . .
Doug Giles’ new book “A Time to Clash: Papers from a Provocative Pastor” is now available. Ann Coulter says "Doug Giles’ A Time to Clash is a substantive and funny tour de force for traditional values.” Doug’s award winning talk show and video blog can be seen and heard at www.ClashRadio.com.
Source
Brenda @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:25 pm
Wada Wada:
Brenda Brenda:
Multiculturalism is BS, and should be non-existend. Multiculturalism makes minorities stay minorities and not fit in the way they should.
Brenda you may think multiculturalism is BS and should be non-existent but you moved here knowing that and already you think you have the right to decide that it should not exist. It does not make minorities do anything, let alone make them stay minorities. Minorities are judged by numbers and to be quite honest they fit in just as they would or should in a Multicultural Society.
I have been living in a country like Canada for 36 years, which used to claim being Multi-culti. All that showed, was "immigrants who want to preserve their culture" (read: Chinese, Muslims etc) demand certain things to be done for them. Muslims wanted mosques, Chinese don't speak Dutch and only stay with their own, Hispanics speak Spanish and work low-paying jobs at Corus.
That is what is called multi-culti. Amsterdam has 172 different languages. Multi culti is not the same as all cultures and religions go together. Multi culti is for a country to preserve ALL cultures of people living in that country.
And I think that is at cost of the original culture of the country.
Joe_Stalin @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:46 pm
Brenda is right. Holland is way further down the slippery slope than Canada. Britons in record numbers are fleeing the UK. They too see the writing on the wall.
Let the riots resume
hwacker @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:59 pm
Asia immigration churns Canada's cultural makeup
1 day ago
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — When Tung Chan immigrated here from Hong Kong in 1974 most people spoke English, there was one Chinese-language newspaper, and historic "Chinatown" was considered exotic.
Waves of immigration from Asia have since turned this West Coast metropolis into an Asian-flavored, multicultural entrepot, with newcomers -- including growing numbers of mixed-race couples -- resident on virtually every street.
English and French are Canada's official languages. But Chinese and other languages have made steep gains in recent years, according to the latest census, released this week.
News here is now delivered in 22 different languages through more than 144 different media outlets.
Shops and bank machines post signs in English, Chinese, Punjabi and Farsi.
Former "ethnic" goods are rarely differentiated, with grocery stores selling Bok Choy next to spinach, lemon grass alongside parsley, and Indian chutneys in the ketchup and mustard aisle.
Even Vancouver's city hall provides basic information about municipal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"Vancouver has changed dramatically," said Chan. "We're really very lucky -- this is a microcosm of the world."
In 150 short years Vancouver shot from being a largely aboriginal community, to becoming a resource-extraction outpost for mostly Britons and other Europeans, to one of the world's most multicultural destinations today for immigrants who speak a dizzying variety of languages.
Chan came here at age 22, and eventually became a successful banker, member of the city council, and now a philanthropist and the head of an agency to help new immigrants.
He said old and new residents here mostly get along well, and Canadians, especially in Vancouver, "should be very, very proud of ourselves in terms of how we integrate people."
"The mentality here is integration rather than confrontation," said Eleanor Yuen, a Hong Kong native who now heads the Asian Library at the University of British Columbia.
"Most of the people who come here don't come with a strong ideology that they want to fight and die for."
Yuen said accommodation and integration in Canada differs from Western Europe, where her research shows immigrants, including those from China, tend to stay in "a ghetto of their own, in secluded areas, and speak little English."
Nationally, Canada has one of the world's highest immigration levels compared to its population. A federal report this week showed the mother tongue of fully one in five Canadians is no longer English or French, especially in major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Overall, nearly 18 million Canadians still cite English as their first language, and nearly seven million call French their mother tongue, Statistics Canada reported.
But newcomers from Asia have made Chinese the third most common language now, with about one million speakers (324,000 in Vancouver), and up 18.5 percent between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of just 3.1 percent for English speakers and 1.7 percent for Francophones.
