TRUTH BE TOLD
TORONTO THE GOOD (AND THE NOT-SO-GOOD)
By DR VICKI BISMILLA
We recently had a young family visit us from Africa. They had not seen snow before and wanted to experience our winter.
They stayed with us for three weeks and, like many readers, we turned into tour guides every day non-stop. We showed them the usual sights and they marvelled at the beauty of the GTA and surrounding regions. The most gorgeous, of course, is the breathtaking Niagara Falls. We stayed overnight in hotel rooms with windows directly above the Falls and for hours marvelled at this spectacular gift that Nature has awarded our Canada. As for snow, our visitors did not get to see the huge deluge that we have become used to; but enough to slide, throw snowballs, make snow-angels and to report back home that they helped us shovel. At the tourist sights it was heartwarming to be met by friendly staff and hospitality teams who were generous of spirit and made us proud.
The little boy in the family loves rare cars so we took him to the automobile museum in Oshawa and were amazed at the stunning collection of vintage cars. He also wanted to see some Teslas and a range of Rolls Royce cars.
Our visit to the Tesla dealership on Lawrence was very pleasant. We walked in and were met by friendly, diverse staff who let us wander and look at the unique engineering of these sleek cars. An older Indian couple from southern Ontario came in to collect the car that they had ordered and before long we were all chatting together. Like many desis we were soon catching up on how much we like Canada, where we lived and proud about our grown children; and again, like many desis, we decided that since our children worked in similar fields here in Toronto they must know one another!
Our next visit to a high-end auto dealership was not at all pleasant. Since the child wanted see a top luxury brand we took them to a dealership that specializes in those vehicles. We were met at reception by a tall Caucasian woman and were taken aback by her icy stare.
I greeted her and said that we were interested in looking at the cars.
My truthful husband added that we had brought visitors from Africa and the little boy is enthusiastic about cars.
The woman frigidly replied, “The cars are on the fourth floor, but you are not allowed to go in. You can stand by the elevator and look but you cannot go into the showroom.”
The anti-racist activist in me wanted to verbally pounce all over her highly made-up face and fluttering mascara-heavy eyes, but the trained and restrained professional in me saved the day. I calmly turned around and guided our visitors into the elevator and pressed 4. The showroom was completely open and several sales people sat chatting behind a desk.
We were met by a young woman who asked if she could help us. My husband gave exactly the same explanation as before and she smiled, welcomed us and said that we could wander around freely and enjoy looking at the cars and to let her know if we needed her help. Voila!
As our visitors admired the cars I was approached by another sales lady asking if she could help. I told her about the frigid reception downstairs and she was highly apologetic and perplexed about why the icy lady downstairs said what she did.
I offered that the explanation could simply be our skin colour. The sales lady, interestingly, did not disagree, but effusively apologized again and invited our group to take our time and look around. The first sales lady joined our group again to explain that the Bugatti car was not on display yet, but showed us to the area where we could look at the information about it and the engineering miniatures. Both these women, both Caucasian, were gracious and pleasant and their wonderfully generous attitudes made our little guest’s day.
So, sometimes people are friendly and sometimes not, that is life.
• Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.