The Pernicious Cancer of Racial Discrimination

Now here's the Ontario Human Rights Commission doing what they were set up to do. Visiting a complaint of hateful acts against a visible racial minority living in Ontario. In Canada, that bastion of racial tolerance, no less. In Ontario, where people of every colour, every nationality, culture and tradition live together in harmonious equality. Or so the loving legend of Canadians nursing humanely compassionate traits goes.

The very human and utterly evil temptation for some to submit to their baser instincts leading to valuing some ethnic or "racial" minority groups less than others comes up for air on occasion to shock those of us who like to think such discrimination has been finally laid to rest. No such luck. Reality is that xenophobia, bigoted rejection of superficial differences between peoples will always infest society.

It would appear that in what is deemed to be cottage country, not far from Toronto, the locals have taken umbrage at the spectacle of Canadians of Chinese origin invading popular fishing areas to partake of the pleasure of angling. They don't "belong", it would appear. Fishing being a popular activity everywhere, among Chinese-Canadians as much as other Canadians, it seems logical that if the opportunity is available to some, it should be open to others as well.

That one requires a fishing license to be able to lawfully fish at certain times of the year appears to have been the worm that hooked these innocently injudicious anglers. But then, any excuse will do, to exercise hate against others. Local teen-agers along the south shore of Lake Simcoe, among other cottage-country areas in the province, found it an exhilarating pastime to stealthily steal upon day-tripping fisherfolk of Asian background, to threaten and harass them, and occasionally push them into the lake.

That these intruders into the sanctity of white privilege were Chinese only increased the enjoyment of these social xenophobes of redneck persuasion. In one instance a gun was hoisted at an angler in an obvious effort to make certain that the target felt sufficiently threatened. Young people don't act out in this manner unless they've learned from an early age that their parents don't mind hostile actions directed against those different from themselves.

The problem of vicious harassment became so serious last year that plainclothes police posed as anglers to draw out the attackers. And they succeeded, as they were exposed to racial epithets in short order of taking up position. It's more than a little unfortunate that an Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters newsletter sought to advise their members on an purportedly acceptable mode of response to the unwanted presence of Chinese anglers.

The newsletter suggested to its membership that they could approach such fisherfolk and enquire whether they had a license to fish. The article was entitled "Let's All Welcome Our Chinese Anglers", but it might seem that there was a double, nuanced purpose. The article and an accompanying editorial that seems at first glance to be reasonable: "We Caucasians are often appalled at the size and quantities of fish they sometimes have, but we have to realize that nothing is wasted".

Explaining also that in Mainland China licenses to fish are not required, there being no angling regulations. There are accusations that the items present as racially driven incitements to vigilante action. The Ministry of Natural Resources has attempted an educational campaign targeted to teens, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission has wrapped up a 6-month enquiry entitled "Fishing without Fear".

The issue has come to the fore again, since the fishing season has begun once again. And complaints have already surfaced of a number of Chinese fishermen being accosted and attacked. The Commission released its findings indicating that racial profiling played a definite role in assaults that took place across Ontario, the preponderance along Lake Simcoe. Those assaults, the commission took pains to state, led to a "feeling of fear" among Asian-Canadians, "decreasing their enjoyment of a favourite pastime".

Five of the reported and investigated incidents have led to charges being laid by York Regional Police. One enraged local was quoted through a report as complaining that "more and more Asians are raping our lakes". Cottage owners and locals feel their anger is completely justified against out-of-towners (some euphemism, that) indulging themselves and over-fishing. The commission found no evidence of illegal fishing.

Teens, presenting as carefree youths practising to morph into village idiots; not lacking encouragement by their elders.