I am privileged — just like Jagmeet Singh
Are Indo-Canadians, like federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, disadvantaged? Was he ever disadvantaged? Or is he the son of privilege?
Those questions, which touch upon the remarkable experience of Indo-Canadians in Canada, were raised last week in the context of an internal NDP squabble about Singh’s fumbling leadership. It came to a head when dozens of current and former New Democrat MPs and MLAs in Saskatchewan objected to Singh’s decision to throw MP Erin Weir out of caucus for harassment allegations which they found dubious at best.
“I am not going to change my decision because people of a position of privilege want to intimidate me to change that,” Singh said. “My decision is final and I am not changing that.”
My colleague Colby Cosh demonstrated in his column last week that Singh, the son of a rich man who ostentatiously displays his wealth — GQ cover shoots, bespoke suits, two Rolex watches — is far more privileged than farmers and teachers and city workers in Saskatchewan who oppose him.
What Singh meant of course was that his critics are white, hence privileged, while he is not. What else could he have meant? Not that they are powerful and he is not. After all he is the leader, and their objection is precisely that he is abusing his power, which they are powerless to stop.
But leave aside Singh, who is quick to resort to racial politics against his opponents. His complaint, transparently false as Cosh demonstrated, draws attention to the astonishing phenomenon of extraordinarily successful Indian immigrants to Canada.
Singh was born in 1979 in Canada to parents who emigrated from India. His father was a psychiatrist, who earned well enough to send his son Jagmeet to a private American high school where current annual tuition runs to more than US$30,000. He went on to Osgoode Hall law school and practised as a criminal lawyer with his brother before running for office.
He represented a Brampton constituency at Queen’s Park, before making the jump to federal politics. His brother also won a Brampton seat in the recent Ontario election. In Brampton, it is not unusual that all of the major party candidates are immigrants from the subcontinent or children of same.
I too was born in Canada, like Singh, to parents who were immigrants, originally from India (Goa) but through Kenya in my family’s case. My father was not a medical doctor but had a doctorate in engineering. We were not as rich as the Singh family, and all four children went to Canadian public (Catholic) schools, but we were comfortable. The noted Indian emphasis on education bore fruit. The four of us have a dozen degrees among us. My parents are financially successful, and their children are also affluent, though none of us go in for bespoke tailoring.
So Singh and myself belong to the very successful story of Indian immigrants to Canada, found not only in Brampton but across the country. Among my students at Queen’s University are many like us, high achievers who come from families who, though not as rich as the Singhs, achieved economic success. More important, those Indian immigrant families have been highly successful in passing on the values and principles that have shaped the character of their children to be exemplary citizens.
Who then is privileged? There are millions of white Canadian families, some in this country for more than a century, who have a far tougher time of it than I did, or Singh did. Yes, it is possible that someone made fun of his turban at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan. But very few Canadians are schooled in Beverly Hills where, one might note, there will be next month a “Gemologist Rich Day” for parents and students to buy gems for their class projects.
The success of Indian — and more broadly, Asian — immigrants in Canada is mirrored south of the border. A major court case is working through the courts against Harvard, accusing it of limiting admission to Asian-Americans.
While the case has not yet proceeded to trial, internal Harvard documents show that in 2013, if only academic achievement was considered, the Asian-American share of the admission class would be a whopping 43 per cent. Harvard employs a variety of measures — legacy applicants, recruited athletes, extracurricular activities, personal ratings — which result in Asians getting down to 26 per cent. That still leaves too few Hispanic and black students for Harvard’s goals, so a “demographic” factor is added in, whittling the Asians down to roughly 18 per cent.
The students suing Harvard are objecting to being penalized for being too privileged, not lamenting their lack of it. Jagmeet Singh, too, has nothing to lament.
THE SUCCESS OF INDIAN ... IMMIGRANTS IN CANADA IS MIRRORED SOUTH OF THE BORDER.