To the editor:
In response to Thunder Bay Source’s editorial of Nov. 28 concerning the Indian Friendship Centre, many details were overlooked and need to be addressed.
This older north-side neighbourhood was founded by immigrants from the Ukraine, Poland, Italy and Portugal, after often extreme prejudice forced them to pursue a better life in Canada. Children (many of whom are still residents of the neighbourhood) were raised to live and respect each other.
Racism is not the issue surrounding the location of the new Indian Friendship Centre, despite the media attention suggesting it is.
The primary concern is that this cannot be an ideal location. Other locations have not been explored. The cost of the building is $900,000 and requires an expansion of $9.8 million. To retrofit a building is a contractor’s nightmare and developing this centre in a more accessible location makes more sense. We are also blocks away from a main bus route and parking is limited.
The Indian Friendship, using their statistics, services more than 30,000 visits annually for their programs. There is no neighbourhood in Thunder Bay that could accommodate such heavy traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular.
Our concern is that this will lead to taking our backyards and green space for parking lots, which is a real possibility.
The Prosvita was a banquet centre and throughout the years we have not experienced negative behaviours or property damage. The traffic was never excessive or unmanageable, as the editorial suggests.
In conclusion the residents ask that other areas be explored as a new Indian Friendship Centre, a great idea but a wrong location. We also ask that the implications from the media that we are in any way racist stop and allow an open dialogue to take place without being labelled and discriminated as having invalid concerns.
S.D. Claire,
Thunder Bay
