Is Quebec Racist? Is Canada?

And what if Quebecers are less racist than other Canadians?

Controversy over Quebec’s relationship to secularism and religion obscures that views on race are more moderate than elsewhere in Canada.

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  Jean-François Lisée February 23, 2023

The number is nine. That’s the percentage of Quebecers who believe some races are superior to others. They, along with other Canadians, were asked this straightforward question by the Angus Reid Institute and the University of British Columbia in 2021: “In all honesty, do you think that all races are equal in terms of their natural characteristics, or do you think that some races are naturally superior to others?”

Nine per cent may seem high, but compare it to Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with a rate of 14 per cent. There is a spike of 19 per cent in PEI (this may be a sampling error) and lows of 11 per cent in Alberta and eight per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Interestingly, one finds that 13 per cent of Indigenous people believe in the inequality of races and 18 per cent of non-Caucasian/non-Indigenous – double the Quebec number.

How can we possibly square this result with the mere existence of Quebec’s secularism law, known as Bill 21, and the apparent consensus outside Quebec that citizens there are closed-minded? The answer, as Justin Trudeau explained the other day, is Quebecers relation to religion, especially with the misogynistic aspects of the Catholic religion of yesteryear and, these days, Islam.

That is why this same Angus Reid Institute poll found what every other poll will tell you: a much bigger slice of Quebec opinion has negative views of religions as a whole and of Islam in particular. Angus Reid reports that whereas 25 per cent of all Canadians feel “cold” towards Muslims, the chill reaches 37 per cent in Quebec. Still in minority territory (63 per cent feel warm towards them) but a significant difference.

Since support for the secularism bill, which bans the wearing of all religious signs for civil servants in authority, hovers around 65 per cent, there are simply not enough Quebecers who dislike Muslims to account for that great a number. Clearly, other variables are at play and racism is not one of them.

In fact, Canadian pollsters regularly find Quebecers more tolerant on a range of issues than other Canadians. Ekos found in 2019 that 30 per cent of Quebecers believed there were too many members of visible minorities among immigrants. That is awful. But this level rose to 46 per cent in Ontario and 56 per cent in Alberta. And among visible minorities, 43 per cent felt there were too many visible minorities among immigrants. In short, Quebecers were less intolerant of immigrants of colour than Canadians as a whole and citizens of color themselves.

Demonstrators in Montreal hold signs in April 2019 protesting Bill 21, legislation to ban some public workers from wearing religious items. (Graham Hughes/AP)

Polling from the Angus Reid Institute on Canadian perceptions of religions has produced some interesting results. Canadians don't think of themselves as racist. After all, Canada welcomes immigrants. The current government, like previous ones, welcomes an average of 350,000 and more immigrants to Canada annually. That's a staggering population growth over the course of decades. Not to mention the intake of tens of thousands of refugees. And they come from all corners of the world. 

Canada's cities can hardly be recognized from the mono-white that was common fifty years ago. The most populous city in the country is now a rainbow of colours and a cornucopia of languages, cultures, ethnicities, heritage. Most Canadians accept the presence of neighbours who don't resemble themselves. Discrimination exists everywhere, but in the social mileau of Canada where generations ago it was prevalent, it has receded as people understand with the presence of others that they're pretty much alike.

The polling results have not been kind to Quebec, showing that they seem to be less tolerant of differences in religions. However, it is all religions; Quebec became secular and irreligious in the Silent Revolution when it threw off the restraints and shackles of the Catholic Church that at one time dominated Quebec life. Quebec in fact, models itself after France. So religious symbols of meaning to many faiths fail to make an impressive impact in Quebec.

The polling demonstrated Quebecers' deep skepticism of Islam with 52 percent feeling unfavourably disposed toward the religion; a majority matched in no other province, although 41 percent of Albertans and 44 pereant of Saskatchewanians have similar perceptions. If we were to look deeply into those perceptions they likely have their root in the impression that political Islamism with its jihadist agenda and terrorism wrought.

Quebec is also home to skepticism about Judaism where 32 percent of Quebecers hold unfavourable views compared to 16 percent in the rest of Canada. Only British Columbia, Atlantic Canada and Manitoba tend to be 18 percent unfavourable to Judaism. But it is Quebec that stands out as the only province that has taken to passing a law that bans the wearing of religious symbols among public servants in emphasis of its secularism of the state in separation of church and state.

Other religions do not fare quite as badly as Islam and Judaism; Quebecers holding a 19 percent unfavourable view of Buddhism in comparison to the rest of the country at 13 percent in Alberta, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, with 11 percent unfavourability in British Columbia. Outside Quebec 18 percent of Canadians hold unfavourable opinions on Hinduism compared to 25 percent of Quebecers. As for Sikhism, 32 percent of Quebecers and 22 percent of the rest of the country hold unfavourable opinions.

