I was born in Africa in 1974 from a vietnamese father and a canadian mother.
I grew up in Gatineau and i went to Mont-Bleu school.
I studied medicine in Sherbrooke.
I dedicate my life to my work and, through it, i try to heal people and alleviate their suffering.
I traveled a lot, in many countries on every continent .
I have met people of all races, all colors, all religions.
Through these experiences, i have realized something important:
We are all the same, all human.
We all want to be happy, healthy, enjoy what life brings and endure it’s occasional hardship with friends and family.
I consider myself 100% Quebecois and yet you can trace my origins in 3 continents.
I am very worried about the rising of intolerance in my province, my country and the rest of the world. I also consider myself partly responsible for what is happening because, too often, i have tolerated around me conversations that revolved around the idea that we can judge all people from a country or “race” or “color” from the selected few we met recently. I am guilty of having accepted people close to me saying “Yeah, the “race” are this. The “color” are that. Why? Because i did not want to get into arguments with my friends.
This was my mistake. When we tolerate intolerance, it becomes acceptable and it grows. Today, i have decided that I won’t tolerate this anymore. I will sit down with my friends and i will have an honest debate with them. I will take the time to talk about why we should not judge an entire group of people on the basis of individual impression and why i honestly believe that we are all the same. There are good and bad people in every race and of every color but i am convinced that the good far outweigh the bad by at least a multiple of 10. The big problem is that most good people are silent.
I think it is time to stand together and to denounce intolerance in all forms.
Thank you.
Original post Facebook, January 2017
Martin Pham Dinh 