bigotry

Thursday July 11, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 11, 2019

Maxime Bernier poses with Northern Guard, one flashing apparent ‘white power’ sign

People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier is being asked about a photo he recently posed for in which he is seen smiling with members of the Northern Guard, a reportedly “anti-Muslim” organization that allegedly has ties to neo-Nazism.

August 24, 2018

One of the group’s members can be seen flashing what appears to be an “OK” hand sign in the photo — a symbol that has been associated with “white power.”

The photo, first reported by Press Progress, was posted to Facebook by Kyle Puchalski, a Calgary man who identifies himself on his page as the Northern Guard’s provincial president for Alberta.

“Great day gents,” he captioned the photo, which was tagged as having been taken in Calgary.

Bernier said he hadn’t seen the photo yet when Global News asked him about it in Edmonton on Tuesday.

When asked how he responds to criticism for having posed with Northern Guard members, Bernier said he doesn’t look at the background of every person who takes a photo with him.

“I’m a politician at a public event. People who want to come with us and have a photo with me, I’ll have a photo with them,” he said.

Bernier went on to say that people who don’t share the PPC’s values are not welcome in the party.

August 17, 2018

“People who are racist and anti-Semitic, they’re not welcome in our party,” he said.

The Northern Guard is described as an anti-Muslim far-right group with ties to neo-Nazism by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

The group, which has existed since the fall of 2017, is an offshoot of the Soldiers of Odin, according to the network.

The Soldiers of Odin are an organization that has triggered concerns about “anti-immigration vigilantism” within the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

The Northern Guard came under scrutiny earlier this year as the Canadian Anti-Hate Network started tracking its activities in Halifax.

A chapter opened in the city earlier this year; its vice-president George Fagen said the group’s mandate is to put Canadian values and issues first.

The group had distributed pizza to people they felt needed food in downtown Halifax. (Global News)

Letter to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator, Friday July 11, 2019

Max Bernier is a patriot

RE: Cartoon (July 11)

Yesterday’s editorial cartoon, which portrays Max Bernier as the fellow traveller of Nazis and Klansmen, is scandalous.

Although your cartoonists have had much sport at the expense of all political leaders, they have never stooped to this level.

This cartoon is unworthy of the rags put out by the lunatic left in Toronto. Max Bernier is a patriot, probably the only one among the whole sorry lot. Shame on you.

Leonard Allen, Hamilton

Tuesday May 7, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 7, 2019

The Tories insist racists aren’t welcome in their party. What are they doing about it?

There’s no way around it: Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives have a racist jackass problem.

This is not to say that Scheer or any of his MPs have consciously invited the affections of the country’s racist jackasses, and there are far fewer votes in Canada’s racist jackass constituency than you might think. But it’s a problem. And Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives have it, in spades.

This is what it has come to. Sixty-nine per cent of the “too many non-whites” respondents say they back Scheer’s Conservatives. It only stands to reason that a fairly high number of these people are racist jackasses. And there’s growing evidence that sociopaths from that creepy white-nationalist subculture that congregates in obscure 4chan and 8chan chatrooms are hoping to mainstream their contagion into conservative parties. Scheer’s Conservatives insist they’re not happy about any of this.

February 21, 2019

The most recent evidence is quite jarring. It comes in Ekos Research Associates’ latest annual findings about Canadian attitudes about immigration. Nothing much has changed in the long-term trends, but for the first time, the proportion of Canadians who say immigration rates are too high has merged with the percentage of Ekos poll respondents who say too many non-white people are coming to Canada. And that bloc is coalescing, for the first time, behind a single political party: Scheer’s Conservatives.

March 5, 2019

It’s not good enough for Scheer to get better at dealing with the occasional flare-ups that leave him looking like the hillbilly caricature Liberals like to make of him. He needs to openly admit that the Conservatives have a problem. He needs to clearly and emphatically demonstrate that he means what he says, that his party is not open to voters who scapegoat immigrants and hold fast to the view that there are too many non-white people coming to Canada. He needs to do something about it.

August 17, 2018

He needs to show them the door and invite them to leave. Whatever numbers he’ll lose to Mad Max Bernier, he’ll pick up from more centrist voters who’ve grown weary of Trudeau’s “woke” politics, with its wardrobe of groovy socks and a photo album filled with glamour magazine spreads where a portfolio of policy accomplishments should be.

But whatever the faults that can be laid at the feet of the Liberals, it’s Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives who have the racist jackass problem. And however much they genuinely don’t want it, they’re clearly not trying hard enough to shake it. (Source: MacLean’s) 

Thursday February 21, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 21, 2019

Pro-pipeline protestors arrive in Ottawa from Alberta, as political attention remains focused on Quebec

December 13, 2018

A convoy of oil workers arrived in Ottawa on Tuesday to deliver a message to the Liberal government about the province’s desperate need for more pipelines. Perhaps fittingly, however, the government’s focus was instead trained on Alberta’s deepest political foe: Quebec.

The long line of semi-trucks sat idling on Wellington Street in Ottawa, blocking off the street that passes in front of Parliament as part of a protest by United We Roll, a pro-industry group.

The Ottawa rally marked the final destination for the convoy, which started its journey in Alberta four days ago. Semi trucks were hitched to trailers emblazoned with calls to “build the pipeline” and “kill” Bill C-69, the Liberals’ environmental assessment reforms. Bearded men in fluorescent vests exhaled thick clouds into the cold air and yelled for Ottawa to “open your eyes” to industry struggles.

