Blog

Yesterday, I went to a stream off the Wanapitei at midnight to catch smelts.

The catch itself isn’t worth mentioning, of course :D, but the experience as a whole was completely new to me. I never imagined that so many people would gather together beside a cold, dark, wet stream in the middle of the night. Some of them didn’t even seem to care about the fishing — they just wanted to soak up the atmosphere and hang out with friends, which showed me another side of Canadian culture.

The shimmering light of campfires, the laughter of young people, old-school rock songs, the rumble of ATV engines — all of it mixed together into something that felt, to me, like the mysterious ceremony of some forgotten cult.

For a long time — and perhaps even now — the Western world has held dominance over much of this planet. A higher standard of living, more developed societies, and greater access to education have all contributed to a certain sense of superiority. And with that superiority, in some cases, comes arrogance, pride, and prejudice.

Yesterday, I went to deliver a parcel to a local apartment building. I buzzed the number listed on the package, but quickly realized the intercom system wasn’t working. This wasn’t entirely surprising — I’ve visited several buildings in town recently and found many of these systems completely dead. They’re built on VoIP technology: when someone buzzes a unit, it calls the tenant’s phone, and the tenant presses a key to unlock the door. Simple enough, when it works.

But this small technical issue led to a frustrating and, frankly, humiliating experience. No matter how clearly I tried to explain the situation to the tenant over the phone, he insisted on “teaching” me how to use the buzz system. My English may not be perfect, but explaining that a buzzer is broken doesn’t require a Ph.D.

Eventually — I suspect at the urging of a family member — he came downstairs. But even after collecting the parcel and seeing the situation firsthand, he still felt the need to explain the buzz system to me.

I stood there for 15 to 20 minutes for a single delivery worth $1.50 — something that should have taken less than two minutes. It left me feeling insulted and deeply frustrated.

I can’t stop thinking about all the similar moments I’ve encountered here in Canada. I understand that attitudes like this are a legacy of long-standing global inequalities — the gap in development between countries didn’t close overnight. But after all these years, and in a country that been recognized one of the most diverse and welcoming on Earth, it’s disheartening that some people still carry these assumptions.