Canada’s prisons are failing the mentally ill, the Toronto Star
Yusuf Faqiri and his family could hardly have imagined that three years after his late brother was carried out of an Ontario jail, that they would still be looking for answers — and justice.
But that’s exactly the situation the family finds themselves in today — one that far too many families in this country have experienced despite inquests, human rights complaints, lawsuits, and countless recommendations on how to fix a broken prison system.
Soleiman Faqiri’s death has become yet another heartbreaking example of systemic failures in Canada’s detention and correctional facilities, particularly when those with mental illnesses are held in solitary confinement.
What’s hardly comforting is a provincial audit released earlier this month by Ontario’s attorney general that suggests very little has improved: an overburdened corrections system remains ill-equipped to adequately support inmates, particularly whose with mental health challenges.
“Correctional institutions are not suited to provide appropriate care to the growing percentage of inmates who have possible mental health issues,” reads the report. “We also found that correctional officers require more training to be provided so that they can handle inmates with mental health and behavioural issues more effectively and manage work-related stress.”
In fact, reading between the lines, one can’t help but wonder if another tragedy like Soleiman’s is inevitable.
Soli, as his family still calls him, was diagnosed with schizophrenia after a car accident while in university. He would struggle to take his medications and have run-ins with the law. Under the Mental Health Act, he would be taken to hospital in most of those instances.
In December 2016, the 30-year-old was once more arrested after an incident with a neighbour. Yet, this time, rather than be taken to a hospital for medical treatment, the young man was taken to the Lindsay superjail where he was put into segregation. It was supposed to be temporary, until a bed became available in a nearby hospital.
He’d never make it out alive. Eleven days after his detention, during which his family was repeatedly denied the right to visit him, he was found dead. A pathologist report confirmed that 50 bruises from blunt force impact trauma were left on Soli’s body during an altercation that lasted several hours between him and several prison guards.
The cause of death was nonetheless found to be “unascertained.” While no prison guards have ever been charged for what transpired, the family has brought forward a lawsuit against the government, the superintendent of the jail, seven corrections officers and continues to call for a new investigation.
The third anniversary of Soli’s premature death recently passed. Vigils were held across the country as more and more Canadians worry about a system that is meant to protect our most vulnerable.
“Even as we mourn the loss of my brother, Soleiman, we also remember the families of dozens of other men and women who have died in Canadian jails and correctional facilities — people like Cas Geddes, Justin St Amour, Edward Snowshoe, Abdurahman Hassan, Matthew Hines and many others. Sadly, what started as our family’s search for answers has now become a nation-wide campaign of many grieving families,” Soli’s brother, Yusuf, told the vigil in Peterborough.
It’s hard to know how many inmates are held in segregation in prisons across the country, or for how long, due to woeful lack of data. There are also no provincial prison ombudspersons who could field complaints and investigate concerns about solitary confinement and the treatment of inmates.
At the federal level, there has been some change, though advocates say it is not enough. Bill C-83 is being touted by the government as putting an end to the practice of solitary confinement. It came into effect on Dec. 1.
Inmates could still be placed in “structured intervention units” for a variety of reasons, though the new law requires inmates receive minimum amounts of human contact per day.
If “adequate, rehabilitative programming is not put in place to support the new units, this will indeed be nothing more than a multimillion dollar exercise in rebranding a harmful, unconstitutional practice,” wrote Anita Grace, PhD candidate, in the department of law and legal studies at Carleton University last fall.
Those placed behind bars deserve the same human rights considerations that anyone else in our society expects. This is particularly true when they shouldn’t be there in the first place, but in the care of medical professionals. Why is it taking so long to fix this?
Standing in solidarity with Jewish communities, the National Post
Tovey was a boy in my first grade class. I remember him distinctly because he was the first person I ever identified as being Jewish, or as my father would say in Arabic, “yahudi.”
Growing up with a family from the Middle East meant I heard a lot about Jewish people within the context of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. As a child, I had no idea what any of the discussions happening around me meant, just that there was a distinctly different people from us involved in significant conflict somewhere far away that also involved fellow Muslims and Christians.
It was not a favourable first impression.
Yet, at the same time, I had also been taught to fully respect people of other faiths, or of no faith at all. I was taught to view the Jewish and Christian communities as “People of the Book,” or those whose communities had received particular sacred texts. I would become friends with Tovey and later, Sarah in the third grade.
And when a Jewish family moved next door to us when I was older, I would happily go for walks with the young mother, both of us pushing our toddlers in strollers, feeling nothing but kinship and mutual respect.
