We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and the PM

What’s a suitable collective noun for a gathering of our illustrious city councillors?

Well, given their predilection for huddling together behind closed doors, I’ll plump for “cocoon.” Therefore: a cocoon of Calgary councillors did a very nice thing the other day.

Most of them visited the Ho Wan restaurant in the heart of Chinatown and had lunch.

Given the current ruckus about expensing lavish meals in Quebec City, being spotted eating in any restaurant nowadays displays a high degree of courage (or craziness) on their collective behalves.

But, in this particular case, it was the right thing to do — I’ll make the giant leap that they actually paid out of their own pockets and wouldn’t have dared expense it. Anyhow, it provided a public display of support for one of our city’s oldest communities, one that’s hurting.

That’s because the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 virus is affecting Chinese eateries everywhere, even in those places facing no direct health worries.

The nice family that owns Ho Wan has seen customer traffic drop 70 per cent — something to impact any business, but in the tight-margin world of family restaurants, it’s a financial death sentence.

Coun. Druh Farrell, in whose ward the restaurant is located, summed it up well: “We wanted to show our support and encourage Calgarians to stand behind their local businesses, especially in Chinatown.” Good for her. Good for them.

Yet, unfortunate as the current situation is for mom-and-pop restaurateurs in Chinatown, Calgarians’ reaction is understandable. It’s typical human behaviour. It’s been that way ever since we wandered from the forests onto the savannah, thousands of years ago.

We’re bred to avoid unnecessary risk, no matter how remote. Sometimes this genetic hardwiring spills over into unreasonable and, on occasion, nasty, xenophobic behaviour.

There are umpteen examples scattered throughout our national history: the treatment of Chinese labourers who’d helped build the railway uniting this nation, the internment and abuse of Canadians of Ukrainian and German heritage during the First World War, and the similar treatment of Japanese Canadians 25 years later.

Were such actions right? Of course not: but that’s easy for us to conclude. We didn’t experience the national grief as legions of young men died in Flanders in 1916, or the shock of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, raising fears for our vulnerable West Coast.

Scared, confused and angry Canadians of those eras reacted the way most do in such critical circumstances.

The shunning of Chinese restaurants in Calgary today is a much milder example of such knee-jerk reaction. It’s a matter of degree: today, we aren’t at war, nor affected by plague, yet nevertheless, we quickly become wary.

It reminds us that today’s liberal and progressive views haven’t faced the stiff tests of earlier generations: if they did, how firmly would we cling to them?

We’ve apologized and sometimes compensated those Canadians who suffered the worst excesses of such behaviour in earlier, tougher times. That should be an end to things: but not for our current prime minister.

Justin Trudeau’s endless virtue-signalling and apologies on-demand actually have the opposite effect. They widen divides rather than healing them, reminding certain groups they once were victims.

Of course, this isn’t genuine remorse. It’s about showing the watching world how wonderful a human being he is and oh-so superior to those ignorant, knuckle-dragging Canadians of yesteryear.

Nowhere is this behaviour more destructive than the constant apologies handed out to Indigenous people, under the guise of reconciliation. It makes relations worse, not better. However, it successfully camouflages the fact that precious little concrete action is being undertaken to deal with the complex problems of today.

This dangerously weak leadership is putting our country’s future at risk.

We cannot walk that famous mile wearing the shoes of those who went before us. But we can catch a faint, reflected glimpse in our mirror, as we stop enjoying dim sum in Chinatown.

So, go on, book a table. Or just walk up. It won’t be crowded.