Cronulla Beach may mean nothing to our Ontario audience, but for Australians — and especially members of Australia’s ethnic communities — Cronulla is synonymous with the racial riots that occurred there in December 2005.

It all began with reports of “youths of Middle Eastern origin” carrying out ethnically-motivated attacks on life-guards on this Sydney suburban beach. A week later, after the issue was repeatedly played out on talk radio, and there were calls for a local demonstration against the violence, a crowd of 5,000 gathered. Participants ranged from outraged locals to members of white-supremacist groups. Violence broke out.

In the subsequent days after the initial riot, there were various attacks on people who were of Middle Eastern descent or even appeared to be Arabic — followed by retaliation after retaliation. Violence and rioting soon spread to other neighbourhoods.

It rocked Australians and made the nation take a long hard took at its divisions. It was in this climate that the drama East-West 101 was created, portraying the difficulties of policing in a diverse society.  And it would only make sense to screen it here in Ontario — home to people from all over the world. Are we like the Australians portrayed in East-West 101? Is our society as divisive? I hope you tune in to tonight’s panel and the subsequent series on TVO, and come back here to let us know what you think.