A verbal quote unquote tempest

Righteous mobbing of GG undeserved

The Governor General is a man of circumspection — an expert at never taking sides in anything.

As such, it was surprising to see him the subject of online vitriol, the result of his use of the ill-chosen word “immigrants” in relation to Canada’s indigenous people.

The reaction was typical of Twitter, where inhibitions are shed and rude, aggressive behaviour flourishes, without consequence.

David Johnston had spoken on CBC Radio about Canadians being a people who look beyond the individual to the collective. This is thanks in part to Canada’s history of immigration, he said, “going right back to our, quote, indigenous people, unquote, who were immigrants as well, 10, 12, 14,000 years ago.”

He apologized Monday at an investiture ceremony where he bestowed honours on 29 indigenous advocates — including Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie — saying that he misspoke. “The indigenous people are the original peoples of this land,” he said.

But it was too late, the grievance-culture mob was already upon him.

It’s become a risky business in this country to be a white male and say anything about indigenous issues, however benign. In this case, the GG used the culturally loaded term “immigrant,” instead of the more neutral term “migrant,” which is indisputable. (The DNA evidence suggests mutations specific to Native Americans came from Asia 40,000 years ago, spending up to 15,000 years marooned in the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.)

For that slip, the usual suspects on social media sought to de-legitimize him.

“He should resign,” said one respondent. “(The) Queen’s representative in the empire’s colonies. Literally colonialism embodied,” read another.

Yet in Johnston, the mob has the wrong man.

A less reactionary public figure it is hard to imagine. He certainly does not fit the Churchillian “defender of empire” stereotype offered up by his critics.

In his book, The Idea of Canada: Letters to a Nation, he said the country works because it has been able to avoid extremes.

“I often cite the fact that when Champlain first arrived, his first settlement only survived because the local First Nations helped them.

“It’s very important that we understand the history of the country and the role that the aboriginal peoples played and the role we want them to play as our history unfolds. I certainly have strong feelings about the need for equality of opportunity for First Nations people,” he wrote.

On the day that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made public its recommendations in 2015, Johnston summed up the mood in the country best — as he has had a habit of doing in his seven years as Governor General.

“This is a moment for national reflection and introspection … to think about the depth of our commitment to tolerance, respect and inclusiveness, and whether we can do better. This is a moment to think about those people — those children, those mothers and fathers, those families and those elders, past and present. And it’s also a moment to ask: where do we go from here?”

Johnston has had run-ins with First Nations leaders before. In 2012, Attawapiskat First Nation chief Theresa Spence vowed to go on hunger strike until she met the prime minister and Governor General. Johnston refused, quite correctly, on the grounds the monarch’s representative should not be in involved in a public discussion about government policy.

Those are the kind of constitutional smarts that have made him such a first-rate Governor General.

Instead, he has used his time in office to raise awareness about indigenous history and achievements — “to create an environment in which reconciliation is possible,” as he noted Monday.

The country is ready for that reconciliation with its indigenous peoples. But the process requires tolerance, respect and inclusiveness on both sides. There is a strain of righteousness that is so convinced of its own veracity that it debases its perceived opponents. It is not a tactic that will work on this Governor General. When your reputation is built on a lifetime of flying straight, it is hard to warp.

ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS Governor General David Johnston shakes hands with Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie after investing him in the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall Monday. During the event, he also apologized for earlier calling First Nations people...