Stop tolerating intolerance
Are there really more and more incidents of overt racism and xenophobia cropping up in Canada, or does it just seem that way?
A woman, her child in tow, storms around a Mississauga medical clinic demanding to see a white doctor, the entire tirade caught on video. Among other things, she says: “What you’re telling me that my kid has chest pains, he’s going to have to sit here until 4 p.m. Can I see a doctor please that is white? That doesn’t have brown teeth and speaks English.” There were no charges laid.
In Nova Scotia, racist and Nazi graffiti defaced election signs. In April, anti-Semitic graffiti turned up on lockers at Upper Canada College in Toronto. In early June, staff in an Asian food store were abused by a customer yelling at them to ‘go back to China.’
On June 11, police say an elderly Asian man was walking along a Markham, Ont., road when a white man wearing a baseball cap and backpack started hurling hateful comments at him without provocation. York Regional Police are investigating.
A York Region school trustee uses a racist slur against a parent. A principal shares Islamophobic online posts.
The trustee resigns and the board is chastised by the Ministry of Education.
Statistics Canada says hate crimes in Canada rose by five per cent in 2015, with the rise largely due to an increase in incidents targeting the Muslim population and Arabs or West Asians. In that period, hate crimes directed at Muslims increased 253 per cent.
Still, most Canadians probably would not agree we have a growing problem with racism, xenophobia and intolerance. We are not the United States. We’re not European nations where entrenched problems of ethnic integration and balkanization continue to cause sometimes violent polarization.
You know what else we are not? We’re not moving in the right direction. Things aren’t getting better, they’re getting worse. But Canadians are still better at deflecting than reflecting on what is actually happening.
There have always been those among us who are intolerant. What has changed? In part, the sort of identity politics mastered by Donald Trump have emboldened previously timid bigots and xenophobes. Some, who have been reluctant for whatever reason to publicly express their intolerance, now feel validated. If it’s good enough for Trump …
But it’s not tolerable. Those of us who shake our heads and sigh need to do more than that. It’s not enough to silently disapprove. The silent majority who don’t tolerate intolerance need to speak out.
We need to let our governments know they must act forcefully to show that mistreating people based on their race or religion is just not acceptable in contemporary Canada. Please, don’t sit silently.