Goodwill misplaced
Re: Reach out, but be careful, Barbara Kay, Dec. 2
In her latest j’accuse ( she’s written about us twice before), Barbara Kay’s bizarre obsession with our organization sheds light on the biasinfused reporting that many Canadian Muslims have to face in these troubling times.
We invited Kay to send us her queries to clear up any misconceptions in the hopes that she would pay attention to the facts and not fall for the rumour mill. Our goodwill was misplaced. What we got was loaded allegations, a dismissal of our statements and a piece worthy of the whisper campaigns of a bygone era.
Kay’s argument is clear: Muslims are a group that Canadians need to be leery about because you might just be talking to the “wrong kind” of Muslim.
Given that Kay has a record of engaging in drive- by smears ( the Quebec Press Council censured her in 2007 after ruling she had written misleading claims about a rally), some factchecking is in order.
Kay’s reasoning is based on a hostile view stemming from false assertions about the National Council of Canadian Muslims ( NCCM). It’s also based on an alternate reality. In a recent piece, Kay claims that anti-Muslim hate crimes are a non-issue, even though the latest Statistics Canada and police reports show a sharp rise in such crimes while rates are declining for other groups.
Kay also references misinformed sources that wrongly claim that law enforcement agencies have “distanced” themselves from the NCCM, including the Durham Region Police Service. This is another fabrication. In fact, the NCCM conducted a successful workshop on Islamophobia for the Durham police service that is featured on their website. And we frequently work with law enforcement and public institutions for the betterment of all communities.
Kay says we’ ve sued people for defamation. You bet we have, particularly for making unsubstantiated claims. She then implies that our legal actions are speechchilling tactics. Responding to false and harmful accusations of “ties to terrorism,” which have been successfully refuted in the past, can in no way be described as libel chill. Any level- headed Canadian would do the same.
The NCCM has a robust track record of working for a stronger Canada. To try to smear our good name is nothing but an attempt to marginalize effective and prominent Canadian Muslim voices.
Had Kay wanted to sincerely critique the NCCM, then she should have given even one concrete example of how our work undermines Canadian society. It’s obvious that she can’t.
Kay’s McCarthy- esque writing is symptomatic of a larger problem of un- Canadian and agenda- driven smearing that seeks to sow division between Muslims and their fellow citizens — the very thing that NCCM works to prevent.
Ironically, former National Post editor and Kay’s son, Jonathan Kay, was a special discussant at an NCCM event in 2013 aptly titled, “Fostering Fear: Examining the roots of anti-Muslim discourse.”
Too bad Barbara Kay didn’t bother to drop by. She might have learned a thing or two.
Ihsaan Gardee, Executive Director, National Council of Canadian Muslims
Barbara Kay suggests a recent panel on hate crime was somehow associating with the wrong community groups by featuring the communications director from the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). Is this journalism? All participants at the panel in question were experts on hate crime. Also featured were representatives from the transgender community, a United Church minister and the Ottawa Police Service. It was a public event, where all were welcome.
In her article, Kay quotes Michael Mostyn, chief executive of B’nai Brith, as saying that Durham regional police have distanced themselves from the NCCM. However, I had emailed her a link showing the force’s glowing report about the anti-Islamophobia training they’d received from NCCM.
Most concerning is that, although all of Kay’s contact was with me, the only Crime Prevention Ottawa staff person she names is Sharmaarke Abdullahi, citing his prior association with NCCM — which I read as an attempted smear. Abdullahi has received numerous community awards and has been praised in the House of Commons for his work on the promotion of inclusion and civic engagement.
In short, Crime Prevention Ottawa does choose its ambassadors carefully. We also stand up for them.
Nancy Worsfold, Executive Director, Crime Prevention Ottawa In our opinion Re: Fired for having wrong opinion, Christie Blatchford, Dec. 8
In a world full of trigger warnings, safe spaces, and an ever- growing hostility towards free speech, this article is truly ominous. I taught my children, now in their 20s, to think critically, and respect those with differing viewpoints. Clearly, the student who became distraught at the mere mention of an alternative viewpoint never learned this lesson. What is so disturbing about incidents like this, is the fact that by catering to every perceived act of offence, adults are relinquishing their responsibility to help young people learn to manoeuvre through a diverse and messy world. The message they are getting is, “If I holler loud enough, I will get my way.” It’s time to stop giving in to the tantrums. Adults who still believe in freedom and open discussion should stop supporting schools and administrations that endorse this kind of behaviour. I don’t want to live in a world run by spoiled two-year-olds.
Susan Virtue, Toronto
The young woman stated that she felt unsafe by the teacher’s brief expression of his opinion. Are we to believe that her self- esteem and confidence are so fragile that she cannot hear an opinion with which she may not agree? She also asserted that because he is a man, the teacher has no right to an opinion on abortion. This is not a logical argument. By extrapolation then, a white person is not entitled to have an opinion on slavery, one is not entitled to have an opinion on capital punishment unless he is on death row, or on the Holocaust unless one is Jewish. Obviously, hateful speech can never be tolerated but how sad that free exchange of ideas and robust dialogue are prohibited in our time. The teacher, in refusing to name the school, would appear to be the winner after all.
Rachel Di Fonzo, Toronto
I consider myself to be more on the “progressive” side of the spectrum. Yet when I read Christie Blatchford’s account of a Vancouver teacher having been fired for briefly and in passing expressing his personal views on abortion, which then “triggered” one of his students, precisely five words came to mind: “unlawful dismissal” and “First World problems.”
Christopher Adam, Ottawa
I think the National Post fails in its duty to responsi ble j ournalism by not exposing the name of the school, where the unnamed teacher was forced to make humiliating public confession against his beliefs, so that such assaults on the dignity of the individual and his freedom of thought, belief and expression are vigorously opposed and the students are taught to accept points of view contrary to their own without meltdown. Of course this has been happening in all academic institutions controlled by the utopian socialists who can only tolerate freedom of speech that mirrors t heir own. How quickly the Western culture, based on individual freedom, is collapsing because civil society no longer defends it except in token cases.
Jiti Khanna, Vancouver