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UK versus Canada

Unrelated, but they the Canadian government should ban Punjabi Sikhs from driving Dodge Chargers, Challenegers and Benz. Also should ban them from playing loud music in their vehicle. Don't care loud or not loud.
 
Canada has very different type of multiculturalism.

Canadians disapprove of the American or British melting-pot concept. Canadians see the melting pot as a process by which immigrants and their descendants are encouraged to cut off ties with their countries and cultures of origin so as to assimilate into the American or British way of life.
 
Unrelated, but they the Canadian government should ban Punjabi Sikhs from driving Dodge Chargers, Challenegers and Benz. Also should ban them from playing loud music in their vehicle. Don't care loud or not loud.

New students, who got inspired from Hollywood and Punjabi music.

Indian Canadians in general stay away from Dodge and other American Cars. They see them as depreciating assets. They favor Japanese and German cars depending on wealth.
 
My brother-in-law has lived and worked in both USA and Canada. Strangely the only place where he faced racism was in Canada.
 
Kitchner, Ontario

I see.

Kitchener is not that multicultural. It is a pretty white city (relatively speaking).

Racism in Canada is of course there but I think it is lesser here than in USA.
 
You will see good amount of multiculturalism only in two or three regions (GTA, Vancouver, Montreal and maybe Calgary) the rest of Canada is white.
 
You will see good amount of multiculturalism only in two or three regions (GTA, Vancouver, Montreal and maybe Calgary) the rest of Canada is white.

You are correct. Rest of Canada seems very white.

It is because minorities normally don't live in those rural places. There are not many job opportunities there and living conditions aren't that great.
 
Canada has very different type of multiculturalism.

Canadians disapprove of the American or British melting-pot concept. Canadians see the melting pot as a process by which immigrants and their descendants are encouraged to cut off ties with their countries and cultures of origin so as to assimilate into the American or British way of life.

This is purely on paper. In practice, immigrants in Canada and USA don't seem to develop that differently. You will find a ton of immigrants in either country that entirely take on the host country's way of life, and a ton that still retain large parts of their culture.

That's strange. Which part of Canada?

Kitchner, Ontario

I see.

Kitchener is not that multicultural. It is a pretty white city (relatively speaking).

Racism in Canada is of course there but I think it is lesser here than in USA.

I've lived in KW for 7+ years. I wouldn't call it racist or "pretty white". I never experienced racism there nor did I find it that white. Vast majority of my time in Canada has been spent living in medium sized cities of Southern Ontario. There are still a ton of south Asians, east Asians, Arabs in these cities. Canadian cities are not a binary "multicultural" vs "not that multicultural/pretty white" situation where either they are very multicultural or not multicultural at all. All medium sized cities in Southern Ontario like Guelph, KW (and Cambridge), London, Windsor, have a ton of immigrants. If one were to say that Toronto is 80% multicultural then these cities would still rate 40-60% on multicultural scale. Windsor, btw, has a huge arab population due to proximity to Dearborn.

You will see good amount of multiculturalism only in two or three regions (GTA, Vancouver, Montreal and maybe Calgary) the rest of Canada is white.

Read above. It's not binary "white" vs "multicultura"l situation. Each city is different. The medium cities in Southern Ontario are very multicultural. There is a sliding scale where metros like GTA, Vancouver are at the top. Kitchener/Waterloo, Windsor, London are not far behind. Then there are small towns like Tilbury, Woodstock, etc. Those might be the towns you are talking about that are much less multicultural.
 
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I've lived in KW for 7+ years. I wouldn't call it racist or "pretty white". I never experienced racism there nor did I find it that white. Vast majority of my time in Canada has been spent living in medium sized cities of Southern Ontario. There are still a ton of south Asians, east Asians, Arabs in these cities. Canadian cities are not a binary "multicultural" vs "not that multicultural/pretty white" situation where either they are very multicultural or not multicultural at all. All medium sized cities in Southern Ontario like Guelph, KW (and Cambridge), London, Windsor, have a ton of immigrants. If one were to say that Toronto is 80% multicultural then these cities would still rate 40-60% on multicultural scale. Windsor, btw, has a huge arab population due to proximity to Dearborn.

The thing is, I am based in Toronto and white is less than 50% in my city. For someone like me, cities like Kitchener, London, Windsor etc. are quite white regions. I checked Kitchener's demographics and apparently 75% is white there.

Of course, Asians are everywhere. They are in Kitchener and you can probably find them in Nunavut too. Chinese and brown people are everywhere.
 
When I first went to live and work in Calgary, for the first few weeks I felt the locals were giving me red neck looks but then I got used to it.

Apparently Calgary 20 years ago was a pure redneck city and the influx of desis in the last 10-15 years has helped to make the city somewhat multicultural. But still nothing compared to Toronto, Mississauga etc
 
Canada is much larger than Australia. You can visit more places.

Larger country to me sounds like more travel and I'm not a fan of that. So that's not really an attraction for me.

Australia is like a White Dubai, doesn't appeal to me.

How is it white Dubai? That's a load of nonsense. When I went to Dubai, as nice as it was to go, it felt soulless and there's nothing culturally interesting about it. Just looks like corporate company's idea of paradise. Australia has a lot more to it than big buildings and beaches.
 
I see.

Kitchener is not that multicultural. It is a pretty white city (relatively speaking).

Racism in Canada is of course there but I think it is lesser here than in USA.

Long time ago before 9-11 I went to Newmarket, Ontario to a community centre there with my white friend and some people really give those weird racist looks.
 
