{"id":4940,"date":"2020-06-20T22:35:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T01:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=4940"},"modified":"2020-06-21T00:05:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-21T03:05:21","slug":"thank-you-mr-mulcair-former-ndp-leader-for-standing-up-for-justice-toward-quebec-here-is-a-thoughtful-article-by-ms-denise-bombardiers-entitled-quebec-a-racist-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/06\/20\/thank-you-mr-mulcair-former-ndp-leader-for-standing-up-for-justice-toward-quebec-here-is-a-thoughtful-article-by-ms-denise-bombardiers-entitled-quebec-a-racist-province\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank you Mr. Mulcair (former NDP leader) for standing up for justice toward Qu\u00e9bec. Here is a thoughtful article by Ms. Denise Bombardier\u2019s entitled \u201cQu\u00e9bec, a racist province?\u201d [\u201cQu\u00e9bec, une province raciste?\u201d]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First, we finally heard a wise (former) politician\u2026 Nowadays,\none must be a \u201cformer leader\u201d to have the courage and lucidity of being wise:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Mulcair stated yesterday the following: \u201cMr. Singh had no reason to accuse Mr. Therrien of racism and he should now apologize<\/em>\u201d. He considers this accusation to be serious<\/span>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Jagmeet Singh, it is time to be wise now. Even NDP\nfolks are saying so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your apologies are overdue… but it is never too late\nto act like a gentleman in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, instead of apologizing as polite Canadians\nusually do, Mr. Singh seemed to insinuate that he had a treatment of \u201csystemic\nracism\u201d at the House of Commons when he was expelled by the Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singh\u2019s wife even came to his so-called rescue in Narcity<\/em>.\nFor her, he is a \u201chero of anti-racism\u201d, to use her own words. Normal, after all,\nhe is also her heart\u2019s hero ?:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.narcity.com\/news\/ca\/on\/ottawa\/gurkiran-kaur-sidhu-offers-support-to-husband-jagmeet-singh-after-he-called-mp-racist<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Singh seems to have forgotten about the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, in a \u201cnoble\u201d fight, we can fall into the trap\nof being unfair, especially when we are passionate about a topic. It is never\ntoo late to admit that we went too far in life. We, the citizens, respect our public\nservants even more when they know how to be humble. Mr. Singh\u2019s apologies to Mr.\nTherrien would be indirectly to the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois<\/em> and directly to the\nhearts of each Qu\u00e9becker\u2026 four days ahead of the \u201cSaint-Jean Baptiste\u201d (Qu\u00e9bec\nnational day). It would be a lovely gesture on your behalf. \u201cYalla, you can do\nit ?\u201d (= Come on, in Arabic!).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, the only systemic discrimination that Bambi sees\nin this incident is against Qu\u00e9bec (French-Canadians of Qu\u00e9bec). Not by the\nSpeaker of the House of Commons, thank Goodness! It is rather by Mr. Singh and our\nPM who have both unwisely played identity politics (Ms. Bombardier may have\nguessed why).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, Bambi is also seeing increased systemic prejudice\nagainst our police officers on our streets and media, which would be contrary\nto the spirit of the noble cause of \u201csystemic racism\/discrimination\u201d. It is both\nodd and troubling to see politicians behaving like that toward the servants of\ntheir own (our!) institutions. It is even surrealistic, to say the least.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is amazing how no one dares to say anything nowadays.\nFor Bambi, it is strange to see Canada increasingly resembling Syria (more authoritarian)\nand decreasingly Lebanon (more democratic)\u2026 Is it normal to have all our opposition\nparties that well aligned with the party in power, and with MOST of the mainstream\nmedia, at least the English ones? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would have Mr. Jack Layton said about all this, had\nhe been still alive today \u2639?\nShe bets that he would have not been proud today of Mr. Singh\u2019s attitude. Indeed,\nhe used to respect Qu\u00e9bec. Qu\u00e9bec respected and loved him back. We all did!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow, here is Ms. Bombardier\u2019s powerful text, published\nin the Journal de Montr\u00e9al<\/em>, translated into English:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2020\/06\/20\/le-quebec–une-province-raciste<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this\n“false news” circulates across Canada, last Wednesday, the leader of\nthe NDP, Jagmeet Singh, called the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois House leader Alain Therrien a\nracist. The leader of the NDP was kicked out of the House of Commons for using a\nword classified as unparliamentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois asked him to apologize, which the latter refused to do. Prime Minister Trudeau has said that the Bloc is paying the price for refusing to admit that systemic racism is a scourge in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leader of the Bloc, Yves-Fran\u00e7ois Blanchet, acknowledged that “residual traces of racism exist in Canadian institutions”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he believes that we must refrain from generalizing by associating all members of a community with this racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bloc therefore takes issue with the accusations made against the Legault government, which voted for Bill 21 [the bill on secularism].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His opponents describe the French-speaking majority, which supports Fran\u00e7ois Legault, as racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is understandable that Jagmeet Singh’s strong anger was explained by the exchange of tense looks when he voted on his motion to recognize systemic racism in the RCMP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Singh therefore interpreted the look of the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois House leader and the gesture that accompanied him as a rejection of his words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He felt somehow rejected as a racialized person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so here is the Gordian knot which apparently all white people who seem to be put in the same bag have to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s whites are said to be the heirs of yesterday\u2019s slavers and all those who for centuries have colonized, exploited, despised, and discriminated against non-whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the whole earth and even in the heart of the villages of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we organize more civilized debates on this ever-growing theme?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Qu\u00e9beckers, themselves humiliated, poor and made to feel guilty by a limited catholicity, be locked up now in a racist status of which they would be oblivious?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attacks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can we resist these destabilizing attacks which make them systemic racists by the mere fact of their skin colour and their battles to protect their language, always flouted, and their distinct culture, which includes secularism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the majority of Qu\u00e9bec become silent again, fold their backs, make their mea culpa and leave it to others to now define what it is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formerly French Canadians, we have renamed ourselves Qu\u00e9becers to include all the citizens of Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here we see minorities excluding themselves from belonging to Qu\u00e9bec in the name of race and religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a regression of universalist values!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should we expect all of Canada to decide to exclude “racist” Qu\u00e9bec from the Canadian federation so as not to tarnish the image of virtue and purity of a postnational Canada?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be reverse separatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the international media, articles vehiculated these prejudices about Qu\u00e9bec today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is doubtful that the Canadian embassies would be quick to correct this perception, which tarnishes the image of Qu\u00e9bec and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qu\u00e9bec society thus finds itself in the camp of racists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a calamity!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, we finally heard a wise (former) politician\u2026 Nowadays, one must be a \u201cformer leader\u201d to have the courage and lucidity of being wise: Mr. Mulcair stated yesterday the following: \u201cMr. Singh had no reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4940"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4945,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4940\/revisions\/4945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}