I was very proud to be part of the generation that sought and demanded freedom and equality for ALL … and that, to this day, I hope has been reflected in my reporting and my blogging.

But yet, I am still so often so disappointed in the world we see: in Afghanistan, in Syria, in the Middle East in general, in China, in much of Asia, in Russia, in Africa, in Cuba, in the U.S. …. and in CANADA.

Hard to believe, but a nationwide poll of Canadians just a few weeks ago showed more than half of those asked believe Muslims can’t be trusted at all or only a little.  And to make it worse, 42 per cent of us felt discrimination against Muslims “is mainly their fault”.

Good grief!

How can this be!  How can so many Canadians still condemn an entire religious group … or the vast majority of them  … for the disgraceful actions of a very TINY, TINY minority of  violent extremists in their midst, well under 1% of the Muslim population here … and around the world?

Readers of this blog know I am a proud, strong supporter of Israel; I often have condemned strongly radical Islamists not just for their disgraceful hate-filled violence against Israelis and Jewish institutions around the world, for their barbaric middle-ages beliefs regarding women and gays; for their intolerance against Christians and other faiths; and for the damage they’ve done to the quality of life for millions of innocent people and families … including Muslims… around the world.

But surely we should be educated enough and tolerant enough to realize and understand that NO ENTIRE PEOPLE OR NATION OR FAITH should be condemned or distrusted or isolated or discriminated against because of the actions and idiocy of a small minority!

I know many will say these poll results show the Muslim majority should therefore speak up more often and more loudly to separate themselves from the extremists, terrorism-supporters and plain old racist idiots in their own midst.

Perhaps they are right:  I believe the poll shows most Canadians don’t like their silence, some questionnable fund-raising and may even see all that as complicit support for the radicals.

But whatever the cause: clearly Canada’s Islamic community has an image and p.r. problem amongst their neighbours.

But the poll was also disappointing to me in other areas the pundits regarded as “good” news.

Reportedly 70% of respondents reported high levels of trust regarding Protestants, Catholics and Jews, and 64% said they trust Aboriginals while 63% would trust immigrants.

That’s good news?  Maybe I expect too much, but in the year 2012,, in an educated society like Canada, can it be really “good news” that 35% of the population still distrust people … not because of their individual remarks or their actions … but just because of their religion or ethnicity that most of them just happened to be born into?

Aaaargh!!!!!!

And it gets worse.

How ironic that just a few weeks ago, I wrote about Canada’s largely unaddressed and hidden racist society: Quebec.  In a blog entitled “STOP Giving Quebec a Free Racism Pass” I pointed to a new study/news reports that exposed Quebec’s continuing backwardness in welcoming, accepting and integrating as full fellow citizens Quebeckers who weren’t white, Catholic, Francophone.

Of course, that did not sit well with some …as the Comments section reflected.  But this latest poll shows I was quite correct ..almost to a disappointing extent!

More than 70% of French-Canadians openly said they have “little” or “no” trust of Muslims, just because they are Muslims.

Doesn’t that do “les Quebecois” proud!

Just think about the implications of that in terms of what Muslim children face in schools, what Muslim residents experience in residential choices or finding jobs or social acceptance in Francophone communities.

“How many roads….?”

When the openly expressed distrust hits 52% among Canadians generally and 70% among Francophones, the federal and provincial governments (or federal NDP Opposition) SHOULD speak up, condemn loudly and act  … but won’t.

The votes of the racists among us are clearly more important than the principles of justice and equality in a little song.

Harv Oberfeld

(Please note: Time to take my Spring retirement trip: the blog will be down April 15 – May 15. Will then be back …all charged up, and raring to rant on!)

It’s our dollars after all, so we should be grateful for any effort at doing that.  And with my own experience on Parliament Hill and also dealing with the federal bureaucracy from Vancouver , I can tell you there’s lots of room for cuts … especially if they could get more public servants to work as hard and efficiently as most of us do in the private sector.

And I can regale you with LOTS of stories of what I would view as waste I personally have observed in watching the CBC at work … from fairly close up! (Maybe a future blog there!)

SO, although I appreciate and believe in the CBC’s role in our society and Canadian broadcasting, I’m not saddened, in difficult economic times, to see Finance Minister Jim Flaherty  cut the CBC’s budget by 10% over the next three years … $115 Million by 2014-15.

