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The issue of diversity—more like the lack of it—is a discussion that’s been going on for many years in Nova Scotia, and it keeps prompting the same questions.
How do we repair race relations in this province, when they break down? How do we attract more immigrants and help them feel truly welcome here? How do we make our regions more accepting of minorities?
Representatives from Nova Scotia’s 51 municipalities discussed the social-inclusion challenge at a recent convention in Halifax. Improvements in diversity have been made, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities’ delegates heard, but progress has been slow.
“We are still not very diverse,” Nabiha Atallah, of the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia, told the conference. “We see a lot of diversity in our [international] students and temporary workers, but we have not made a significant change in the [permanent resident] balance in Nova Scotia.”
Professor Wanda Thomas Bernard, chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, urged municipal government officials to accelerate change. Diverse communities can’t be formed without action from local leaders, said Bernard, a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers.
“If you don’t know what the barriers are [to inclusion], then find out. And who do you need to talk to? Go to the community—they know. Believe me, those of us who are on the outside looking in, we know why we can’t get through that door.”
According to 2011 census information from Statistics Canada, 47,270 Nova Scotians identified as a visible minority, or 5.2 percent of the population. The largest minority group here is the black community, census data showed.
Regarding immigrant populations in Canadian cities, the Halifax region had the 12th-highest share, at 1.2 percent. Municipal and provincial officials have tried to increase that percentage for years. Statistics Canada’s census data from 2011 showed the percentage of visible minorities in the country was 19.1 percent. This was projected to jump to 30.6 percent by 2031.
As Atallah noted, one segment of the newcomers’ population is foreign students. For those working on counteracting Nova Scotia’s declining citizenry through immigration, encouraging international students to settle here can be tough. It’s even more difficult if those young people feel unwelcome in the community in which they’re studying. CBC News in October reported accounts of alleged racism foreign students at Dalhousie University said they’ve experienced or overheard in Halifax.
In the meantime, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities and other organizations keep plugging away at making New Scotland more welcoming and multicultural. Though sincere efforts are being made, diversity and immigration improvements haven’t exactly happened with haste. Even the formation of a diversity panel at the union’s convention was publicly spanked, by an elected official from the province’s Mi’kmaq community, for not including an aboriginal panelist.
“I don’t think Nova Scotia is in 2015 yet,” Truro councillor Cheryl Ann Fritz told dozens of delegates, most of whom were older white men.
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This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2015.
I think that headline is rather racist. There is nothing wrong with being white nor living in areas of predominant races, creeds or colours.
Using this logic, a reserve is far too aboriginal; Africa is far too black; China is far too Asian. Such nonsense! Nova Scotia is not far to white nor is it far too Scottish.
If diversity is good why is it good to have nothing but Liberal MPs ?
Why is diversity viewed through coloured lenses ?
Nova Scotia is very diverse in many ways, except at universities where group think is required.
why does it matter what races or genders live here. I just want damn people to help our population
It’s a bit odd to say NS is “too white” (indeed, is Japan “too Japanese” or Mexico “too Mexican?”)
BUT, I agree overall. We can definitely stand to embrace other cultures and newcomers to a greater degree, and welcoming more people from around the world will enrich our own culture.
We’re getting there, too: Last year Nova Scotia had its highest immigrant intake in more than a decade. And in the census period between 2006 and 2011, the proportion of visible minorities increased at a faster rate than ever before in the province’s history. And we’re seeing huge support, even in rural parts of the province, for taking in Syrian refugees right now.
We’re behind the curve, but change is happening, and I think most Nova Scotians are pleased to see it.
See, your problem is in assuming that the majority of Nova Scotians have any interest or concern about this or that they believe it is wrong that immigrants, foreign students, and people of colour all move away.
@ M2A:
Immigrants who come to Nova Scotia mostly stay in Nova Scotia. I don’t know where this myth comes from that everyone moves away, but in fact the large majority of immigrants who come to Nova Scotia stay here. All of these people who say “Why bother bringing more immigrants here if they just leave?” don’t seem to realize that for the most part, they DON’T leave.
