Ask any Torontonian about the city’s diversity compared to other cities and they’ll proudly spout that Toronto was named by the United Nations as the most multicultural city in the world. This was stated as fact up until a few years ago. Some may even assert it today, not knowing the whole story.
Do a google search of “Toronto” and “multicultural city” and you’ll still see this proclamation on well-known travel sites and even in a document on a United Nations webpage.
Sadly, the gratifying declaration just isn’t true. Although local, national and eventually, international media cited this as an accepted characteristic of the city, the statement is a glorious, but untrue urban legend.
The lifespan of this folklore was impressive though. It seems no one questioned its validity for some time.
According to researcher Dr. Michael J. Doucet, of the Joint Centre for Excellence on Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS), this assertion about Toronto's diversity began circulating in the late 1980s.
Apparently, a U of T researcher used UNESCO diversity data to reference Toronto as the country’s most diverse city. This statement meandered its way to documents released by Metro Toronto’s Multicultural Relations Office.
In 1989, then-mayor Arthur Eggleton, made a speech in stating that Toronto was “…noted by the United Nations as being the most racially and culturally diverse city in the world”.
The factoid was eventually reported in local media and communications material, federal government reports, and by American business writers. An urban legend was born.
However, through exhaustive media searches and correspondence with key parties, Doucet found no concrete evidence of a United Nations declaration of Toronto’s diversity.
It was then-mayor Barbara Hall, in 1995, who finally put an end to the urban myth by instructing City staff to remove the declaration from all communications material. This was after Doucet informed Hall that the assertion, which found its way to a local magazine, was unsubstantiated.
To be sure, Toronto’s diversity is impressive. But declared as the most diverse city in the world? Unfortunately, not.
Comments
So why doesn't some enterprising reporter find out if Toronto IS indeed the most ethnically/culturally diverse city in the world? Esepcially in light of your article, that information would indeed be of value. We would also need to know whether this is calculated on a per capita (or other) basis. Thanks very much.
It's a good question, and I for one, would love to know what IS the most diverse city in the world and how Toronto ranks. But I doubt there would be any clear answers because it's a pretty complicated issue to begin with - how do you measure such an un-quantifiable concept like ethnicity or culture? As Doucet points out, who decides what the boundaries are between one group and another? If someone was ambitious enough to come up with a plan of how to estimate diversity in cities around the world, he/she would be a total hero in my books.
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