The Global Gathering Place project began in 1997, as a collaboration between the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) and the Centre for Instructional Technology Development (CITD) of the University of Toronto at Scarborough. The project was i nitiated by project manager Leslie Chan and technical coordinator William Barek and it is founded upon the belief that it is essential to Canadian civic culture that young people develop a good understanding of Canada’s multicultural heritage. This includes gaining knowledge of the contributions that immigrants from all times and places have made to building Canada in every respect — physical, social, intellectual, political — and informed awareness of the challenges and rewards which cultural diversity brings to a society. The Global Gathering Place site recognizes and pays tribute to that diversity by presenting original historical materials from the MHSO, together with overviews of their historical and present-day contexts.