..becomes head of state in Canada. I’m not sure how noteworthy this kind of thing is anymore but I thought I’d post it anyway. Most important barriers that can be broken have been broken by now, it seems to me, and the breaking of the others is in sight. The outgoing Governor-General is an Asian immigrant woman, btw. Michaëlle Jean, Governor General-designate of Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaëlle_Jean
It appears the Governor General position = token minority appointment. Condi pwns Michaëlle Jean, Governor General-designate of Canada
It’s a token position of sorts. It actually does have a lot of power but by tradition GC’s follow the wishes of the government on most issues. As the Queen’s representative she garners a lot of attention and respect, though. Even you Americans seem to have monarchy envy. You should have stayed loyal.
Grizzled, That's goo to hear, I have been told by many friends whom have gone to Canada that it's a more tolerant, open-minded society than most Western countries. However, there is still a lot of racial/ethnic intolerance in our societies, I don't think they should be overlooked, although we need to hear about more stories like the one you just posted. Nice to know that. To me, I think racism/ethnic-intolerance is still alive and well, the only thing that usually changes is the group being targeted. A lot of bigots are still around, they are just not very well-advertised through the mainstream media. For ex: I was checking my e-mail inbox just a few mintues ago and I came across this: VA WOMAN ATTACKED BY MEN SHOUTING RACIST SLURS Pregnant woman in Islamic dress assaulted, called 'terrorist b*tch' (WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/9/05) - A prominent national civil rights and advocacy group today called on law enforcement authorities to treat an assault this morning on a Virginia Muslim woman as a hate crime. A 23-year-old Muslim woman, who is 8 months pregnant and wears an Islamic head scarf, said she was out for her morning walk in Arlington, Va., when three white men in a pick-up truck began screaming anti-Muslim and racist slurs at her. According to the victim, the men shouted, "You terrorist b*tch, go back to your country. . .You n*gger b*tch." (The woman is African-American.) The truck drove away and then returned as the woman continued on her walk. One of the men, who was wearing military-style clothing, allegedly got out of the vehicle and began shoving the woman and preventing her from moving away. During the assault, he shouted, "You terrorist b*tch. . . We're going to kick you're a*s. . . you're nothing." The other men then called the attacker back to the truck and it sped off. "We believe these types of incidents are the direct result of the growing level of virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric Americans are exposed to on the Internet, in newspaper editorial pages and on radio talk shows," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "Our nation's political and religious leaders must begin to challenge Islamophobic hate-mongers." Hooper noted that a Washington, D.C., radio talk show host was recently suspended without pay for stating repeatedly that "Islam is a terrorist organization." He added that an Illinois man was arrested just last Friday for threatening to bomb CAIR's Capitol Hill headquarters. In July, a national council of American Muslim religious scholars issued a "fatwa," or formal Islamic legal ruling, against terrorism and religious extremism. That fatwa has been endorsed by some 200 Islamic groups, leaders and institutions.
