The impact of immigration and racial diversity on Canada and Canadians
Edmonton’s Sikh community gathered for their annual Nagar Kirtan celebration this weekend, with thousands joining the festivities on the southside. (CBC)
Over 20,000 people packed the streets of south Edmonton Sunday afternoon for the Nagar Kirtan, an annual precession to celebrate the founding of Sikhism 313 years ago.
On May 4, Ottawa police announced that they have agreed to collect race-based data. This, they revealed, has been agreed to as part of a settlement of a human-rights complaint that was initiated after a seemingly textbook case of racial profiling.
The complaint came from a then-18-year-old black youth, Chad Aiken, who was stopped by police while driving his mom’s Mercedes. Aiken alleged that he was stopped because he is black, and also claimed that the police assaulted him after he asked for their badge numbers. While few other details have been made public, what seems to have been central to vindicating Aiken’s claims is an audio recording that his fast-thinking girlfriend captured of the incident.
Aneel Samra has been told he can no longer play on his Lasalle Soccer Association U-18 team without complying with the league's rules regarding headwear. He is Sikh and wears a turban as part of his faith. Photograph by: Tim Snow , THE GAZETTE
Turbans aren’t in game plan for LaSalle soccer
Association enforces ban on head covering
By JASON MAGDER, The Gazette May 21, 2012 7:26 AM
Aneel Samra has been told he can no longer play on his Lasalle Soccer Association U-18 team without complying with the league’s rules regarding headwear. He is Sikh and wears a turban as part of his faith.
Photograph by: Tim Snow , THE GAZETTE
MONTREAL – Some boys in LaSalle have been told that they can no longer play soccer because they wear religious head coverings.
Aneel Samra, 17, registered for men’s under-17/18 house league soccer in LaSalle this year, but on Wednesday, when he went to sign a letter accepting to play by the rules, he was told that he wouldn’t be permitted to play if he wore his turban. When he refused to agree, his registration fee was refunded and his season cancelled. Samra said he has been playing soccer for about 10 years in LaSalle and has always worn his turban. He never had a problem prior to this year.
Samra, who is a Sikh, wears a turban made of thin material that keeps his long hair in a bun. He was told that if he wanted to play this year, he would have to forgo the turban, or to wrap his hair in a hairnet approved by FIFA, the international soccer federation.
“It’s pretty degrading to do that,” he said, “because the whole point of a turban is to cover your head.”
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Jan Wong: Why I was hated in Quebec and abandoned in Toronto
Jan Wong, Special to National Post May 20, 2012 – 8:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 18, 2012 3:50 PM ET
In the following book excerpt, Jan Wong describes the spiral of depression she entered in 2006, after publishing an article linking the Dawson College shooting to Québécois racism:
My article had appeared on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006. By Monday, I’d received hundreds of hate emails. “Piece of sh-t,” “bitch,” “stupid c–t,” “retarded,” “pathetic,” “perverted,” “bigoted,” and so on. One called my children “half-breeds.” Several wrote: “Go back to China.” Another lobbed this: “Your parents were immigrants.”
A few were unwittingly prescient. “Consult a psychiatrist,” one advised.
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