This past weekend saw the annual Heritage Festival once again bring the world to St. Paul, with foods, dances and music from around the world entertaining people.
And while everyone can get behind an event that offers the chance to sample global cuisine, it’s important to note this event also gives people the chance to meet others who have come to Canada from other countries, but now call this small corner of northeast Alberta home. In this way, Heritage Festival celebrations showcase multiculturalism at its best.
It’s unfortunate, however, that multiculturalism faces constant attacks from people trying to turn differences into divisions, whether it’s Harper’s vague and somewhat unsettling comments about “old stock Canadians” in last Thursday’s leader’s debates or the continued jousting over allowing refugees into the country and which refugees or immigrants are acceptable. Similarly unfortunate was the Lakeland riding’s NDP campaign coordinator’s charge last week that what looked on the surface like a simple conflict in scheduling of election forums was in fact “pure discrimination against the indigenous communities of the St. Paul/Bonnyville areas.”
Talk is not cheap. Words have power. When we use them to communicate with one another - to bridge gaps, reconcile differences or to learn more about one another’s cultures, as with the Heritage Festival, they can have a tremendous positive impact. When they are used without careful consideration and with the aim to stoke fears or hatred or to pit groups of people against one another, they are better left unsaid.
