I hope you enjoyed the summer hiatus as much as I did - except for the part where you were desperately flipping through the pages of the Richmond News, looking for my latest column. Well, gentle readers, the wait is over. There is really so much to write about that it's hard to know where to begin.
Whether it was Jason Kenney completely overhauling Canada's immigration system while we were distracted at the cottage or the spectre of people being killed in attacks on U.S. consulates and embassies all over the world because some moron, who happened to be American, made an embarrassingly amateur, childish video about the Prophet Muhammad. We live in interesting times.
But for this first column of the new season, I'd like to start with something much closer to home.
Those of you who get all the way to the bottom of the column before you wad up the paper and throw it against the wall, know that I'm a member of the Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee (RIAC). In fact, I'll have the pleasure of chairing the committee for the next six months.
RIAC's purpose is to support the city's intercultural vision of becoming the "most welcoming, inclusive and harmonious community in Canada" and in its pursuit of that vision, RIAC often organizes public events to try to get people from different cultural and religious backgrounds to engage in dialogue and to really get to know to each other.
But you know something? We're concerned that many, if not most, of the people who come to RIAC events are already committed to cross-cultural dialogue, so we end up preaching to the choir. We've been much less successful in reaching those who are genuinely uncomfortable, if not downright peeved, with Richmond's brave new multicultural world. So this year, we decided to make a special effort to reach out to those in the community who aren't in the choir.
Whether it's the language of signs, complaints about poor driving, concerns about monster (sorry, multi-generational) houses ruining the aesthetics of our neighbourhoods, or the new topic of the day, absentee landlords and neglected properties - it all adds up to unexpressed deeper unhappiness with the changing face of Richmond. And frank discussion of root causes of these discontents has been stifled by political correctness and our overriding Canadian politeness when it comes to sensitive topics.
I think the fear of being labelled insensitive, racist or worse keeps people from expressing what's really bothering them and dealing with it in a constructive way. So what we really need is a safe environment for people to talk openly and honestly about the Richmond we want to live in.
As a result, RIAC decided that this time we would try our best to directly address those unspoken sources of discontent with a series of events dedicated to frank and truthful, but respectful, discussion about what exactly is bubbling beneath the surface.
We started the process by creating a survey, with purposely provocative teaser lines like, "Do you think Richmond looks Canadian?" "Does Richmond welcome people of all cultures?" "What are your thoughts on Richmond's diversity?" in the hope that everyone in Richmond will feel compelled to fill it out. The purpose of the survey is to take the temperature of the community as we move first to some focus groups later in the fall and then on to a public forum next year.
The survey is available in English, Chinese, and Punjabi, at all the community centres in town, through various cultural partner organizations around town AND (this being the 21st century and all) online at www.richmond.ca/parksrec/about/access/ about.htm You can also fill it out online (English only).
That URL might come in handy because the survey does not exactly leap out at you from the City of Richmond homepage.
Whether you choose to respond on paper or online, don't dawdle; the deadline for completion is Sept. 30.
This kind of dialogue is important to all of us if Richmond is going to fulfill its potential as a miracle of multicultural harmony - a miracle that doesn't need to be sustained by disenfranchising or suppressing the concerns of any of our citizens.
Dr. Joe Greenholtz is a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) . He also sits on the Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee,. [email protected].
