Whilst other countries or non-countries are facing tragedies ☹ (Lebanon burning with 103 fires & the Kurds betrayed by the US and their allies), Canadians seem to be outdoing themselves with odd decisions in the name of so-called diversity and inclusion, and what have you… to the point of excluding the vast majority from the society.
Bambi is referring to two pieces of news, perhaps the second even more worrisome (the first can just make us smile ?):
1. Air Canada will no longer be greeting us with “Sir/Madam” or “Ladies & Gentlemen” (or “Bonjour Madame, Bonjour Monsieur”):
Instead, its staff will use words like “Everybody” or “Tout le monde” (who knows maybe “Yo” as students sometimes write in their emails ??).
Madam or Sir may offend some travellers who may not self-identify as either a male or a female or who may be transgender, etc.
In and by itself, this decision seems noble. It is amazing to be respectful of clients. However, let’s not forget that we are talking here about a very small minority of clients that can be perhaps offended or triggered if not addressed properly.
Instead of calling a specific traveller in a non-gendered manner (say after checking his or her passport and perhaps noticing “other” or X for the gender), we choose to go the extreme by denying ALL the clients the polite words in both French and English, even when they would be the majority.
For instance, the AC staff may clearly greet or serve a pregnant woman and we do not want to address her with Madam in order to be inclusive. Perhaps they will be serving an elderly man during a 7-hour-trip overseas, wearing gloves before interacting with him every time.
Plus, during a violent turbulence or serious incident, Bambi suspects that the words that will get out of the mouth of staff will be tainted with neither political correctness nor politeness (maybe). I hope so as what would matter then would be to save lives and not to offer a safe verbal gender-neutral space to an injured person.
Anyhow, the news is more amusing than anything else.
Air Canada may not call me Madam/Sir but Bambi will keep being polite in the same manner, especially when too jet lagged to remember societal trends (I will likely be saying: “Merci Monsieur”; “Merci Madame”; as long as the flight attendant is OK with this of course). As for Bambi, she frankly does not care how you would address her as long as you offer her good food on board on longer flights ?.
2. Now the MORE worrisome news is a link in the article above about the Ontario provincial police (OPP), no longer releasing the gender of people charged with crimes.
With all due respect to the OPP and all the police forces, Bambi finds this decision absurd. Indeed, it does not serve neither common sense nor science anymore (messing up epidemiological public data).
Bambi wonders what would have Indigenous Ontario women, victims of violence, thought about this had they been still alive? Is this a good thing for the sake of justice? What do their grieving families think?
More broadly, what do the current or future so-called victims or so-called criminals think?
Why doesn’t the OPP use the language used in Lebanon in the media. They name the gender but not the name (just the initials). That way they protect the privacy of the person (if this is the motivation here).
If Bambi is not mistaken, the Edmonton police may have moved in the Lebanese direction (protection of identity by hiding names).
Basically, why is the OPP complicating matters?
Why can’t it call a spade a spade anymore?
Is it truly to protect others or to protect itself from any liability or… to give in/dive more into the collective insanity of political correctness?
Today it is about gender neutrality. Tomorrow about what?