Sadly, such teachings and experiences are not as widespread as they should be. Instead, Jewish communities are once again on edge as a spate of attacks in New York City, and across the pond, in London, England, have rattled many to their core. This is just the latest chapter in the ongoing and relentless targeting of these communities based on stereotypes, fear, prejudice, and hatred that have existed throughout history.
As a Canadian Muslim, I know how hurtful and unfair it can feel to be seen as “the Other.” It happens to far too many communities considered different for a variety of reasons, ranging from their faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. It’s up to all of us to confront any and all efforts to otherize communities because it indeed threatens the well-being of our entire society.
It has become far too easy for those who promote hate to find a platform. As comedian Sacha Baron Cohen said in a speech to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) last November, Facebook may be the greatest propaganda machine of all time. Groups boasting of tens of thousands of members share all forms of hateful, false content on a daily basis, whipping up anger towards minority communities around the globe.
These social media tools have been used against the Rohyingya minority in Burma, as a “megaphone of hate” against Bengali Muslims in India, against LGBTQ people and have facilitated the unleashing of a “hurricane of hate” against Jewish communities. All of this eventually compelled the United Nations to launch a strategy and plan of action on hate speech earlier this year.
In Canada, the Liberals pledged to bring regulations that would ensure tech giants are fined should they fail to remove hateful content within 24 hours, similar to Germany’s model. However, even this will not necessarily be a panacea. Researchers writing in Nature magazine last August have documented that “when attacked, the online hate ecology can quickly adapt and self-repair…”
The federal government has also committed millions of dollars towards anti-racism initiatives. These would aim to empower targeted communities themselves to educate fellow Canadians about the insidious nature of racism, and provide opportunities to share stories and to connect with the broader public.
“The ultimate aim of society should be to make sure that people are not targeted, not harassed and not murdered because of who they are, where they come from, who they love or how they pray,” Baron Cohen said in his now oft-quoted speech at the ADL’s 2019 summit.
This sounds rudimentary and yet remains painfully elusive.
Ottawa is working to address racism – and must do more, the Ottawa Citizen
Today is International Human Rights Day, an opportunity to acknowledge what has been accomplished so far towards making our communities more inclusive. It’s also a chance to look ahead.
At the top of Ottawa’s list of achievements is the recent commitment by City Hall to create an anti-racism secretariat. Proposed by Rideau-Rockliffe Coun. Rawlson King, Ottawa’s first black municipal representative, the secretariat would focus on addressing the lack of diversity in our municipal workforce. Currently, visible minorities represent only 9.5 per cent of middle and senior managers at the City of Ottawa, despite making up 20 per cent of the population.
The new office would also examine how various communities are able to access city services and examine potential barriers.
Among the initiatives it could explore is a youth fellowship program that provides recent graduates from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds an opportunity to work at city hall. In Toronto, the Muslim Youth Fellowship has helped dozens of young leaders develop valuable skills and pursue civic careers.
At the top of Ottawa’s list of achievements is the recent commitment by City Hall to create an anti-racism secretariat, proposed by Rideau-Rockliffe Coun. Rawlson King.
Then there’s the pledge made a few weeks ago by Ottawa’s first black police chief, Peter Sloly. He promised to do more to make sure his officers aren’t discriminating against residents. Like all of us, he’s seen the dismal numbers: recent analysis shows that Middle Eastern and black drivers were more likely to be stopped by police than other drivers in this city. “We want to get to zero instances of racism and discrimination in policing, in any aspect of public life,” said the Jamaican-born Sloly.
There are also concerns around how the force addresses hate crimes in this city, particularly when it emerged that Ottawa’s hate crimes unit had been quietly disbanded, even as incidents continued to climb. Community advocates are still waiting for the details on how the force plans to tackle hate and whether plans will include anti-bias training for all personnel and annual reporting on what’s going on in our neighbourhoods.
Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that some of the most impactful steps to address racism in our city were prompted or led by people of colour. This is why representation is important.
Those who do not face racism themselves must make space for racialized leaders and community members to lead the way towards collective action.
As Robin diAngelo, the author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, wrote earlier this year, “We can attempt to understand the racial realities of people of colour through authentic interaction rather than through the media or through unequal relationships. We can insist that racism be discussed in our workplaces and a professed commitment to racial equity be demonstrated by actual outcomes. This takes courage, and niceness without strategic and intentional anti-racist action is not courageous.”
It is the kind of courage that led the University of Ottawa to hold a forum on anti-Black racism this past November to hear from students. This was part of the university’s response to two cases in which black students were singled out for identification by campus security officers between June and September.
