Discussion of Culture

In Canada, there are wide varieties of opinions. It is important to listen closely to radical viewpoints to understand and respond appropriately. I listened closely to this man, Douglass Christie and to him I respond that yes, new Canadians tend to congregate in their own communiites. This is an international phenomenon and a human behaviour. We tend to assemble in like minded groups and in situations where we are insecure or disoriented we seek out familiarity. Emmigrating to a new country certainly qualities as one of those situations.
Yes, we have some problems with criminal activities in some of these groups. I would suggest however, that the majority of the problems have to do with poverty, and an immigration system that is poorly equipped to deal with radical factions from other countries. I would agree that our immigration policy needs to change but not in the way he suggests. The problem is that the citizens that we would wish to welcome to join our country, the ones who fill out the forms and patiently wait a decade to get here are superceded by people who jump the line as 'political refugees' bring their problems with them to Canada. We need to get a better handle on this situation to provide a haven for the persecuted but weed out those who would carry their hatred and warmongering ways to this country not break up the country as a knee jerk reaction.

We need time to judge the changes in our society. Canadian culture is far more than isolated individual pockets of people huddling together to weather change. It is the whole of what we are creating and becoming. Canadian culture more than anything else to me is, a Peace Tower in our parliament buildings, perogie and shawarma, mulitcultural parades, couples who love each other by seeing their similarities more accurately than their differences. It is the changes at the edges where, like the human body, new capillaries of life form over time, where one person loves another and marries someone of a different culture. It is the new life that emergest when a better idea, recipe, or practice emerges from the fusion of two cultures. Canadian culture can be seen in the changing dining habits of people who never before ate Thai food and now love it or the embracing of a more peaceful and less threatening point of view. It comes in realizing that life in Canada is better in some (not all) ways than it was in 'the old country'. That takes time. Our Italian  and Polish immigrants were once isloated in pockets and called names too. Now they are fully woven into the fabric of Canada to the great good fortune of our country.
Judging the integration of immigrants takes time. Let's give ourselves and our country that time.

Below I have posted the opinion of Douglass Christie a man who thinks quite differently than I do.