The Toronto Star newspaper published an interesting article about two Canadians (one Armenian Christian & the other Iranian Muslim) starting a think tank in the multicultural haven of Canada.
Entitled, “Globalizing the Canadian way,” the article regurgitates some of the tired stereotypes about Canadian pluralism (I’ll discuss that in a future post), but is inspiring nonetheless…here are the highlights:
If an Armenian like himself could get along with Turks in Canada, maybe they could help facilitate a dialogue in their ancestral lands. If Christians and Muslims could be friends here, maybe they could pass on what they’d learned…
Last fall, he met someone who did. Alidad Mafinezam had just returned to Canada after earning a PhD in public policy at Rutgers University in New Jersey. His specialty was think-tanks. His passion was applying the Canadian approach to diversity to deeply rooted ethnocultural conflicts…
They’re not promising headlines or dramatic breakthroughs. They just want to show that the Canadian way – making room for differences – can turn deadlock into dialogue.
The new Mosaic Institute (www.mosaicinstitute.ca), set to launch in the fall will be chaired by Kololian and Mafinezam will serve as research director. Good luck to them.