As we celebrate this landmark anniversary of Canada 150, there are many things one could reflect on.  But I would like to defend the above title.

Canada’s diversity has often been cited as one of our greatest strengths and I love the diversity of people and cultures found particularly in our large urban centres.  I have lived in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary.  When my husband and I were dating in Toronto, we had a rule that we could not repeat the same kind of cuisine twice.  This was not hard to do.  Hence, our love of Ethiopian cuisine, Korean food, Chinese dim sum and Indian vegetarian dishes! 

This diversity is reflected to some extent in my own family.  My father was a French national born and raised in Morocco.  My mother was third or fourth generation Canadian of Scottish-Irish descent – farmers from rural southern Saskatchewan.

However, while as Canadians we pride ourselves on our diversity, I believe that we interact much less frequently with those who are “different” from ourselves than we like to think. I offer a few personal examples.

I recently attended my eight year-old son’s soccer game.   One of the boys on my son’s team is Sikh and his father attends all the games.  But while I had chatted briefly with some of the other parents, I became aware of the fact that I had not yet spoken with him. Why?  I somehow felt that I lacked the same points of reference or commonalities.  I made a mental note to make an effort to say hello at the next game, to ever so slightly push myself out of my comfort zone.

Almost a year ago, my family and I attended a rally in downtown Calgary for those who wanted to take action on the Syrian refugee crisis.   This was shortly after the image of three year old Alain Kurdi’s lifeless body on the beach had made international headlines, thrusting the Syrian crisis into the forefront of Canada’s federal election campaign.  

At one point during the rally, an imam stood up and invited everyone present to his mosque for a potluck dinner the following week.  We had never attended a mosque before and we did not have any close friends who were Muslim.  We were moved by the invitation and decided to seize the opportunity. 

I remember feeling some trepidation walking into a strange environment with little knowledge of  Muslim culture and traditions.  And yes, some missteps were made – I tried to shake the Imam’s hand, who smiled kindly at me while explaining that he was not able to do so.  But our children started to play with the other children there and we became speaking with other members of the Muslim community, an opportunity we do not often have.  

The community held a very successful fundraiser that evening, even with less than 100 of us in attendance.  But it was the connections we made that evening that stood out the most for me. I am convinced that Canada needs more potluck dinners!  

I remember a similar “bridging” experience as a parishioner at the Newman Centre, the Catholic Chaplaincy Centre near the University of Toronto.   Every year, a community of Turkish Muslims would attend one of our Sunday masses and prepare and share with our entire congregation one of their traditional dishes known as Noah’s pudding. I learned that Noah’s pudding is prepared every year on the month of Muharram, in remembrance of what Noah and his people went through, and is shared with neighbours as an offering of peace and love.  It is unlikely that I would have come into contact with this lovely community of people in my day to day work and life but for this beautiful tradition.

A final memory to share.  When we lived in Toronto, we had several friends who were part of a group called the Romero House community.  This is a community that welcomes refugees in four homes in a Toronto neighbourhood.

One of their annual rituals is to host a street party.  While the establishment of refugee houses in that area had initially met with some resistance, these events and others have served to bring the neighbourhood together and many have become deeply involved with the Romero community.  The street party has now become a defining annual event for that neighbourhood. 

At a time when many countries around the world are adopting a stance of right-wing nationalism and isolationism, and politicians try to gain votes by leveraging people’s fears of the “other”, Canada has a unique opportunity to offer “another way”.    I am so grateful for Canada’s legacy of refuge and openness (which is not to overly romanticize or gloss over the shadow sides of our history).   

But I am fundamentally convinced that the more we interact with the wide diversity of people living within our borders, the more we become aware of their inherent dignity and our common identity as members of the human family.   We begin to recognize ourselves in one another.  This experience of diversity in our daily lives also will enhance our understanding of the world and make us better actors on the world stage.

I would like to gently challenge Canadians, myself included, to push ourselves outside of our comfort zones just a little bit more, to look for opportunities to interact with different sectors of people around us. So go on and throw a potluck dinner, or a street party – or simply engage in small acts which  foster greater unity/community amongst us.