It's Anti-Racism Week in the city of Portage la Prairie, and many events are dedicated to the cause. Mayor Sharilyn Knox says they're promoting awareness and acceptance.

"The Portage Local Immigration Partnership is running a bunch of events this week to showcase that great things are happening, such as a cricket display this week. Flag raisings are happening at PCI for three days. There are events on the Island this weekend, but I think what's important is we want to allow people to learn about different cultures in our community. I often think that, sometimes, racism stems from fear and misunderstanding."

She explains there's a need to give people the opportunity to learn about each other and thereby quickly realize that we have a lot more similarities than we do differences. 

"I think if we take time to meet each other, learn about each other, and talk about what are our fears, hopes, and dreams, rather than our differences," notes Knox, "we're going to find that we can all live together quite peacefully. It's exciting to see the amount of cultures we have in our community. That is really going to showcase on the flag-raising this week. It's representing the different nationalities that are in our school division."

She adds she hopes the community will see how diverse we are, and hopes people understand that all of this diversity makes up what a beautiful city we have here in Portage la Prairie.

"Everybody brings their own piece of who we are as a city and we should welcome people to come and be a part of Portage la Prairie. I'm just proud to serve a community that is open to that and that we work on understanding each other." 

The high school has about a couple dozen different nationalities represented by its students.

"From a personal view that I have, it's really disheartening to me when I see things on social media that are racist against newcomers in our community. I hope that people who see that, report those things and stand up for other people. It's really the only way that we're going to get past it. We must let people know that it's wrong. We also have to remember that, yes, social media, or those types of things, allow you to sit behind a chair and be anonymous, so that you can say things you might not say to a person face to face. But we always have to remember that they're human beings behind the screens and behind those things. When you're attacking people, you're attacking human beings. I just wish people would really think about that before they're writing things on social media or against other people." 

 

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