City
DiverseCity Project Launched to Promote GTA Diversity
Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and the GTA is certainly the most diverse region in Canada. We gladly welcome immigrants from all over the globe every day, and yet the leaders around town do not reflect our multi-ethnic fabric. The DiverseCity project was launched to counter this nagging problem.
Countless immigrants cannot get a job in their field or their credentials recognized, much less achieve a leadership position. And as an immigrant myself - from the remarkably foreign U.S.A. - I felt the pain of unanswered resumes, left to wonder if my non-Canadian experience was working against me. Of course I don't have an accent (or much of one, anyway) and I do have white skin, so my problems pale in comparison to those faced by thousands of immigrants.
Nonetheless, I was very curious when I discovered DiverseCity and their mission: "Over three years, the project will expand our networks, strengthen our private and public institutions, advance our knowledge on the role of diversity in leadership and track our progress."
DiverseCity aims to achieve its goals through its 8 initiatives. There are two initiatives for each of the four main categories in the mission statement.
There will be speakers, fellows, placement, training and more. The project has established numerical targets to achieve in 2010, such as "300 senior level executives will have created new networks across ethnic and racial groups." An ongoing speaker series debuts January 26th with the Partner Launch at the Canadian Club.
So who is behind DiverseCity? It's a partnership between the Toronto City Summit Alliance and The Maytree Foundation, and they're recruiting additional partners. The 8 initiatives are a product of the steering committee.
But after all the rhetoric and good intention, will this project have an effect? Will we really see more ethnic and racial minorities in leadership positions around the GTA? I suppose only time will tell, but any effort to utilize the enormous talent and connections of our many residents seems like a darn good idea to me.


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I wonder though, how other cities with as much diversity tackles these dilemas.
Out of all the MPs of East Asian descent in Ottawa (ok, there aren't that many of them), MOST are not Canadian-born. In fact, most didn't even come as young children. People born in Canada and people who came to Canada at pre-school age have a very different perspective than those who came here at as tweens, teens or adults.
I think the comments above are correct. The leaders around town do not, according to the study, reflect our multi-<i>racial</i> fabric. We do not know much about our multi-ethnic fabric, as this report whitewashes it.
<i>But when non-visible minorities think of visible minorities and diversity, it always implies "minority/old country culture."</i>
How on Earth could you tell who is a non-visible minority? Isn't invisibility, you know, invisible?
Ontario also runs a Provincial Nominee Program for employers to attract skilled immigrants, including international students (i.e. close to graduating or are recent graduates from a publicly-funded Canadian college or university, and have a job offer in Ontario for a skilled position related to their field of study), to meet their labour needs by getting them on the fast-track to permanent residency.
No...not everyone has a computer but all public libraries have computers with internet access - free of charge!
I think part of the problem is the schools that some of the folks get their qualifications from aren't considered to have standards equivalent to those of our schools."
lol @ this comment.. you got that right... most elementary school graduates in Asia have better maths skills than our university graduates in Canada
Oh. My. God.
This is racist, it's just reality. Unfortunately, although it may seem unfair, the trend is demographical and based on the relatively slow replacement of older, non-minority leaders with the new fresh blood coming in to our country. Give it ten years.