All protesters need to walk the high road

This past weekend saw dueling protests at Hamilton City Hall. It may have been the first such faceoff, but it won’t be the last.

One group was there to condemn M-103, a motion before Parliament that asks legislators to condemn Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry. The other group was Hamilton Against Fascism, and they were there, ostensibly, to argue the opposite viewpoint. There was some confrontation that didn’t turn violent. Signs were grabbed, insults lobbed. It was ugly but didn’t degenerate, which is fortunate.

To a large extent, the case against Motion 103 is a fraud perpetrated by ignorance or by people who are bigoted. They call M-103 a law, which it is not. It is a motion which merely gives parliamentarians a chance to express their view. They also say it identifies Islam and ignores other religious prejudice, which it does not. It names Islamophobia but also calls on the government to “condemn all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.” The fact that it mentions Islamophobia is not new — previous motions have specifically noted persecution directed at Jews, Egyptian Coptic Christians and Yazidis.

However misguided the anti-M-103 protesters are, they have every right to protest peacefully, without spreading hatred. The law allows, and even encourages, that. There are lines they cannot cross, and there are lines others who don’t agree must not cross, either.

Interestingly, and unfortunately in our view, the other side of the weekend protest committed equal if not more egregious sins. They confiscated signs, and displayed others that personally insulted anyone disagreeing with their views. Some of them wore masks obscuring their faces. They tried to stop a Spectator photographer from photographing the protest, which was on public property and therefore legitimate public business. They shouted down anyone they didn’t agree with.

So the group named Hamilton Against Fascism tried to suppress media coverage and limit free speech in a public space where no laws were being broken. How’s that for irony.

We don’t condone what the anti-103 protesters were saying. No doubt some were xenophobic if not bigoted. But distasteful and inaccurate as their message might be, no one is suggesting the majority crossed the line into spreading hatred (police were on site and would have acted, no doubt, had that happened).

Identity politics is alive and well in Canada. Donald Trump used them to get elected and Conservative leadership hopefuls are attempting to do the same here. People who believe these dog-whistle tactics are un-Canadian must speak up. But in doing so, we can’t slip into the same kind of intolerance typically displayed by the other side. Then we become like them.