This is how we do it:
Trudeau claims that ‘a Canadian is a Canadian.’ I want to believe it, but it just isn’t reality.
Prajakta Dhopade on the Canadian experience
“That is not how we do things in Canada. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
That was Prime Minister Trudeau’s response to Trump’s racist tweet tirade when the U.S. president told Democratic congresswomen of colour to “go back” to the countries they came from—disregarding the fact that all of them are American citizens and all but one were born in the United States.
Trudeau’s remarks are almost easy for a person of colour to believe. I’ve been lucky. I grew up in a multicultural community in north Toronto a er immigrating at the age of three. I have always felt at ease here; everywhere I go I can spot another South Asian. Most days, I’ll see a family on the subway that reminds me so much of mine when we first came to this country. They are likely navigating the difficulties that come with starting a new life but never alone in their pursuit of making Canada their home.
There was a specific moment that drove this point home. I was in Oxford, England, in the summer of 2016 shortly a er the Brexit referendum had occurred in the United Kingdom, when a man on the street, a stranger, called me and my sister, who lives in the U.K., “foreigner c—ts.” It was like I had been punched in the gut. Shaken, I couldn’t help but cry, an almost involuntary reaction, even though the altercation was over.
The man walked away a er uttering what was essentially a more explicit way of saying we didn’t belong there (a common sentiment heard immediately a er the pro-Brexit vote). He meant nothing to me, but I was so incredibly hurt. I was wrenched out of the sheltered bubble my multicultural upbringing had created around me and was reminded that the
colour of my skin will always set me apart. Oh, so this is how it feels.
I remember being struck by how this experience had happened to me on the very first day of my trip to the U.K. An impulsive part of me wished I could book a flight back to Canada right then and there. This wouldn’t happen to me back home, I thought. It never had.
That’s not how it’s done in Canada, Trudeau said. I wish I could believe that wholeheartedly. But it doesn’t take very long to think of the times that I’ve witnessed the very opposite of how it’s supposedly done in Canada.
For instance, I was walking in Kensington Market in Toronto several years ago with a friend. She was wearing a hijab when a man yelled at her to “go back where you came from, terrorist.” We walked faster, not daring to look in his direction. I felt sick, the rest of that day tainted by the incident.
I was in St. Catharines, Ont., earlier this year when I witnessed a man screaming at a Sikh man wearing a turban to “take that towel off your head.” I crossed the street, hoping he didn’t turn his attention to another visible minority, my heart aching for the Sikh who was just waiting for his bus to take him where he needed to go.
I have only borne witness, but there are plenty of Canadians sharing their experiences about being told to go back to where they came from in the aftermath of Trump’s heinous comments and Trudeau’s tepid response.
The incidents I’ve witnessed and experienced are purely anecdotal evidence. But it seems there could be a bigger shi taking place. According to a recent Ipsos poll done on behalf of Global News, 48 per cent of Canadians agree that immigration is causing Canada to change in ways that they don’t like, while 44 per cent agree that there are too many immigrants in Canada. Meanwhile, hate crimes are on the rise in the country, reaching an all-time high in 2017.
While I am a Canadian citizen, I feel that the only thing that sets my family apart from the immigrants considered in this poll is that my parents did the right paperwork and passed a test, and we said an oath. I can’t help but take the country’s rejection of immigrants personally.
I suppose Trudeau’s response is partly true. The leader of our country isn’t the one funnelling racist filth onto Twitter and into the world, emboldening the bigots who were previously too afraid to speak their minds. But the internet knows no borders. To say a problem doesn’t exist in Canada, that we are somehow wholly better than what’s going on south of the border, is naive and just plain wrong.