gesture

Tuesday January 15, 2019

Tuesday January 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 15, 2019

What — and who — comes after Rahaf Mohammed?

If Canada were a proud and principled beacon unto the world’s most downtrodden, as so many so often claim, then one might have expected Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun to arrive at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Saturday with relatively little fanfare.

August 8, 2018

Canada resettles tens of thousands of refugees every year, after all, and many are fleeing circumstances just as horrific as the Saudi teenager’s abuse by her family. Canadian government officials are guarding Alqunun’s current whereabouts partly on grounds she might still be in danger even halfway around the world — an idea given credence by Dennis Horak, who was Canada’s ambassador in Riyadh until he was expelled over the summer.

Indeed, Saudi-Canadian relations are not in terrific shape just at the moment, thanks to our public rebukes of its treatment of activists, and granting immediate asylum to the world’s highest-profile Saudi refugee seems unlikely to help matters. One might very reasonably not give a damn about the House of Saud’s amour propre, but Ottawa would clearly prefer to repair those relations. Quite apart from anything else, it would give Canada more-than-zero leverage in lobbying on behalf of those activists — including imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, whose wife is a Canadian citizen.

There were no good reasons to make a big show of Alqunun’s arrival, in other words, and plenty of good reasons not to. Furthermore, Justin Trudeau has been very clear about what he thinks of using refugees as political props. He was at his most thespian back in 2015 when it was alleged Stephen Harper’s office had been sifting through applications from Syrian asylum-seekers in search of potential photo ops.

“That’s DIS-GUST-ING,” Trudeau hissed at a campaign stop in Richmond, B.C. “That’s not the Canada we want; that’s not the Canada we need to build.”

In the end, though, there was Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland with her arm draped around Alqunun, announcing that this “brave new Canadian” would not be taking questions. Luckily, Freeland herself had arrived equipped with some crimson talking points.

December 12, 2018

“I believe in lighting a single candle,” she said. “Where we can save a single person, where we can save a single woman, that is a good thing to do. … And I’d like to also emphasize, this is part of a broader Canadian policy of supporting women and girls in Canada and around the world.”

“Canada is a country that understands how important it is to stand up for human rights, to stand up for women’s rights around the world,” Trudeau chimed in.

It would be well-nigh impossible to argue against hearing, at the very least, Alqunun’s claim for asylum. But at this point, she is certainly also a political prop — a living symbol of the Liberal view of Canada’s place in the world, and an always-welcome opportunity for self-congratulation. (Continued: National Post) 

 

Thursday August 16, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 16, 2018

Ottawa to declare federal holiday to mark legacy of residential school system

June 3, 2015

The Liberal government will declare a federal statutory holiday to mark the tragic legacy of the residential school system, fulfilling a recommendation made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

In a statement, a spokesperson for Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said the department is working with Indigenous peoples to determine the best date for this sort of commemoration.

July 13, 2017

“We have committed to fulfilling all of the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Call to Action 80 asks the government of Canada to establish a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour the survivors of residential schools,” said Simon Ross, the minister’s press secretary.

“That’s exactly what we will do, and we will do that in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.”

Canada Day 2017

Two days are currently under consideration: June 21, which is National Indigenous Peoples Day, and September 30, which is named “Orange Shirt Day.” It is named for the bright orange shirt given to six-year-old Phyllis Webstad by her grandmother in 1973; it was taken from her by administrators when she attended the St. Joseph Mission School in Williams Lake, B.C. The date was chosen because it’s around the time Indigenous children were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools. 

It’s not yet clear when the new federal statutory holiday will be implemented, but the official said conversations with Indigenous peoples are well underway.

June 12, 2008

Constitutionally, it’s up to the provinces and territories to determine which statutory holidays exist in their jurisdictions.

Nothing in any federal legislation would force them to follow suit and implement a day to mark the horrors of the residential school system.

So a new federal holiday would apply only to workers in federally regulated industries — like the federal public service, banks, interprovincial and international transportation companies, TV/radio, telecommunications, fisheries and Crown corporations, among others — unless the provinces took action on their own. (Source: CBC) 

 

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Thursday July 13, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 13, 2017

Commissioner Quits Murdered & Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry

While the national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls continues to lose high-level staff and appears in disarray, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs is urging everyone to not lose hope in the process.

