Darren sez, "The City of Toronto apparently didn't think their ethnically-ambiguous stock photography was diverse enough. They did a poor job of adding a happy African-Canadian to the mix."



"The policy doesn't say PhotoShop, the policy says 'show diversity' and that's of course what we try and do because we want all of our publications to reflect the community that we serve," explained Mr. Sack, who oversees city communications. "That's only fair. People should see themselves reflected in city services because it's everyone who uses them." "When you're publishing something with the deadlines and you don't have the right photo, the objective is to communicate the service," Mr. Sack said. "We're in one of the most diverse cities in the world. I hope that doesn't pose a problem for anybody. Capturing that diversity is not difficult. That's been our general experience."

I'm divided on this. I think the real problem is that they couldn't find a piece of diverse stock art, and opted for a ham-fisted photoshop job rather than a more detailed search of their stock catalogs. I don't see anything wrong (and I do see plenty right!) with trying to find photos for government publications that reflect the ethnic makeup of the citizens the government serves. Toronto is a fantastically, famously diverse place, and it's good to see the city trying to reflect that. But they should do better than this!

City digitally adds black guy to Fun Guide cover to make it more 'inclusive'

(Thanks, Darren and everyone else who suggested this!)