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Flags, originally uploaded by jon madison.

About one million protesters took to the streets across the United States yesterday to fight against the proposed federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants. There were protests in about 50 cities across America including New York [mbny], Los Angeles [bla], Portland [mbp], Seattle [mbs], Chicago [mbc], Washington D.C. [mbdc] and other cities.

There are good man on the street style stories at all of the links I provided, all from Metroblogging Vancouver’s sister sites in those cities. Also check out this article on the CBC [cbc] which like everything from the CBC is both comprehensive and a gives good background.

On a tangent earlier, when talking about Prime Minister Harper preparing to offer an official apology for the Head Tax on Chinese immigrants [mbv] in the early 20th century, I said that it was nice to live in a country where we are a bit more enlightened about our immigration policies these days.

Looking back on it I wanted to make clear that I was not suggesting that Canada is without racism, or other problems. Living in Vancouver for example we don’t have much daily contact with the ongoing treaty negotiations with the Native Bands, however in the Interior of B.C. where reservations and cities are close to one and other there is still a great deal of progress to be made in making this a country of true equality.

And then there’s the French question which I’m sure we’ll have to try to answer yet again within the next few years.