The Meeting of the Twain

One morning in January of this year, when Ipicked up the Winnipeg Sun from my door-step to accompany my breakfast cup of coffee, the bold headline “47% Racist: Shocking number of Canadians admit feelings of intolerance, poll shows” caught my attention and cast a shadow over the day. In a series of articles under the title “Racism and Intolerance,” the newspaper published the results of a national opinion poll that asked some difficult questions of Canadians across the country, such as “Do you consider yourself as someone who is racist, slightly racist or not racist at all?,” “In your opinion, are some races more gifted than others?” and “Would you vote for a prime minister of another race?” According to the results, “almost half of Canadians polled admit to being at least slightly racist.” Canada is often celebrated as a multicultural nation, but this does not necessarily mean that people coming from different parts of the world can live in harmony in this...