In his “Ministerial Mandate Letter” to Minister Steven Guilbeault, Mr. Trudeau asked the latter the following (https://pm.gc.ca/en/mandate-letters/2021/01/15/minister-canadian-heritage-supplementary-mandate-letter):
“…Work with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to take action on combatting hate groups and online hate and harassment, ideologically motivated violent extremism and terrorist organizations. You will be supported in this work by the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.“
Well, just as a reminder, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Development is Ms. Maryam Monsef who read a written statement (prepared for or by her?) in which she called the Talibans (who killed at least 159 of our soldiers in addition to civilians and other allies) “our brothers“. Aye… Bambi hopes your own brothers (if any) are nicer than these guys who also stone women and force them into sexual slavery!
First, the “work in question” likely refers to the proposed Bill C-36, which, in the name of online anti-hate, will serve to silence citizens in an rather arbitrary manner. Indeed, what is “hate”, to begin with? Who would define this so-called online “hate” and how? If Bambi understands the proposed bill well, citizens can be fined up to $50K and their online platforms would close. Some citizens would act as anonymous informers. Others would be their target. Our bureaucrats would act as those censoring forces. All this in the name of a noble cleaning of the internet from “hate” content. Do you see the slippery slope and… or the deep ditch too?
Once again, why is our government even envisioning such bills when we already have criminal laws, namely about the call for violence and defamation?
Furthermore, why are our so-called opposition parties (the official one and all the others) silent about this?
Indeed, if Bambi is not mistaken, the only party criticizing this bill is the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) of Mr. Maxime Bernier who is, once again, not invited to the TV debates. By doing so, an important part of the population is getting the message: You are not worth hearing or worth being governed by us. We do not care about you.
Most importantly, why are we leaving the defence of our freedom of expression to a party that is more right-wing or more conservative than the official opposition? Why aren’t the centre-right and centre left BOTH worried about those potential excesses? This is even more absurd as some Canadians may even call this party “far-right”. So, can someone tell Bambi why are we leaving the defence our freedom of expression to just this party? Is this normal/healthy in a (still) democratic, Western country?
To conclude this post, Bambi is concerned not just about the proposed bill C-36 (that she rejects!), but also about the intellectual judgment of Mr. Trudeau [+ his party for which Bambi voted for most of her voting life đ ] AS WELL AS the relevance of Minister Maryam Monsef in a team that would protect us by taking “action on combatting hate groups and online hate and harassment, ideologically motivated violent extremism and terrorist organizations“. How can someone who thinks that the Talibans are her brothers effectively combat terrorist organizations?
Has Maryam Monsef not resolved this controversy around her comments in last week’s news? If she has, repeated references to it risk being seen as ”beating a dead horse”.
Resolved? Not really. Just some PR damage control in or by the media that is financially dependent on our government (so biased with a title: “Here is what you need to know” and it tells us it is due to a cultural reference, period. We have to swallow it because the title told us so :)).
This post is about Bill C-36 and it made the link with Ms. Monsef because of the Mandate Letter of Mr. Trudeau to Minister Guilbeault mentioning the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development.
It is particularly strange and sad to see that all our elected politicians (leaders across parties) are not talking about such an important topic as freedom of expression (i.e., Bill C-36 is a flagrant attack against it). This bill, if it will ever see the light, could change the lives of Canadians. It surely deserves political attention during an electoral campaign then.
For Bambi, the issue here is not the incident about “the brothers”, even if it is related.
The issue is much more serious. It is about the competence of our government (or rather PM) in managing crises (once again) like Afghanistan, etc.
It is especially about the mindset behind the choice of our ministers by our PM (identity-based choices or quota-based rather merit and considerations of interests of our country). This mindset may explain why she was present at this important press briefing to begin with: Not because of her Ministry expertise in relation to Afghanistan but rather because of an identity-based choice, as per Ms. Emmanuelle Latraverse’s interesting comment. In other terms, what does rural development (one of her functions/expertise) have to do with our foreign policy? In this interesting La Joute debate (https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2021/08/25/propos-sur-les-freres-talibans-maryam-monsef-navait-pas-daffaire-a-etre-a-cette-table-la), you can hear Ms. Latraverse and her colleagues, including Dr. Bock-CĂŽtĂ©. The latter raised an interesting question: The “our” in our “brothers”. Was it an “ours” of a Canadian Minister (representing the Government of Canada) or was it a communutarian “our” (“our” own community)? She is the Minister of Canada. She is not the refugee in this press conference. What attracted Bambi’s attention was her hesitancy before reading the text with this word to the point that Bambi wondered it was actually her own word but we will never know that and who cares? So the issue raised here is larger than Ms. Monsef and it speaks volumes about Mr. Trudeau’s vision (he who called our country: postnational. What a sad vision of a tasteless country made up of communities living next to each other as we share a hotel without shared values or shared love for that hotel. Pushed to the extreme, this vision makes Bambi think of Gibran Khalil Gibran’s famous “Pity the nation divided into sects and each calling itself a nation”. He said it about Lebanon. Not today’s Canada).
This being said, it was quite refreshing for Bambi to finally read an earlier tweet by Dr. Amir Attaran going in the same direction as all these journalists from QuĂ©bec. Even Dr. Attaran did not buy the “cultural reference” explanation. Remember, he knows what he is talking about as his family origins are from Iran (near Afghanistan).
Anyhow, let’s call this “brothers” incident a political faux-pas or mistake (closer to the reality than a “cultural reference”). Good luck to this politician in her campaign (even if she is not the most competent on earth).
So yes, you are right, the “brothers” incident may be old news by now. However, more sadly, this is not the case for the mindset behind this incident.
I don’t know about all that; I’m a simple soul. When I look at the mass media in Canada, I see the last truly independent newspaper is Le Devoir, which Bambi rarely quotes. Are there any independent outlets in electronic media? And why all the sudden interest in subsidies?
Canada is indeed divided. But the 60-year old national unity crisis exacerbates the problem.
I’m curious if Bambi ever forgave Monsef for the incident where she gave false information on her citizenship application, claiming to be born in Iran when it was revealed she was born in Afghanistan. Her excuse was that she was too young to remember and the Iran story came from her mother.
Thanks Fred for your reply and question. Of course, Bambi does read Le Devoir and also La Presse (perhaps citations in older posts?).
Canada may be divided yet still beautiful. Mind you, politicians may exploit those divisions sometimes. At other times, they may not know how to assemble people. It takes talent and much wisdom to be that kind of a leader. Perhaps you have to learn that it is not about pleasing people but rather earning their respect, even if they did not vote for you or even if they disagree with your vision for the country or policies, etc.
Interesting that you asked that question in particular. Bambi forgave and forgot even (even if the story is odd let’s say), but today actually she read an older tweet by Dr. Attaran in relation to this incident that made her think about the story again. He had a good point that if her mom did not tell her where she was born (Afghanistan or Iran?), didn’t she have at least one relative who would have mentioned to her where she came to the world?