Pulaski

Your parents should be thankful that the problem is just a little sexual ambiguity! .... A little BE discussion about an English girl whose family moved to Florida.

The4BellsLondon

Yes indeed, I've seen this story ! So how did that double suicide go with one gun?? Hmm

lookingtogo

Souvy

It is most certainly not absent in the bits of Canada I know.

It was screamingly present when I lived in Oakville, even among the expat Brits.

It is quite present in Gatineau, although seemingly directed at people of colour. I appear to be OK because I'm a white European.

My stepson, himself a Quebecois, has just baled out of living in the Saguenay. The people up there don't like anyone from anywhere else, even other bits of Quebec.

Quite a few people believe that anyone of colour with cloth wrapped around their head is a paid-up member of the Taliban. It must suck to be a Sikh.

Fortunately, not everyone is like that. Pauline Marois has cocked-up badly in calling an election. She was banking on people buying in to her (racist) charter and desire for a separation referendum. The latest opinion polls suggest that she is handing the election to the provincial Liberals on a plate.

orly

Seems the people of Quebec know which side the bread is buttered on eh?

Souvy

More likely is that folk have realised that the woman is barking mad. I don't think that even the Scottish Nationalists want anything to do with her.

My missus is a straight down the line Quebecoise and hugely proud of her heritage and culture. She is also a proud Canadian. It has been made abundantly clear to me who she intends to vote for and who I am expected to vote for. Hint: it's not the PQ.

bc_guy

Really? I used to live in Nanaimo and none of the people from there ever gave me trouble because of my race. Well, there were quite a few non-Canadians (new immigrants who brought over their home country's intolerance) who did, but they don't really count since they're not exactly 'from Canada' and their attitudes don't really reflect that of the west coast at large.

But seriously, the idea of an anti-black Nanaimo sounds kind of preposterous (to me anyway). Are you sure those people were from Nanaimo? If they were, then I can assure you that people like them make up less than 1% of Nanaimo's population. Either that or the people in that city did a really good job hiding their racism from me. It seems really odd for racist people to go far out of their way to be extra-friendly to someone. The only problem I ever had with my skin color was the lack of discretion or anonymity.

Also, Nanaimo is far from rural. A population of 80,000 is a lot and there are way too many shopping and strip malls and other amenities in that city for it to be considered 'rural'.

The4BellsLondon

I wasn't considering Nanaimo rural. It was a separate anecdote relating to racism towards "Asian" people.

Tbh in Van the racism I have seen towards black people has come from the Asian community. As you said "bringing their country's intolerances".

bc_guy

Well, after re-thinking your post, I agree that it's plausible for the older generation in Nanaimo (and probably the rest of BC) to have some lingering dislike for Asians. I just remembered my former landlord (who's one of the older baby boomers) telling me that racism existed in Nanaimo and western BC during the 1950s and the Chinese shop used to shamelessly be called the chink shop by virtually everyone in town. So yeah, I guess that some of BC's older generation must still be anti-Asian.

As for the whole Asian on black racism, I totally agree that it's too common. But I've met lots of really friendly, unambiguously non-racist, Asian people. Those of them who also happened to own restaurants were the ones profiting big time whenever I craved Asian food (as I felt 100% comfortable being their customer). But overall, when you're living in a predominantly white city like Nanaimo, it's really easy to shrug off any Asian racism you get since Asians are the minority and don't really wield that much power to make your life uncomfortable.

rwin

A friend in Eastbourn told us of a particular midlands town to avoid - because there were too many brown people there.

Now he's not Canadian so I'm not saying he's racist. But I suspect racism isn't only a Canadian thing.

dbd33

Certainly not. The same diversity of racisms found in Canada also exist in other multicultures and in the countries from which they were originally imported. Even the open racism against the native population isn't unique to Canada but common in the Dominions. The advantage of being in Canada, at in least Toronto, compared to Eastbourne is that there are more racisms in Toronto than in Eastbourne and so one, regardless of one's origins, one has more opportunity to both persecute and be persecuted.

orly

Pretty sure I remember Marois and Salmond sharing a stage recently.

Oakvillian

They had a rather bizarre meeting in Edinburgh at the beginning of the last year, but by all reports Salmond was polite and lukewarm at best towards Marois. Salmond has been keen to distance himself from the PQ (as have Scot Nats since the 1970s, really.) He knows that considerable support for the Scottish independence cause comes from expat Scots, amongst whom many are in Anglophone Canada, and amongst whom support for the PQ would be seen as counterproductive for Salmond.

Is this the occasion you were thinking of? http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...-quebec-canada