And frankly, I was happy to see civil service cuts in Ottawa … in the usually-untouchable bureaucracies of the Privy Council, Department of Finance and Treasury Board.  But I’m not sure about the reductions in Transport and Defence  … two departments that I’ve always felt do steady, important jobs for the country.

Tough times, though.  Right?

Well, then why …when the government uses that reason to even increase future eligibility for Old Age Security to 67 from 65 … do MPs and THEIR GOLDEN PENSIONS emerge unscathed …yet again!!!

We have to suffer; government departments have to suffer; public programs miust be cut …but our politicians will continue to wallow FOREVER in huge cash rewards they have bestowed upon themselves!

That stinks!

They certainly don’t talk about it much… but the facts are: not only do MPs get pensions after only six years in office, they can start collecting as early as 55 years of age.  (Try telling YOUR boss you want that too!)

And that’s not all: the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation calculates MPs contribute only $1 for about every $6 you and I put into THEIR pension fund … in the private sector, most of us contribute 50%; when they retire, they will also collect as pension 75% of their annual salary …most of us get 20%  …or less: and. of course, THEIRS is fully indexed … many of ours are not.

Where is the justice in all this?  How can those who have so much less be required to cut back, get less … while those who vote our cuts into law so openly guild themselves in gold …our gold?

Even Flaherty knows it’s a hard sell; his solution… “adjustments” to the MPs plan …not now, but sometime in the future, after consultation with and amongst all the MPs, and and legislation effecting anything they agree upon.  Please don’t hold your breath!

That’s what doesn’t wash with me …and I’d bet you too.

If our politicians want us to sacrifice, pay more and get less … for the good of the country…. so should they!

Especially when THEIR remuneration, pensions and benefits have so much more available room to manoeuvre.

That would be fair … so it won’t likely ever happen.

Harv Oberfeld

NDP supporters won’t like it …but the TRUTH is that, in the push for power, former leader Jack Layton and the NDP party sold out the West and BC and pandered to Quebec every way they could: from proposing that ALL future Supreme Court justices be required to be expertly bilingual (bye-bye Western appointments!) to even denying Alberta and BC a fair increase in their currently under-represented number of Commons seats, to reflect the huge increase in our populations over the past decades.

At first glance, it may have looked  like turning its back on BC and the West worked: the NDP grovelling to Quebec scored well with voters in that province … but it turned the once-national party into basically a provincial power.

Disagree with that?

Well, point me PLEASE to any vote where BC’s NDP MPs have stood up for BC when it has come to achieving OUR deserved RIGHTS!

BC’s NDP MPs voted in favour of the Supreme Court bill that would SEVERELY deny BC and Western Canadian future appointments to the Supreme Court: the only thing that stopped the Bill from becoming law in the minority Parliament at the time was the much-maligned, but Tory-controlled Senate, that shot down the legislation ..and saved the West.

And since the election, BC’s NDP MPs have continued to pander to Quebec … to the point of voting AGAINST BC getting any increase in Commons seats, UNLESS Quebec  (despite its dwindling population) also got more seats ..thus WIPING OUT any potential justice for their “home” province.

Only the Tory majority (much as I hate to admit it) assured BC a fairer share of seats for future elections.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a single NDP federal leadership hopeful who I can comfortably believe would give BC’s interests and needs a FAIR representation on the national scene.  Not one!

I know a lot of British Columbians are backing our own homegrown MP Nathan Cullen …but tell me, where was HE when BC was being short-changed, discriminated against and denied equality?  From everything I can see: NOWHERE!  In fact, from my point of  view,  he was just another one of the BC NDP MP lemmings who failed to stand up for fairness on our behalf.

And if you think I’m being too “provincial”, what about the candidates???

Have you seen anything that shows Thomas Mulcair, the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister,  would EVER vote against Quebec’s interests in Ottawa to give the West a fair break; any hint that Ottawa MP Paul Dewar would deviate from backing his Ottawa constituents interests; or that Peggy Nash, a former Toronto MP,  who seems to worship “la francophonie” would DARE to ever stand up to Quebec nationalists or against Ontario’s power in Ottawa to back BC or Alberta???

Which brings me to Brian Topp … again, not a great past proven voice for BC either, but at least as former party president, he has a history of working for the NDP when it was a national, not a regional party.