Punjabi speakers increased by 35.5 per cent in the same period, and immigrants from India now number about 350,000 nationwide (117,000 in Vancouver).
The rise of ethnic media especially is a sign of how rapidly the West Coast culture is changing, said Catherine Murray, a professor at Simon Fraser University here. Murray and a team of researchers recently released a report on local news media outlets in 22 languages.
One potential problem, said both Chan and Murray, is the gap between new media outlets, which focus mostly on overseas and cultural news, and mainstream media that reports on local and national issues.
"The big stories in English media are not followed in Asian media," said Murray, citing a dearth of ethnic media reports about Canada's military in Afghanistan.
"Overlooking Canada's war effort in Afghanistan is setting up an important dynamic in the next election," she said.
Chinese newspapers "have to do a much better job in providing coverage for local issues," said Chan. "Most reporters are from China or Hong Kong, and many of them do not have the necessary understanding of the nuances of Canadian issues. That, to me, is an area that could be improved."
Yep no problem here, fuck.
source
sandorski @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:08 pm
Of course Muslims want Mosques. Just as Hindu's want Temples, dozens of Immigrant Christian groups want their Churches. This isn't a product of multiculturalism at all and was the norm a long time before Trudeau hailed it.
I have no idea what happened in the Netherlands, but here Multiculturalism has not resulted in any of the things mentioned. This is Canada and constant flux in what defines "Canadian" is the norm and not some new phenomena that came into existence from the mouth of Trudeau. The US is very similar in that aspect as well, "American" is constantly changing.
sandorski @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:13 pm
hwacker hwacker:
Asia immigration churns Canada's cultural makeup
1 day ago
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — When Tung Chan immigrated here from Hong Kong in 1974 most people spoke English, there was one Chinese-language newspaper, and historic "Chinatown" was considered exotic.
Waves of immigration from Asia have since turned this West Coast metropolis into an Asian-flavored, multicultural entrepot, with newcomers -- including growing numbers of mixed-race couples -- resident on virtually every street.
English and French are Canada's official languages. But Chinese and other languages have made steep gains in recent years, according to the latest census, released this week.
News here is now delivered in 22 different languages through more than 144 different media outlets.
Shops and bank machines post signs in English, Chinese, Punjabi and Farsi.
Former "ethnic" goods are rarely differentiated, with grocery stores selling Bok Choy next to spinach, lemon grass alongside parsley, and Indian chutneys in the ketchup and mustard aisle.
Even Vancouver's city hall provides basic information about municipal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"Vancouver has changed dramatically," said Chan. "We're really very lucky -- this is a microcosm of the world."
In 150 short years Vancouver shot from being a largely aboriginal community, to becoming a resource-extraction outpost for mostly Britons and other Europeans, to one of the world's most multicultural destinations today for immigrants who speak a dizzying variety of languages.
Chan came here at age 22, and eventually became a successful banker, member of the city council, and now a philanthropist and the head of an agency to help new immigrants.
He said old and new residents here mostly get along well, and Canadians, especially in Vancouver, "should be very, very proud of ourselves in terms of how we integrate people."
"The mentality here is integration rather than confrontation," said Eleanor Yuen, a Hong Kong native who now heads the Asian Library at the University of British Columbia.
"Most of the people who come here don't come with a strong ideology that they want to fight and die for."
Yuen said accommodation and integration in Canada differs from Western Europe, where her research shows immigrants, including those from China, tend to stay in "a ghetto of their own, in secluded areas, and speak little English."
Nationally, Canada has one of the world's highest immigration levels compared to its population. A federal report this week showed the mother tongue of fully one in five Canadians is no longer English or French, especially in major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Overall, nearly 18 million Canadians still cite English as their first language, and nearly seven million call French their mother tongue, Statistics Canada reported.
But newcomers from Asia have made Chinese the third most common language now, with about one million speakers (324,000 in Vancouver), and up 18.5 percent between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of just 3.1 percent for English speakers and 1.7 percent for Francophones.
Punjabi speakers increased by 35.5 per cent in the same period, and immigrants from India now number about 350,000 nationwide (117,000 in Vancouver).
