Last year there was lots of talk about reasonable accommodation towards immigrants. Here in Quebec there are not many Hindus or Sikhs probably because of the language. We have lots of muslims mostly from french speaking Maghreb. The media also have an important role in the way people see other cultures. Muslims are in a way the first victims of terrorism as they are all being profiled as violent.
There were some incidences that exasperated Canadians. The Sikh who went to court and gained the right to wear a turban along his Mounted Police uniform certainly irritated some since the uniform is such an important symbol of Canadian identity. Here in Quebec, a young Sikh lad accidently dropped his knife (sorry I forgot the real name, Kurpan?), in the school yard during recess and the parents were shocked to know he was carrying a weapon since weapons are not aloud in school especially after there had been some bloodshed in schools. The boy got permission to keep his Kurpan(?) after his parents went to court and this made most people think "What ever happened to the old saying, IN ROME, live like a ROMAN?". In Quebec people are particularly xenophobic because up until recently they were a closely knit hegemonic society and being a tiny minority in the midst of an aglosaxon ocean, they tend to paranoi about their survival. They are indeed a historic abberation because they were supposed to dissapear through assimilation a long time ago but instead they survived mostly because of the Catholic Church that dominated until the 60's through xenophobia and fanatism and had them multiply like rabbits. Unlike some Sikhs and some muslims the Hindu generally don't ask for any particular treatment so that may explain Canadians' attitudes. But in any case people should not abstain from coming to Canada or even Quebec because Canadians are truly nice charitable people. I guarantee that a Sikh family can settle in a remote village were people say they don't appreciate strangers but one can be positively sure that these same people will get together and assist the immigrant family as much as they can with immense generosity. I arrived here with my family in 62 and Quebec was just starting to get out of the dark ages. It was difficult and I still feel a stranger but it's not that bad. My poor father left Egypt to escape muslim fanatism and he found himself face to face with Catholic fanatism which was much worse. We were not even aloud to attend the same schools as other kids because we were not Catholic (though we were Christians), but my parents fought and we were accepted. Anyways, I think both the immigrant and the host must make some effort of acceptance and respect. The immigrant must abstain from showing that he is here only to get citizenship and economic advantages and he must think that there are obligations not only rights. The host must make an effort to fight ignorance and xenophobia.