He knows the importance of the West and therefore seems to recognize the need to return the NDP to being a NATIONAL party if it is ever to achieve power.

He has, in fact, actually lived in BC and  also worked in Saskatchewan for the NDP Romanow government. And Adrian Dix at one time tagged him to manage the next provincial NDP election campaign here.

Because he was part of the NDP establishment under Layton … I can’t give him an unqualified endorsement either as someone who I can wholeheartedly trust to give BC a fair deal on issues in Ottawa if elected as leader.

But at least he hasn’t voted AGAINST us. Yet.

Harv Oberfeld

If there is, I have a brilliant idea for you: one that has the potential of not only making you VERY famous (tv appearances, a book,  a movie, a song?) , while also giving you the power to positively impact the NHL for decades to come.

Why not monitor the NHL playoffs, soon to kick off, to see if there’s any bias  in refereeing when Canadian hockey teams play US hockey teams!  For the entire playoff season. The potential findings could be of HUGE importance ..and it’s a lot easier to do than it may seem.

Many hockey fans, including this one, sense there is inequality in the numbers of penalties called when Canadian teams play against their American counterparts during playoffs.

Why? Because NHL referees are human …make subjective decisions of what/when to call penalties … and what/when not to call penalties.

And, in my case, I suspect those subjective decisions can be impacted because referees are well aware … directly or subliminally, that the NHL has a real vested financial interest in having at least one, AND MAYBE EVEN BOTH teams that make it to the big finals, be  American. In fact, I have to admit that if I was a member of the NHL brass …or financial officer… the last thing I would want to see is a Stanley Cup final series involving ,say, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

But two BIG MARKET American teams, or a Canadian-US showdown… Ka-ching!!!

Is there really any bias in the overall number of penalties called?  I don’t have any statistics…and I’m sure the NHL would vehemently and emphatically deny it,   but I know MANY hockey fans, especially in Canada, supsect there is.

Why not prove them wrong.

And just imagine if the statistics this coming hockey playoff seaason would prove them right!

It wouldn’t be that difficult to do for someone with the time/resources to take on the task.  (A newspaper or sports network should take the task on … but most of them have a vested interest in their home teams or the NHL, they don’t want to know, even if there is bias.).

This is where a true devoted fan or university could write a GREAT paper on the results ..especially if the penalty-call gap proves substantial. And if it show NO preferential overload, wouldn’t that be great for the sport?

And it all could be done by just collating penalty results from various games listed in the daily newspaper each day.  And if the aim is to determine possible bias on a national basis,  games between two teams from the same country could even be ignored, making it all even easier to do.  (But KEEP your clippings, in case the results are so outrageous, the NHL or media question their accuracy.)

Of course, by actually watching the games, an added dimension …although highly subjective ….could be added: is there any bias in what/when penalties are NOT called.   Especially if and when US teams are close to elimination … or potential series victory.

What an impact this could have!

If announced in advance by some media source, grad student or educational institution interested in sports or psychology,  just the knowledge the results are being looked at in this way could result in a fairer series … which is all real sports fans want.

And if done privately and quietly, and a substantial bias IS found,  the outcome would make a great story at the end of the playoff season.

And help change NHL hockey playoffs for the better forever after.

Harv Oberfeld

But who would have thought that they’d be SO BOLD as to try to do away with one of the basic rights of EVERY free society: the requirement that police seek a warrant BEFORE invading your personal privacy, tracking cellphone calls, intercepting and monitoring your Internet activities. And it would require the companies to install equipment for real-time surveillance of your activities … that the police could then access without a warrant.

Big Brother WILL BE Stephen Harper….unless we continue to express our outrage at this attempt to give the state (through its police forces)  unprecedented powers to cut down our civil liberties.

Of course, they didn’t call their proposed law “A Bill to Destroy Canadians Privacy and Expand Police Powers Over Your Lives” … that would never sell. So they came up with an equally ridiculous, but I’m sure they thought brilliant subterfuge …Bill C-30  ”The Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act”.

And they also introduced Bill C-51 entitled an “Act to Enact the Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act” to allow cellphone tracking of individuals for up to a year, instead of the previously approved (under a minority government) limit of 60 days.