The rise of ethnic media especially is a sign of how rapidly the West Coast culture is changing, said Catherine Murray, a professor at Simon Fraser University here. Murray and a team of researchers recently released a report on local news media outlets in 22 languages.
One potential problem, said both Chan and Murray, is the gap between new media outlets, which focus mostly on overseas and cultural news, and mainstream media that reports on local and national issues.
"The big stories in English media are not followed in Asian media," said Murray, citing a dearth of ethnic media reports about Canada's military in Afghanistan.
"Overlooking Canada's war effort in Afghanistan is setting up an important dynamic in the next election," she said.
Chinese newspapers "have to do a much better job in providing coverage for local issues," said Chan. "Most reporters are from China or Hong Kong, and many of them do not have the necessary understanding of the nuances of Canadian issues. That, to me, is an area that could be improved."
Yep no problem here, fuck.
source
1 day ago
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — When Tung Chan immigrated here from Hong Kong in 1974 most people spoke English, there was one Chinese-language newspaper, and historic "Chinatown" was considered exotic.
Waves of immigration from Asia have since turned this West Coast metropolis into an Asian-flavored, multicultural entrepot, with newcomers -- including growing numbers of mixed-race couples -- resident on virtually every street.
English and French are Canada's official languages. But Chinese and other languages have made steep gains in recent years, according to the latest census, released this week.
News here is now delivered in 22 different languages through more than 144 different media outlets.
Shops and bank machines post signs in English, Chinese, Punjabi and Farsi.
Former "ethnic" goods are rarely differentiated, with grocery stores selling Bok Choy next to spinach, lemon grass alongside parsley, and Indian chutneys in the ketchup and mustard aisle.
Even Vancouver's city hall provides basic information about municipal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"Vancouver has changed dramatically," said Chan. "We're really very lucky -- this is a microcosm of the world."
In 150 short years Vancouver shot from being a largely aboriginal community, to becoming a resource-extraction outpost for mostly Britons and other Europeans, to one of the world's most multicultural destinations today for immigrants who speak a dizzying variety of languages.
Chan came here at age 22, and eventually became a successful banker, member of the city council, and now a philanthropist and the head of an agency to help new immigrants.
He said old and new residents here mostly get along well, and Canadians, especially in Vancouver, "should be very, very proud of ourselves in terms of how we integrate people."
"The mentality here is integration rather than confrontation," said Eleanor Yuen, a Hong Kong native who now heads the Asian Library at the University of British Columbia.
"Most of the people who come here don't come with a strong ideology that they want to fight and die for."
Yuen said accommodation and integration in Canada differs from Western Europe, where her research shows immigrants, including those from China, tend to stay in "a ghetto of their own, in secluded areas, and speak little English."
Nationally, Canada has one of the world's highest immigration levels compared to its population. A federal report this week showed the mother tongue of fully one in five Canadians is no longer English or French, especially in major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Overall, nearly 18 million Canadians still cite English as their first language, and nearly seven million call French their mother tongue, Statistics Canada reported.
But newcomers from Asia have made Chinese the third most common language now, with about one million speakers (324,000 in Vancouver), and up 18.5 percent between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of just 3.1 percent for English speakers and 1.7 percent for Francophones.
Punjabi speakers increased by 35.5 per cent in the same period, and immigrants from India now number about 350,000 nationwide (117,000 in Vancouver).
The rise of ethnic media especially is a sign of how rapidly the West Coast culture is changing, said Catherine Murray, a professor at Simon Fraser University here. Murray and a team of researchers recently released a report on local news media outlets in 22 languages.
One potential problem, said both Chan and Murray, is the gap between new media outlets, which focus mostly on overseas and cultural news, and mainstream media that reports on local and national issues.
"The big stories in English media are not followed in Asian media," said Murray, citing a dearth of ethnic media reports about Canada's military in Afghanistan.
"Overlooking Canada's war effort in Afghanistan is setting up an important dynamic in the next election," she said.
