- MEWS photo Paul McGratt:

"ABOUT 100 new immigrants recently received diplomas in Engiish language
training and employment skills at a formal graduation ceremony held at the
Robson Square Media Centre by the Immigrant Services Society.

‘Pair document struggle for acceptance

MOBINA JAFFER has
already been thrown out of one
‘country; Salim Kaderali was
‘made to feel like a foreigner i in
his home town.

By Kate Zimmerman
News Reporier ;

Neither. North’ Vancouver tesi-;
dent wants to repeat the experience.

-Jaffer’s family, Ugandans of
‘East Indian.descent, were ousted

‘when Idi Amin decided to do a lit- ,

tle ethnic cleansing in the 1970s;
“*. “The Canadian ‘government sent
planes to rescue us and brought ‘us.
“to Vancouver,” she recalled..
' Kaderali is a Muslim who grew
up in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, but
‘-was educated in England. When he
“returned he found himself “a brown
working among blacks.” “I was-no,

longer accepted, even though it was

my own country,” he said.
“s "4 Jaffer, a lawyer, who ran unsuc-
‘cessfully for the Liberal party in the
1993 federal election, moved in
1975 to the North Shore.
Since that time, she has tried to
‘integrate into the community at

large, volunteering with various

‘groups in addition to re- qualifying
as a lawyer. ',

; Kaderali and his wife Jenny also

arrived on the North Shore in the:

1970s. Since moving here they

' have been so heavily involved in

the community that they were both
awarded Canada 125 medals for
community service.

North Vancouver has been good
to both families. “I have found the

North Shore very welcoming, very .

open to new ideas,” said Jaffer.
But, she said, the region delivers
immigrants a mixed message: Be a

part of us, but also keep separate’

because you’re of a different race.
“Where I am at the moment, I’m
sayirig: ‘Make up your minds.’ If I

try to integrate, you want to -

hyphenate me (as: Ugandan-
Canadian) and keep me separate. If
I don’t try to integrate they say,
‘See, she’s keeping separate’,” she
said. “It is our job to integrate. 1
want to integrate, but I can’t do rT
alone.”

Kaderali, a teacher at Kwantlen
College, now considers himself a
native of the North Shore. But he
admits he has experienced overt
racism, including hate-filled phone

‘calls and slurs during his campaign

for school trustee.
“Racism is negative for both the

victim and the perpetrator,” he’ said,

pointing out the horrifying situa-
tions in Bosnia and Rwanda. “The
price is paid by both parties ... for

generations to come.”

He prefers not to focus on such
incidents. “You have to be compar-
ative,” Kaderali said. “And com-

pared with what is happening !

around the world, it’s mild.”

“In this country, Jaffer believes |

immigrants must accept 60% of the
responsibility for their happiness
and success, but the government
needs to help them feel at home.

“With the current Multicultural-
ism Act, our differences are empha-
sized, while our similarities are
downplayed,” she said. “The
Multiculturalism Act has divided us
and fragmented us. What happens
is that people from English and
French origin do not see themselves
teflected in the Act.”

Jaffer maintains that the country
needs a wide-ranging, healthy dis-
cussion on the subject of immigra-
tion. She believes quotas should be
reduced during recessionary peri-
ods and increased during boom-
times, when more manpower is
required.

Jaffer. was recently in the
Netherlands and was “absolutely
flabbergasted” to see how multicui-
tural it is.

“We keep thinking we're so
multicultural,” she said. “North
Vancouver is not an island. It’s part
of the whole global! picture.”

‘

.

(This is the fifth and final instal-
ment of the North Shore News’ in-
depth look at multiculturalism on
the North Shore. In today’s story,
reporter Kate Zimmerman looks at
the reaction the series has prompt-
ed, lists the services available to
newcomers and interviews two
immigrants from Africa.)

IS THE North Shore a racist
backwater, as an April Globe
& Mail article suggested?

By Kate Zimmerman
News Reporter

Based:on the fact that North
Vancouver District Council turned
down most of tue recommenda-
tions of its own Multicultural Task
Force, the Toronto paper conclud-
ed. that the district had,.as a com-

munity, rejected the ‘concept of

multiculturalism.

' To support this contention, the ,

Globe's B.C, bureau dredged up a

. three-year-old cross-burning which
‘ Iranian newspaper publisher

Kaywan Dashti has since. publicly
stated was perpetrated by one
Iranian family upon another.

Recently, three out of five local
respondents said “yes” to the
News Inquiring Reporter’s query:
“Do you think racial discrimina-
tion is.a problem on the North
Shore?”

