Federal Tories give themselves a black eye
Whoever said there’s no such thing as bad publicity never heard of Derek Sloan.
The rookie Conservative MP’s racially-based tirade against Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has earned him, his party and its lame-duck leader publicity — but all the wrong kind.
Not only did Sloan demand Dr. Tam’s firing last week over her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he provocatively asked: “Does she work for Canada or for China?”
Dr. Tam was born in Hong Kong and her background is clearly Chinese. By focusing on her ethnicity, Sloan explicitly accused her of being disloyal to Canada and serving masters in the Communist People’s Republic of China. This is an outrageous, totally unsubstantiated claim. It smacks of racism, as many Canadians of Asian descent quickly insisted it did.
Sloan’s words are an embarrassment to his party. That he is a candidate — though a long-shot contender — to become the next Conservative leader brings the credibility of Canada’s Official Opposition into greater question. But what truly makes Sloan’s ugly slur against Dr. Tam an indictment against his party and not just him is the failure of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to denounce the MP.
To be fair, other Conservative MPs such as Michael Chong, Eric Duncan, Eric Melillo and Michelle Rempel Garner all condemned Sloan’s verbal attack on Dr. Tam. But Leader Scheer, who continues to be his party’s most visible face even if he will soon step down, cravenly took a pass on the matter. You’d find more firmness in a bowl of Jell-O.
Canadians deserved better from Scheer. So did Conservatives, or we’d like to think those who aren’t ready to leap into some crazy, populist abyss.
During the run-up to the last Conservative leadership contest, Rona Ambrose, then the party’s interim leader, openly opposed the call from one of the candidates, Kellie Leitch, for a “Canadian values” test. That said something to Canadians about a party that desires to represent the entire nation.
But today Scheer retreats behind a wall of silence when a fellow Conservative blasts out hurtful words that offend not just Chinese-Canadians but everyone who believes people should be judged by what they do, not where they or their family came from.
Neither leading Conservative Party officials nor the party leadership committee co-chairs bothered to take Sloan to task, either. Indeed, another Tory leadership hopeful, Toronto lawyer Leslyn Lewis, said it wasn’t racist to be “critical of the government’s slow reaction to this pandemic.”
That, of course, is not what Sloan did. There’s nothing unreasonable for people to question how Dr., Tam and the federal government have responded to COVID-19. In late January, for instance, when the outbreak’s epicentre was in China, she said Canadians had nothing to worry about. Time proved her wrong.
But Sloan took a shot at who Dr. Tam is, as much as what she’s done. “Dr. Tam must go,” he said. “Canada must remain sovereign over decisions.”
What a pity that the memories of Scheer and other party head honchos don’t extend back to the 2015 federal election when some Conservative candidates promised a re-elected Tory government would set up a tip line for reporting “barbaric cultural practices” to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The party paid for this xenophobic paranoia at the polls, where it was tossed from office. Now, thanks to the likes of Sloan and Scheer, it has alienated Canadians of every ethnic background once again.
At a time when the party is struggling for attention, it’s just received the wrong kind.