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54% of residents said they belonged to what Statistics Canada terms a visible minority up from 49% in 2016...That increase was predominantly due to 154,820 new immigrants who settled in Metro Vancouver between 2016 and 2021, most of them coming from India (30,545) and China (28,970). According to Statistics Canada, the largest non-white ethnic groups in Metro Vancouver are Chinese (comprising 19.6 per cent of the population), South Asian (14.2 per cent) and Filipino (5.5 per cent)."I just think it talks to how our community is changing," said Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University's City Program."Older ways of viewing Metro Vancouver not just Vancouver and Richmond, but places like Surrey and Langley are ones that need to change with the times, and this is just one marker."The municipality with the highest proportion of people identifying as a visible minority was Richmond at 80.3 per cent, followed by Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam and then Vancouver at 54.5 per cent.
Thunder Bay, Ont.'s waterfront was filled with laughs, music and vibrant colours Sunday as people celebrated the Festival of Colours.The annual festival returned to the Marina Park following the Festival of India that took place Saturday. The Festival of Colours consisted of Indian cuisine and music, along with interactive dances and performers.Many took part in the anticipated colour-throwing portions of the festival, where attendees threw bright powders into the air. The dust filled the waterfront skies with a colourful haze and turned the Marina Park's green grass into a rainbow.Both festivals have been happening in Thunder Bay for more than a decade.Joseph said she is South Indian but was raised Canadian, which was one of the reasons she decided to go to the event."I just feel like it's important to find fun in north Indian culture and different Indian cultures, or any other culture. I personally would find it fun," she said.Dr. Prashant Jani, the Festival of India and Festival of Colours organizer in Thunder Bay, said more than 2,000 people attended the Festival of India on Saturday and he expected more than 3,000 people at the Festival of Colours.Jani said both days of the festival were spectacular and many people enjoyed the colour-throwing portions of the event."[Attendees can expect] lots of joy, laughter, smiles, happiness and fun," he said.Holi, an annual Hindu festival to honour the god Krishna, is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring and the end of winter. The Hindu community throws coloured powder on themselves to worship Krishna.Jani said the Festival of Colours is a thousands-of-year-old tradition from India."When we throw the colours in the wind, [this] means throw your worries into the wind and make your life joyful and colourful," said Jani.Jani said the reason the Festival of Colours is so significant to Thunder Bay is because of the different elements it offers."I'm just loving it," he said. "This feeling is great, especially the environment we get here. Everybody enjoys it. So that's the best feeling you can get. In the summer, it's good everywhere, just go and take [in the feeling]. It's really great."Sharma said he loves the support of Thunder Bay's local community at the festival."[The Festival of Colours] makes your feelings exaggerate everything, so you feel very enthusiastic and [full of energy]. And the food, and plus the support, is always good. I [am] always excited to see everything new, whatever comes here. I always love [the event]."
a former principal died by suicide following a lawsuit in which he alleged emotional distress from antiracist trainings and the fallout that followed. The sessions included concepts from critical race theory. Before his death, Richard Bilkszto, a 60-year-old former principal, sued the Toronto District School Board for emotional distress after he attended a training where he was accused of being a racist. Bilkszto alleged in his lawsuit that Kike Ojo-Thompson who runs an equity firm called the KOJO Institute said that Canada was racist and has "never reckoned with its anti-Black history." When Bilkszto disagreed with the instructor and challenged her comments, he was condemned for appearing to undermine a Black woman, the lawsuit said. "We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me whats really going on for Black people" Ojo-Thompson said, according to the lawsuit filed by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism....During a follow-up session a week later, Ojo-Thompson allegedly recalled their disagreement from the first session and used Bilkszto's efforts to challenge her claims as a "real-life" example of someone supporting White supremacy....As other examples of KOJO's CRT, the company's slide deck on instituting an equity agenda criticizes "Eurocentric/Anglocentric curriculum," "assimilationist culture," and "school disciplinary policies."