Social Inequality In Canada

Canada is globally known as a friendly nation with endless opportunities and equal rights given to everyone. It has a reputation as a nation that cares about its people. However, is this misleading? Is Canada really a nation without any inequality? No, there are some misunderstandings when it comes to what people consider “equal.” Upon interviewing several Canadians from various groups and ages, the results show a surprising outcome of the opportunities Canada actually offers to its societies. Education is a huge factor. Every citizen is required to receive free education until the end of high school by law. While many say that this helps to give everyone the same opportunities, others disagree. One of the people that I interviewed was
For instance, if there are two students who are studying in school, one who is poor, the other who is rich, will that effect their future? The poor student may spend time working part time in order to pay for school, and to support their family, while the rich student will spend that time studying. The rich student will also be able to afford the best tutor, allowing them to receive the higher grades, which will give them access to ivy league schools. The recognition the students from these institutions will receive will eventually lead to a promising career at a high end company. However, the student that cannot afford this will go to a mediocre school, and receive a mediocre job, with little chance of every reaching the position of CEO. Of course this point can be argued against by saying that hard work can change the outcome of any person, and even the less rich student can be more successful than the rich student. However, this is where the “front, middle and back office” concept becomes an issue. In Ho’s article, everyone in the “elite” group, who came from Harvard, Yale and other top schools was given better supplies, nicer food, and overall more benefits (Ho 2009: 76). The people in lower offices were working hard yet they had no recognition, unless it was criticism on a mistake. This shows how some people can work hard, but there is no moving up the social hierarchy that has been set in
There are many other factors as well. Age, gender, even race. For instance, two of my friends applied for a part-time job recently, and despite having almost the same qualifications, my Caucasian friend was giving the job while my Pakistani friend was declined. Although Canada does try to promote equality, there are social injustices such as this happening every day. The glass ceiling is another example of injustice. It is a barrier that women and other minorities face that prevent the form advancing in their professions. Canada seems to be one of them. People in the minority are stuck in the “middle office” group. These people may have gotten their jobs through job agencies, they went to local schools, or are just don’t fit the biased criteria to be in the front office (Ho 2009: 79). All of my interviews were conducted with people of colour, and approximately 40% were women. Upon asking them I they were ever treated unfairly in society, I was amazed to receive collective “yes” whether they were declined a job because of their race, treated as an inferior because of their gender, or even faced racist remarks, it was a huge wakeup