“The trauma coming back to school on my first day of classes for my special topics course and being locked out of the classroom — and seeing none other than the guard that put me in handcuffs and made me sit there for hours be the one to come unlock the door — was more than horrible,” Jamal Koulmiye-Boyce told the forum. An investigation determined that Koulmiye-Boyce’s treatment amounted to racial discrimination.
With more and more people rightfully demanding change, the political will to respond is growing.
Led by the United Way, a group of community organizations, municipal leaders and representatives from key city institutions have now formed United For All. It’s a coalition that aims to strategize ways to make our communities safer for everyone. It was launched last month, and time will tell if it will make meaningful change in the lives of Ottawa residents.
Those of us committed to this work are hopeful.
Quebec’s values test is dangerous politics, the Globe and Mail
What’s wrong with asking immigrants whether they believe that men and women should be treated equally before the law, among a host of other questions meant to check for compatibility with democratic principles? Especially considering that if someone incorrectly answers a question, there are several more opportunities to try again and eventually, most will likely settle in and live happily ever after.
Quebec’s “values test” on new immigrants, which begins Jan. 1, may seem harmless, but many racialized, immigrant community members don’t live happily ever after in Quebec – not when xenophobia and Islamophobia permeate people’s lives, often to devastating impact. These types of policies, and the accompanying rhetoric, create an unwelcome atmosphere that has already led some people to leave.
Earlier this fall, Quebec’s Human Rights Commission called on the provincial government to acknowledge the serious extent of Islamophobia and discrimination and to do more to address the phenomenon. The commission interviewed members of minority communities and discovered hate and racism had caused people all sorts of significant harm. The political climate was a contributing factor.
“Many respondents referred to the damaging effects of the 2013 societal debate surrounding the ‘Charter of Quebec Values’ and its repercussions on the general climate of hostility toward Muslims,” the findings read. “The respondents who wear hijab experienced a marked increase in discrimination and acts of hate during that period.”
A new values test will further reinforce a divisive narrative in the minds of Quebeckers. The Bloc Québécois, closely aligned with its provincial counterpart, the Coalition Avenir Québec, didn’t shy away from telling voters to elect candidates who “resemble” them as a way to stand up for Quebec culture and identity. It proved to be a winning strategy.
These persistent trends put minority communities at risk of continuing harassment, violence and discrimination. An atypical number of visibly Muslim women reported being targeted earlier this year. The rise coincided with the contentious debate preceding the passage of Bill 21, legislation that prevents people wearing religious clothing from serving in particular public-sector professions, contrary to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The irony is that now new immigrants seeking to live and work in Quebec will reportedly be tested on their familiarity with human-rights ideals, notwithstanding guarantees of freedom of religion and expression that once applied to everyone.
It’s far too easy to chalk up this latest move as one more example of Quebec’s cultural insecurities, manifesting themselves in how the government treats immigrants. Where are the realists who understand the province’s significant labour shortage and who should want to attract the best and brightest?
Canada’s multicultural policy has long been based on the presumption that immigrants want to contribute fully and positively to the social and economic fabric of the country while maintaining – even celebrating – their cultures.
This decades-old legal framework has helped make Canada a beacon of diversity and inclusion, despite constant criticism from those sympathetic to right-wing populist forces who scapegoat immigrants for their economic woes. Yet, Quebec was never fully on board with the policy; the BQ’s electoral platform included a promise to seek an exemption from the Multiculturalism Act altogether.
Quebec’s approach instead views potential immigrants with suspicion, imposing a reverse onus to prove they do not come with attitudes at odds with the province’s imaginary, superior character.
After all, patriarchy and misogyny aren’t limited to any one culture or world view, no matter how self-righteous the CAQ wants to portray itself or the province.
Furthermore, Quebeckers do not have a lock on fully understanding democratic principles themselves. If they did, Bill 21 would not have received widespread support, as it’s blatantly contrary to notions of freedom that Canadians have valiantly fought for and been rightfully proud of.
We now know that hostility and fear mongering about Muslims led a young, disturbed man to massacre six Quebec Muslims in their place of worship nearly three years ago. For a brief moment after the tragedy, it felt as though Quebeckers finally understood the ramifications of the constant framing of Muslims as a threat to the province.
Yet, divisive narratives are simply too hard to resist when politicians want support, attracting those who painfully recall the Roman Catholic Church’s grip on Quebec society prior to the Quiet Revolution and those who continue to fear the loss of their own cultural identity today.
This dangerous type of politics can’t end soon enough for more than one million immigrants and visible minorities living in Quebec, and the tens of thousands more from around the world who simply want to one day live and prosper in the province.