I can direct you to the relevant statistics, if you’d like.
Anyway, I think most Nova Scotians DO care about this. We’re seeing citizens’ groups in Cape Breton forming to try and welcome refugees, we’ve got politicians in Halifax talking about extending voting rights to permanent residents, we’ve got constant discussion of the need for more immigration.
I think the idea that Nova Scotia is some xenophobic backwater that resists newcomers is a totally out-of-date stereotype. Virtually all of the public discussion about this is about the need for more newcomers. (And the proof is in the details: New immigrants in Nova Scotia have higher employment rates and earn more money than new immigrants to almost any other province. Immigrants do well here. Our big failure is in not acknowledging and promoting that more.)
Not being diverse enough is not the same as being “too white”.
Is there something wrong with being white? How, would one change that? Be less racist…?…sorry, still white.
This insults the huge preponderance of white people that care about and encourage diversity.
Such pablum…
What’s poignantly ironic here is that the worry of ‘too-white’ looking ‘racist’ is downright racist in and of itself. Counter-racism will not solve the racial-discrimination question.
As a ‘Caucasian’ I am offended!
I’m surprised this drivel is still here… Mod, pull the article as it is racist.
@JereBat:
People are afraid to give responses they deem to be racist in public or to surveys but will gladly talk about how Nova Scotia doesn’t need any people who “won’t speak English” or will “bring terrorism” in private. (We’ve got enough ‘murderous misfits’ of our own, thanks.) Of course politicians in Halifax are going to promote diversity. They have to, non-whites make up a large percentage of the vote. Call me when a MLA representing somewhere like Truro or Yarmouth can talk about increasing immigration and cultural diversity and not get his ass run out in the next election.
Halifax, that oh-so-progressive city, just realized it might be shitty in 2014 to have the black cemetary as an open leash dog park. Shelburne County’s mayor flipped her shit when she realized that some people didn’t like that she was throwing a civic event (called ‘Redneck Days’) based on the guy from Duck Dynasty who said gays were an abomination and blacks were better off under slavery. Never mind consulting the opinion of minorities and people of colour, like Prof. Bernard asked for – political leaders here regularly take or support actions that insult people of colour and act surprised when they are insulted. The Halifax police chief just defended ‘random’ checks; Ontario just banned them. Where do you think a black immigrant would feel more at home?
I agree with you that the retention of immigrants has increased dramatically since 2001 but that’s a low fucking bar to clear. It was ~48% back then, compared to ~75-80% for the other provinces. If you are an activist in this field I wish you well, but I don’t think most of your fellow Bluenosers share your views.
Damn, would a more offensive title to this story be “Nova Scotia still not black enough”?
No, then another white hipster would complain it would be too black…
@ Humeyni
You make a lot of good points, but you make a mistake a lot of people make when talking about race in Halifax: cite a bunch of racist stuff (Africville dog park debacle, etc) and take for granted that this is Halifax-specific. Unfortunately, there are corollaries to these in any city you care to name.
To take one example, Toronto, which is 47% non-white, is also by far the most ethnically segregated city in Canada, has an 80% white city council, and just this summer, a neo-Nazi student group formed on the U of T campus. You’re also being a bit selective about the random checks by police issue. Ontario didn’t ban them, it put some dubiously effective restrictions on them.
But Toronto cops, and in fact the mayor of Toronto, have repeatedly defended it as a useful tool. The only reason the government is putting new limits on it is due to a public discussion sparked by this magazine article, which nicely exposes the racial tension that underlies Canada’s most ostensibly tolerant metropolis:
http://torontolife.com/city/life/skin-im-ive-interrogated-police-50-times-im-black/
It’s impossible to determine if one place is more racist than another, but if we want to look at statistics, we see that there is a low preponderance of hate crime in Nova Scotia, and immigrants are better integrated, economically, than almost anywhere else in the country. (Actually, after five years in NS, the average immigrant has moved up the career ladder enough to earn MORE money than the average born NS-er.)