The thing is, I am based in Toronto and white is less than 50% in my city. For someone like me, cities like Kitchener, London, Windsor etc. are quite white regions. I checked Kitchener's demographics and apparently 75% is white there.

Of course, Asians are everywhere. They are in Kitchener and you can probably find them in Nunavut too. Chinese and brown people are everywhere.

My point is that there are multiple levels to it, not just two levels where one level is GTA/Vancouver and the other level is the rest of Canada. Immigrants living in GTA seem to have a lot of misconception about the rest of Canada, this being one of those. Getting a chance to live in other medium sized cities, even for a few months, would give a good perspective on the rest of Canada.

Kitchener and Nunavut are not on the same level. With respect to Kitchener specifically, you have to look at the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge region as a whole, since that forms a metro area of sorts. Kitchener probably is the least diverse of all, but Waterloo and Cambridge are significantly most diverse.

Places like Windsor and London are also very diverse. I haven't been to Calgary but I hear its very diverse. Medium sized cities of Southern Ontario probably come after Calgary (which comes after GTA and Vancouver).
 
New students, who got inspired from Hollywood and Punjabi music.

Indian Canadians in general stay away from Dodge and other American Cars. They see them as depreciating assets. They favor Japanese and German cars depending on wealth.

LOL nah, even the guys who were born here do that lol.
 
New students, who got inspired from Hollywood and Punjabi music.

Indian Canadians in general stay away from Dodge and other American Cars. They see them as depreciating assets. They favor Japanese and German cars depending on wealth.

No these are different kind, you feel you know them but you don’t, its a different lifestyle I felt similar with Tamizhans in Scarborough and they were from Lanka also don’t think students can buy hummer.
 

Food bank use in Toronto breaks records — again​


The number of visits to food banks in Toronto hit a new record once again, marking a continuation of a drastic rise in food bank use since the pandemic as Torontonians struggle keeping up with the rising cost of living.

Food banks are seeing a million more visits this year than the last, bringing the total number to 3.49 million from April 2023 to April 2024, according to the annual Who's Hungry report from Daily Bread and North York Harvest food banks.

That's a 38 per cent increase from last year and nearly four times the number of visits than before the pandemic, the report says as it outlines a sobering surge.

While it took 38 years for food banks to reach one million visits, the report notes, it only took two years to surpass two million visits last year, and only one year to reach three million.

Food bank use started regularly breaking records in 2021, when food banks saw 1.45 million client visits — the highest number since 2010 when the city was reeling from the 2008 financial crisis. That record was broken again in 2022 (1.68 million visits) and yet again in 2023, when there were more than 2.5 million visits.

The rise is so staggering that the head of Toronto's largest food bank projects their reserves will be so depleted in the next 18 months, they will have to reduce the amount of food they give out.

"You gotta ask the questions around, you know, is this sustainable? Can we continue to do this?" said Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank.

Cost of living, unemployment main reasons for client use​

More than 154,700 new people used food banks in Toronto this year. Among users, the cost of living was the main reason for using a food bank, with recent job loss or unemployment being the second most common reason among new clients.

That includes Safiya Airall, who started using a food bank after losing her job during the layoffs at Corus Entertainment this year.

"I've never found myself in a position where I would be in need of something like that," she told CBC News.

The number of new food bank clients this year is a 222 per cent rise from two years ago. Airall said it's "wild" knowing just how many people beside her found themselves needing to step into a food bank.

"Sometimes it's like you feel like you're suffering in silence and you're the only one," she said.

The money she spent paying her mortgage and other bills in the past year doesn't leave much for food, she says.

According to the report, 73 per cent of food bank clients spend more than half of their income on housing, with 20 per cent spending all of their income to have a roof over their head.

Safiya says that given rising costs, she probably wouldn't have needed a food bank if she was in her current situation just a few years ago.

"When I was growing up, we would go to the grocery store and for $200 you're getting your trunk full of groceries. Now I can throw those things in the back seat," she said.

The report said the amount an average person should be spending on healthy food sat at $253 per month in 2019, but now rose to $339. That's while rent across Ontario rose by 54.5 per cent in the past decade, according to the report.

Even though employment rates and wages rose among food bank clients, it says the rising cost of living is "making it impossible to keep up." The report notes that more than half of new clients (51 per cent) have at least one household member who is employed.

"They've done everything right," said Hetherington. "They got an education, they got a job, they're working hard and they still have to rely on food charity. And that, to me, is infuriating."

Alarming' rise of unhoused food bank clients​

While the majority of food bank clients (80 per cent) are renters, the report notes an "alarming" 420 per cent rise in the number of unhoused clients.

There was also a 90 per cent increase in clients from emergency shelters and 89 per cent increase in "other" types of housing, which could include those living in their cars, couch surfing, or experiencing other forms of hidden homelessness.

That doesn't come as a surprise for Jacklin Brazzo, who currently lives in a motel with her husband and 22-month old baby.

She said an immigration lawyer defrauded her family of their savings when they immigrated to Canada from Italy in 2021, followed by her losing her job once her employer found out she was pregnant.

"We had all the hope possible in this world for having a better life," she said.

 
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Never visited UK but I have some friends there.

Been in Canada for most of my life (19 years).

Canada used to be golden but things have gone downhill last 5-6 years. Crimes have increased, economy became bad, job crisis, housing crisis, worsening healthcare etc. Hopefully Canada will bounce back but things are shaky currently.
 
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