But the Bill doesn’t retrict these new police powers to going after child pornographers: it would allow them to target ANY one of us… WITHOUT JUSTIFYING the action beforehand to a judge.

And in an attempt to muzzle the Opposition and intimidate any of those pinko civil libertarians, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews even went so far as to declare “either stand with us or with the child pornographers.”

Shameful. 

And the really scary part is that, armed with their majority government, the Tories could ram the legislation through … only the loud choruses of  thousands of Canadians shouting them down and denouncing this attack on our freedom … standing politically in their way.

Readers of this blog will recall I warned, during the last federal election, of the dangers inherent in giving Harper and the Tories a majority mandate.

But even I … cynical as I am in dealing with politicians … didn’t think they would be so dictatorial as to trample on the basic requirement of police JUSTIFYING and getting a warrant before invading our privacy.

No one I have heard discussing these tramplings of our liberties wants to give criminal, child molesters. pornographers or terrorists a free pass either. I don’t believe it’s really very difficult, when prima-facie information warrants it, for police to get the powers they need to listen in on people or even raid a property.

This is just about giving police a way around those pesky rights citizens in rule-of-law societies have demanded and won for themselves over the past 900 years.

And the Tory penchant for punishment is also fornt and centre now with Bill C-10, the omnibus crime bill that will introduce MANDATORY prison sentences for non-violent marijuana offences.

Really?

At a time when more and more experienced community leaders, citizens  and even prominent public figures, like several former Premiers and Attorneys-General are calling  for marijuana use to be decriminalized …the Tories want MANDATORY jail sentences for anyone caught growing as few as six marijuana plants for the purpose of selling the dope.

They’d better have a LOT of  new jails built  … and very soon!  (Maybe that’s the real aim … providing lucrative prison-building contracts to big construction companies, whose owner are Tory supporters?)

I support tougher sentences for serious crimes and multiple repeat offenders … especially hard drug traffickers; but MANDATORY jail for growing as few as six marijuana plants is plain silly, a waste of court time and tremendous high costs to the system, and will add unnecessary MILLIONS to governmenty spending.

See what I mean by the dangers today inherent in majority government?

It never used to be this way.

In the past, Canadian majority governments enjoyed themselves rewarding friends and supporters with make-work projects … sometimes useless buildings/ventures in  remote, but politically-friendly areas, promotional contracts and programs that absorbed  bucks more than delivering anything much of value and all kinds of laws that reshaped or tinkered with our tax codes, civil laws, corporate give-aways.

But they rarely (except for Trudeau and the War Measures Act) trampled on our basic rights as citizens in a democratic society.

Let’s hope the crescendo of protest over these latest over-the-top proposals convinces the Tories to back down … and keep it real.

Harv Oberfeld

The latest embarrassment surrounds a faked Citizenship Ceremony created in Sun TV’s Toronto studios last October, because for some mysterious reason, covering the 13 already-scheduled swearing in ceremonies around the city for new Canadians was not good enough.

It didn’t start out as a faked event ….but became one when not enough “real” new Canadians could be found to take part.  So six federal bureaucrats stood in, along with three legitimate newcomers, taking part in the Sun studio ceremony and faked taking the Oath of Citizenship.

Incredible!

To be fair, at one point the network was going to cancel the ruse, but then decided to go ahead after the federal officials said six stand-ins had been found to take part and make it look real.

“Let’s do it. We can fake the Oath,” wrote a still unnamed buy apparent Sun media official in a sunmedia.ca  e-mail later obtained by The Canadian Press.

Lately, the whole disgraceful event has been the subject of political charges and accusations, pitting the Opposition against Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and embarrassed federal officials.

But frankly, MY main concern is with SUN MEDIA.

I find it outrageous that the newtwork went along with the ruse and aired the faked footage.

How could ANY news organization do that????

What it shows me is a complete disrespect for journalistic ethics, their own news product and, most of all, their viewers!

And according to the Toronto Star, this was not the first time Canada’s newest news network has been caught leaving truth and ethics out of its reports.  In November, a photo of Sun employees posing with Toronto’s mayor was PHOTOSHOPPED to take out an anchore who no longer worked for the network and ADD in a new Sun TV host.

Geez!

And making it all worse, although the politicians are all flailing about over the government’s role in the latest faked news item, Sun officials have had very little to say about their disgraceful action.

