As an immigrant, I can confirm that this is true. My father was not able to land a job as an Engineer with excellent english and 20 years of experience in Canada because he did not have "Canadian experience." The part about people driving cabs is also true. I just met a cab driver the other day who is veterinarian by trade, but is driving a cab and moonlighting as a real estate agent on the side.
Not sure what the US is like, but I studied about this so-called institutional discrimination in our sociology class at undergrad level.
Generally, vis-a-vis Canada, the U.S. is much more competitive and open; there are also discrimination and racism in the U.S., but one generally does not encounter such incidents too frequently, and when one does encounter them, they are usually overt and direct; people tend to let you know upfront their real views of you directly and there is no attempt to hide behind some euphemism. But generally, if one is willing to work hard and has good education, skills and intelligence, one can move up the social ladder fairly fast in the U.S. There is no use of euphemism and code phrase such as "U.S. Experience" (like the pervasive use of the code phrase "Canadian Experience" in Canada) to exclude outsiders, because it is illegal and its illegality is recognized generally by employers.
Whereas in Canada, the discrimination and racism are very discreet, hidden and indirect; it is nonetheless pervasive. Also, it tends to take the form of passive aggressive refusal and withholding of cooperation towards immigrants (especially non-white immigrants) who tend to be excluded from the relevant jobs due to the highly entrenched barriers that pervade the social structure. Quite simply, it is more about social barriers and exclusion; and less about merits and willingness to work; and outsiders and competition tend to be shunned in a discreet but pervasive manner.
The point is, one really wonders what Apple is thinking looking for employees and talents in a sinking ship like BlackBerry.
If Apple wishes to innovate and create, it would do well looking elsewhere. The closed, anti-competitive, inward-looking, risk-averse and narrow mindset north of the border just does not fit with and is actually the opposite of the "Think Different" and "Think Outside the Box" culture that Jobs had sought to instill in Apple.
But yes, it is very worrying, because Apple under Tim Cook is now dangerously resembling almost in an exact manner what BlackBerry was like several years ago.
