Repeat After Me: Canada is NOT a Racist Country

"It is a time to pull people together. But it is the time to listen, it is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades. But it is the time for us as Canadians to recognize that we have our challenges, that Black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day."
"When it comes to being an ally, I have made serious mistakes in the past, mistakes which I deeply regret and continue to learn from… I'm not perfect, but not being perfect is not a free pass to not do the right thing."
"I know that for so many people listening right now, the last thing you want to hear is another speech on racism from a white politician."
"We will work with the black community across this country as we have to respond to their priorities. There is a lot to do in Canada and we will do it in partnership with them."
"Over the past few days, we’ve seen horrific reports of police violence against Black men and women south of the border, but these are not isolated incidents and elsewhere problems. Prejudice, discrimination and violence is a lived reality for far too many people."
"My job as a Canadian prime minister is to stand up for Canadians, to stand up for our interests to stand up for our values.That is what I have done from the very beginning."
Prime Minister JustinTrudeau  

"We have to recognize that our system is not perfect in Canada. Yes, there's a few idiot racists hanging around but Canada is not a racist country and most Canadians are not racist. And our system, that always needs to be improved, is not systemically racist."
"Should I have gone through school and been mocked because I had glasses and was called four-eyes and because of the occupation of my parents?" 
"Should I have been mocked for all that? No, of course not. But are Canadians largely and in majority racist? No, we are not."
"We celebrate our diversity around the world and for the prime minister to insinuate — and it is an insinuation — that our system is systemically racist is wrong."
Stockwell Day, former Conservative Cabinet Minister

Former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day has stepped away from two high profile business positions and as a commentator for CBC News Network's Power & Politics after denying that systemic racism exists in Canada during an appearance on Tuesday's show. (Michelle Bellefontaine/CBC)

Stockwell Day, long a fixture on the Canadian political scene, an Albertan, and a former Cabinet Minister in Conservative-led governments, is not naive and he is honest, but he tripped himself up when he spoke on a CBC Power & Politics panel, equating his experience as a child outside the mainstream who was bullied and mocked because he was different, to the experience of racism. His 'difference' was not that of a visible minority, or someone of an ethnic group that had always suffered prejudice, but the trauma experienced as a child remained with him as an adult, of being rejected by others because in some ways he was not like others.

In that sense, his comparison was accurate; he was mocked and rejected for being an 'outsider' from the mainstream. And those are the feelings that a Jewish child or a Black child lives with when they've encountered racist attitudes from others around them in the larger society. This man was responding to the prime minister's assertion the day before that systemic racism is institutionalized in Canada. Stockwell Day was quite correct in rejecting that contentious assertion and the prime minister was absolutely wrong in stating that Canada is a racist country.

There is present and there will always be present, those in any society who subscribe to the idea that some members of society are inferior to the mainstream society -- anywhere on the globe. Bias and prejudice permeates society, some societies far more than others, but it is always there. It is part and parcel of the human condition that some are viewed as less worthy than others and presumed unsavoury character traits linked to ethnicity, culture, race are held to a negative context to support a bigot's view of those considered to be a poorer version of humanity than they are.

Most Canadians wouldn't dream of demeaning someone of Asian, Black, or Jewish ancestry. We are, after all, and always have been a nation comprised largely of immigrant stock, joining the indigenous First Nations on this land. Human nature ordains that we look upon others unlike us with suspicion, but our intelligence informs us that we are not different than anyone else, and familiarity ensures by and large that we become comfortable with that reality. Yes, there will always be those whose social nurturing has been averse to the presence of those of exotic origin in North America; anywhere but Western Europe.

Justin Trudeau, the great lecturer on justice, equality and opportunity for all is the scion of position, wealth and celebrity, yet with all his privileges he wasn't above mocking people of colour when on a number of occasions as an adult, he painstakingly posed as Black, to gain a few cheap laughs. He most certainly has an ingrained, perhaps inbred problem with racism personally, and he has erred in ascribing his attitude to the great general population of a country of 37 million people, a huge percentage of whom are of varied ethnic stock. 

Canadians have elected people of colour to represent them at various levels of government, from municipal, to provincial to federal. There are elected Members of Parliament to reflect most ethnic groups that have emigrated from their home countries to become Canadian citizens and they represent all Canadians. Canadians with names that clearly reflect cultures far from those of European origin fill every walk of life, of profession in academia, science, medicine and art in this country. 

But the outcry from some segments of the Canadian public -- particularly from Black Canadians at this time of protest -- over Mr.Day's clumsy but heartfelt effort to defend Canada as a non-racist country, while at the same time commiserating with the Black community over overt incidents of anti-Black racism has gone a step too far. He has been involuntarily released from professional associations which, intimidated, wish to distance themselves from someone tainted with the accusation of, at best, lack of sympathy for the plight of visible minorities, to the worst interpretation; racism himself. And he is neither.

The lashback has forced him to apologize humbly for an offense he may have given to those who believe, and want to believe, and insist that we all believe, that Canada is a racist country whose population needs to indulge in meek introspection, committing to turn ourselves inside out and upside down asking for forgiveness from those who believe their presence is under-appreciated. A nudge in that direction is not entirely wasted, but the degree to which condemnation rests on 'white privilege' is in itself racist.

And when Stockwell Day was asked by the show's host, Vassy Kapelos: "It's difficult to be able to assert that there isn't racism as a white person, right?", Day responded in complete honesty that among his Canadian friends, relatives and adversaries most people are not racist, though he also said that Canadians would do well to develop more sensitivity about "hurting or insulting people", for he was hurt and insulted and that hurt and insult remained with him his entire life. Like the tender skin a Jew is born with that becomes increasingly thicker.