But will it ever end?
Make no mistake, the far-right is still a danger to our country, the Toronto Star
by Amira Elghawaby and Bernie M. Farber
While the pundits quibble about who won or who lost in this federal election, we can all agree the biggest loser was Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party of Canada. That’s a win for all of Canada.
While the party made a lot of noise in seeking to attract those who oppose so-called “mass immigration,” and who feared an “Islamist takeover” of government, it failed to make signifiant gains to capture even one seat.
Yet, it is disturbing to note that close to 300,000 people voted for Bernier’s party and that the party claims a membership of 40,000 people. And, only a year ago, we saw 25,000 voters actually cast ballots, for far-right figures like Faith Goldy and others running in mayoral races in the GTA.
And let us not forget, that in this election cycle, for the first time in postwar Canadian history, a party that espouses neo-Nazi rhetoric, the Canadian Nationalist Party, was given full political party status.
The sad truth is, these forces aren’t going away anytime soon and will continue to gnaw at our democratic freedoms and Canada’s multicultural character.
Canada’s new Parliament must unite toward addressing the underlying symptoms that push some people toward alt-right and white supremacist movements. Not only has the Liberal government already made significant headway with its anti-racism strategy, almost all the political parties have committed towards confronting racism in this country. Surely, they can work together on this.
Furthermore, new research by Ryan Scrivens, Vivek Venkatesh, Maxime Bérubé, and Tiana Gaudette provide some important hints on how elected representatives can work across party lines, and in co-operation with all other levels of government to make change.
The researchers interviewed 10 former right-wing extremists about the path they took and what might have prevented their descent into hate. Their answers provide insight on efforts that could be undertaken.
Education proved to be a key issue. Families could have better information and tools to spot the warning signs and schools could do more to provide anti-racism curriculum and better explain the harms of violent extremist movements.
“If only I had had some education beforehand about, you know, what a hate group was [and how] it just … it profoundly alters you as a person and not in any good way, and it can put yourself and your family in danger, and there’s huge personal risks involved,” said one participant in the study.
While education is a provincial jurisdiction, the federal government could still provide educators with valuable tools and resources on racism, white supremacy, immigration and more. Around this time, each year, for instance, Veterans Affairs provides a host of resourcesfor teachers in commemoration of Veteran’s Week, which runs from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11. Why not have similar initiatives around a national anti-racism strategy in all schools, colleges, and universities?
The study participants also talked about the role of law enforcement in potentially preventing violent extremism. Hate crime units should play a key role. The NDP’s platform made specific commitments around ensuring that all police forces have such units in place. The Liberals pledged to do more to gather better data on hate crimes which should ultimately lead to better policies to address the rising numbers.
Former members of hate groups, but who had eventually rejected their ideologies, are also key in any community efforts to counter such extremism. Yet, very few, if any, programs in Canada provide a bridge between former violent extremists and current ones. On the contrary, the shame and stigma associated with ever having held such views often mean people do not easily come forward to offer lessons on how to combat this scourge.
Governments could also provide programming that would help people transition away from these movements, and educate vulnerable populations — often young people — about the risks.
There is an estimated 300 hate groups in this country, some of whom may be active in our military, or in other institutions. Hate groups online proliferate with very little consequence, even though Canada is a recent signatory of the Christchurch Call to Action. The government could further follow New Zealand’s lead and create a special investigative unit to track down and prosecute those disseminating extremist material.
Countering these dark forces must be a priority, even if their influence proved limited at the ballot box.
An anti-racism wish list for Canada’s new Parliament, Global News
It’s anyone’s guess whether Canada’s newest Parliament will last long enough to have a meaningful impact on the lives of Canadians.
There’s plenty to do, not least when it comes to addressing racism in Canada. It’s a big issue that touches on major priorities, among them health care, economic prosperity, housing, and access to justice.
In fact, Marie Claude Landry, chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, was unequivocal in a statement released the day after the vote.
“This election has left Canada fractured and many Canadians feeling marginalized and divided. There is an urgent need to reunite our country,” she said.
“I call on our newly elected Parliament to take concrete action to confront racism and intolerance, a daily reality for millions of people in Canada. No one should be made to feel like a second-class citizen because of the colour of their skin, what they believe or where they are from.”
Landry also calls on the new government in Ottawa to “address the legacy of racist laws and policies that continue to impact” Canada’s Indigenous communities.
She’s right on all fronts. This election, replete as it was with constant news about racist social media posts by various party candidates, anti-immigrant dog-whistles, online smear campaigns, Bill 21, and the racist make-up fiascos, has left many of us uneasy with the state of race relations in this country.