Christianity comes under fire in Quebec at 37 percent, with British Columbia almost as high at 35 percent, declining from Atlantic Canada, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskathewan. Overall, Canadians, including Quebecers are most skeptical of Islam in comparison to other religions. Yet the bulk of hate crimes in Canada -- according to Statistics Canada -- are directed toward Jewish people with police reporting 320 hate crimes against Jewish people in 2020, followed by a total of 80 against Muslims and 40 against other groups combined.

When a co-worker wears a Star of David, 81 percent of Quebecers are comfortable, compared to 93 percent elsewhere in Canada; 75 percent of Quebecers are fine with the wearing of a kippa (skullcap) in comparison to 92 percent of the rest of the country. Polling notes that Quebec shows "a unique aversion to the Jewish kippa not noted elsewhere in the country". 

Judaism and Hinduism reflect 55 percent of Quebecers comfortable with their child marrying into that religion, compared to 73 percent and 63 percent respectively for the rest of the country. Just 65 percent of Quebecers feel comfortable with a colleague wearing a hijab in comparison to 84 percent of the rest of Canada. Still, religious marriages see 38 percent of Quebecers feel all right for their child to marry a Muslim whereas in the rest of the country it averages 52 percent.

President of QNW Marjolaine Etienne speaks at a news conference after a petition calling on the Quebec government to recognize the existence of systemic racism and discrimination was tabled, at the legislature in Quebec City, Thursday, March 16, 2023. Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Masse, far left, and Chief of the AFNQL, Ghislain Picard, far right, look on. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Karoline Boucher.

Co-Opting Canada for Islam

"[The] Islamophobia industry [is enabled by] self-proclaimed Muslim dissidents, reformers and ex-Muslims [who] act as instigators and propagators of anti-Islamic narratives as well as validating and authorizing the circulation of these tropes."

"[I have] comprehensively outlined the machinations of Canada's Islamophobia industry."

"[Moderate Muslims and mainstream Jewish organizations] share political and ideological mandates that involve the demonization and vilification of Islam and Muslims and often work in concert to foment controversies and spread Islamophobic narratives and conspiracy theories."

Jasmine Zine, Professor, Sociology and Muslim Studies Option, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario

BDS protesters at McGill University FILE PHOTO

 

Religious studies professors, sociology professors,  history professors, they dominate increasingly in Western institutes of higher learning, and bring to academia and to the public, their perspective and narratives focusing on the legitimacy of Islam as a religion of peace, while painting with a broad brush of Islamic condemnation any individual or group that dares point out that Islam today represents offshoots of extreme religious devotion wreaking havoc worldwide as Muslim terrorist groups.

Fundamentalist ideologically-driven fanatics on a mission to force the greater Muslim population to a more 'pure' and authentic vision of Islam excising all the relaxed, Western- and democracy-ringed versions of the original that may blur the stark distinction of Islamic values, precepts and mores from those of any other religion, laws, cultures or value systems. In the process, to demonstrate just how serious they are, these groups known more familiarly as Islamist terrorists rampage through non-Muslim and Muslim societies alike, intent on vengeance against those failing to place Islam on the pedestal demanded for it.

In a country like Canada which, like any other has its home-grown bigots and racists, but which is not even marginally culturally and socially racist, the current government has been pleased to demonstrate its progressive credentials by describing Canada as a 'racist country', and with this attitude from the executive branch of the federal government, it is hardly surprising that Muslim academics feel free to slander the country and to accuse Canadians of anti-Islam bias described as "Islamophobia", a term coined by the Muslim Brotherhood after the public impact and reaction stemming from the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

Even more shocking is the presence of a growing number of mosques throughout Canada, reflecting the growing number of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East bringing their social culture, religious devotion and Islam-inspired system of justice with them, and where in the mosques incendiary messages of hatred against others are frequently spewed. It has been those messages that have been responsible for recruiting Muslims to the concept of jihad, persuading some to go abroad to fight alongside terror groups like Islamic State.

Yet with all this activity of fanatical Muslim terrorists cutting a swath through the Middle East and Africa with their agenda of slaughtering non-Muslims and Muslims alike in the performance of their martyrdom missions in jihad, people like sociology professor Zine feel free to preach against "Islamophobia", condemning the general population, both non-Muslim and moderate Muslim who abhor the violence engendered by some of the Islamic texts and hadiths along with interpretations of the Koran inimical to peace between people, as "Islamophobia".

Professor Zine recently released a report she titled The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia's Ecosystem in the Great White North, where she gives insights into "how Islamophobia manifests and is purveyed: in Canada"; a totally skewed perspective of anti-Msulim bigotry in Canada, besmirching wide groups of people as racist, inclusive of Canadian Muslims who practise a moderate Islam. 

