Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler
No room for hate
There is plenty of room for free speech in our society but there is no room for hate. There is room for disagreement and debate, just as there is room for unity and agreement. But I don’t care if you are black, white, or brown, whether you are male, female, straight or gay, whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, or an Atheist, whether you are a Conservative, a Liberal, a New Democrat, or member of the Green Party. Whoever you are, there should be no place for hate in the world we live in.
How sad it is, therefore, that hate seems to be creeping into our everyday lives. Barely a week goes by now where hate and intolerance don’t show their ugly faces. I have recently thought of this again, not because of something that happened far away, but because of a demonstration at Queen’s Park in Toronto, complete with a mock, blood-splattered guillotine, calling for the murder of Premier Doug Ford.
I was proud of Charlie Angus and his response to this horrible demonstration. He is a New Democratic Member of Parliament and, by definition, not likely a fan of Doug Ford. But he said this: “There is no place for this type of politics in Canada. We can disagree with our political opponents, but threats of mob violence are disgraceful. This wasn’t an attack on the Premier, it was an attack on civil society. No excuse. Not now. Not ever.”
I couldn’t agree with him more and I wish more of our political leaders had the guts to stand up and say the same thing.
Now, I am not here to defend Doug Ford. There are others that can do that better than I. I understand that he was elected with a mandate to deal with Ontario’s massive and crippling debt, but I am less than comfortable with some of the ways in which he is going about it.
As well, I understand and support the right of people to demonstrate when they disagree with the actions of government. But I draw the line at violence and hate and both were present at this unacceptable mob scene at Queen’s Park last week.
Hate crimes, racism and disrespect for the rule of law is a growing and frightening phenomenon around the world. It is spurred on and enabled by an era of populism, but it is not in itself populism. In its raw form, it is domestic terrorism and civil unrest. And as it did during the Second World War, it can lead to frightening consequences. More than anything else, we need to tone down the rhetoric.
On this side of the pond, Donald Trump is the chief perpetrator, of course. He refuses to take a firm stand against the alt-right. He was horrible in his response to the Charlottesville massacre. He said there were good people on both sides and he recently doubled down on that. He mouths, from time to time, criticism of some obvious hate crimes, but he avoids outright condemnation of white supremacists or other radicals who might be a part of his base support. Rhetoric leads to empowerment and those thugs interpret it as intended for them.
I intensely dislike seeing this type of inflammatory rhetoric creeping into Canada as well and, in an albeit different way, coming from the mouth of our own Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. He recently made remarks that implied that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was soft on alt-right or white supremacists, on the basis that at some event he was seen on the same platform as Faith Goldy, a high-profile commentator who has been described as a white nationalist. Surely, he must have been just a little embarrassed when it was subsequently revealed that he, too, had been seen in her company at some public event. The point is, however, this kind of nonsense has to stop before it gets started.
Liberal back room boys may think it is a good campaign strategy to paint the Conservatives as soft on hate crime going in to the upcoming election, but it will backfire on them because it is simply not true, and most Canadians will know that. Every political party has their wingnuts. Thankfully the Conservatives have managed to fob most of theirs off to Maxime Bernier and his alt-right party.
Most importantly, this election campaign should not be on how to divide us, but rather, on how to unite us. There are serious issues out there that require a return to civil discourse and reasonable compromise. Inflammatory strategies that encourage hate and misdirected anger have no place in our country or in our political structures.
Not now. Not ever.
Hugh Mackenzie
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Certainly it should be illegal to wear a disguise in public.
This should be a serious offence. No excises and no exceptipns. Period.
I was about to post Hugh’s comments to FaceBook – until I read the unwarranted and clearly biased criticism of Trudeau and the Liberals. Your points on the hateful actions were right on. Sadly, you needlessly made this political. So, perhaps, Hugh can explain Scheer’s ‘support’ of the Yellow Vest movement. The following is quoted from Lead Now:
‘ “Make Canada Great Again” hats. “Proud Nationalist” signs. Even a Nazi salute. These have all been seen among the ranks of “Yellow Vesters”, as part of their convoy that just arrived in Ottawa. [1]
What began with legitimate concerns over job loss in a dying oil and gas industry has become a movement plagued with racist vitriol, fighting to close the borders to immigrants. Now it’s a home for the hateful far-right.
