[killer_carlson]

My response to situations like this is:

Diversity makes us stronger, or

A little diversity never hurt anyone.

Also tell the oldies that:

"Just think oldie, my taxes are going to pay for your pension"

I have no tolerance for racism, but I also have very low tolerance for claims that Canada isn't a tolerant country or that we need to bend over backwards for someone who looks for oppression when they get out of bed in the morning.

Canada is one of the most tolerant countries on the planet - you aren't going to find much better.
While there are idiots out there (like the people described in this thread), not everyone in Canada is out there to screw someone because they look different.

I'm a big fan of increased immigration and especially skilled labour. I think we need to do much, much more of it.

I had a similar situation to the old people described in the first post at the Save On Foods by my house a couple of weeks ago. An older couple, in their 80s were in line behind me. The lines there are always long so you sit back and wait. There were three foreign workers at the tills being trained and they were black guys. This old guy starts talking to me and I speak back to him politely. Then suddenly - through HIS THICK ACCENT - he says really loudly "it's taking too long because there's too many BLACKS!". The entire store stops and looks over. I wanted to punch the in the face. Myself and a younger woman responded that diversity is a good thing and then literally turned our backs on him and made a big point of doing so. I'd have had no problem if the managers had asked him to leave.

The irony is that clearly this old fart was an immigrant himself.