We're crap
Dear Republic:
In the 1976 Tory leadership race, Clark and Mulroney fought viciously to take control of Quebec. They fought it out one riding association at a time and often stooped to tactics such as sending busloads of folks from seniors homes and bars. But gasp! Do you realise both these men are white?!
Now we don't want people to cry discrimination, but there must be something happening in the way those whites "subverted democracy."
Taking control of riding associations is one of those nasty, ugly parts of politics that ensures delegates sent to leadership conventions vote in your favour. Whites have been doing it for a long time now.
Cultural Studies 101: People from different ethno-cultural backgrounds are more engaged in the political process these days, and that's a good thing. People from different ethno-cultural backgrounds are not all the same, some are honest, some are dishonest (kind of like how white people aren't all the same).
I was pretty pissed-off that the Vancouver Sun continually mentioned that it was Indo-Canadians that were involved in the raids in the BC legislature-because it wouldn't be worth mentioning if they all happened to be of mixed northern European ancestry.
It's not racism if you simply refer to the folks involved in a scandal and use proper names whether that be Harris, Brown, Singh, Chan or Papandreou. It is racism, however, when you point out a collection of scandals involving people of a specific ethno-cultural group and suggest that there is some sort of subversive plot happening within that community.
I'm really disappointed. I thought this paper was above such crap. Sadly,
--Rita Koutsodimos, Vancouver BC (please don't judge me for all the wrongs committed by Greeks)
No we're not
Dear Republic:
The reason why we in the media have to be very careful in the way we report this sort of story is BC's Human Rights Act. In fact, I could make a strong case right now that your article has, in fact, broken the law. This is because Section 7 of the Act reads:
1. A person must not publish, issue or display, or cause to be published, issued or displayed, any statement, publication, notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that
a) indicates discrimination or an intention to discriminate against a person or a group or class of persons, or
b) is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to hatred or contempt...
Clearly, by highlighting the race/ethnicity of the Indo-Canadians in a negative way, you are "exposing" them to hate. Your story also "indicates" discrimination.
And remember, under human-rights tribunal practices, 1) Truth is no defence in human-rights actions and 2) Human rights prosecutors do not have to show that actual discrimination or hatred resulted from the offending publication, only that the possibility was there.
It's a travesty!
--Terry O'Neill, Vancouver BC (O'Neill is Senior Writer, Western Standard magazine)
****
|