At the same time, a News tele-
phone survey asking that ‘question

revealed that! an average of 34.6%,"

of Nerth ‘Shore residents felt racial

discrimination was a problem here, .
_ while 47.4% felt it wasn’t. The rest. -
of those surveyed had no opinion

or didn't know.

Certainly the heated response to
the News’ series on North Shore
multiculturalism indicates that
feelings on the issue are strong. °

The overwhelming majority of
letters to the News editor about the
series (some of which were pub-
lished and some of which were not
due, to space limitations) railed
against multiculturalism.

Though most writers claimed
they were. neither racists nor big-
ots, they went on to say that multi-
culturalism is a “big expensive
failure”; that'newcomers should
not be afforded special privileges;

Local services available for immigrants

“IMMIGRANTS CONTEND-
ING with-an unfamiliar lan-
guage, a new city and unusual

customs:can take heart that

there are guides and services
available to life in B.C.

By Kate Zimmerman
- News reporter .

~ A book called the Newcomers’:
Guide to Resources and Services in
British Columbia offers basic infor-
*- mation for immigrants. It’s avail-
‘able from Multiculturalism B.C. at
950-1185. West Georgia. St,

“CALL US:

Vancouver V6E 4E6, Tel.: 660-
2395.

All the addresses below are in
Nerth Vancouver.

For help finding a job on the

North Shore, check out:
North

Shore Continuing
Education ~~
(Lucas Centre)

Employment Services : :

2131 Hamilton Ave.

Tel.: 985-3695

Employment and immigration
Canada

Canada Employment Centre

124 East 15th St.

Tel.: 988-1151

North Shore Job Action Ciub
403-112 Lonsdale Ave.

Tel,: 984-4224

YWCA Career Services — North
Shore

214-255 West Ist St.

Tel.: 984-7630

YWCA North Shore Employment
Centre '

972 Marine Dr.

Tel.: 985-2214

To deal with family problems, try:
North Shore Community
Services: 985-7138.

For childcare information, call:
Childcare Resources Society
1-3046 Edgemont Blvd.

Tel.: 985-2988:

To meet other newcomers:

New Comers Club

North Vancouver

Tel.: 929-7730

New Comers Club |

West Vancouver:

Tel.: 921-6370

To get in touch with a group whose
goal is furthering multiculturalism,
call:

North Shore Multicultural
Society

Delbrook Rec Centre — North build-
ing :

600 West Queens Rd.

Tel.: 988-7115, ext. 75.

oe THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: | |
983-2208 Do you favor a user- pay system for water consumption? |

ef .@

ee

Sunday, May 2 29, 1994 - North Shore News - 3

“that immigrants should not try to

shove their cultures down

Canadians’ throats; and that they. _
should integrate, pronto. .
Many of the letter-writers '

sprang to the defence of News
columnists Doug Collins and Noel
Wright, whose condemnations of
current multicultural policy were
criticized by various groups quoted
in the News’ stories. ‘

These readers said that’ in
Canada we prize freedom of
speech.

Meanwhile, immigrants’ with
criticisms about attitudes on the
North Shore, ‘like Iranian
Community Association spokes-
man Bahman Shirazi, were dis-

missed as “belly-achers” who’

should either put up or shut up.

“It appears to be quite clear that
the professional multiculturalists
are doing more to stir racial intol-
erance than anything ever written
by Collins or Wright,” wrote North
Vancouver’s Norman Leeming. |

“We are tired of hearing ‘We
were all immigrants.once’,” said
Sue Cook, who ran for school
trustee in the last municipal elec-

tion, Cook hearkened back to the -

days when her forefathers cmigrat-
ed without ESL, health’ care, lege!
aid, unemployment assistance. or
welfare.

“Maybe they had guts!” che

continued, }

“(Canadians) are increasingly

becoming less tolerant...” wrote

Ray Sutton of North Vancouver... -

Sutton enclosed a. Province ®

Smile of the Day in which a man ,
from Kurdistan called Shirzan was "4.
‘depicted and listed as liking * ‘revae 0"

lution” and disliking “capitalism.”

"(His favorite food was. lobster.)

“My question is: What's that son-’,

of-a-bitch doing in my country?” :

Sutton wrote...

If you don’t like it here, go
home, was the sentiment expressed
in many of the letters. “In’ plain
English (Canadian) we don’t need
the hassles,” wrote Y.M. Gourlay

of North Vancouver...” i

Even.as they made’ such: ‘com-
ments, many letter writers echoed

. the claim of North Vancouver resi-

dent Brian Platt:: = 7.
“There isn’t a more tolerant

society in ‘the’ world;towards

minority groups than this'one.”

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