Raheel Raza, president of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, a rational, intelligent and moderate movement within Canada representing the interests of integrated Muslim-Canadians, has been singled out by Professor Zine for special condemnation. Raheel Raza points out that the term "Islamophobia" has no clear definition, unlike the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's antisemitism definition; clear and concise. She points out that Islamophobia is meant to connote heresy.

Ms. Raza also speaks of the mosques that were found to be spreading radical messages, with links to known terrorist groups, for spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories, for refusing to denounce terrorist attacks; indeed promoting them as reflective of the faithful committing to martyrdom on behalf of upholding Islam's sacred injunction to its faithful to spread the word of Islam, committing to proselytizing. What also takes place is hateful attacks against others in the community. 'Solitarity with Palestinians' sees radical groups in Canada mounting slanderous attacks against Israel and Canadian Jews.

 

Children hold anti-Israel signs at the al-Quds Day at the Alberta Legislative grounds in Edmonton (Credit: Facebook: Radical Citizen Media)

The BDS movement, Israel Apartheid Week and Al-Quds Day creates divisions between Canadians of various origins and cultural heritage. Islamists in Canada have infiltrated Canadian universities, as student groups mount verbal and violent conflicts against their Jewish counterparts. Muslims are prone to complaining about Islamophobia and attacks against Islam and Muslims in Canada, yet as Statistics Canada and police reports point out, Jews are the single most-persecuted religious/ethnic group in Canada through antisemitic attacks, followed by Blacks, and then Muslims. And it is Muslims who lead the way to antisemitic attacks.

Al-Quds Day Rally in Toronto, 2022. (Credit: B'nai Brith Canada)

Canada's Unequivocal Campaign to Fight Racism and Discrimination

"The Jewish White Supremacist Summit hosted by Apartheid Canada PM, Justin Trudeau, was the brainchild of Irwin Cotler, the Grand Wizard of Zionism in this colony. Notice that he looks like a dick without mkeup, as he spews his bullshit."

"I have a motto: life is too short for shoe laces, or for entertaining Jewish White Supremacists with anything but a bullet to the head."

"You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Spremaicists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from they will return to being low-voiced bitches of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters."

"If you want to understand the psychosis that is Zionism, examining Netanyahu or AIPAC will get you nowhere. You need to read about Holocaust Porn in Israel, to understand how an oppressed people not only emulate their oppressor, but also fetishize their oppressors and oppressing others." 

Laith Marouf, senior consultant, Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC)

"We condemn this unacceptable behaviour by an individual working in an organization dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination."

"Our position is clear -- antisemitism and any form of hate have no place in Canada. That is why I have asked Canadian Heritage to look closely at the situation involving disturbing comments made by the individual in question."

We will address this with the organization accordingly, as this clearly goes against our government's values."

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, Canadian Heritage

Hillel Neuer

Meet Laith Marouf, one of Canada’s most vile antisemites. The  government gave him a $133,000 grant to build an “anti-racism strategy” for Canadian broadcasting. That’s like paying Jack the Ripper to run a women’s shelter. Top officials must take responsibility and resign.

 

Actually, the position is not at all clear. Ostensibly Canada prides itself on inclusion and diversity, but it was Heritage Canada under Minister Ahmed Hussen who signed a contract with the Community Media Advocacy Centre to "build an anti-racism strategy" for Canadian broadcasting. Canadian Heritage directed funding to enable the group to fulfill its contract, in the amount of $133,800 and the funds were placed in the capable, trustworthy hands of senior consultant Laith Marouf.

Who, at the time of the contract grant was fairly exuberant, confidently stating that CMAC under his direction is "excited to launch the "Building an Anti-Racism Strategy for Canadian Broadcasting: Conversation & Convergence Initiative". With, of course, funding support from Heritage Canada's anti-racism initiative in commitment to an anti-racism action program. 

Expressing gratitude to "Canadian Heritage for their partnership and trust imposed on me"; and that CMAC commits to "ensuring the successful and responsible execution of the project". With that ironclad guarantee of good fellowship and the embrace of commitment to fighting racism, what could conceivably go wrong?

Ah well, social media tells all in this new age of surprising revelations, unveiling the man behind the smile. All it took was the curiosity of a journalist who thought it might be a good idea to undertake a wee bit of an investigation, something that Heritage Canada with all its staff on assignment on other matters felt too inconsequential to bother with, before signing a contract with a group whose major contribution to fighting discrimination would have been pushing back against "Islamophobia".

The Irving Cotler that the contemptful Marouf referred to was of course, the internationally recognized human rights campaigner and a former Liberal Minister more recently appointed as Canada's special envoy on antisemitism. Marouf's venomous reference to "loud-mouthed bags of human feces", stated Mr. Cotler, was "beyond the pale", moving him to speak to officials in the Heritage department on combating racism.

