'We carry the burden of our skin colour everywhere we go,' says writer Kamal al-Solaylee during 'Onstage conversations 2022' series.
Obstacles to immigrants like ethnic and religious stereotyping continue to thrive in Canada, says a prominent Canadian journalist.
“Those of us who are Muslim, live under constant suspicion for the religion we follow,” he said. Although there are Muslims from different parts of the world, including Europe and Yugoslavia, mainstream media has been complicit in painting a picture of terrorists as brown-skinned Muslims, he said. “It is in Dubai too, that middle-class immigrants from the Middle East and the South Asian subcontinent have for decades kept the schools banks, hospitals, hotels, food courts and malls running without ever being afforded the benefits of citizenship.”
“If you believe it will not be the same good quality education, then create some kind of fast-track program where you could retrain people to Canadian standards.” “If you're a Black Canadian, and you say, I'm a proud Black Canadian, does that marginalize Black communities? I don't think it does,” he said.
The hyphen will likely stay, he said, mainly because of the skin colour. “We are always going to be Muslim-Canadian, brown-Canadian, Indian-Canadian, Ismaili-Canadians."