One of the things I love about Canada is that we are proud of our multiculturalism. When it comes to race, Canada is one of the more enlightened places to live. Which is why it sickens me when I see an ugly thread of racism still running through this country.
Yesterday, the Huffington Post reported on a white pride rally being held in Edmonton. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/03/24/edmonton-white-pride-rally_n_1377368.html
White Pride??? Really??? I thought we had come a lot further than this.
The only conclusion I can draw is that even the two dozen or so demonstrators were somewhat ashamed to be there as most of them were wearing masks to hide their identities. This puts me in mind of the KKK who all wear sheets and hoods. If you know what you’re doing is wrong, why do it at all? If you truly believe in what you’re rallying for then why not do it out in the open with your faces uncovered and your head held high? Your cowardice disgusts me almost as much as your white supremacist dogma. This rally comes under hate speech according to Canada’s Criminal Code and never should have been allowed to happen in the first place.
Canada has worked hard, as a nation, to avoid looking like this.
We prefer our public image to look like this.
Don’t be ashamed of Canada, sounds like you just need to be embarrassed for a few jackasses. What tools!
Not to mention the city who gave them the permit to hold a rally that was illegal under federal law. Canada has strict laws governing hate speech.
As an American, I am absolutely no position to judge. We have an embarrassment of jackasses here at the moment. (Seemed the appropriate term – a pride of lions, an embarrassment of jackasses…)
Embarrassment of jackasses is an excellent term indeed.
And on this side of the pond, the English Defence League seem to be about to set up a political party.
Is it just me, or is it getting worse everywhere?
I believe freedom of assembly is the governing principal there, and those white pride assholes have every right to march around and show everybody how ignorant they are.
Shoving them into the dark is exactly the wrong thing to do. People who think they contain this sort of thing by restricting their freedoms are actually more dangerous than the people they try to stop.
By taking away the rights of the undesirables you set the president to erode everybody’s rights.
There’s no shame in treating the idiots as citizens with full rights and freedoms. The shame comes from forcing these things underground where they fester and breed. They will always be with us and it’s foolish/dangerous to think otherwise.
It’s sad that people are so closed up into themselves and their own small worlds that they haven’t been able to reach beyond and get to know people different from them. If you only know people just like you, how can you grow?
As far as Canada goes- I think hatred of other groups of people based on skin color or religion or gender or sexual orientation or ability or culture or… is worldwide, just sometimes it’s more obvious than others.
As an American, I can identify with not wanting to be affiliated with some of the other people in my country b/c of their crazy ideas and actions- like right now- some of those people are working pretty hard to be in control of us all. Here we have a lot of vague freedom of speech laws that often let hatred against certain groups slide (like Rush Limbaugh hatred toward women and people of color- Yuck).
Posts like this one are important b/c we need to keep speaking out against groups and individuals who are spreading messages of hate. Ignoring them can be considered condoning their behavior and ideas.
Thanks for the post!
-Liza Wolff-Francis, Matrifocal Point
Thank you for your comment. I just subscribed to your blog. I couldn’t agree more with your mission statement and am happy to support what you are trying to do.
I don’t think you can judge a nation of millions by what a couple dozen of its citizens do. Canadians, on the whole, strike me as pretty decent people. And I say that not just in order to get invited to fish in your lakes, but because it seems true to me.
But it’s not just the couple of dozen who were rallying, it’s the city officials that ignored the law and permitted the rally to happen in the first place.
As far as I’m concerned, you may fish our lakes at will.