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is racism common in Toronto?

From the Historical context for the Racism, Violence, and Health Project website:

During the American Civil War, hundreds of African Canadians signed up to fight, including those from Toronto. Some did not come home. While some families left Canada to return to the United States in the years immediately following the end of the Civil War and the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the American slaves (1863), others steadfastly remained in Canada. In fact, some Torontonians went back to the United States to find and bring back relatives to live with them in their adopted home.

According to Hill (1985), the Canadian-born second-generation of these African American migrants were comfortably established. A few even made quite a name for themselves. One such individual, William Peyton Hubbard, would rise from his trade as a baker to become the first elected Black alderman in Toronto’s history in 1894. He was also acting mayor of the city on numerous occasions. Hubbard fought hard for public ownership of the water supply and later the hydro-electric system, the latter of which led to his defeat in 1908. However, the establishment of Ontario and then Toronto Hydro was Hubbard’s “greatest achievement … and a significant contribution to the future of Ontario†(p. 101).

His son Fred married Grace Abbott, the daughter of Dr. Anderson Abbott, the first Canadian-born Black doctor and son of Wilson and Ellen Toyer Abbott. In addition to his professional attainments – graduate of King’s College Medical School in Toronto, one of eight Black surgeons in the Union Army during the Civil War, afterwards director of the Freedmen’s Bureau Hospital in Washington D.C. and coroner of Kent County in Chatham, Ontario – Anderson Ruffin Abbott was a “race man†who lectured and penned many articles in newspapers on Black affairs.

20th Century Toronto
By the turn of the century and well after that, the emigration of young Canadian Blacks to the United States was rampant. On all accounts, Toronto had its fair share of emigrants, a fact that Dr. Anderson Abbott lamented in his writing (Hill, 1985, p. 102). As we have noted, although the descendants of the Underground Railroad had done well for themselves, the opportunities that had existed for their parents were not available for these second-generation Torontonians.

While many were clearly leaving, however, other Blacks were migrating into the city. Thus, in the early decades of the 20th century, there were four distinct groups of Black Torontonians: the “old line†Black families whose ancestors came during the time of the Underground Railroad; the “West Indian†migrants, many of whom had been recruited to work in the Dominion Steel mill or the coal mines of Nova Scotia during World War I and had migrated to Toronto some time thereafter; the “Americans,†many of whom had been recruited to work on the railroad as porters; and the “Nova Scotians†who were seeking greater opportunities in Montreal and Toronto (Henry, 1981, pp. 2-4).

Fred Hubbard, son of William P. Hubbard, would benefit greatly from the position his father had attained. He was general manager of the Toronto Street Railway Company and later became commissioner and then chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission from 1930-39. These descendants of the “old line†Black families were, according to one historian, politically conservative, relying on elite white patronage to support their causes. However, the evidence indicates that they managed to obtain jobs for Black people with the city, or on the TTC that, years later, were unheard of (Henry, 1981, pp. 10-11). Nevertheless, for the most part, Black Torontonians – like their brothers and sister elsewhere in Canada – were restricted from most lines of work.
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An article by an alleged racist (who claims to be an anti-racism educator), at this link.

I was vilified for telling the truth about racism in Toronto
A co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto considers why the controversy over a months-old tweet she wrote has drowned out the accomplishments of her movement

Yusra Khogali, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, is a community organizer, anti-racism educator and black feminist poet. She is also a graduate student at the University of Toronto pursuing a master’s in Social Justice Education.
 
W. K. Lis said:
An article by an alleged racist (who claims to be an anti-racism educator), at this link.

I was vilified for telling the truth about racism in Toronto
A co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto considers why the controversy over a months-old tweet she wrote has drowned out the accomplishments of her movement

Yusra Khogali, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, is a community organizer, anti-racism educator and black feminist poet. She is also a graduate student at the University of Toronto pursuing a master’s in Social Justice Education.
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She lost my sympathy with the vitriolic first paragraph. I thought the hatchet job by Agar was beyond the pale, but this was not the reply that gains her any new advocates. Desmond Cole's defense was much better.
 
Before this SJW uprising happened a couple of years ago I would've said absolutely not. However nowadays we have people trying very hard to make racism happen, and it's not "the evil white people" some will have you think. It's people just like Ms. Khogali who are creating issues out of nothing.
 