Not that we weren’t even before the election.
Now, Landry’s prominent call only helps further strengthen the chorus of voices that have already called on Canada’s federal government to do all it can to confront Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, and other forms of discrimination. We know the situation is bleak in many communities.
The Ontario-based advocacy group, Colour of Change, Colour of Poverty, released 10 fact sheets earlier this year looking at what it calls the “racialization of poverty” in the province and the realities are sobering.
Whether it’s the overrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized children in the child welfare system, or that Indigenous people have the worst health care outcomes than any other population in the country, there are numerous indicators of how racism is wreaking havoc on people’s lives and holding them back from fully participating in society.
There is never a single way to tackle these complex issues, but there are various steps this new government can take. And the good news is some of the track has already been set down by the previous government.
Last summer, the federal government put forward a new anti-racism strategy that commits funding toward strengthening community efforts to confronting racism, as well as placing the onus on the government itself to ensure its own policies are not inadvertently harmful toward minority communities, or leave gaps.
Almost all the parties have expressed some support toward anti-racism work — even the Conservative Party, which had previously opposed Motion 103, the impetus which eventually led to the creation of the new strategy.
The Bloc Québécois (BQ), on the other hand, has said it would want Quebec to have a special exemption from Canada’s Multiculturalism Act, another troubling sign for the minority communities in that province who are already contending with Bill 21, which prohibits people who wear religious symbols from working in certain professions.
Unsurprising that Quebec will be the outlier on these issues, though Canada’s Human Rights Chief Commissioner is clear that Ottawa should “oppose any law in Canada that violates the human rights of minorities.”
Inter-provincial cooperation, as well as work with municipalities, will go a long way toward coordinating efforts to defend human rights nationally. Several municipalities across the country have already passed motions condemning Bill 21. Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said the bill encroaches on the rights of municipalities around whom they can or cannot hire.
Just last week, Nova Scotia banned street checks, also known as carding, which involve police randomly stopping people for identification. A study found that Black people were six times more likely to be stopped than white people in Halifax.
The NDP committed to banning the practice by federal law enforcement officers and said it would encourage counterparts at all other levels of law enforcement to do the same.
A federal election guide for Muslim voters prepared by academics at Laurier University graded each party on various positions impacting diverse communities. The Liberals, the Greens, and the NDP were consistently given a passing grade on their positions around addressing the worrying growth of alt-right movements and in addressing Islamophobia and racism.
While there will be some uncertainty in the days and weeks to come about how this new government will work, there is clearly a significant consensus around the need to address racism in this country.
Sounds like a good place to start the work of Parliament, doesn’t it?
Jagmeet Singh’s surging popularity is a win for diverse communities, Global News
The hashtags speak for themselves: #SinghUpSwing, #Jaggernaut and #UpRiSingh.
With the bar initially set so low, perhaps it isn’t surprising that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is now exceeding expectations. Not only are NDP supporters buoyed by the gains, but his popularity is a win for racialized communities across Canada, regardless of political affiliation.
Singh’s rise in popularity provides a silver lining in an election that has featured offensive tweets by various party candidates, racist make-up, white supremacist hate and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
His growing approval rating continues to outpace all the other leaders. His party has gained five percentage points nationally, with the potential of receiving 20 per cent of the decided national vote.
“He likes campaigning and it shows. He’s being himself and he’s connecting with people in a way that observers were not expecting him to,” said Karl Bélanger, an NDP insider.
Whether all of this positive coverage and impact translates into electoral success remains to be seen. What is clear though is that Singh’s gains will likely open the door for more racialized people to consider a career in politics — and hopefully toward deeper efforts to address systemic discrimination.
“In a time when inescapable racism, xenophobia and hate is bubbling up everywhere, Singh remains part of the reason why I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, regardless of how the upcoming October election pans out,” wrote NDP organizer Laura Nguyen last summer.
Singh hasn’t disappointed those who hoped he would represent minority communities with grace and dignity. He has had to carry the burden brought on by the “model minority myth” which places expectations on people of colour to prove their worth to society by having to be a positive role model.
That being said, the positive impact of a brown man with a turban running a solid campaign to become Canada’s next leader is already being felt.
So I showed a piece of ID at a store and the clerk goes “hey you have the same last name as the future prime minister”. This was one of the few times when a stranger looked at me and didn’t think of something negative.@theJagmeetSingh is changing perceptions one day at a time.