And we are seeing lots of people in rural areas talking about the need for more diversity. The Truro town councillor quoted in this story is one. In Cape Breton, we have hundreds of born-and-bred Capers forming Lifeline Cape Breton, to provide sanctuary for Syrian refugees. If you look through back issues of newspapers, you’ll see town councillors from Yarmouth to Sydney talking about the benefits of welcoming immigrants.
I’m not a Nova Scotian by birth, either. I moved here from Ontario four years ago, and the most amazing thing to me is that every single person I’ve encountered has welcomed me in, yet most of them have also warned me that the province is very closed to outsiders. There’s a paradox there, and I’ve never been able to understand why Nova Scotians insist (INSIST) that these old stereotypes are unshakably true, in the face of evidence to the contrary.
I’m a black male that has moved here from ontario less than 8mths ago and i do notice that the different races/nationalities keep to themselves… especially when it concerns people over 25… Walking around Halifax i notice any diverse group of people hanging out together are always young people or students but at the same time i see the Asians hanging usually with their own, the East Indians doing the same (I walk by them playing cricket in the commons every wknd during the summer), Syrians, Persians, Irainians And Whites as well.
Also from my observations the home grown local whites here stick to and sociallize only with their own kind… Yes they are friendly and polite to me, but that’s because we are interacting at work where everyone is expected to ACT that way, but i do sense anything beyond or away from the ‘work enviourment’ in terms of making ‘friends’ will not happen.
It’s very charitable for so many commenters to help illustrate the article’s points and demonstrate exactly why a preponderance of one group in a given area where that group experiences automatic privilege in contrast to members of all other groups contributes to an atmosphere of hostility.
It’s less impressive that so few commenters seem to have read past the headline, preferring to feign ignorance as to what the nature of the concern in question might be. In a nutshell, “too white” doesn’t mean “white skin itself is inherently bad;” it means that an overwhelming racial majority leads to alienation for outsiders. And if we white folks can’t observe that through our own experiences, well gosh, maybe that just goes to show how that particular problem works.
Oh Halifax. I miss you. But I don’t miss this!
Ed, you’ve just moved here… you can’t draw any solid conclusions. Live here for awhile and then come back and comment.
This headline was deliberately written to try and produce a backlash from some redneck so next weeks headline could be ” Halifax is too White and Racist”.
Nice try but the only thing i’ll be using the Coast for now is to start a fire in my wood stove this winter.
I ain’t afraid of no ghost jesus.
Baby child, saying a statement would be racist if you reversed it is like saying a bullet would have hit you if the gun had been aimed in the opposite direction; that if the sea were the sky and vice versa, you’d be soaked right now.
Racism has meaningful effect only from white people towards others. It’s not a reversible rain slicker. White people cannot suffer anti-white racism.
Your concern on this regard does not cast you in a flattering light.
@ Jesse McDonald, your entire response:
“saying a statement would be racist if you reversed it is like saying a bullet would have hit you if the gun had been aimed in the opposite direction; that if the sea were the sky and vice versa, you’d be soaked right now.”
is a complete and utter logical fallacy, it even has a name, it’s called “Reductio ad absurdum” and you’ve nailed the text book definition of it so well;
“…seeks to demonstrate that a statement is true by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its denial, or in turn to demonstrate that a statement is false by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its acceptance.
That I have to wonder whether you’re ignorant of the deficiency of your argument or whether you are attempting to use the fallacy because your pushing an agenda. I find it odd to be hoping that ignorance is the better case here.
Racism is racism, no matter what colour you are; if one believes in “race” as a legitimate classification of human being and/or believes that the “race” one belongs to is somehow superior to others, then one is a racist.
Saying that we “need” to bring in a more people of other cultures is ludicrous, insisting that we need a program in place to make that happen specifically is the essence of creating an inequality. If the province of Nova Scotia can increase it’s attractiveness to people in general, based on the strength of the economy, availability of jobs, and an affordable standard of living, then it should stand to reason that regardless of skin colour or ethnic background, all people would be attracted to Nova Scotia.