Or perhaps they don’t even think it’s newsworthy.

Just the new norm we can expect from Sun TV … unless some other media blows their cover?

Harv Oberfeld

Opponents of ANY tar sands oil extraction activity will celebrate along with environmental activists who oppose ANY pipelines, whether through the U.S. to Texas for refining or through the Coastal range to Canada’s Pacific for export by tanker. Keystone supporters will mourn, briefly, before looking at some other way to get around the Obama administration’s negative ruling.

And then, there’s the “To hell with the U.S., let’s teach them a lesson and ship our oil to China … that’ll show ‘em!”.

I must admit, the latter was my initial response to Obama’s announcement But I’ve been thinking….

It WOULD feel good to tell the Americans to shove off: you don’t want our oil, then it’s YOU who will suffer and we’ll just sell it to the Commies … probably at premium prices,too!

And frankly, much to the chagrin of many of those who read this blog, I have no aversion to a pipeline to the coast …. IF every reasonable precaution is taken to make it as environmentally safe as possible.

The knee-jerk naysayers may hate it, but I’ll bet they all love all those petroleum products/by-products they use every day and in more ways then they even imagine. And not only oil product consumers, but those enjoying the thousands of jobs … directly and indirectly … that come from serving and servicing the tar sands’ extraction industry, its needs, equipment, services, staffing and shipping want to get that oil out… via the coast, if necessary.

And yet, I don’t believe Canada should now rush to the “China solution”.

Let’s face it: almost everything we see unfolding politically in the US right now … and for the next 10 months… is almost TOTALLY election-related.  Obama didn’t like the way the Republicans sttached the Keystone 60-day deadline approval rider to the Bill that extended middle-class tax cuts: that’s WHY he rejected the project.

Wait until AFTER the November election and, if Obama gets his second term, I’d bet he’ll find some way of giving the go-ahead to the project with some sort of face-saving alterations.  And if Obama, loses the Keystone project will get the go-ahead from the Republicans before White House stationery is changed!

So why rush to signing some very long-term huge commitment to China?

That would no doubt anger the Americans (stop cheering the idea!),  interfere in the US election campaign .. and probably hurt Canada’s trade relations with the US in the long run, regardless of who captures the White House in November.  And we saw during the softwood lumber dspute how nasty the Americans can be, even when court ruling after court ruling came out in Canada’s favour.

And according to Stats Canada, Canadian exports in 2011 (to the end of Nov) to China totalled $19 Billion … and to the US,  more than $300 Billion.  So would it really be a good thing for Canada to antagonize its largest trading partner?  Answer that, not from the heart, but as if YOUR job depended on it.

Patience must triumph over passion.

Prime Minister Harper had already warned Canada would not become a “captive supplier” to the US, and he is right.  Canada should sell SOME of its oil to China, but we will not benefit in the long term by entering into huge long-term contracts with China for the bulk of our oil/natural gas.

This is a good time, however, for Harper to squeeze Obama for better access by Canadian companies/suppliers to public infrastructure projects south of the border …  which have become more and more protectionist under the Democrats …. in return for a Canadian go-slow policy on oil market alternatives.

That would be the smartest way to proceed.

But wouldn’t it be nice to see at least some sort of signing ceremony featuring Canada and Chinese energy corporations or our governments signing a new trade agreement for oil … and shaking hands enthusiastically in front of the two countries’ flags.

We’d probably even make the US Evening News … without a hockey stick in sight.

Harv Oberfeld

At their weekend convention, according to The Vancouver Sun, the “new” Liberals actually reasoned that “a new spirit of openness and a policy in favour of legalizing and pot will help breathe life into the Liberal Party in Western Canada”.

What an insult!

I’m surprised they didn’t also pass motions saying the Libs LOVE wheat, oil,  salmon, samosas and dim sum … to really reach out to the West in 2012.

Do they think we didn’t notice that when the subject of giving BC and Alberta our DESERVED RIGHT to additional Commons seats, the Libs weren’t exactly defending our rights?

From the Windsor Star Jan 3: “The NDP and Liberals criticized the bill for relying on the population formula and for the speed at which it was rushed through Parliament and the Senate before receiving royal assent.”

