Dateline Thornhill: Diversity works in the GTA -- most of the time

January 10, 2010

The Toronto Sun

All over the world, people like to kill each other.

They knock off each other's families and friends, innocent passersby, soldiers, police officers and children alike.

And they'll set off their bombs or pull their triggers just because those people in their sights are different -- a different religion, ethnicity, language, origin, you name it.

We don't always stop to think about it, but Canada is the exception, not the rule.

This is one of the few places in the world where a variety of people, beliefs and ways of living are not only tolerated but protected.

As a result, Toronto has become the most diverse city on Earth. More different ethnicities, languages, origins and religions are represented here than any other spot on the planet, according to the United Nations.

That diversity has been one of the strengths that has made Toronto an economic success and a great place to live or visit (despite the frequent incompetence of our political leaders).

And, if you step over the line at Steeles Avenue, you will find yourself in one of the best representations of that diversity, Thornhill.

This is where Canada's largest Jewish community lives and works side-by-side with one of our largest Asian communities (11% of Thornhill residents are Chinese, another 8% South Asian or Korean).


MOSQUE AND SYNAGOGUE

This is where you will find the largest mosque in Canada, the recently-opened Jaffari Islamic Centre, and the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, one of our largest synagogues.

Heck, you can drive up Bayview Avenue, just north of Steeles, and see a synagogue, a mosque and a church all side by side. Two of them even share the same entrance drive and park right next to each other.

So, when Thornhill MP Peter Kent sits down with some of the more radical political or religious leaders around the world, he likes to point to his riding as an model of how the world could be. And how it should be.

We can be proud that places like Thornhill exist in our country and live up to their billing as havens of tolerance and examples to the rest of the world. Most of the time.

A Thornhill man was sentenced last month for an unprovoked, violent anti-Semitic attack in which he threatened a Jewish man and his son at knifepoint. The same week, just up the road in Newmarket, a jury found another man guilty on six charges stemming from an unprovoked attack on Asians.


ETERNAL TOLERANCE

They say the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The same can be said of tolerance.
Coming out of the holiday season and into a new year, we've been hearing a lot of nice songs and speeches about peace and love, brotherhood and reaching out to our neighbours.

But brotherhood is not free, equality is not automatic, and diversity is not always easy.

If we want to maintain these fundamental Canadian values, we have to work on them and defend them at every turn.

We'll never be perfect (no place is), but Canada is a beacon to the world. And beacons need constant care.

-- Glenn Stone lives in Thornhill and at: GhostWriterInTheSky.ca