A fellow who said he was in his 80s called last week looking for a journalist to tell the story of what's really happening to this country and how the Muslims are taking over.
"All Muslims aren't terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims," was one of his many colourful lies in a 20-minute conversation where he spoke for 19 minutes and 30 seconds, nearly all of it uninterrupted.
There is only so much hateful bile one can take, even from a polite gentleman terrified and furious at the speed and depth of the changing world around him.
No doubt he saw the photograph of Yousra Moutil on the front page of Wednesday's print edition of The Citizen and saw not a strong, confident young woman celebrating her culture, her religion and her gender but further proof Canada is going to hell.
How sad it must be to live in fear of people who don't share the same language or god or skin colour. How frightening it must be to walk through the community and instead of greeting neighbours and fellow residents, seeing invaders out to destroy your way of life.
They don't want to change, of course. It should be up to "them," those people coming into the country and the community who are from elsewhere, to change because they aren't "us."
The irony is that same intolerance is also applied to the people who were here first. If the "Indians" want to be Canadians, according to this hateful rhetoric, they should forget about First Nations and Lheidli T'enneh and aboriginal and indigenous, as if being Canadian means rejecting everything that isn't white and Christian.
The hate and the lies are so old and so tiring. Before B.C. was even a province, it was the Chinese and now it's the Chinese again, who have turned Vancouver into Hongcouver and made home prices there so unaffordable. It's been the Japanese, the Jews, the Communists, the draft dodgers, the hippies, the Vietnamese, the Quebecois, the Hindus, the Arabs and the Muslims.
They're all "them" and they're all coming for "us."
This garbage still burns hot in hearts and minds, leeching toxic words and actions that seep through families, neighbourhoods and communities.
That makes the video the indigenous health team at Northern Health team has produced essential viewing, not just for health-care providers but for everyone in the community. It both states the obvious and is a revelation. It talks matter-of-factly about colonization, cultural awareness and bias.
"Cultural sensitivity is not about treating everyone the same," the five-minute animated video states.
The journey to understanding and change starts with recognizing the similarities and differences between cultures. Differences should be respected and discriminating against people with different backgrounds is unacceptable.
"It may take courage and humility to walk this path," the video states. On an individual level, that means the courage to accept the views of others who don't share your views and the humility to be open to learning from others.
For some, this isn't courage and humility at all because that graciousness and openness is more second nature.
That's why these individuals get so upset when they hear prejudiced and bigoted views because their courage and humility to accept others doesn't extend to people who are scared of differences and hate everyone not like them.
Shouting people with hateful views into silence won't help.
Nor will ignoring them.
Like Dr. Seuss's Grinch, the only way for them to change is for their heart to grow a few sizes. They can't be told they're wrong, they have to be shown they're wrong and, even then, they need the courage and humility to be willing to see a new reality and reject the lies that felt true for so many years.
The story of wearing a hijab for a day at UNBC is the story worth telling of what's really happening in this community and this country, despite what some closed minds may think. As a nation and as a people, we're slowly coming to realize that differences are a social asset and diversity brings people together.
There is much more work to do and the job will never be finished, so long as there remains one man who thinks a journalist's responsibility is to spread his hate of others to everybody else.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