Jonathan Kay

Oh hi @HonAhmedHussen. Please find enclosed four images that will help you with the investigative "probe" of government-paid anti-racism consultant Laith Marouf

Canada Making Holocaust Denial A Criminal Offence

"There is no place for antisemitism and Holocaust denial in Canada."

"That's why we've pledged to prohibit the wilful promotion of antisemitism through condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust."

"The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. We must preserve its memory, combat contemporary antisemitism and be unequivocal when we say: never again."

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino 

 

"Jewish Canadians comprise one percent of the Canadian population yet are the target of 62 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes."

"We live in a time of rising antisemitism."

Richard Marceau, vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada

 

"Holocaust denial and distortion constitute a cruel assault on memory, truth, and justice -- an antisemitic libel to cover up the worst crime in history."

"And thereby a cruel and mocking rebuke to Holocaust survivors and their legacy."

Irwin Cotler, special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, Canada

The National Holocaust Monument is seen before the official opening ceremony in Ottawa, Wednesday, September 27, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

 Saskatchewan Conservative Member of Parliament Kevin Waugh brought a private member's bill prohibiting Holocaust denial to parliament earlier in this year. It was his private initiative to move forward on the issue, given the rising incidence of antisemitism in Canada. He pointed out that the proposal for a new law just put forward by the government as its own move was "word for word" in copying his own bill. He was happy to leave the issue to the government to see it become law since represented a "Win for everybody. There is no place for racism in this country".

This is, just incidentally, the same government of Justin Trudeau's Liberals that inherited a Conservative government move to help build the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau the complex was completed and officially opened. At the opening day ceremonies, Jewish attendees were amazed to discover that the dedication plaque made no mention of Jews whatever, instead speaking of men, women and children who were slaughtered. 

Outlawing Holocaust denial has been brought to the stage of necessity in the reality of an atmosphere of rising anti-Semitism, an issue that Members of Parliament and anti-hate groups have emphasized. When this criminalizing of Holocaust denial is passed into law Canada will stand among a number of European countries that includes Germany, Greece, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic which have themselves long since prohibited Holocaust denial.

 

 

The memorializing of the six million Jews systematically killed in Nazi-occupied Europe is one way the world can recall the depths to which hatred and propaganda geared to justify the murder of people based on their ethnic and cultural and religious origins -- downplaying their humanity, portraying them as unworthy of life as a menace to others -- can cause a genocide. 

 

Despite the government's move to take charge of the issue, in essence neutralizing MP Waugh's bill, he chose not to withdraw it. Despite the government override, MP Kevin Waugh expects his bill to have its second reading debate at month's end in the House of Commons. The reason for which is that he wants to ensure the change to the Criminal Code is enacted sooner rather than later. 

 

There is no information of any penalty to be served should a conviction of Holocaust denial occur. A penalty of up to two years in prison is linked to MP Waugh's bill. Once the government's move is brought into law the MP's bill prohibiting Holocaust denial will be rendered redundant. It will be interesting to see in the near future how the law will handle such cases. 

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters run from police following a demonstration in Montreal after attacking pro-Israel counter-demonstrators with rocks. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Given the fact that rising antisemitism can be seen in a linkage to rising immigration from the Middle East, including refugees. Which has resulted in BDS campaigns, and Palestinian influences in public displays of antisemitism in Palestinian flags, along with those of the terrorist group Hamas flown on the streets of Canada's cities while Jews are excoriated with libelous slurs in antisemitic, anti-Israel campaigns.

Toronto police separated pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at Nathan Phillips Square. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Football Opponents or Racial Adversaries?

"It felt like a hostile environment. The only message I had [for his distraught players] was we need to be better men ... and I asked them to stifle everything they had."

"Their response [game referees] was they were not hearing anything."

"It was at that point [continuing racial epithets] that I decided the game needed to be over."

"We have experienced [racism at games] before, but not to this level or degree. This was very hostile, very unsafe, and the environment was not suitable for competition."

Willie McGinnis, football coach, Roxbury Prep High School Wolves, Rosbury, Massachusetts

 

"I broke down, I watched racism ruin what’s something that was supposed to be good to them, Friday night lights but instead we were ridiculed, called N bombs by players, faculty, staff, spectators and were taunted all night."

"I was approached by police for absolutely no reason. There were reporters wanting to interview us, these same racist people that waited for a reaction. It was all a set up, cruisers and wagons. I’m angry that to this day things like this still happen, feeling powerless in a lose lose situation."

Roxbury assistant football coach Jamaal Hunt

 

"If it’s determined there was any type of criminality relative to that incident I’ll review that with the district attorney’s office."

"I have not seen any video or audio evidence concerning those allegations, but they are certainly not going to be ignored…we’ll interview people who were there, and we welcome anybody with information to provide it to us."

