Carolyn Abraham

My family landed in Toronto on a November night in 1972, six of us in matching sheepskin coats, bought in fear of arctic winters and the threat of hypothermia. Canada was a year into its grand multicultural experiment at the time, and federal policies not only welcomed immigrants of color, they set targets to encourage it. Federal politicians--Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in particular, whom my mother referred to as "that lovely man"--pushed programmes to support cultural diversity, and the philosophy trickled down to the towns and schools.