Ontario’s premier missed chance to stand up for freedom

Perhaps it was an act of political desperation considering her low popularity ratings.

But in visiting the Consulate General of Pakistan and speaking at a flag-raising ceremony on Aug. 14 —PakistanIndependenceDay—PremierKathleen Wynne may as well have endorsed the recent military-backed judicial coup in Islamabad.

Dipping into ethnic vote banks is a time-tested routine of Canadian politicians, of all stripes.

We’ve all seen the allure of the exotic, the need for white politicians to dress up as if they were off to a “fancy dress” costume ball, courting the “new Canadian” vote.

The awkward, “Namaste, Ni hao ma” and “Salaam Alaikum” greetings they deliver at such events, where visiting politicians do not talk of economic or social policy, but of their love of the sari and samosa and cultural diversity, may be demeaning.

But then, who doesn’t like their photograph taken with a premier? But what Wynne did on Pakistan’s 70th anniversary on Aug. 14 took ethnic politics to a new level.

She went to the Pakistan Consulate of Toronto in Vaughan and joined Pakistani diplomats to help raise the Pakistan flag. Her timing could not have been worse. The ceremony took place barely a fortnight after the Pakistan military used its muscle to force the Supreme Court of Pakistan to dismiss duly-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on charges Sharif did not live up to the standards set by Prophet Muhammad in the 7th Century.

Shariff thus became the twentieth Pakistani prime minister to have been forced out by the military in the last 70 years.

Wynne could have maintained her dignity had she spoken about the need for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan.

She would have stood out as a courageous politician had she done so. She didn’t.

The latest poll by Mainstream Research, as cited by my Sun Media colleague Andre Marin in his Aug. 5 column, indicated that in the traditionally rich Liberal territory of Toronto, only 31% cheer for the Liberals while 49% back Patrick Brown’s Progressive Conservatives. The NDP trailed at 19% support.

So, desperate times call for desperate measures. Wynne could have done other things to redeem herself.

She could have publicly raised the plight of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been on death row for seven years in Pakistan, accused of committing blasphemy. Wynne did not.

She did praise Pakistan’s founder, M.A. Jinnah, as an embodiment of equality.

But she ignored the disparaging remarks uttered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Aug. 8, who said he could not utter the word “Hindu”, implying their impurity.

Wynne could have raised eyebrows by mentioning the genocide unfolding in Balochistan, where thousands have died. Then again, there are more Pakistani Canadian than Baloch Canadian voters.

This is all typical of what I call “left-wing orientalism”, a view that, by its unwillingness to confront tyranny, fails to recognize Asian and African people as deserving of liberal secular democracy, gender equality and freedom from military dictators. It is dead wrong.