Where are merit and ability in all this ostensibly praiseworthy diversity? And quite apart from merit, do we have enough positions in even the largest of our universities and corporations to represent all the non-male, non-white human beings in Canada? Can inclusiveness include everyone this side of the grave? Where will the diverseness of the diversity end? Or perhaps it will have no end ....

Remember those lamentable Depression-era signs, "No Irish need apply"? Ms Wente is right: through the best of good intentions, we are circling right back into some of the worst abuses of the past. There were many talented and ingenious Irish who were denied work in the 1930s, simply because they were Irish. In our zeal to be "fair" today, let's not forget their counterparts of today.  Otherwise the collective "outcome" for Canada may not be what we might have hoped for. Keep merit firmly in the mix, otherwise through "goodness" we risk sliding into absurdity.