WHEN LIFE changes swiftly
and dramatically, it is usual-
ly for the worse.

The “Tor-the-better™ stuff is
something you've probably been
working toward fora long time.
The bad tends to come out of the
blue.

Of course, so does tove, espe-
cially when you're an adolescent,

My [53-year-old son Gvhose
name Im not going to use in this
piece, in cause a copy of this column
floats back into the war zone) has
been going to an out-of-distriet
school fora couple of years now
because my wife and [ were afraid
to enrol hint in one of the racially
ivided schoals in the suburb where
we have landed for the moment in
Teromo.

There was no racist motive here
on our pir, We were trying to
avoid racism that is already ram-
pant.

The school we sent him to
claims to be one of the most multi-
cultural. multiracial schools in the
country. It prides itself’ on the hur-
moniousness of the relations
between its students, Phere are over
60 language groups represented.

In our minds —- and our son's
— this should have been a great,
enriching. ultimately Canadian
experience for him,

It took him a while to get used
to being in a minority, white kids

being just one more ethnic group.

The result, as we were happy to
see, is that his closest circle of
friends includes kids from several
countries, with as many different-
colored skins as there are.

Isn't this the modern Canadian
political ideal? A nation of immi-
grants living in peace together? An
example of tolerance for the whole

~ world?

To tell the truth, good small-"L”
liberals that we are, we felt stightly
smug, and, of course, enormously
relieved because our son was devel-
oping into a worldly, unprejudiced.
racism-free young man,

When he fell madly i in love with
ayoung ranian girl. [theratism
notwithstanding, my wife and |
twitched. It.was because the girl

vas Mustim, and we feared that her
parents would not welcome our
son's devotion to their daughter,

Aim I putting this politely
enough? He stood to get hurt emo-
tionally. if they decided to forbid
her from seeing him. That was our
concer. But there was no way we
would oppose him ourselves.

One of the keystones of a post-
feudal society is the right to fallin
love with whomever you want.

Indeed. the girl’s parents were

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Ose

STRICTLY PERSONAL

less than thrilled. Aw conraire,

Hall-jokingly. U said to my son:
“Does the word “infidel” mean any-
thing to you?”

Ke stared at re blankly. So we
got out the encyclopedia and
looked up Muslimism.

Needless to say this wits all
ancient jabberwocky to him, He

yas in fove, What more was there
to say?

The relationship between my
son and his girlfriend went under-
ground, her parent's orders
notwithstanding. And my wife and
I. accomplices to what had all the
makings of an iff-starred first love,

. fretted privately. but made no effort

to dissuade him.

You stand behind your kid at
this stage. right?

Things went fine fora couple of
months. But when they went
wrong, they went wrong fist.

It seems the fact that my son
was going out with an Iranian girt
did not escape the attention of the
iranian boys in the school.

At fS. my son is almost as tall
as me. heavier. and unusually
strong, thanks to his mother's
Viking bloodline.

So he dismissed the dirty looks
and rude comments from tiie
Iranian boys on the grounds that he
could “handle” them,

Except that when they jumped
him in the hallway at school. there
were three of them. One of them
head-butted him twice, then stood
back. shocked, when my son mere-
ly blinked.

True to his peaceful nature, he
still didn’t Jash back. until one of
the attackers shoved his girlfriend.
And then he went at them.

It was all over ina minute. with
the attackers vanishing one way.
and several of the other kids who
had seen it happen warning my san
and his girlfricnd to get out of there

eight

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you.

because the franians were going lo
(heir dockers “for their knives.”

His giellriend fled for the princes
pal’s office with my son in tow, lo
report what wits happening.

The principal promptly called
the police.

There is anew policy in sami of
Toronto's schools. inchuding ny
son's, of zero tolerance For violence
among the students, The punish-
mencis expulsipn, so far is the
school is supposed to be concerned.

For the police. it was a different
nutter: a racially motivated attack,
They decided to fay two charges of
assault and one of uttering a death
threat. When they swooped on the
school to make the arrests the next
day, they caught two suspects but
missed the third.

The first thing my son and his
girlfriend knew of what happened
was when they emerged from class
at lunch hour to find an entire gang
of tranian boys hunting for them in
the halls, and blocking off the prin-
cipal’s office. They escaped with
the help of friends to a nearby
apiriment, at which point my son
called me and [called the police.

Great! Now the police are after
even more Tranian kids, there's 10
be at least one court case. and my
son and his girlfriend are the prey
of a gang of racist punks!

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