This article conflates Nova Scotia’s lack of initiative in improving the overall quality of the province with racism, thereby using it as a scape goat, and places the onus of the province’s problem on not being able to come up with a strategy to entice “certain people” to come here, instead of ignoring cultural biases and/or respecting the freedom of any individual (the heart of not being a racist) who chooses to come to Nova Scotia because the province offers stability.
We have immigration programs in place in this country that actively look for skilled people from other countries to join us, should they choose to do so; if they’re not choosing Nova Scotia in which to live, that’s due in very small part to “racism” and much more due to a lack of legitimate actualised potential on the province’s part in regards to the economy, the infrastructure, and the quantity and quality of jobs.
Sometimes the act of denying is the very thing that condemns you. It reveals its intention is to convince the one proclaiming it, more than convince the one to whom it was offered. Silly statements, like “Racism is racism, no matter the colour”, belie a, painfully, almost childlike ignorance of what racism is. While I can be a bigot, jerk, dolt, etc. myself, and those of my ethnic group, have not the power to wield our idiocy on whites, as a group.
While I know some people of colour who are not terribly fond of white people, as a group, these people have never been in a position to deny them jobs, or apartments, or education, etc.
While NS is doing, marginally, better than it has, the percentage of immigrants who remain in NS after 3 yrs is in the low 60’s. In Ont and BC it’s closer to 80 And no, NS did not have its highest immigrant intake in more than a decade and the UK is still Nova Scotia’s largest source of immigrants to Nova Scotia (see http://immigration.novascotia.ca/sites/def…)
You’re not fooling us. Those “nice” white people, that see this article as problematic, would never be inclined to welcome immigrants of colour. As American Author and Social Commentator, Tim Wise, put it: Nice is the enemy of justice because to raise one’s voice against oppression is to be instantly pegged as not nice, as disruptive, as unruly, as dangerous. To block traffic, or interfere with the all-important Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center is not nice. To interrupt the symphony orchestra in St. Louis, or the drunken revelry of nice white baseball fans at a Cardinals game is not nice. To signify sympathy for a murdered young man in Ferguson, with even a gesture as simple as raising one’s hands as you come out of the tunnel before the football game is not nice. It is, to some—who would rather just watch black men entertain them with a few nice interceptions—worthy of punishment, or professional discipline. “How dare they!”, say the nice white people…
“To signify sympathy for a murdered young man in Ferguson”
Yeah he wasn’t murdered. Several courts and 3rd parties have ruled that was justified self defense. I know, I know, the facts of what actually happened don’t fit the social justice narrative so lets just all ignore them.
Here’s my $.02: I came to Halifax when I was young, and back then I was 1 of the only 2 minorities in my class. Which was fine, I never had the I gotta hang with my own people mentality, not that I could have anyway. IMO Halifax’s problem is respect. Maybe I’m generalizing a bit, but to white people if a minority person became better off they will try to destroy that person because minorities are suppose to be second class citizens. I’d like to think I was fairly well integrated into the local culture after over 15 years, with friends and connections, but all of that meant very little in the end.
I traveled frequently and lived a nice life in general after becoming fairly well off. Then I found a pretty good job, and that I guess was the last straw for a certain someone envious of my life, so said person decided to swat me, I woke up to the cops accusing me of stuff I didn’t do, they demanded I admit I’m guilty before leaving and when I provided proof that said person lied they did nothing, only to break into my place again a few months later without an explanation.
I literally left the province in fear after being repeatedly terrorized by the HR police. It did not feel safe. Most well to do minorities I know have left the province for one reason or another, most are doing very well and we are all in our primes, everyone makes above average income throughout the country. Nobody wants to go back because the cheap housing does not make up for the utter lack of respect. Nobody wants to live in a place where they have to worry about if the police will be breaking into your place to harass you because you rubbed someone off the wrong way.