Georgetown Police Chief Donald Cudmore

Screen grab of melee at Georgetown High School football game

"I know a lot of the kids who go to the game, they wouldn't say that word to an African American, and I know [many] of the people in the stands and walking the sidelines, adults ..."

"If they heard any kid saying that to that team, they would have went right up to that kid and grabbed him."

Tim Manning, player parent, Georgetown Middle High School Royals, Georgetown, Massachusetts

"[There are] many different versions of what happened at this game ... swirling around on social media. [School officials and police are investigating.]"

Carol Jacobs, superintendent, Georgetown Public Schools 

 

"We call on the Georgetown district to fully collaborate with us to investigate this incident and to take strong actions to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again."

"Our priority will remain the safety and well-being of our community as we continue to advocate for racial justice, love and respect." 

Roxbury Prep School spokesperson, Roxbury, Massachusetts

 

Last Friday night in Georgetown, Mass., the Roxbury Prep High School Wolves were set to play a game against the Georgetown Middle High School Royals. A football game between two high school football teams, as normal an occurrence as can be imagined in the United States, or for that matter anywhere else. There is, however, a difference between the two schools and thus between the two teams -- in that Georgetown's student body is 93 percent White, and Roxbury Prep students are 97 percent either Black or Latino.

Still Americans, still high school students, still boys studying to be men, enjoying team sports and excelling at both. There was an estimated 450 people present at the field to watch a routine night of  high school football. Those present witnessed a fight break out between the two teams, obviously unsportsmanlike. And then the game was cancelled. Then came the explanation, that the Royals players endured an evening of racial catcalls slung at them by Georgetown players.

In tears, the Black players told their coaches that the "N" word and taunts about looking like apes and monkeys. The Royals coaches spoke to the Georgetown players' coaches, asking them to speak to their players about repeatedly hurling racial slurs at the opposing team. And it appears that the Royals' coaches made no effort to put a halt to the taunting. When first coach McGinnis heard from his players of the racial slurs, he told them to respond "using our pads". Play the game to win.

By the second half of the game the taunts and racial slurs were escalating, the Royals, the Roxbury students kept telling their coach were calling them the N-word repeatedly. A group of fans approached the back of the Wolves bench to interact with players until one of the assistant coaches instructed the crowd to retreat. It was about then that coach McGinnis was treated to the N-word himself. No one 'mishears' that kind of soul-searing language.

That led five men, fathers of Wolves players, to form a protective line around their team. Again coach McGinnis reported the racial slurs to the referees, who heard nothing themselves that might move them to take action. Leading 44-8 by the end of the third quarter, the Royals had succeeded in fully demoralizing the Wolves, when a fight broke out. Which was when the two Georgetown police officers assigned to the event called in for support.

A Royals player had shoved a Wolves team member and another Royals player held the Wolves player. Leading four Wolves players, coach McGinnis and others to rush the field to separate the two sides. The N-word surfaced again. When the police dispersed the crowd, coach McGinnis returned to his sideline, his team deciding to go on playing until two players approached their coach again tearfully, that the racial epithets were continuing.

The Wolves headed off the field, to Royals players chanting the N-word. Superintendent Carol Jacobs was at the game but heard no racial slurs. Her intention is to bring in an independent investigator. 

From left, Roxbury Prep parents Larry Fisher, Deborah Manago, and Missy Brown look on as Roxbury Prep hosts Millis at West Roxbury High on Sept. 24, a week after a skirmish broke out late in Georgetown High's game against Roxbury Prep. Roxbury Prep alleges racial slurs prompted the fight.   Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe

Polish Paper Proudly Publishing Hateful Antisemitic Slanders

"To publish something like this in a Canadian newspaper, whether it's in English or non-English, is criminal. It's absolutely criminal to pursue this form of hatred."     "We feel very strongly that this is a case where charges should be laid ... "         "We know that hate speech provisions of the Criminal Code are not often used, but this does cross the threshold."                                                                                  Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai B'rith Canada

"The ongoing global pandemic has spurred a fast-spreading epidemic of hate speech and disinformation including conspiracy theories with a clear antisemitic motive."                                                                                                               "Data from the World Jewish Congress shows that in the first months of the pandemic, there was a 30 percent increase in antisemitic content on social media." UN agency UNESCO webinar

The front of the March 25 edition of Glos Polski, with the story headlined “Coronavirus, or fake pandemic.” Glos Polski

Blatantly outrageous racist conspiracy theories were published twice -- the first time in March, then again in April -- in a Polish-Canadian newspaper with firm links to a Polish community group. The tirade claimed that COVID-19 was created by "organized Jewry", and for those who weren't aware of the threat that the Jewish presence imposes on the world community, the emphasis was placed on the 'fact' that Jews are the cause of all that goes wrong in the world. Somewhat similar to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in intent.