December 20, 2018

But, as if drawing directly from Alberta’s deepest political suspicions, MPs were instead focused on Quebec for much of the day, and the ongoing furor over allegations that the Prime Minister’s Office pressured the attorney general to help Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin avoid prosecution on corruption charges. The minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, has quit cabinet and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary has resigned.

Haley Wile, a co-founder of United We Roll, brushed off suggestions that the SNC-Lavalin affair was sucking up political oxygen in Ottawa and distracting media from the rally.

Rally organizers said they plan to ask several cabinet ministers, including the Prime Minister’s Office, for meetings to discuss energy policy and Alberta’s pipeline woes. No Liberal MPs attended the rally, though Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier both delivered remarks.

Howdy Doodie Andy Scheer

“I didn’t think Justin Trudeau was going to come down and say ‘Let’s get this pipeline built,’” Wile said.

One bright green placard on Tuesday read: “Hey Trudeau, if SNC was in Alberta would you build us a pipeline?” Another read: “Build pipelines, let Jody speak.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said it would not meet with organizers of United We Roll.

“We will always support the right of Canadians to be heard, but it is essential that their message not be co-opted by those who spew racist and divisive language,” it said.

Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi on Tuesday said it was “very unfortunate” that the message from the convoy has “drifted from pipelines to issues that are not relevant to the discussion on pipelines.” (Source: National Post) 

 

Tuesday October 30, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 30, 2018

Hatred has no borders, including in Canada

Saturday’s horrific mass murder of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue is somehow made even worse with the knowledge that it was the product of anti-Semitism.

September 13, 2012

The baseless hatred and xenophobia directed at Jewish people has been with us for generations. You could be forgiven for thinking that with hundreds of years of experience and practice, civilization should have learned by now to at least bottle up, if not stop, the violence that flows from such hatred.

But no. People of all religions have a right to safety and security, especially when in their places of worship. But even that seemingly inviolable right was ripped away from the people of Squirrel Hill and their religious and humanitarian colleagues around the world. There is no safety, even in a place of worship, certainly not in a country that is increasingly polarized and consuming itself, all the while being armed to the teeth.

But we must not overly compartmentalize this horror. The United States, which increasingly appears to be out of control on a downbound train, is a petrie dish with its militant gun worship and Trump-inspired culture of intolerance, hatred and revenge. Some of these characteristics are unique to America, like Trump himself. Mixed together they make a toxic fertilizer feeding the poisoned garden that is now the U.S.

But they’re not on a different road than much of the world, including Canada. They are only further along.

According to the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents in that country increased 60 per cent last year. The league found 1,986 incidents of physical assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews and Jewish institutions in 2017.

But consider Canada. Global News reported that 14 synagogues across the country received mail that said “Jewry Must Perish.” A high school was defaced with graffiti saying “Jews did 911” along with a Nazi flag.

According to Statistics Canada, Jews were the most targeted minority for hate crimes in 2016. B’nai B’rith Canada says anti-Semitic incidents increased 24 per cent that year and last year saw another increase. The reality in many other parts of the world, including Europe, differs only by a matter of degree. The U.S. is just the canary in the mine shaft.

What will we do? Doing nothing when confronted with hatred and intolerance is no option. If we choose to stand by and allow this poison to continue spreading, we are complicit.

It’s getting clearer with each incident that social media is another breeding ground. The Pittsburgh murderer spewed hatred on a web platform that claims to be a bastion for free speech. No one likes the idea of further limitations on free speech, but we need better ways to confront hatred when it hides behind freedom. This terrible crime could have been stopped had someone notified authorities to intervene earlier, given the shooter’s propensity for hate speech was well known.

Canada is not immune. Intolerance is growing, and its seeds are sown by extremists on social media and even by some politicians. Knowing that, what will we do about it? What will you do? (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

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Wednesday August 22, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 22, 2018

Trudeau stands by ‘racism’ comments to heckler

October 25, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by his comments to a heckler last week after telling her she was intolerant.Trudeau was speaking at a rally in Sabrevois, Que., when a woman started yelling that she wanted back the $146 million from Quebecers that he’s “given to illegal immigrants,” referring to the amount the Quebec government says asylum seekers have cost since a recent surge in irregular arrivals.

“That intolerance with regard to immigrants doesn’t belong in Canada. That intolerance with regard to diversity, you don’t belong in Canada,” Trudeau said in French Thursday night.

February 23, 2017

“Madame, your intolerance doesn’t belong here.”

The woman then asked Trudeau if he was tolerant toward “Quebecois de souche,” a reference to Quebecers who can trace their ancestry to the earliest French settlers.

In a video posted online, Trudeau can be heard telling the woman her racism isn’t welcome.

The woman who confronted Trudeau was later the subject of debate on social media over her ties to white supremacist groups. She is a member of the Facebook group for Storm Alliance’s Quebec wing. The group says it is “made up of Canadian citizens whose goal is to make our Country stronger, to make it a Country that takes care of its own communities.” It was part of a protest last year at the Lacolle, Que. border crossing, against a rise in asylum seekers.

Speaking in Ottawa Monday, Trudeau said he won’t “flinch from highlighting the politics of division.”

“It’s important that we have people who come at problems from very different perspectives because that actually ensures that we solve them right,” Trudeau said. (Source: CTV News) 

 

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