 Students of Toronto's Regent Park/Duke of York Public School. (Veronica Henri/Sun Media)
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The children squeal with excitement and fight for elbow space as they try and squish together and assure themselves of a place in the picture.
Their principal has explained they're posing for a photo that will be seen across the country, meant to illustrate Canada's diversity.
But do they really understand?
"Multiculturalism means to accept everyone's culture and not to judge them," said Aniqah Rahman, 11. "We should join together to be a community and all be happy and learn from each other."
Their answers are simple, frank and innocent. Words like "equal," "respect," and "fair" are bandied about among a small group of Jamaican, Bangladeshi, Kenyan, Muslim and Native students at Regent Park/Duke of York Public School in downtown Toronto.
It's a refreshing return to the basics after a week-long project that aimed to gauge the often contradictory pulse of Canadians today.
Over the course of this week, as Sun Media published poll results of a six-part series on racism and tolerance, U.S. Senator Barack Obama took the initial step towards possibly becoming America's first black president.
A day after poll results showed that 59% of Quebecers admitted they're somewhat racist, a private Muslim girls' school in Montreal was vandalized, with hooligans shattering 15 windows and damaging a school bus.
Similarly in Quebec, where it appears the poll hit raw nerves, the leader of l'Action democratique du Quebec also issued a letter, saying the province should quit bending over backwards to accommodate minorities.
And late this week a TV reality show has fuelled ethnic tensions between two countries after India formally complained to Britain about alleged racist bullying against a Bollywood film star on Celebrity Big Brother, making headlines around the world.
In the Leger Marketing poll for Sun Media, while 52% of respondents had earlier said racism is a problem in their city, only 32% said a "vigorous fight against racism" is necessary." Meanwhile, 57% of Canadians polled said a fight isn't necessary.
On the international stage, most experts agree Canada is a model of multiculturalism.
"Canada is one of the leaders, if not the leader, of industrialized countries in the area of human rights and for that we should admittedly congratulate ourselves," said Ayman Al-Yassini, executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
Canada was one of the first countries in the world to create a Human Rights Commission, he pointed out, and is also guided by the Charter of Human Rights, the Multiculturalism Act and the Employment Equity Act to "ensure the protection of all Canadians."
But as pointed out by a United Nations report in 2003, though the initiatives are impressive, Canada fails to fully implement these policies and guidelines, Al-Yassini said.
When asked to respond to complaints among Caucasians that they're being overlooked for jobs in favour of minority groups to fill quotas, Al-Yassini pointed to statistics, saying the numbers don't lie. According to Canadian Human Rights Commission, visible minorities held only 8.1% of all public sector jobs in 2005, compared to their 13% presence in overall population.
Just this week, the Public Service Commission said it will launch an investigation into why visible minorities aren't being hired in the public sector. In their 2005-06 annual report, the commission highlighted the "persistent gap in the hiring of visible minorities."
In Quebec, the level of minority representation in the civil service hasn't risen beyond 3% since 1981, said Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.
"We have socially progressive programs but when it comes to ethnic and racial progress, institutionally speaking we're still very closed and exclusionary."
Though critics have long called for the overhaul of what's often described flawed immigration system, experts also called for perspective.
"In European countries immigration is not viewed as a long-term priority. In an international context we're doing relatively well ... as a country committed to immigration as a growth strategy," said Jeffrey Reitz, sociology professor at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.
"Our attitude towards immigration is much more positive than any other industrialized country."
The Sun Media poll supports that statement: 72% of Canadians feel living in the presence of different ethnic backgrounds is enriching.
In its annual 2006 report to Parliament, Citizenship and Immigration Canada outlined a number of immigration initiatives including a move to pre-screen foreign workers and accelerate the application process.
Foreign students have also been granted permission to work off-campus during their study period so that they can gain "Canadian work experience" -- a refrain many immigrants say employers repeat ad nauseum while doors are slammed in their faces.
The government also increased settlement funding for new immigrants to $307 million within the next two years.
Anver Garda, executive director of a Toronto settlement agency, also applauded Ontario for introducing landmark legislation that will require regulated professions to make the licensing process more transparent, notably in assessing the credentials of foreign trained professionals.
He also praised the creation of web portals such as www.immigrationontario.ca, designed to support newcomers before and after they make the leap.
"The information does exist and expanded to a phenomenal rate," Garda said.
But he called on the government to recognize settlement workers as professionals and invest in better training, given the demand of services.
Khaled Mouammar of the Canadian Arab Federation also placed responsibility at the government's feet, invoking the Anti-Terrorism Act as an example of racism at the institutional level. He pointed to the case of three Arab Muslims accused of having links to al-Qaida who have been detained for more than five years without being criminally charged.
"It's clear. The message has to come from the highest authority."
Separate the church and state once and for all, says another expert, and make all discussions secular.
"The problem in North America is there's too much political rhetoric that's contaminated by religion," said Anna Makolkin, professor of nationalism and migration at the University of Toronto.
Assert Canadian values to newcomers if their traditions are incompatible with ours, she added. Poll results show that the majority of Canadians believe Canadian laws trump other cultural beliefs.
"Political correctness has become our enemy," she said.
Baha Abu-Laban, co-director of the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration, agreed, saying newcomers won't succeed if they refuse to assimilate on some levels.
"When people come here, there is an expectation to conform minimally to certain values. If they isolate themselves completely, they won't be able to survive very well," he said.
Carl James, a sociology professor and executive member of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement, says we have to understand that the "narrative" of Canada is different than other countries. Though Canadians may be expected to cover their heads in other countries, we don't expect Muslims to uncover theirs because it's not our way.
"We have a narrative in the West and we live by that narrative of being equal and multicultural ... we espouse certain beliefs and values core to our existence of meritocracy, democracy and freedom."
______________ Inside the principal's office, a handful of youngsters are discussing their favourite ethnic foods, consulting one another on the new dishes they tried.
"What's that spicy dish with chick peas again?" asks Isoke Richards, 12, turning to her Bangladeshi friend.
It's cholee, curried chick peas and one of Richards' favourites.
Enlightenment has come early to these students and their teacher and principal are beaming at their clarity.
Treay Adams, 10, has just shared how he was once called the "N" word which made him feel "different" from others.
That experience was enough to stop him from also uttering a racial slur.
"I know it's disrespectful to people and their culture. That's called racism," he said.
And then, in a disarmingly beautiful turn of phrase so surprising from a 10-year-old, a young boy's words dropped with a pleasant thud to a small audience.
"I don't discriminate the way people look. I judge them by the content of their character."