Well, we already knew the federal NDP had sold out BC and the West during the last election, as Jack Layton promised Quebec anything and everything it wants, including more seats if BC got more seats, and BC’s NDP MPs and candidates not only went along with that, but actually defended the outrage.    Of course that worked in Quebec … just the way favoring the East, at the cost of fairness in the West, has always worked for federal parties down East.

But where were the Liberals?  Certainly not defending BC rights or justice or fair play.

In fact, when a Francophone NDP MP from New Brunswick also pushed a Private Member’s Bill that would have made sure almost no Westerners could ever qualify in the future for nomination to Canada’s Supreme Court by requiring expert level bilingualism for all new appointees, the Liberals joined the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois and voted FOR that Bill.

The unofficial  Commons Coalition to Screw the West (Liberals, NDP, Bloc Quebec) succeeded in the House…. overwhelming the Conservative minority government and passed the legislation.  The only thing that stopped it from becoming law was the Tory majority in the oft-maligned, but in this case, West-saving Senate.  (Perfect example of why we should keep the Senate …until our democracy truly gives the West its fair share of power in Ottawa!)

And what about the recent contracts to build new coast guard and navy vessels … contracts awarded by the Tory government to BC and Nova Scotia firms …  based totally on independent assessments of costs and technical merit,  without ANY POLITICAL  INTERFERENCE.  Does anyone really believe the Liberals would have carried out the process that way????

Do the federal Liberals think we don’t know about all this … about how the ACT back East … compared to what they SAY out West?

And they think saying they would legalize pot (which they wouldn’t do anyway, because the Americans would shut the border tighter than a drum) is the key to winning BC votes!

Maybe they should start Keeping It Real and read more BC and Western Canada blogs.

Harv Oberfeld

Just going back as far as World War II is bad enough to get the point.  Our treatment of Japanese CANADIANS in interning them without cause and stealing most of their possessions was shameful to put it mildly; our turning away of Jewish refugees (and even sending many back to their deaths in Europe) was an anti-Semitic blot on our history; and our subsequent failure to expeditiously pursue war criminals who made it here was not our shining moment.

Not to mention those aboriginal residential schools,  our second-rate treatment of Asian immigrants, and the racial discrimination practiced for too many decades in jobs and appointments, our residential neighbourhoods, social clubs and even our supposed institutions of higher learning.

It still bothers me to think about this stuff … and although I am fortunately too young to have witnessed most of it, I do remember …je me souviens … as we said where I grew up in Montreal,  Quebec some of thes realities.  In fact, on this blog I wrote “Memories” in 2008 about my personal experience witnessing what a wonderful black man named Sweeney … Oscar Peterson’s brother-in-law… went though at the hands of the oh-so-proper White Upper Crust English Montrealers when he just tried to run a neighborhood restaurant.

Thankfully, though, things have improved greatly almost everywhere in our land: discrimination and racism is seen for the silliness it is; anti-semitism is relegated to the idiot-fringe; huge waves of Asian immigration have been absorbed without many problems, and welcome additions to our dining delights; and if Sikhs and Muslim immigrants experience any new-culture challenges, they seem more often to be internally-generated rather than externally applied.

Except in Quebec.

I still remember, moving to my first newspaper job at the Saskatoon Star Phoenix in 1969, how surprised I was to find the city’s mayor, Sid Buckwold, was Jewish.  How could that be, I wondered? Co-workers were appalled at the question … until I explained that, in Montreal, an English person …let alone someone who is Jewish..could NEVER be elected Mayor.

Sadly, 40 years later, THAT IS STILL THE CASE in Montreal and Quebec.  An Anglo or Jew or Chinese or Muslim or Black could NEVER today be elected mayor of Montreal or Quebec City or Premier of Quebec. With very rare exceptions, Quebec minorities are still largely electable only in communities where their ethnic minorities exist in larger numbers.

It’s a reality we in BC thought Canada had left behind decades ago. It was 40 years ago that Dave Barrett was elected Premier of BC without his Jewish religion being an issue at all. We’ve had mayors and MLAs and MPs elected from virtually every minority without their ethnicity being an issue of any kind.

But a minority member becoming Mayor of Montreal or Quebec City  or Premier … even now …. NON! Impossible!

And yet no one says anything.  After all, it’s Quebec.

