Saskatchewan needs to draw on historic values with refugees
Most of us have never studied Latin, but likely think we have a pretty good understanding what Saskatchewan’s motto “Multis e gentibus vires” means. Or maybe we don’t. Maybe the recent fear-driven and irrational reactions from some quarters in Saskatchewan toward Syrian refugees after the Paris bombings tells us many don’t really know what our motto truly means: “From Many Peoples Strength.”
It is a fine motto that perfectly reflects a place to which people from all around the world came to share the land with First Nations people under legal and non-violent agreements we now know as treaties. This is what history textbooks now teach our children. We learn at a young age the values within our motto.
But are we as welcoming to newcomers as we think? When a news article on Syrians in a Turkish refugee camp solicits responses that the young men — many of whom may have faced a choice of either joining ISIS or being shot — are likely terrorists-in-hiding, might we somewhat deserve that redneck reputation we don’t much like?
Well, let us be fair and acknowledge that Saskatchewan is a diverse place. And thank God, Buddha and/or Allah for the many now rising to both the occasion and the historic spirit of our motto.
This week, local people and agencies like church groups and the Open Door Society were scrambling to try and accommodate the arrival of 2,000 refugees by year’s end — nearly 800 each in Regina and Saskatoon and 200 in both Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.
Those extending a helping hand would be Saskatchewan people who seem to understand the “strength” of our provincial motto comes from within — the ability to do the right thing when many seem confused as to what the right thing is. These are the people who have always shown the world how Saskatchewan punches well above its weight.
More amazingly, they are doing so in a week that started with Premier Brad Wall — among the first to say Saskatchewan “will do its part” after the lifeless body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi washed ashore in Greece last September — released correspondence he’s sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking him to “suspend” plans to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by year’s end.
Wall’s supporters maintain he was only asking Trudeau not to put artificial deadlines and quotas in place for fear “even a small number of individuals who wish to do harm to our country are able to enter Canada” because of rushed resettlement. Wall’s detractors contend this was a silent dog whistle to Wall’s own “oldstock” supporters that it was OK to oppose the refugees.
Whatever the case, what is clear is that Wall’s pronouncement did little to enlighten people about what really goes on with refugee screening, but it did a lot to ramp up refugee resentment.
Editorial pages have been chockful of letters congratulating Wall, quoting unproven/ untrue assertions the Paris terrorists carried Syrian passports (irrelevant to the refugee question), advocating emulating U.S. governors who demand Syrian refugees be barred from their country and arguing we don’t have enough health, education or social services to accommodate people already here.
What’s made its way to Wall’s Facebook page in guest posting is worse and the rest of social media is a wild west show, coming close to hate crimes, where the anonymous and gutless advocate putting “bounties on burkas.”
Even popular talk show host John Gormley has been called out for a tweet stating “Next guy in a Western democracy who chants ‘Allah Ahkbar,’ we shoot.” Rightly, Gormley took down the offensive tweet and apologized on his radio show. Allahu Akbar means “God is great.” Imagine the outrage if anyone proposed shooting Christians for uttering the same words.
To Wall’s credit, he’s denounced Islamophobia in all its forms. On Thursday, he announced Saskatchewan would set up a Syrian refugee settlement centre.
It might be a small, but important, step back toward who we are in Saskatchewan — people who draw from the strength of many.