Chinese newspapers "have to do a much better job in providing coverage for local issues," said Chan. "Most reporters are from China or Hong Kong, and many of them do not have the necessary understanding of the nuances of Canadian issues. That, to me, is an area that could be improved."
Yep no problem here, fuck.
source
You're such a Drama Queen.
If the bolded sections are your proof, you completely missed the point of what was said.
hwacker @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:36 pm
sandorski sandorski:
hwacker hwacker:
Asia immigration churns Canada's cultural makeup
1 day ago
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — When Tung Chan immigrated here from Hong Kong in 1974 most people spoke English, there was one Chinese-language newspaper, and historic "Chinatown" was considered exotic.
Waves of immigration from Asia have since turned this West Coast metropolis into an Asian-flavored, multicultural entrepot, with newcomers -- including growing numbers of mixed-race couples -- resident on virtually every street.
English and French are Canada's official languages. But Chinese and other languages have made steep gains in recent years, according to the latest census, released this week.
News here is now delivered in 22 different languages through more than 144 different media outlets.
Shops and bank machines post signs in English, Chinese, Punjabi and Farsi.
Former "ethnic" goods are rarely differentiated, with grocery stores selling Bok Choy next to spinach, lemon grass alongside parsley, and Indian chutneys in the ketchup and mustard aisle.
Even Vancouver's city hall provides basic information about municipal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"Vancouver has changed dramatically," said Chan. "We're really very lucky -- this is a microcosm of the world."
In 150 short years Vancouver shot from being a largely aboriginal community, to becoming a resource-extraction outpost for mostly Britons and other Europeans, to one of the world's most multicultural destinations today for immigrants who speak a dizzying variety of languages.
Chan came here at age 22, and eventually became a successful banker, member of the city council, and now a philanthropist and the head of an agency to help new immigrants.
He said old and new residents here mostly get along well, and Canadians, especially in Vancouver, "should be very, very proud of ourselves in terms of how we integrate people."
"The mentality here is integration rather than confrontation," said Eleanor Yuen, a Hong Kong native who now heads the Asian Library at the University of British Columbia.
"Most of the people who come here don't come with a strong ideology that they want to fight and die for."
Yuen said accommodation and integration in Canada differs from Western Europe, where her research shows immigrants, including those from China, tend to stay in "a ghetto of their own, in secluded areas, and speak little English."
Nationally, Canada has one of the world's highest immigration levels compared to its population. A federal report this week showed the mother tongue of fully one in five Canadians is no longer English or French, especially in major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Overall, nearly 18 million Canadians still cite English as their first language, and nearly seven million call French their mother tongue, Statistics Canada reported.
But newcomers from Asia have made Chinese the third most common language now, with about one million speakers (324,000 in Vancouver), and up 18.5 percent between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of just 3.1 percent for English speakers and 1.7 percent for Francophones.
Punjabi speakers increased by 35.5 per cent in the same period, and immigrants from India now number about 350,000 nationwide (117,000 in Vancouver).
The rise of ethnic media especially is a sign of how rapidly the West Coast culture is changing, said Catherine Murray, a professor at Simon Fraser University here. Murray and a team of researchers recently released a report on local news media outlets in 22 languages.
One potential problem, said both Chan and Murray, is the gap between new media outlets, which focus mostly on overseas and cultural news, and mainstream media that reports on local and national issues.
"The big stories in English media are not followed in Asian media," said Murray, citing a dearth of ethnic media reports about Canada's military in Afghanistan.
"Overlooking Canada's war effort in Afghanistan is setting up an important dynamic in the next election," she said.
Chinese newspapers "have to do a much better job in providing coverage for local issues," said Chan. "Most reporters are from China or Hong Kong, and many of them do not have the necessary understanding of the nuances of Canadian issues. That, to me, is an area that could be improved."
Yep no problem here, fuck.
source
1 day ago
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — When Tung Chan immigrated here from Hong Kong in 1974 most people spoke English, there was one Chinese-language newspaper, and historic "Chinatown" was considered exotic.