In fact, students of history will know that minorities actually were treated and accepted better in Quebec two hundred years ago than they are now. The province actually led in passing laws granting voting rights to Jews, for instance. But while there has been progress among Quebecois in the higher-educated sectors of  urban society on some parts of the Island of Montreal,  much of Quebec … especially rural areas …  remains isolationist and unwelcoming.

Many will remember how, in 2007, the town of  Herouxville way up the St. Lawrence River past Quebec City, adopted a set of STANDARDS warning any ”new arrivals” who might dare to think of moving there that they must NOT bring their home country lifestyles to Herouxville! “We consider that killing women in public beatings or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life,”  the City Fathers warned.

“And the only time you can cover your faces is during Halloween,”   they added.  What Ignoramuses!!!  The rest of us may have laughed, and condemned …but, in my view,  the good people of Herouxville, Quebec had made themselves quite clear; foreigners with any “foreign ways” not wanted.

Can you imagine if a BC community passed such warnings?  The BC government, the federal government, the Canadian Human Rights Commission … probably even the UN …would have raked them over the coals.  But it was Quebec: so we just “tsk tsk”ed and did nothing.

An anomaly?   Unfortunately not.

Gatineau, Que. is a suburb of Ottawa that owes MUCH of its economic development and residential growth to its proximity to the nation’s capital. And along with that growth have come ethnic minorities, and (YIKES!) immigrants from far-flung lands.  … all part of the modern Canadian modern mosaic.

Most of us wouldn’t bat an eye. Yet just recently, the City of Gatineau released a 16-point , FUNDED by the Quebec provincial government, warning newcomers not to cook “smelly” foods, not to carry out “honour” killings etc., not to brutalize their children etc.   What imbeciles!  (Fortunately the Quebec experts left out any reference to where to park your camels!)

Again, no outcry from our “leaders” who would have raked over the coals (justifiably) any BC or Alberta community that issued such a demeaning, 1930′s type document.

The truth is today that horrible racist view by Francophone Quebeckers that only they are ”pure lain” (pure wool …ie real Quebeckers) still applies in much of Quebec society: outsiders (non French-speaking, non-Catholic, non-white) … are still not accepted as equals …. even those with family roots going back 200 years.

And with no one calling Quebec on the issue, it’s NOT getting better.

Ask black Haitian immigrants who thought they’d be welcome as French-speaking additions to Quebec society.  Not!  When many … like immigrants everywhere … got started in their new land taxi drivers,  taxi companies soon came to understand when callers asked for “un bon chauffeur” (a good driver) they meant a WHITE driver.

This is not to say, of course, thast there aren’t bigots elsewhere too …but in Quebec, it is still respectable and acceptable to express ethnic ignorance and bias.

That’s why in recent weeks, there was public outrage … not opposed, but actually  LED by the Quebec French media because, tabernacle, the Canadiens hired a coach who doesn’t speak French.

Now, you might have thought the only real criteria for hiring an NHL coach is that he (or she) have the capability of taking the team to the Stanley Cup.  Not in Quebec!  No matter that ALL the Canadien hockey players today speak/understand English or that only a few are even of French origin: the Canadiens coach, according to many, must not only speak French but should BE French.

Apparently, that’s more important than winning.

That, sadly, is the truth of Quebec today … and if you pay attention to what they say down there, you’ll hear/see a lot of racism and xenophobia openly expressed ….  and just taken for granted.

It’s time for the “leaders” in our society to start standing up against it.

Harv Oberfeld

But what?

We thumb through the catalogues, search the flyers, actually read the newspaper ads and find ourselves inundated with TV ads for the latest toys…for kids and adults.

Canadians will spend $40 Billion or more this holiday season…. estimates say well over $600 each.

But almost all of it on goods made overseas.

Of course, most of us would prefer to buy goods Made in Canada.  Imagine the benefits and impact on our economy is we all did that!  Not to mention the feel-good impact on ourselves.

But what?

Sure, there’s maple syrup, some (not all) hockey equipment or a car, truck or tractor.  Or…..?

Help me out …and help other blog readers out: let’s put together some suggestions HERE on Canadian-made products to give as gifts … so we can ALL celebrate a better Holiday season.

Our economy and our Canadian workers will appreciate that.

And by the way, Merry Christmas (yes, Christmas …not Xmas … to those who celebrate it), Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwaanza, Happy New Year!

Any suggestions?

Harv Oberfeld