LET’S CALL OUT RACISM
Saskatchewan Corrections and Policing Minister Christine Tell set a good example when she shut down a prejudiced rant at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention last week.
A man took the mic at a panel discussion to complain about “reverse racism” and made statements that included, “it’s the natives against us.”
Tell told the man to leave, and that his stand is not appropriate or helpful. She was modelling the behaviour we should all use when we come across hateful comments. We must confront prejudice whenever we find it. Letting that kind of rhetoric slide would feed the sense that Saskatchewan is a place that tolerates bigotry.
Tell was not alone in speaking out against discrimination last week. When news came that Weyburn’s city council had rejected an application for a home for persons with disabilities, and one councillor had referenced the “stigma” around people facing such challenges, the reaction was swift. From former premier Brad Wall to Weyburn-area MLA Dustin Duncan to average citizens across the province, there was a call to defend the rights of all people, no matter their background or abilities.
The need for taking such a stand was made overwhelmingly clear on Thursday, when word came of mass shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. We now know that 50 people died. The shooter referred to himself as a white supremacist, and was acting on hatred fed through an online network of like-minded groups and individuals.
As we well know, hatred breeds hatred. Although Tell was a champion at the SARM incident, her later comments are cause for concern. “I am not sensing that what that gentleman had expressed in that meeting is prevalent throughout Saskatchewan. I have not seen it, and I can only go by what I see and hear,” she told Postmedia last week.
It is surprising that Tell has not seen that racism and other forms of discrimination are a problem in this province. Anyone who was on social media on an even occasional basis around the time of the Gerald Stanley trial would have seen ample evidence of its presence.
Hate crimes are on the rise around the world. Thinking our country or our region is immune from this problem is a mistake. Nobody expected a violent attack in the serene and remote setting in New Zealand. But it happened, and it could happen anywhere.
Just as our national anthem calls us to do, Canadians must “stand on guard” against xenophobia in all forms. To do this, we must first acknowledge it exists.