The very same kind of racist propaganda favoured by Nazi Germany that was meant to influence how Jews were viewed by those who read it. To pave the way to complicit genocide. That this kind of hateful message remains current and is unpacked in Canada through the auspices of an ethnic community group in whose country of origin many of the most horrific excesses of the Holocaust took place is quite simply mind-numbing. 

 Turning gullible minds toward the acidic venom of attributing base motivations to another ethnic group is the lowest form of deliberately hateful incivility.

When the publication of the accusations came to the attention of the Jewish human-rights group B'nai B'rith it immediately called attention to the newspaper, alerting police to a public hate crime in violation of the law. In the March 25 edition of Glos Polski which is published in Toronto claiming a readership by Poles "around the globe", the headline read "Coronavirus or fake pandemic". The story was repeated in the weekly publication in a late April edition, with no identifying byline.

"Biological weapons are being worked on in the U.S. and Israel not by just any experts, but (under) the leadership of usually Jewish psychopaths", the story reads, in discussing the origins of COVID-19, suggesting "organized Jewry" can "laugh their heads off" at the COVID-19 crisis to which Jewish social media had used "Goebbelsian propaganda" to manipulate the world with. 

What malignant, base irony when poisonous slander with Goebbels-similarities defames Jews by charging Jewish infamy.

It goes on to claim that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was manipulated by Jews, created to attack Gentiles and it is Israel that remains "the cause of all the world's woes", striving in the creation of an Judeo-Polonia state in Poland. Trotting out the tired old tropes of Jews controlling the stock markets of the world. And incredible as it may seem to any half-wit susceptible to Jew-hatred but still capable of distinguishing between fact and fiction, the claim that Vladimir Lenin, Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were all closet Jews.

No comment could be elicited from the editor of the newspaper, Wieslaw Magiera. And on the polish-canadians.ca website a promotional page describes the rag as a "paper which searches for the Truth, protects the good name of Poles and reminds us of the Polish culture and history". Indeed, yesss! 

According to the same page, Glos Polski is "edited by" (approved by?) the Polish National Union of Canada, verified on its website by the Union describing the paper as its "press body", inextricably linked since the launch in 1951 of the newspaper.

The Polish National Union of Canada mission statement is faultless in its clarity: "A cultural and service organization, a member of the Canadian Polish Congress, whose aim is to promote Polish culture, language, traditions and knowledge of Polish history to the Polish community..." Nowhere does it state to the uninitiated eye that it also promotes anti-Semitism through its printed and online links, its "press body".

It does claim to be one of Canada's largest Polish organizations, however, its role to counter Communist agitation. Presumably while it agitates to promote anti-Semitism. Canada, needless to say, is a vast community of immigrants brought together to share a life in a country dedicated to equality and security for all its residents. Public funding goes out routinely to various ethnic groups through a spirit of formal and institutionalized multiculturalism. To the Union has gone out hundreds of thousands from provincial coffers. An award for good citizenship.

The same page says Glos Polski is “edited by” the Polish National Union of Canada. On its website, the Union itself describes the paper as its “press body” and says the two have been inextricably linked since Glos Polski’s launch in 1951.

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. 

 

Pernicious Scientific Racism

"The Negro, [kept benevolently in a submissive state accepting that God had ordained them to be slaves] is [then] spellbound, and cannot run away."
"Like children [negroes] require government in everything ... or they will run into excesses; [slavery is the perfect solution for the good of the negro.]"
"There are other differences more deep, durable and indelible. The membranes, the muscles, the tendons -- even the negro's brain and nerves -- are tinctured with a shade of pervading darkness."
"It [cause of the enslaved person's] debasement of mind is [the] defective hematosis, or atmosperization of the blood, conjoined with a deficiency of cerebral matter in the cranium [that] has rendered the people of Africa unable to take care of themselves."
Samuel Cartwright, physician, 1851, Medical Association of Louisiana

Smithsonian, National Museum of African-American History and Culture

"[Captured Africans had] lived like beasts, without any custom of reasonable beings ... [and] only knew how to live in bestial sloth."
Gomes Eanes de Zurara   15th century Portuguese slave trading

"What Black inferiority meant has changed in every generation -- but ultimately Americans have been making the same case."
"[Many Americans] think that there's such things as Black blood and Black diseases and that Black people are by nature predisposed to dancing and athletics. These are common ideas."
"This [Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia] was one of the ... best-selling nonfiction books in early America. And Black and other anti-racist activists were arguing against Jefferson's theory of Black intellectual inferiority into the 1830s."
Ibram Kendi, historian, professor, American University, Washington