Racialized people are underrepresented in our politics, according to a recent analysis by the Canadian Press. Over one-fifth of Canada’s population, or 22 per cent, identified as belonging to a visible minority, yet only 15 per cent of the candidates in the six main parties represent that reality.
“Anyone that works in party recruitment will tell you it’s not that hard to get white, male candidates to step forward. There’s lots that are willing. It’s harder to get people who have traditionally been left out of politics or thought politics hasn’t been a venue for them,” reflected Erin Tolley, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies diversity in Canadian politics.
Not only is the NDP led by a racialized Canadian but the party also has the highest number of racialized candidates compared to the other parties, with 24 per cent representation. The Liberals are at 17 per cent, while the Conservatives are at 15 per cent.
Canadians have had insight into what it’s like to be a person of colour running for public office through Singh’s eyes, in the way he gently pushed back against comments by a Quebec resident advising him to cut his turban to look “more Canadian” and how he responded to the brownface and blackface scandal.
What remains disappointing, however, is how little overall analysis there has been on systemic discrimination in Canada. Advocacy group Colour of Poverty, Colour of Change released a report card earlier this month assessing the party’s platforms. It concluded that the parties aren’t doing enough, though both the Liberals and NDP fared better than the Greens and the Conservatives (neither of which even mention racism in their platforms).
“We have done the research and compared platforms, and the verdict is clear — racial inequities are growing and deepening in Canada, but the leading federal political parties are not addressing this critical concern,” said Debbie Douglas, executive director of OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.
Whatever happens in the next few days, let’s hope Singh’s success on the campaign trail leads to urgent conversations about how elected representatives plan to better serve all communities. It’s up to us to hold them to it.
Fate of Syrian restaurant in Toronto shows hate coming home to roost in this election, Global News
“Welcome to Canada’s underwhelming election,” declared a recent headline in the Washington Post. It accompanied a bleak analysis by comedian Rick Mercer of this week’s English debate.
Yet, the election hasn’t been uneventful for a family caught in the crosshairs of the hate that has emerged during this campaign.
News that owners of a popular Syrian restaurant in Toronto decided to shut its doors permanently is the first clear evidence that this election will have ramifications long after the ballots are cast, the victors declared and the picket signs put aside.
The owners of Soufi’s store faced a barrage of hate after their son was doxxed — his personal information shared online — for being present at a rally last month. Protesters had gathered in front of Mohawk College in Hamilton, inside of which a fundraiser for the People’s Party of Canada was taking place. The party’s divisive leader Maxime Bernier was present, as were some of his supporters and the two sides faced off.
Not only was Alaa Alsoufi participating in the anti-racism protest, he was also filmed standing near a confrontation in which an elderly woman and her companion were harassed and prevented from crossing the road towards the event.
There’s no doubt that it was wrong for protesters to confront the elderly couple. Protesting anti-immigrant and racist policies and rhetoric is one thing, terrifying people is completely unacceptable. Violence and harassment are never justified. Hamilton police confirmed four people had been detained in connection with the incident.
However, rather than await the natural course of justice to play itself out, members of far-right groups and supporters have deliberately fueled anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hatred by targeting the young man’s family, who are Syrian immigrants.
They have faced a barrage of death threats and hateful messages — so much so that they couldn’t go on with their business (though thanks to an offer of help from prominent Toronto businessman Mohamad Fakih of Paramount Foods, they will reopen this Friday).
Nonetheless, that a successful restaurant, run by recent immigrants, would have had to be shuttered to protect its owners, staff and customers is something that we’ve heard happening in other parts of the world, not in Canada. Mob rule is sadly a feature in countries where ethnic tensions are manipulated and used to pit communities against each other, often leading to devastating consequences.
It’s precisely because of this dangerous climate that the Leaders’ Debates Commission should not have provided Bernier with a platform during the two official debates. While it was important to see him called out by one of the debate’s moderators for using divisive language in his tweets and public statements, his presence brought his positions into mainstream discourse. Within a few minutes of speaking, he’d already accused the other party leaders of supporting “mass immigration,” arguably a dog-whistle to those who hold anti-immigrant views.
It’s also why Canadians should also be disturbed by the presence of the far-right Rebel Media among actual journalists at the debates. The Leaders’ Debates Commission rightly denied the outlet accreditation initially, but a judge overruled the decision and ordered that it be granted access.
The full reasoning hasn’t been released but it’s a head-scratcher when one considers that Rebel Media peddles in dangerous narratives against immigrants, Muslims, and others, and considering its past links with far-right figures including Faith Goldy and Tommy Robinson.