But rather than speaking out against this hate, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is normalizing it by wholeheartedly supporting the Vesters and even sharing a stage with a known white supremacist at their rally on Parliament Hill. [2]
It’s unacceptable for a leader of a major political party to give hate such a platform.”
Peter Kear’s comments on teaching history and quotes from Sear were excellent – thank you!
To repeat: Thank you, Mr. Kear. Our young people could benefit greatly for being taught about the Japanese interment in World War II, the absolute disgraceful cultural annihilation of our Aboriginals through the residential school system, and the sterilization of persons with mental health disabilities in the 40’s; among other less-than-exemplary episodes.
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No right-thinking individual can agree with the mock execution of the Premier. The KKK may well think that Canada is open to a chapter or two (that is, if they don’t already exist).
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To expand on your premise, Hugh, a female, Muslim, stand-up comic was heckled off the stage in Kitchener-Waterloo last week. She was left in tears, and extremely shaken. But in a country where the murders of aboriginal women are seemingly never solved, and Thunder Bay was voted number 1 in Canada, for hate crimes (the murders of aboriginal high school students, with scant attention to the problem by police); fertile ground will spawn xenophobia, racism, and violence.
Some of us had great teachers who instilled the value of learning and understanding history. Ignoring the past is to everyone’s detriment. Thank You Mr Peter Kear.
Never trust people who hide their faces behind black masks or veils, i.e. don’t want you to know who they are. That could mean that they don’t want you to know who they are working for or what their real intent is. At any rate, you have no way of finding out. We are not a fascist society that stifles legitimate protest, so our protesters should feel right about what they’re doing, and proud of it, enough to show their faces. Well said, Hugh.
I feel that there is a tremendous lack of respect. However, such respect starts with the top and is lacking. When young people don’t see adults being respectful how are they to learn.
A Canadian researcher in the field of history/citizenship education has an interesting take as to why we have experienced an increasingly strident and toxic polarization of positions on many public issues, and the consequential decline in thoughtful civil discourse in our society. Alan Sears, a social studies teacher and a professor of education at the University of New Brunswick, argues that Canadian schools are teaching history all wrong, which has consequences for ensuring engaged and thoughtful civic participation.
Sears argues that the space for history as a subject-area has significantly diminished in school curricula over the last 30-years, and what is taught is just ‘too simplistic’ and as a result, citizens’ understanding of the past is usually very ‘one-sided.’ To illustrate this point, he points us to the recent debate over ‘Canada 150’ in 2017, and whether Canada’s history should be split in two sides: Canada is a heroic nation, or is it simply one with a long story of racism and exclusion:
‘History matters to people, from Charlottesville to debates over whether John A. Macdonald’s name should be on elementary schools to the Cornwallis statue in Nova Scotia. People are debating the public history aspects of our lives, and we don’t do those debates very well. We don’t do nuance.’
According to Sears, if we were to teach history well in our schools in a way that demonstrates to students that the past is complex and contested, immersing them in primary sources and introducing them to the skills of critical and historical thinking, students – even very young students – can learn to handle complexity.
The payback for ‘doing history’ this way, Sears claims, is that our future citizens would be more inclined to engage civically, and will show respect when debating the complexity of controversial public issues.
Sears also points out that effective history/citizenship education requires well-educated, knowledgeable and skilled teachers who are certified to teach in their subject-area, but increasingly so – especially with the funding-cut ‘efficiencies’ in Ontario – this certainly will not be the case.
A link to Sears’ interesting perspective: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/why-history-education-is-central-to-the-survival-of-democracy
Your comments are right on the mark.
Well said , Hugh