The North American city doesn’t get more multicultural than Toronto, Canada’s largest urban agglomeration of over six million people. Despite the socio-cultural challenges of metropolitan development, the city projected its reputation as a melting pot on a recent visit.
About half of the population is foreign-born, spawning immigrant communities that colour the city’s interwoven fabric. Through a series of summer-time festivals highlighted by free Panamania concerts and shows attending the 2015 Pan-American Games, there emerged a deliberate attempt to keep the ethnically diverse people happy.
The service seemed to work, as a wave of excitement caused by the official first day of summer on June 21 and trending social events motivated locals and converted the cynical tourist in record time.
For the Nigerian visitor, however, the standout event would be the Underground Freedom Train Ride. In its third year, the subway ride commemorating Harriet Tubman’s clandestine cum heroic 19th century venture of leading African slaves from an oppressive American south to a free north has steadily gathered participants. Five hundred participants turned up for the inaugural event in 2013 while 800 graced the occasion last year.
One thousand three hundred people (thirteen hundred to North Americans) undertook the symbolic ride on the Toronto Transport Company (TTC)-run subway from Union Station in the south of Toronto before midnight on July 31 to arrive in the northern terminus of Downsview Station on August 1 (Emancipation Day in Toronto and parts of the Caribbean).
Touted as one of the three most significant events of the summer, the freedom ride confirmed top billing for exceptional ambience as much as diversity. Led by Osaze Dolabaille, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, drummers of mostly African extraction transformed a cold underground platform in the recesses of North America to a pulsating, rhythmic African heartland before a black, white and mixed-race congregation.
Afterwards, poems, hymns and songs including Reggae legend Bob Marley’s Redemption Song succeeded a moment of silence and ringing of bells on the subway train provided by TTC in the spirit of the season.
The organiser, Itah Sadu, hoped the ride would spur black consciousness. Impressed by the turnout, City Councillor Josh Cole anticipated a subsequent event bigger than one train could handle. “Toronto is an experiment,” he said. “And I’m proud to be part of that experiment.”
Councillor Cole echoed popular sentiment. The cultural collage produced by immigrant communities across Toronto hint at a futuristic society of racial harmony. Established ethnic neighbourhoods include Chinatown, Greektown, Koreatown, Little Portugal, Little India, Little Italy and Little Jamaica. African communities exist mostly north of the city.
Beyond language and mannerism, members of the communities tend to display objects of original loyalty as miniature flags and totems even if they and their offspring are second or third generation Canadians. Seeing the various neighbourhoods dovetail into one another on the hunt for food and entertainment only enhanced the city’s allure.
For evidence of cultural interplay, by the way, look towards interracial relationships. You would see, on any given day, romantic pairings sure to tug at your heartstrings. In twos they move unmolested: the Black man on an evening stroll with his Indian woman, the White guy on a restaurant date with his Chinese girl, the Brazilian male at a show with his Japanese partner and, conversely, the White with the Japanese, Black with Chinese and Brazilian with Indian.
The match-up is by no means restricted to both sexes. Canada recognises and protects the right to sexual orientation including those of Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. Speaking or acting against the group’s sexual orientation borders on infringement of rights, therefore.
As a conduit for the freedom of expression, the annual Gay Pride Parade in Toronto is well organised and received. Crowds lined Yonge Street to watch this year’s parade – the 35th – which ended with speeches and music in defiance of the cold, rainy conditions of early summer.
While houses of religious devotion are less pronounced in Toronto compared to Nigerian society, the multiplicity of religious adherence is not discouraged. And if African-Canadians do not adopt and worship the traditional gods of African religion as Afro-Brazilians do, they are no less taken with their roots.
Lacking the latter-day connection of Brazilians to the continent, they stay true to the African beat, honing their drumming skills on the djembe, conga, bata and other drums constantly imported from Africa. From the pioneering efforts of ace drummers Muhtadi and Saikou Saho – both originally from Trinidad and Gambia – drumming classes are held across the city with students and teachers criss-crossing the racial divide.
African dance classes are frequently advertised and it is only a matter of time before language classes and traditional religions gain momentum, after the Brazilian fashion. Whether African faith in a ‘western God’ is misplaced as suggested by some African-Canadians is another matter.
What matters, to many, is striking a balance in an atmosphere of safety and freedom secured by community policing. Usually on the receiving end of the culture of selective police interrogation and recording referred to as ‘carding’, the black community railed against the policy until the backlash forced the authorities to soft-pedal.
A similar easing on marijuana use is open to debate. While not entirely legalised, sale and consumption of the drug are allowed for medicinal purposes. But citizens and denizens light up for recreational reasons as well, with the offensive odour produced sometimes assailing the system in parks and public places.
Mental health is also an issue. Some ascribe the incidence of disturbed individuals to the negative effect of a clockwork society, one that demands everyone puts in a hard, honest and, sometimes, long shift. Despite the criticism, many acknowledge a society where politeness and political correctness in part constitute an unwritten code of public conduct.
Canada may just have stolen a march on the rest of the world in the pursuit of happiness. Hardly foolproof, the Toronto experiment remains an advanced model compared to the biggest cities of the world. The summer of 2015 attests to that.