The type of "racism" (if you can call it that) I've mostly experienced being CBC (Canadian Born Chinese) tend to come from people who are being overly politically correct/sensitive and expect me to act a certain way/adhere to certain traditions based on my ethnicity. Well, it's racism if it comes from non-East Asians (almost always 50+ women who are children or grandchildren of immigrants themselves AND/OR people who work in social services). Gen X/Millennial descendant of immigrants tend to "get" where I'm coming from A LOT more - regardless of ethnicity. I've also heard very racist comments coming from older immigrant people of my background - usually towards black people.m
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
She lost my sympathy with the vitriolic first paragraph. I thought the hatchet job by Agar was beyond the pale, but this was not the reply that gains her any new advocates. Desmond Cole's defense was much better.
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The powers that be at @UofT have been systemically oppressing Khogali and Friends for years and still are, even as she doggedly pursues her master's in Social Justice Education. As a reformer, she was bullied and pushed out by a bunch of UTSU thugs. Those slick professional rabble-rousers rallied the mob against one of her key political allies which recently culminated in demands for reparations! They wanted her to give back monies—rightfully earned with her very own blood, sweat, and tears—to the very institution that victimized her. Back in my day we called that theft and is itself a form of violence. But by all means, let's do a gabe and throw a few more hurdles in her way by indulging in another round of victim blaming and shaming. This is exactly the reason why an organization like hers needs to exist.
 
Forgotten said:
The powers that be at @UofT have been systemically oppressing Khogali and Friends for years and still are, even as she doggedly pursues her master's in Social Justice Education. As a reformer, she was bullied and pushed out by a bunch of UTSU thugs. Those slick professional rabble-rousers rallied the mob against one of her key political allies which recently culminated in demands for reparations! They wanted her to give back monies—rightfully earned with her very own blood, sweat, and tears—to the very institution that victimized her. Back in my day we called that theft and is itself a form of violence. But by all means, let's do a gabe and throw a few more hurdles in her way by indulging in another round of victim blaming and shaming. This is exactly the reason why an organization like hers needs to exist.
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Well, this new thread revival brought out the trolls, but you're not one of them, Forgotten. But this is a LOT of 'inside baseball' packed into one paragraph. It sounds like she's clashed with people at the university? I'm not certain that's relevant to 'racism in Toronto' in general, but maybe b/c she's a focus?
 
Forgotten said:
The powers that be at @UofT have been systemically oppressing Khogali and Friends for years and still are, even as she doggedly pursues her master's in Social Justice Education. As a reformer, she was bullied and pushed out by a bunch of UTSU thugs. Those slick professional rabble-rousers rallied the mob against one of her key political allies which recently culminated in demands for reparations! They wanted her to give back monies—rightfully earned with her very own blood, sweat, and tears—to the very institution that victimized her. Back in my day we called that theft and is itself a form of violence. But by all means, let's do a gabe and throw a few more hurdles in her way by indulging in another round of victim blaming and shaming. This is exactly the reason why an organization like hers needs to exist.
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http://www.torontosun.com/2016/04/07/black-lives-matter-member-sued-for-severance-deal

Cross-posted from the Tory thread to answer my own question. Having read the Sun article, your post makes very little sense. Are you being over-the-top histrionic or bitingly sarcastic? And what does it have to do with BLMTO?
 
From a Toronto perspective, it's not racist in any sense of the traditional imagination. If you define racism by the native "white" population, then it's practically non-existent in Toronto because minorities are now technically the majority lmao. I actually feel like there wouldn't be entire ethnic ghettos in the GTA if Toronto wasn't seen as "welcoming" and "inclusive" on a racial/ethno-national level. Anyone's offspring can become "Canadian" in ways that they will never be German, Italian, Spanish, etc. European nations have ethnic identities as they are the native land of "white" people, while the New World (USA/Canada/Australia) are their colonized productions where everyone is more or less an immigrant.

I've been to most EU cities and the international vibe was nowhere that of Toronto, with the exception of London. Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Vienna all have massive tourist populations but the actual immigrant population that settles down is quite low in each. Paris is a niche for Algerians/Africans, Madrid is a niche for Latin Americans/Moroccans, Berlin is a niche for Turks/Syrians but none of those cities draws from every country on Earth the way Toronto does. Everyone visits Europe but nobody actually lives there.
 
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