This Canadian writer once bought a house in Hamilton, Ontario. The terms of his purchase included an agreement that three distinct and named nationalities could never own the home. Naming those undesirable nationalities was meant to ensure that, at the time of the house’s construction in the 1920s, inferior and undesirable cultures could never sully the City of Hamilton’s neighbourhood purity. Such hubris from a steel town!
Many years have passed since such blatant prejudice was part of a legal contract. And yet . . . however unwilling we may be to adopt and give weight to such odious practices, are we Canadians cruising towards a revival of similar community actions?
To our south, the United States has found supposedly valid reasons to identify undesirable cultural invaders and to export their supposed wickedness anywhere, surely including to Canada. Already, Canadian politicians are bleating ‘no room, no room’ without the slightest knowledge of who the ‘invaders’ might be, how they will get here, and what particular havoc they will wreak upon our country, if any.
Have we, over the years, inoculated ourselves against socially destructive behaviour? Should we be looking for our solace not southward but instead eastward towards the great multicultural social experiment that is the European Union?
Alas, like America, the European Union would also seem to have feet of clay when it comes to welcoming others. Here are two recent housing articles from EU countries that suggest the importance of receiving different cultures, but not to the point of actually welcoming them to move into the house next door. Read more at voxeurop: Discrimination in housing: the other face of Spain and Europe’s habitational crisis
and another at Mirage: Czechia’s Housing Protections Breach EU Social Charter
Canadian newcomer compassion? We may be stuck finding our own.
