This Week June 20; 1990. Page M3-

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enough to cause hardship or danger
to its victims, is debatable. Pan-
nekoek says incidents reported in
the media convince her that racial
intolerance is increasing. But she
notes that racism ranks fifth in
order of complaints received by the
coalition and makes up only 13.8
per cent of the case load. Even char-
ges of ageism (discrimination on
the basis of age) are more frequent-
ly dealt with (they are included in
15 per cent of the complaints) while
32 per cent of the investigations in-
volve sexism.

John Borst, however, isn’t con-
fused by discrepencies between
media reports and statistics. The
executive director of Victoria’s Inter-
Cultural Association (ICA), Borst
has daily contact with immigrants
and their families.

“One hundred per cent -- that’s
how many immigrants who come to
us encounter racism. Within a year
of arriving, everyone faces it at
least once,” he says.

He describes most of the area’s
racist activity as “low level”; com-
monly, an ethnically-distinct person
in a restaurant or bar is the target
of a racial slur or is told to “go back

“@to wherever they came from.”

Vancouver has a more serious
problem (perhaps because 50 per
cent of its population is immigrant)
but there’s no reason to believe the
intolerance will confine itself to the
other side of the Strait of Georgia.
Racism -- not necessarily low level —
is expected to increase even here,
where 25 per cent of the population
speaks English as its second lan-
guage.

“The economy is going down and
tensions are high because of Meech
Lake difficulties. Things like that
usually cause an escalation, and
we're preparing for that,” Borst
frowns.

Pannekoek also notes that, during
troubled times, people look for
scape-goats. Given that 43 per cent
of the immigrants who came to
Canada between 1981 and 1986
came from Asia -- Europeans made
up 29 per cent of the immigration
rate during the same period -- and
that the past few years have seen
real estate markets altered by
people wanting out of Hong Kong,
an escalation of racial tension is
not unlikely.

“If it goes as we think it might,
we'll use the legal system to deal
with it,” Borst says. “There’s not
much else we can do.”

RENCE

- As part of its attempt to en-
courage tolerance, the ICA or-
ganizes the annual Folkfest (June
21 - July 1), a festival that high-
lights the community’s ethnic diver-
sity. Ethnic foods, dances, songs,
and costumes are showcased so
that people from all cultural back-
grounds have the chance to develop
comraderie with other groups while
expressing their own unique iden-
tities. The celebration attracted
more than 1,000 performers last
year and included children, with
the hope that awareness of their
own ethnic customs would be
strengthened even while they
learned to appreciate the the tradi-
tions of other people.

But at its strongest point, in-
tolerance is not, as Borst knows, so
easily dealt with. The ICA can sel-
dom follow up instances of high-
level racism: when denied a job or
shelter because of ethnic back-
ground, a person usually prefers to
live or work elsewhere and so does
not press for his or her civil rights.
And it is difficult to ascertain the
truth about an incident. What one

SWEET SWEET SONGS of friendship were played by members of Victoria’s
Portuguese Cultural and Athletic Association during the 1985 Folkfest. The
group has been one of many performers in the annual event, which runs
from June 24 until Canada Day. This year’s festivities are expected to

include at least 1,000 participants.

perceives as racist is something
another may not.
In fact, perception is a key to
racism. =
When people encounter racism,
‘they usually encounter faulty per-
ceptions. It’s believed, for example,
that they're destroying the
Canadian economy (although, in
1988, immigrants contributed $1.3
billion to B.C. coffers) or destroying

the long-established traditions of a
group which epitomizes Canadian
culture (Statistics Canada, how-
ever, says no ethnic or cultural
group is dominant in the popula-
tion). The flip side of the perception
coin is that, with more than 100 cul-
turally and ethnically distinct
groups in the nation, some
Canadians are anxious to seem
tolerant.

PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT IN these Kariatis
Dancers might be telling the youn-
ger girl. Practising ethnic dance
steps is one way for children to learn
about their cultural background.

Dr. David Moyer, chairman of
UVic’s anthropology department,
doesn’t doubt racism’s presence: he
says blatant examples can be found
in Anglo-Francophone dealings.
But Moyer also says that: “if a
white person says there is a prob-
lem with native alcohol use, he’s ac-
cused of racism.”

“There is a problem, that’s not
racist,” he says. “We should figure
out how we're going to deal with
that, especially given the discovery
of fetal aleohol syndrome. Dwelling
on the past, on whether racism
caused the problem, is pointless.”

He notes that in some local
schools, youngsters have been
beaten up for having racist at-
titudes and not, as in other places,
for being of a particular race. But,
ironically, he says preserving all
facets of every culture can create
an atmosphere of intolerance.

“lve had Dutch people comment
about how Bill Vander Zalm only
speaks a lower-class Dutch dialect,”
Moyer laughs.

“In some cultures, preserving cul-
tures reminds people of class dif-
ferences. And the only thing this
country ean not tolerate is the im-
portation of racism.”

Younger generations, however,
are throwing away

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