Canada has long been known for being one of the most diverse, polite, accepting and accommodating countries on the planet. Canadian citizens who are born and raised here are by-and-large taught to be tolerant and non-discriminatory of all races, cultures and people with various lifestyle preferences. The unfortunate part is that a growing portion of people who were not born and raised here seem to be taking this tolerance for granted or even abusing it. Take, for example, the recent case of a Chinese woman in Richmond who demanded a formal apology from a local McDonald’s restaurant after being refused service because the order-taker could not understand her due to her inability to speak proper English.
The woman, Hai Xia Sun – who allegedly immigrated to Canada roughly 10 years ago – ordered a hot chocolate from the fast-food chain but instead she received a mocha (cue the violin music). She then complained and tried to correct the order in broken English, but the manager who was serving her could not understand her and finally asked her to leave because there was a long lineup and it didn’t seem like they were getting anywhere. Sun then took her story to the media claiming racial discrimination and demanding a formal apology from the company.
Forgive me if somehow I’m wrong here, but the last time I checked this was Canada and our national languages were English and French. Doesn’t it make sense then that if you make the decision to move here, you should be responsible for learning at least one of these two languages? Apparently not to some people who think that rather than adapting to our culture and language, everybody else has to adapt to theirs, like Coco Lo, who is also a regular customer of the same McDonald’s restaurant, and who was quoted by CTV News saying that “I would say maybe they could speak some Chinese, Mandarin, because it’s Richmond.” Again, last time I checked, Richmond was in Canada, not China, although sometimes I truly do wonder.
It’s no secret that Vancouver (and Richmond in particular) is beginning to look a lot more like China than Canada in many areas. In central Richmond, Chinese-language signs dominate the skyline and Asian malls, shops and restaurants seem to far outnumber that of any other race. That’s all well and fine, except for the fact that if you are not of Asian descent, you are not always welcome in these establishments. I can’t even count the number of times I or others I know have been gawked at or refused service in English in places like Parker Place or Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. If you walk into these places and you are not of East-Asian descent, there is a large chance you will get stared at as if you were an unwelcome cockroach.
As far as the employment market is concerned in Canada, the national rules dictate that you should be able to speak English and/or French in order to be eligible for many jobs. But just take a look at the jobs listed on Vancouver Craigslist nowadays. Many positions require you to speak Chinese if you want to stand a chance. Is that not racial discrimination in a country where Chinese is not a national language?
And yet it seems that those who possess ESL language skills that are difficult to understand at best are welcome to apply for many English-speaking companies in Canada, like my local Starbucks where the manager communicates in broken English and clearly gets frustrated when English-speaking customers don’t understand her: yet another establishment where I no longer feel welcome, but am I going to file a formal complaint over it? No, because that would somehow make me intolerant and racist because I’m a white Canadian. After all, it’s rare that you hear Canadians who were born and raised here playing the racial discrimination card because somehow it has become engrained in us that it’s only racist if it offends the immigrant community.
Newsflash: Almost everybody who calls Canada home has ancestors who immigrated here at some point in time, and unless those ancestors were of strictly British descent, they probably had to assimilate and learn English to survive here. Personally, my family is Eastern European and when my great grandfather came here he had to learn English if he expected to be served at an establishment in Canada. His friend who had immigrated a few years before him taught him the phrase “apple pie coffee,” and so he was able to enter a diner and order an apple pie and coffee. When he got tired of that, his friend taught him the phrase “cheese sandwich.” When he asked for a cheese sandwich, the waitress asked him if he wanted it on white or brown bread. Not knowing how to respond, he ordered an apple pie and coffee because he understood that it was not up to the server to learn his language, it was up to him to learn English in an English-speaking country.
I know we’ve come a long way since the time when my ancestors moved here, but the message is still the same: if you choose to come here of your own free will because clearly you would rather live in Canada than your own home country, then the responsibility is on you to adapt to Canada, not on Canada to adapt to you.
Maybe it’s high time we take a cue from countries like Australia where immigrants are more than welcome and their cultures are embraced on the one condition that they agree to adapt to Australian customs, like speaking English. After all, I think Australian former-Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it best when she said that “Immigrants, not Australians, must adapt. Take it or leave it …
“I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture … We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language …
“We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us. This is our country, our land and our lifestyle, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our Christian beliefs, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom: the right to leave. If you aren’t happy here then leave. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.”
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