"There is a great confusion before us. It is time that we should arouse from our lethargy and prepare for the crises."
"Look around you ... at the Negro races. Their physical type is peculiar; their grade of intellect is greatly inferior; they are utterly wanting in moral and physical energy."
"[The institution of slavery] has grown up with us from our infancy, it has become part of our very being; our national prosperity and domestic happiness are inseparable from it."
Josiah Nott, South Carolina physician, anthropologist, future medical director, Confederate army

"In general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection."
"In imagination they are dull [and] tasteless... This unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people."
"Deep rooted prejudices ... real distinctions which nature has made ... and many other circumstances will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race."
American founding father Thomas Jefferson

It was undeniable. Black slaves suffered from a mysterious mental illness that overtook their reason, what little of it they possessed. They somehow, infuriatingly, seemed unable, unwilling, defiantly opposed to their God-ordained position in life. After all, they wouldn't be in that position if the Almighty had not warranted it by their imperfections as human beings. Call them if you will proto-human. There was simply too much they lacked, too many deficiencies in physical attributes, attitudes, and personal values.

They were born to serve. Heaven forfend they should be permitted to be free, for they would have no idea how to comport themselves; their savage tendencies would rise to the forefront, and their criminality would swamp law enforcement. Best for all concerned that they reconcile themselves to the plain and simple fact that they were designed by a higher power to be enslaved, to represent the machinery and drudgery that would lead superior beings to prosperity.

Of course, there was a human, moral obligation on the part of their owners to treat their slaves reasonably well. The same kind of moral imperative that rests heavily on farmers, for example, to look carefully to the care and well-being of their domesticated animals. For a bovine creature, well treated, fed and cared for, delivers good milk. And so it is with slaves; treat them well and kindly; overlook their deficiencies out of the goodness of your soul, and they will be forever indebted to you as their master.

Oh, that incurable malady that so disturbed so many of the slave owners, so concerning that they urged good Dr. Cartwright to examine the situation and determine the cause? Well, the cause, of course was that they were so poorly endowed, incapable of rational judgement. Else why would they continually engage in conduct unbecoming a slave, forcing their reluctant masters to impose suitable punishment? Those lashes meted out as punishment could spoil the saleability of the slaves should his owner wish to rid himself of a constant runaway.



Well, Dr. Cartwright did as asked of him, concluding that his expert professionalism enabled him to accurately interpret all the signs he had studied and the responses he had extracted from slaves he had questioned post-runaway. The malady, clearly, was born of maladjustment to their lot in life. And so they suffered from Drapetomania. From the Greek; Drapetes: runaway -- mania: madness. So there it is: Underlying the meek and obliging facade of the slave was the malady of madness.

Another type of madness overcame white abolitionists, who hardly knew what they agitated for. For after all, what would become of society, much less the state of agriculture and manufacturing, if slaves were let loose to live among their former masters as free men? Once that occurred, what would be next? What demands would those slaves make to further disrupt society? Too painful by half to contemplate.

As New York lawyer and racial theorist Madison Grant wrote in his The Passing of the Great Race in 1916, "Negroes have demonstrated throughout recorded time that they are a stationary species and that they do not possess the potentiality of progress or initiative from within." A publication much admired by many, but principally by a reader in Germany, for the book was translated into a number of languages. Adolf Hitler was particularly taken with the concept of differentiation in "races".

"The Nazis claimed that Jews used tools which were under their control or subject to their manipulation to advance their biologically driven expansion to world power. Among these tools were, allegedly, the media, parliamentary democracy along with its focus on individual rights, and international organizations dedicated to peaceful reconciliation of national conflicts. If Germany did not act decisively against the Jews both at home and abroad, Hitler claimed, hordes of subhuman, uncivilized Slavs and Asiatics that the Jews could mobilize would sweep away the “Aryan” German race."
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Photograph of Kitty Weichherz taken before World War II

Kitty Weichherz, pictured here in a photograph taken before World War II began, was born in December 1929. This photo was taken from a diary of Kitty's life written by her father, Bela Weichherz. After Kitty's birth, Bela started to keep a diary of his daughter's life. He made entries recording her childhood in Czechoslovakia until the family was separated and deported during the Holocaust. His last entry reads "I only wish that we can go together." Kitty and all of her immediate family perished in the Holocaust. Bela's two diaries were hidden during the Holocaust and recovered after the war.
Photograph taken in Czechoslovakia, between 1934 and 1937.

• US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Judith Landshut

Integrated Community or Racist Hotbed?