In fact, it was refreshing to see Bloq Quebecois Leader Yves Francois Blanchet refuse to answer a question from a Rebel Media reporter following the English debate. The irony of Blanchet standing up against such a divisive outlet when his party wholeheartedly supports Bill 21, which entrenches racism against religious minorities in Quebec, is not lost on anyone. Nor have people missed the fact that his party tweeted a message to voters that they should vote for people “who are like you” or “who look like you.
All of this almost makes the 2015 election seem staid in comparison. Back then, Conservative party leader and then-prime minister Stephen Harper attacked the rights of women to wear a face veil during citizenship oaths and whose party was promoting a Barbaric Cultural Practices Act.
That’s why it was infuriating to see Alberta Premier Jason Kenney glad handing in the GTA this past weekend to help out the federal Conservatives. As former federal Conservative Minister of Immigration, Kenney was the architect of the new rules on face veils at citizenship oaths. While his nickname is Curry-in-a-Hurry for the ease in which he operates in immigrant communities, many of us recall the racist undertones of the federal Conservative party’s direction while he was among its senior leaders.
This week, current Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer stood at an unofficial border crossing in Quebec and mused about violent gangs entering the country illegally, à la Donald Trump.
Voters can only assume the party hasn’t learned anything from its past mistakes.
This is exactly the rhetoric that fuels the type of hatred the Alsoufi family has had to endure.
White supremacy’s insidious presence in our elections, Global News
While attention is mainly focused on the leaders of the four main parties, something sinister is happening to our politics.
White supremacy has made its way into mainstream public discourse in this country, becoming an insidious danger to our democracy.
In the past few weeks alone, two candidates running for the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) have dropped out or been forced out because of party leader Maxime Bernier’s stance on white supremacy and racism.
Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam candidate Brian Misera shared a series of videos on Twitter last month in which he asked Bernier to do more to rid the party of “racist idiots.” Rather than address his concerns, the party revoked his candidacy.
Another candidate announced he was no longer running because of the party’s “hate-filled, us-versus-them” politics. Chad Hudson was the PPC candidate for the district of West Nova. He said he found the divisiveness “dangerous for racialized Canadians in this country.”
Hudson also noted that he grew more uncomfortable with the party after learning that one of the signatories who supported the party’s creation with Elections Canada was a former leader of a U.S. neo-Nazi group.
“This election does not feel like a normal Canadian election campaign. It feels like it has been Americanized … this country is divided,” said Hudson in a media interview.
“Our confederation feels like it’s coming apart at the seams. It’s west versus east, separate sentiment rising in the west, regional alienation, then we have these racial divisions that are now being exploited by opportunists like Bernier.”
The problem is that “opportunists like Bernier,” who do not have any chance of forming government, are nonetheless moving the goalposts on what society will accept from public figures and in everyday conversation.
We need only look at how U.S. President Donald Trump’s election in the United States impacted online hate here in Canada.
According to a study conducted by media marketing company Cision, hateful speech in social media posts by Canadians rose by 600 per cent between November 2015 and November 2016. Common hashtags included #banmuslims, #siegheil, #whitegenocide and #whitepower.
How to spot a neo-Nazi and other lessons from a former white supremacist
Disturbingly, these types of racist, white supremacist attitudes are spreading. Earlier this fall, the Canadian Nationalist Party registered itself with Elections Canada. Its priorities include maintaining “the demographic status of the current European-descended majority.”
The RCMP opened an investigation in June into a video posted by the party’s leader, Travis Patron. In it, he denounces a “parasitic tribe” that he says should be removed from Canada “once and for all.” This language has worried Jewish groups for echoing anti-Semitic tropes and narratives.
Clearly, something is broken in our electoral system if a white nationalist party can gain official status and is able to provide tax receipts to donors. Canadians shouldn’t be subsidizing hate, particularly now that we are finally hearing stronger condemnation of these dangerous movements.
Earlier this year, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, told the United Nations that white supremacy was among the greatest threats facing the world.
“Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, incels, nativists and radical anti-globalists who resort to violent acts are a threat to the stability of my country and countries around the world,” Freeland said in her speech a few weeks after the deadly Christchurch massacres in which a white supremacist gunned down over 50 people in two mosques. That killer referenced a Canadian man who had similarly walked into a mosque in Quebec City, killing six men in cold blood and injuring many more.
Yet, on the campaign trail, we haven’t heard much at all about how parties suggest addressing this scourge. Only two parties mention white supremacy and far-right groups in their platforms.
The NDP promises to “convene a national working group to counter online hate and protect public safety, and make sure that social media platforms are responsible for remove hateful and extremist content before it can do harm.”
