Toronto- a city without a shared past?

The following is a paraphrase of a discussion thread that took place on the DesiLit-Toronto listserv.

Toronto is a city without a shared past. Half the population, more or less, underscore this point by the fact that their very presence brings new traditions, histories, disagreements, terrors, ambitions and desires to the city.

Still, however, Toronto does have a sense of a tradition that grounds it, whether it be the racism like in that of signs, once posted, that read “No dogs or Irishmen”, or the open-mindedness, as in what is arguably the most progressive urban school district on the continent.

Nevertheless, its inhabitants have yet to develop a candid discourse and a sense of shared principles as to what defines this city, and probably the best way to do this is through its culture. Culture, as it turns out, is something that matters greatly to this city's writers. Living in a multicultural city means we have to be able to speak across the chasms dividing us and acknowledge our differences, and fiction is one of most visible places where this can happen. Novels probing racism, bigotry and general narrow-mindedness are more vital to the process of figuring out who we are and what we stand for than corporate-sponsored spectacles like Caribana or Pride weekend emphasizing only the superficial happiness of dancing together.