Liberal claims of Canadian racism wrong

NO SOCIETY IS WITHOUT BIGOTRY — NONE.

— REX MURPHY

Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna recently retweeted a lovely picture of her and four other ministers taking part in a “social distanced kayaking” excursion in Ottawa.

“Nothing beats enjoying some time on the water with my colleagues,” McKenna tweeted. It’s hard to argue. It sure beats spending time in Parliament during the COVID-19 and long-term care crises.

But it wasn’t the kayaking picture that originally caught my attention, it was another of the former environment minister’s endless Twitter bulletins, commenting on the protests and riots (they are both, and lately mainly the latter) now sweeping across the United States.

“Right now, thousands — if not millions — are marching, fighting and protesting for their basic human rights. We need to acknowledge that racism and discrimination are a part of our reality here in Canada and around the world and we all need to call it out. We have to do better,” wrote McKenna, before a similar demonstration took place in Montreal on Sunday.

What’s going on in the U.S. right now may have begun, for some, as a protest in support of basic human rights. But however it began, it has now morphed into scenes of pure violence, random attacks, arson and something close to actual anarchy. It would have been good of the minister to have acknowledged the very troubling mixed nature of the events. Yes, some people are engaging in legitimate protest, as is their right. But many of them have engaged in looting, mayhem, destruction of property, threats, arson and deliberate confrontations with police.

Looking through news and social media reports online, on can easily find scenes of individuals being furiously beaten by some of the mob, a police precinct abandoned to flames, a small store destroyed right in front of its owner and the attempted arson of the historic St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. St. John’s is a revered institution, because every U.S. president since James Madison has attended services there. I’m not sure how attempting to burn down a church, which is also a national symbol, figures under the banner “of protesting for human rights.”

The second part of McKenna’s tweet — “We need to acknowledge that racism and discrimination are a part of our reality here in Canada and around the world and we all need to call it out” — was more troubling to me, because it was yet another example of a Liberal leveraging a situation happening somewhere else to create an opportunity to lecture Canadians.

In dissecting her statement, it would be helpful to have some more details. How much are racism and discrimination actually “a part of Canadian reality”? Are they overwhelmingly present? Are they, in McKenna’s view, a central part of Canadian life? Where do they manifest themselves? Are some provinces more racist and discriminatory than others? If any of the answers to these questions is “yes,” then we have far bigger problems than COVID-19.

Another question: is it only those in the higher echelons of the Liberal party who have a clear view of all this racism and discrimination? Indeed, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken in much the same terms.

“Many Canadians of diverse backgrounds are watching, like all Canadians are, the news out of the United States, with shock and with horror,” he said on Friday.

I can agree with most of that (though I don’t know why he made a distinction between “Canadians of diverse backgrounds” and “all Canadians,” since there are not two sets of us). But he then proceeded, as McKenna did, into a lofty declaration of virtuous moralism, saying that, “Anti-black racism, racism is real. It’s in the United States, but it’s also in Canada.” On one level, there is nothing to dispute here. No society is without bigotry — none. But how big a problem is it here in Canada? That’s the question.

Most Canadians, the vast majority in fact, are horrified by racism and would never participate in it. We are in fact not a racist country, though to say so may shock some.

Do we not have welcoming immigration policies? Are our largest cities not a great montage of people from every corner of the world, of every colour and creed? Do we not, both in private and public, celebrate Canada’s multicultural nature? Do our schools not press the ideas of tolerance and acceptance toward all peoples and all faiths from kindergarten through high school? Is it not a doctrine of Canadian civic life that to end any trace of discrimination or racism is a cardinal rationale for the very existence of modern Canada?

In fact, to give Canada credit, it has for decades now worked in every venue — from corporations, to the public service, to the arts and universities — to set goals and standards designed to eliminate pernicious bigotries. It is therefore strange that after so much honest effort, so many advances in public thought and practice, so great a march from those times past when racism and bigotry were indeed rife and accepted, that an inventory of how far we have come is never taken; that the advances remain unacknowledged or unspoken; and that citizens hear so often from their betters how “racist and discriminatory” they are.

To any fair mind, Canada is a mature, welcoming, open-minded and generous country. It would be helpful if these Liberals kept the full story of this country in mind when discussing racism, and not leap so reflexively to grim characterizations of a country that, while not perfect, has been doing its best to be tolerant and welcoming.