The Liberals also commit to doing more about the proliferation of online hate speech, saying they would protect victims by exploring “civil remedies” rather than relying solely on the Criminal Code. The Liberals go further than any other party in promising new regulations that would require “all platforms remove illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant financial penalties.” This is similar to Germany’s model.
There’s also a promise of $6 million over three years towards combatting radicalization to violent extremism.
Canada’s democracy is facing a real threat. It’s evident online and it’s evident on the streets. Candidates have reported swastikas spray-painted on their signs. Protests and rallies for and against racist ideas have become far too common, even violent.
When a city mayor can’t even pay tribute to the contributions of his town’s Muslim residents during Islamic Heritage Month without his feed being littered with hateful comments, you know there’s a problem in Canada.
It’s a problem that’s much bigger than most Canadians realize.
Amira Elghawaby is a writer and human rights advocate. Follow her on Twitter @AmiraElghawaby.
Who will educate people about systemic racism? Global News
“The saddest part of #Trudeaublackface #brownfacetrudeau,” wrote a racialized friend of mine on Facebook, “is having to educate black and brown people on why it’s offensive and racist.”
The pictures and video of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in racist makeup have led to some difficult conversations between minority communities and the broader society — and within racialized communities themselves.
After all, visible communities are not a monolith. Varied reactions among racialized communities, similar to the range of reactions among the wider public, demonstrate why we can’t ever assume that anyone is automatically aware of social injustices faced by other people of colour.
Who should carry the burden of education? How do we better understand how various forms of racism and discrimination can impact different communities in a myriad of ways?
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to rely on our schools to do this work, though there have been efforts to tackle issues around equity and inclusion in various school boards across the country.
Such commitments are often impacted by government priorities, or the lack thereof.
Take the Conservative government in Ontario. This past summer, it scrapped a rewrite of curricula to include more information about residential schools. The government there has also made numerous cuts to anti-racism initiatives.
We also haven’t been able to rely much on media institutions to educate Canadians about systemic discrimination and racism. The reality is that our media organizations are too often unrepresentative of Canada’s diversity, as many have noted in the wake of the blackface/brownface scandal.
That often leaves the task of education on the shoulders of racialized advocates themselves. While it is a heavy burden, organizing within communities has proven to be an effective means of affecting change.
A 2007 study of ethnocultural communities by Elections Canada found evidence that supportive community associations and organizations help lead to greater participation of visible minority communities in local and national politics.
By building grassroots engagement and education programs, not only will more people become involved, they’ll also have better opportunities to engage on a variety of human rights and social issues.
Take the community-specific GOTV campaigns among Canadian Muslims in the last election. Voter turnout broke records. This points to the value of communities self-organizing. We see similar efforts among a variety of other communities, including Operation Black Vote.
These initiatives are invaluable, yet many grassroots efforts struggle to secure necessary funds and resources to have a sustained, long-term impact. This means the public needs to require that all levels of government bolster and support anti-racism initiatives, civic engagement and educational programs within communities.
To date, only the NDP’s platform includes details on its anti-racism initiatives. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer did say this week that he would back the Liberal anti-racism strategy which was unveiled last June. Whoever forms government would be wise to adopt it. The $45-million strategy specifically identifies the need to build capacity among communities themselves.
Why is any of this necessary? Because any form of systemic racism that prevents some people from fully participating in society undermines our country’s overall progress.
“If some groups have all the entitlements and privileges and others have none or only some of them, then the ideals of citizenship are thwarted,” opined Cecil Foster in the foreword of Anthony Stewart’s book, You must be a basketball player: Rethinking Integration in the University.
“Some groups are more fully citizens, and presumably more fully human in a Canadian way, than those without.”
There are many occasions when communities are compelled to reclaim their humanity in the public sphere. The opposition to Quebec’s laws against religious clothing is a current example of citizens calling on the state for fair treatment.
Allies are those who are not directly impacted, but who take the time to understand the discrimination at play, unpack relevant history, and join affected communities to counter the injustice.
“A history that goes unacknowledged is too often a history that is doomed to be repeated,” wrote Robyn Maynard in Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present. Maynard points to how advocating for Indigneous rights is intertwined with standing up to anti-Black racism, for instance.
Indeed, empathy is powerful. A recent poll found support for improving the lives of Indigenous people is nearly double among visible minority communities than the rest of the population.
Educating all communities about systemic barriers is a necessary step towards eventually dismantling them — once and for all.
Amira Elghawaby is a writer and human rights advocate. Follow her on Twitter @AmiraElghawaby