Waves of immigration from Asia have since turned this West Coast metropolis into an Asian-flavored, multicultural entrepot, with newcomers -- including growing numbers of mixed-race couples -- resident on virtually every street.
English and French are Canada's official languages. But Chinese and other languages have made steep gains in recent years, according to the latest census, released this week.
News here is now delivered in 22 different languages through more than 144 different media outlets.
Shops and bank machines post signs in English, Chinese, Punjabi and Farsi.
Former "ethnic" goods are rarely differentiated, with grocery stores selling Bok Choy next to spinach, lemon grass alongside parsley, and Indian chutneys in the ketchup and mustard aisle.
Even Vancouver's city hall provides basic information about municipal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.
"Vancouver has changed dramatically," said Chan. "We're really very lucky -- this is a microcosm of the world."
In 150 short years Vancouver shot from being a largely aboriginal community, to becoming a resource-extraction outpost for mostly Britons and other Europeans, to one of the world's most multicultural destinations today for immigrants who speak a dizzying variety of languages.
Chan came here at age 22, and eventually became a successful banker, member of the city council, and now a philanthropist and the head of an agency to help new immigrants.
He said old and new residents here mostly get along well, and Canadians, especially in Vancouver, "should be very, very proud of ourselves in terms of how we integrate people."
"The mentality here is integration rather than confrontation," said Eleanor Yuen, a Hong Kong native who now heads the Asian Library at the University of British Columbia.
"Most of the people who come here don't come with a strong ideology that they want to fight and die for."
Yuen said accommodation and integration in Canada differs from Western Europe, where her research shows immigrants, including those from China, tend to stay in "a ghetto of their own, in secluded areas, and speak little English."
Nationally, Canada has one of the world's highest immigration levels compared to its population. A federal report this week showed the mother tongue of fully one in five Canadians is no longer English or French, especially in major cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Overall, nearly 18 million Canadians still cite English as their first language, and nearly seven million call French their mother tongue, Statistics Canada reported.
But newcomers from Asia have made Chinese the third most common language now, with about one million speakers (324,000 in Vancouver), and up 18.5 percent between 2001 and 2006, compared to an increase of just 3.1 percent for English speakers and 1.7 percent for Francophones.
Punjabi speakers increased by 35.5 per cent in the same period, and immigrants from India now number about 350,000 nationwide (117,000 in Vancouver).
The rise of ethnic media especially is a sign of how rapidly the West Coast culture is changing, said Catherine Murray, a professor at Simon Fraser University here. Murray and a team of researchers recently released a report on local news media outlets in 22 languages.
One potential problem, said both Chan and Murray, is the gap between new media outlets, which focus mostly on overseas and cultural news, and mainstream media that reports on local and national issues.
"The big stories in English media are not followed in Asian media," said Murray, citing a dearth of ethnic media reports about Canada's military in Afghanistan.
"Overlooking Canada's war effort in Afghanistan is setting up an important dynamic in the next election," she said.
Chinese newspapers "have to do a much better job in providing coverage for local issues," said Chan. "Most reporters are from China or Hong Kong, and many of them do not have the necessary understanding of the nuances of Canadian issues. That, to me, is an area that could be improved."
Yep no problem here, fuck.
source
You're such a Drama Queen.
If the bolded sections are your proof, you completely missed the point of what was said.
I was showing you the problem of the media and the liberals that started this mess, a shitload of people that can't speak english, tell me i'm wrong and i'll call you full of shit.
it's a huge problem for Canada.
Brenda @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:42 pm
$1:
Of course Muslims want Mosques. Just as Hindu's want Temples, dozens of Immigrant Christian groups want their Churches. This isn't a product of multiculturalism at all and was the norm a long time before Trudeau hailed it.
Obviously you missed my point
hwacker @ Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:53 pm
Brenda Brenda:
$1:
Of course Muslims want Mosques. Just as Hindu's want Temples, dozens of Immigrant Christian groups want their Churches. This isn't a product of multiculturalism at all and was the norm a long time before Trudeau hailed it.
Obviously you missed my point
Because he has no problem with Canada not being Canada.