While Canada is known internationally as a land of opportunity for the poor and the disenfranchised - a reputation that has slid northward from the United States over the past hundred years - some inequalities remain, despite the best efforts of politicians and educators. Whether or not inequality can be exterminated entirely is a matter of much debate and no small difficulty, and a battle that's fought daily at personal, municipal, provincial, and federal levels. For every nine citizens that are against discrimination, one person in a position of power harbours secret hate or makes unfair decisions. No minority is immune either - women, immigrants, the disabled - for bigotry is something that takes many ways and many forms.

One of the unfortunate realities that many of us deal with at one time or another is that of racial discrimination. Bigotry, in other words. It may occur at the workplace or at school, it may occur while using public transit or simply walking down the street. First and foremost, it is important to remember that the people who think this way are the minority here. Racism exists everywhere, but in Canada the vast majority of people are progressive enough to know that true differences don't spring from skin colour or ancestry.