"It's small-town Saskatchewan. Hell, let's face it, the last Ku Klux Klan rally [here] was in Lemberg, Saskatchewan in 1964. White sheets and all on Main Street."
"If you move into town, like I did, you get shunned. This town is very cliquish, very clannish -- not with the white sheet [kind]."
"Me, I don't care. I don't care if he puts up an ISIS flag."
Stan Mantik, Kelliher, Saskatchewan

"In the Saskatchewan countryside you can have an Indigenous community within kilometres of a white community, and these two communities really don't know each other, understand each other, sometimes don't have anything to do with each other."
"For the last 120 years, there's been a gap in understanding between the settler population and the Indigenous peoples ... There's been such a history of racial oppression in Saskatchewan and we can't deny it."
James Daschuk, associate professor, University of Regina

"I don't know why a person would even hang a sign like that in town here, with all the Ukrainian and Polish people that are here."
"They don't like natives really. I mean there's a few living in town here ... They got to come here to cash their treaty cheques."
Varian Carson, local business owner

"I know some people that come in here and they're sorry Hitler lost the war. And I've known these people all their lives."
"[There are] racists in every town."
Gerald Faye, owner, Club15 Cheers Tavern, Kelliher

"It's not getting any better. But the racists are being louder because they feel they can be now very open in their views and nothing will happen to them."
"Consequently, Indigenous people now feel unsafe in Saskatchewan. And I think that they're justified."
"[Rural Saskatchewan is] probably the worst [with respect to the prairies divide between whites and Indigenous because of limited contact]."
"And I think people are comfortable with that here. But it's got to change, otherwise things are going to get worse."
"I don't want to say everyone's racist in Saskatchewan because they're not. But people need to speak up when they see something ... Like the hanging of that Nazi flag, that's a symbol of hatred. That should not have been allowed."
Eleanore Sunchild, lawyer, thunderchild First Nation, Battleford Saskatchewan

Truus and Gerrit de Gooijer, 92 and 90, look out the window in their Kelliher home, from where they could see a Nazi flag flying last week. They were 12 and 14 respectively when the Nazis invaded their country on May 10, 1940. (CBC News)

Kelliher is a small town of 200 inhabitants. They represent a mixed population of ethnic Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Dutch and other Canadians of diverse European backgrounds. When Truus and Gerrit de Gooijer first saw the Nazi flag that a neighbour had erected on his property they were shocked and profoundly disturbed. Disbelieving might best reflect how they felt, that the symbol of a racist, destructively deadly ideology they had fled as children had somehow been resurrected a lifetime later in the quiet comfort of a semi-urban sanctuary in Canada.

People took notice and they complained. And the fact that a Nazi flag had been raised in the town became a news story all over Canada. Police spoke to the resident who had raised the flag and he agreed to remove it. A short while later an Indigenous man posted a Facebook video with the flag, he was setting it on fire and wanted it shared on social media. The event shone a spotlight on racial tensions between those now termed 'colonialists' and the Indigenous native population.

Photo of a Nazi flag flying over a house in Kelliher, Sask., led to complaints to the village and to the RCMP. (Facebook)

"It's this no-brainer kid — 34 years old and never grew up."
"I contacted his parents ... and they didn't know it was happening. He's living in his grandpa's house and, as soon as it quits raining, he's going to take it down."
Darcy King, mayor, Kelliher Village

Several First Nations groups live close to Kelliher; the Muskowekwan First Nation for one, 20 kilometres northwest of the town. A town which Stan Mantik described in an interview as insular with people loyal to their particular groups, disinterested and dismissive of other groups; nothing like what a community should be like, particularly one with such a small population. But, he said, not only does the white population have no contact with the Indigenous one, even Ukrainians and Poles remain distant from one another.

Some of the village residents complained to the RCMP. "considering the amount of First Nation kids that attended that school in that town I did it for not only them but for us and First Nation people", the man who burned the Nazi flag and posted the video to Facebook explained. The in-bad-odour individual named by several village residents as the person responsible for flying the Nazi flag made himself unavailable for comment.

According to the village pub owner, it's a friendly village with both a strong German and Metis community. Residents of the village are friendly, inclusive and welcoming. Lawyer Sunchild has a vastly different impression. The Nazi flag incident should have been recognized as an incitement to hatred. A hate crime as in the criminal code. That police failed to take the kind of action they should have, pressing a criminal case against the homeowner who flew the flag, were "complicit in the status quo".

"How many soldiers fought for years, how many soldiers gave their life, and then [to] see that bloody flag hanging up there? That was disgusting."

"Why have Remembrance Day and say, 'Lest we forget'?"
"At the same time, we allow those flags up. That's impossible."
"I hope those people in government, they get their heads together, and bring in a law that forbids any flags of that nature. That's what I hope."
Gerrit de Gooijer, 92, Kelliher, Saskatchewan

"It really shocked me. It made me sick to my stomach."

"I don't know why this individual felt comfortable putting that flag out there. It represents so much hate and racism, I don't know why he felt it was OK to do that."
"For people to move on so fast like this didn't happen, it's upsetting."


Frederick O'Soup, teacher, Muskowekwan First Nation

A Facebook video appears to show the burning of a Nazi flag that had been raised last week by a resident of the village of Kelliher, Sask. (Caleb Beaudin/Facebook)