July 1, 2017

Saskatchewan lawyer Marilyn Poitras issued her resignation in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. She is the first commissioner to resign from the inquiry.

In the letter, Poitras said she is “unable to perform my duties as a commissioner with the process designed in its current structure.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told Ottawa media that she has met with the commission, reviewed their path forward and has faith in what they have planned. “They really do have the vision, the values, the tools and the plan to get this work done,” Bennett said.

She added there is “no question that we all agree that the communication has been an issue,” and they must do a better job telling families about their plan and vision. But she believes they will.

May 16, 2017

However, not everyone feels as though the inquiry, in its current form, will be able to do all that is hoped. Many families and Indigenous leaders have openly questioned the inquiry’s direction, its methods and chastised it for not involving more grassroots activists — who have been fighting for an inquiry for years. They feel the inquiry has lost its way and are demanding it begin again.

Poitras’ resignation follows a press conference held last Thursday by the inquiry’s Chief Commissioner Marion Buller. Buller gave an update on the probe’s summer progress after several controversies including high-profile resignations. On June 30, executive director Michèle Moreau quit the inquiry. Moreau cited “personal reasons” for her resignation.

June 3, 2015

Buller has defended the inquiry and its progress to date, saying she will meet all the milestones including an interim report in November even though only a handful of families have spoken at public hearings.

Buller has said staff leaving the inquiry have all done so for “personal reasons” and that some had dream job offers. The inquiry has five commissioners who are mandated to travel the country, hearing the testimonies of families, then making recommendations on how to protect vulnerable Indigenous women and girls. An RCMP report in 2014 indicated there are 1,181 Indigenous women and girls who have been killed violently or have disappeared. Many believe that number is low.(Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Thursday February 25, 2010

February 25, 2010

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 25, 2010

Apologypaloosa

More than 40 years after the last home in Africville was bulldozed, the City of Halifax said sorry Wednesday for destroying a north-end community that stands as a symbol of the strained relations between Nova Scotia’s blacks and whites.

As Mayor Peter Kelly delivered a formal apology and promised $3 million to build a replica church and interpretive centre, some blacks in the crowd yelled, “Give it back!” “Compensation!” and “You forgot the people!” (Toronto Star) 

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized Wednesday for a government program instituted in the 19th century that sent poor children from London’s slums overseas to do hard labour in British colonies, including Canada.

“To all those former child migrants and their families, to those here with us today and those across the world, to each and every one, I say we are truly sorry,” Brown said in Parliament. (CBC) 

Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder of the world’s largest automaker, and Yoshimi Inaba, the company’s North American president, appeared Wednesday before the House oversight committee to offer an apology and explanation for the defects that have caused their vehicles to sometimes accelerate out of control.

In words and gestures, they were nothing if not contrite. Throughout hours of testimony, Toyoda and Inaba used words such as “shameful” when describing past events, and “modestly” and “humbly” to describe how they will approach their responsibility for safety in the future.

Toyoda reminded the committee that he is in some ways the human embodiment of the car company, and that he, more than anyone, would want to repair the damage. (Washington Post) 

Commentary

The occasion of a public apology is, for me anyway, almost always a trigger to cause me to wince. No matter who it comes from, a politician, athlete (Tiger Woods last week), or entertainer saying sorry for cheating on a spouse, or found guilty for drunk driving, or a national leader giving a formal apology to a hushed legislature over a past misdeed which might’ve affected millions, nothing, no matter how passionate the blubbing appears before a camera can move me enough to take seriously. 

I can see the merits of saying sorry if one is seeking forgiveness. That’s the way it works on a person to person level. The problem with giving an apology to a camera is that the camera can’t accept your apology. The people watching from behind the camera can’t exactly indicate their acceptance either. One thing is clear, no apology, no matter how much money is included, is going to be received with 100 % acceptance which pretty much makes any public statement of sorrow ring hollow. 

When a leader offers an apology on behalf of a state they aren’t exactly speaking on behalf of 100% of the population. The apology for the razing of Africville 40 years ago in Halifax, for example, has been argued by some to this day as a necessary (albeit it, brutal) means to control dangerous living conditions and pestilence. 

Apologies can only be done on face-to-face personal terms. When it comes to a politician apologizing on behalf of his government for something a previous government did to people many generations ago I’m one to think that it’s worse than being hollow, it’s simply an insulting trivial move designed more to score points for a political legacy or a reelection campaign.