Immigration

Thursday May 19, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 19, 2022

‘Canada is not immune,’ leading Black voices say in response to Buffalo mass shooting

Members of the Black community in Canada on Monday are warning this country is also vulnerable to hate crime as they react with shock and horror to Saturday’s bloodshed in Buffalo that left 10 Black people dead.

October 30, 2018

“Canada is not immune to it,” Velma Morgan, the chair of Operation Black Vote Canada, told CBC News Monday. 

“We’ve seen what happened at different places of worship, we see what happens in London, Ont., we’re definitely not immune to it at all.”

Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of a racist rampage after he crossed the state to target people at the Tops Friendly Market in one of Buffalo’s predominantly Black neighbourhoods. He had talked about shooting up another store as well, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told CNN.

Authorities in Buffalo are working to confirm the authenticity of a 180-page manifesto posted online, which identifies the accused by name as the gunman. It cites the “great replacement theory,”‘ a racist ideology that has been linked to other mass shootings in the United States and around the world.

Friday March 25, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 25, 2022

Ukraine refugee crisis exposes racism and contradictions in the definition of human

May 9, 2019

Not only has the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought to light the awful tragedies that accompany armed conflict, but the subsequent refugee crisis has also uncovered deeply seated racism in the country.

Reporters have documented dehumanizing treatment against international students from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East in Ukraine. This treatment also extended to racialized permanent residents of Ukraine, including a long-time practising Nigerian doctor.

While white women and children were given priority on vehicles departing the country, African women were barred from trains leaving Kyiv even though there were empty seats.

These incidents demonstrate a racist logic that positions some people as vulnerable, and others as beyond the realm of moral obligation to receive protection. Black and racialized people, it seems, are not as deserving of care.

As Black Studies researchers in the field of education, we study how colonialism and anti-Blackness shape what we know. Although some have been shocked by these reports, we are not surprised.

Wednesday October 19, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 19, 2021

With election looming, Doug Ford’s PCs pitch themselves as a party on the side of workers

With Ontario’s provincial election looming next spring, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are presenting themselves as a party that is on the side of workers. 

September 5, 2020

It’s a political makeover that will likely to be a tough sell for Ford and his PCs. 

Ford came to power in 2018 on a crusade to make Ontario “open for business.” One of his government’s first bills froze the minimum wage, scrapped a requirement that employers give all staff at least two paid sick days and ended measures that made it easier for some workers to join a union. 

But now Ford is clearly making a fresh pitch to win favour with workers. 

“We’ve always been for the front-line hard-working union people,” Ford told a news conference in Windsor on Monday. “I will break a brick wall down to support them.”

April 23, 2021

Ford’s Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, Monte McNaughton, also aimed for a pro-worker tone in a recent speech to the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella group of unions representing plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and other skilled tradespeople.  

“We’re on your side,” McNaughton told the gathering of about 300 union officials in Toronto last Thursday. “There’s no bigger champion out there for tradespeople than Premier Ford.” 

McNaughton went on to voice concern for “workers in Ontario being taken advantage of by some bad actors and bad corporations.” He talked of the plight of workers “making well below the minimum wage without pay stubs or transparency on how their work is assigned.”

August 20, 2012

Conservative governments “got it wrong” for decades with their approach to the labour movement, he said in the speech. 

“We’re taking a different path,” McNaughton said. “Not every conservative agrees with me, but we’re not going to slow down.” 

The idea of Ford’s party standing up for workers against big business is being met with skepticism by the PCs’ political opponents.

“They can kiss up to the unions if they want, but it’s their actions that make a difference,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters on Monday at Queen’s Park. 

February 4, 2020

“Actions speak louder than words, and we’ve seen this government have a very anti-worker agenda all the way along.” 

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca similarly questioned whether the Conservatives will back up what they say with meaningful action. 

Patty Coates, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, which represents more than one million unionized workers, dismisses what the PCs are saying as empty platitudes. 

“It’s election time,” said Coates in an interview, adding that Ford is “rebranding himself as a friend of labour, and he believes that people will forget.” (CBC)  

 

Thursday March 11, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 11, 2021

Vaccination passports: a long, tortuous road

Prepare for the next COVID-19 controversy: vaccine passports. The idea that vaccine, or immunity, passports will need to be developed and implemented manifests in two major ways. They can be loosely defined as domestic and international.

January 9, 2021

For the purpose of international travel, Canada won’t have much choice but to adopt vaccine passports. Countries around the world have already started down this road, including Israel and several European countries. Denmark and Sweden announced last month they are developing digital passports. President of the European Commissions Ursula von der Leyen tweeted March 1 that a proposed “Digital Green Pass” would help EU citizens move around safely. The pass will include a record of vaccination, or failing that of a negative COVID-19 test.

And Canadian airlines are already asking for the government to make vaccine passports part of the plan for reopening international travel.

September 19, 2020

So Canada needs to decide, and fairly soon, if it wants to be part of this worldwide movement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed misgivings. He worries, as do many, about the potential of some people being unfairly and unintentionally targeted, such as people who cannot be vaccinated for reasons of immunosuppression. Others worry the passport may stigmatize those who, for whatever reason, choose not to get vaccinated. 

These are legitimate concerns, which is why this subject will only become more contentious over the coming weeks and months. Notwithstanding Trudeau’s concerns, Health Minister Patti Hajdu has said the government is having “very live” discussions with international partners. All things being equal, some form of international travel vaccine passport is pretty much inevitable, and those who don’t have one won’t be travelling. 

October 8, 2020

The contentiousness only gets thicker when you consider how this will apply domestically. Will provincial governments want proof of vaccination for interprovincial travel? That is relatively easy to police through airports, but what about land crossings? Given the Constitution guarantees Canadians freedom of movement, not just those vaccinated, how long until a legal challenge is launched? Might some provinces simply say you are not welcome unless you are vaccinated? (The likely answer is yes — look at the Maritime bubble.)

October 15, 2020

It’s not just about travel, either. Consider major events. Will those organizing football, hockey, basketball, concerts and graduations and the like want a virus-free environment? The only way to ensure that is through record of vaccination. So is someone who isn’t vaccinated precluded from attending?

Consider it at the individual level. If you are making a reservation with friends at your favourite restaurant, surely you are entitled to ask if the restaurant has restrictions for unvaccinated patrons. Even though you are protected, you could still carry the virus and pass it to unprotected people, such as your unvaccinated parents, friends and kids. 

Consider small to medium-sized businesses, already struggling through pandemic restrictions. At some, vaccinated patrons may demand proof of safe passage. If five per cent of the business’s customers refuse vaccination, will the business have to write off their business? Can they afford to do that given the financial pressure they are already under?

It’s headache-inducing. If everyone who can safely be vaccinated is, the problem will be dramatically reduced. But we know that isn’t likely to happen, that even with vaccine hesitancy reduced, a percentage of the population will stubbornly refuse. How the rest of us relate and interact with those people poses new and thorny challenges. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

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