I Choose Nutella!

How dare he! Jason Kenney, overpriviledged Minister of Immigration - the man that let Abousfian Abdelrazik rot in the Sudan for six years and is now leaving an autistic man in Kenya, even though they are full Canadian citizens - the man that said immigrants should be denied citizenship if they don't speak English or French - now says that children of immigrants would do better if they did not grow up in 'silo' communities that resembled their parents homelands. What??? Has this guy even been to Little Italy in Toronto? Either of them?! He probably thinks Ragu Pasta Sauce is authentic Italian cuisine. Dear heaven.

I thought we were a proud mosaic of nationalities and cultures, MULTI-cultural and vibrant, not a melting pot where everything becomes homogenous and bland. And what are this guy's credentials that qualify him to be Minister of Immigration? Well he was born in Oakville in 1968 - now it's pretty multicultural, but in 1968? He grew up in Saskatchewan, where he attended Notre Dame College. A fine, fine school - but private, and again, not known for it's multicultural student body in the early 1980s. Known for it's hockey, also a deeply multicultural sport in the early 80s (we have English AND French players!)

But here's something interesting - his own website (http://www.jasonkenney.ca) says that Kenney was the President and CEO of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation before he was elected to parliament. Hmm. Isn't that a small business lobby group? Hmmm. Aren't immigrant families very likely to create small businesses? Many of which service their cultural communities? So I have to ask: has Jason Kenney forgotten his own past?

The CBC reported that the Minister said, "We want people to be Canadians first and foremost - to be proud of and maintain their own tradition and heritage, but not at the price of developing their Canadian identity." Perhaps he thinks that Canadian identity means a single family house in a suburban cul de sac with a big, green lawn and two cars, where the family speaks English at the dinner table and eat mashed potatoes and roast beef with Yorkshire pudding for dinner and cereal with milk for breakfast?

Since when did we start asking people to choose? To choose between their immigrant parents and their Canadian friends? To choose between their traditional language and English (or French - wait! The choice between heritage languages and French has been going on for quite some time in some parts of our country!) To choose between Nutella on toast for breakfast or cold cereal with milk? Why isn't there room in Canada anymore for Nutella? As the wife of an immigrant, as a mother of first generation Italian Canadians, as a daughter who still can identify my parents cultural heritage even after 150 years in North America, it's very clear: I choose Nutella!