B.C. college instructor fired over Hamas comments reinstated

2025/11/21 Leave a comment

Her comment appears to lack self-awareness given the nature of much of academic discourse:

Langara Faculty Association president Pauline Greaves said in a statement that she is grateful the troubling episode has come to a close.

“I understand many in our community were hurt and offended by what Dr. Knight said. But collegial dialogue and tolerance for views we don’t like are the bedrock of a robust, engaged academic environment.”

Source: B.C. college instructor fired over Hamas comments reinstated

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Conservative MPs denounce ‘Liberal racism’ and DEI during Jamil Jivani event

2025/11/21 Leave a comment

Good example of some conservative perspectives on DEI, mirroring some of excesses of liberal perspectives:

….Jivani’s Tuesday event was primarily a broadside at progressive ideologies writ large, but it also referenced federal programs and initiatives. The Prime Minister’s Office was not immediately available for comment on the event, though Jivani said all Liberal MPs were invited to attend his forum, however none took part. 

Jivani — who spoke about his upbringing as the son of an Irish-Scottish mother and a Kenyan father — said people like him “should not be treated as charity cases” and should not be subjected to “lowered” standards to access opportunities.

“I also stand here in opposition to Liberal racism because I completely reject the twisted narrative of Canadian history that liberal elites use to justify the open discrimination against Canadians of European descent and their children. Your heritage in this country should never be used as a weapon against you,” the Bowmanville—Oshawa North MP said, eliciting applause. 

“It’s also my belief that together, we can end Liberal racism by speaking very truthfully and bluntly about what it is, and highlighting the ways that it manipulates our society and divides people against one another.”

In service of that goal, Jivani ceded the stage to three Conservative MPs to share their views on the subject: Calgary’s Shuvaloy Majumdar and two rising stars within Tory caucus, Newmarket-Aurora’s Sandra Cobena and Richmond Hill South’s Vincent Neil Ho….

Source: Conservative MPs denounce ‘Liberal racism’ and DEI during Jamil Jivani event

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Nakba exhibit at Canadian Museum for Human Rights to draw on Palestinian oral histories

2025/11/21 2 Comments

I don’t envy the curators preparing the exhibition and having to navigate the politics (see reaction from some Jewish organizations below). That being said, it is a legitimate exhibition for the museum and the oral story approach is likely the most appropriate:

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is launching a new exhibit examining the Nakba, a period beginning in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs were displaced in the war over Israel’s creation.

Drawing on the oral histories of the Palestinian diaspora in Canada, the mixed-media display will open in June. It is set to remain a permanent part of the Winnipeg-based museum’s standing galleries for at least two years, chief executive officer Isha Khan told The Globe and Mail.

After years of protests and demonstrations outside the national museum demanding such an exhibit, advocates from several Jewish and Palestinian groups expressed elation about what they believe is a long overdue step toward public education. But at least two Canadian Jewish groups condemned the planned exhibit, stating that it undermines the legitimacy of Israeli statehood. One of them has withdrawn from future collaborations….

Source: Nakba exhibit at Canadian Museum for Human Rights to draw on Palestinian oral histories

Reaction from some Jewish organizations:

…The JHCWC also expressed concern the exhibit could overlook non-Jewish minorities who are Israeli citizen, including Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Circassians and Samaritans – people who hold positions in the judiciary, parliament, health care and the military, and that their equal rights under Israeli law complicate common interpretations of the Nakba.

The centre notes previous exhibitions — including the Holocaust gallery — were organized with extensive consultation.

“I think what you’re seeing with the Jewish Heritage Centre is the manifestation of a fundamental breach of trust by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” says David Asper. “The factual, historical context of events surrounding the ‘Nakba’ are not just one story. In my father’s founding vision of the purpose of the Museum he never had a problem with the telling of the whole story, which includes the displacement and expulsion of over 800,000 Jews who were living in Arab countries and, perhaps most importantly, that a lot of what happened was triggered by the fact that many Arab countries declared war and tried to conquer and eliminate Israel in 1948.”…

Source: Canadian Museum for Human Rights has become ‘tool’ of one side of the Arab-Israeli story: David Asper

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Lisée: Jungle identitaire

2025/11/20 Leave a comment

Interesting commentary regarding the latest report by the commissaire à la langue française, Benoît Dubreuil, Intégration à la nation québécoise:

…En comparaison, il est beaucoup plus agréable d’être entre immigrants ou avec des anglophones, dont la composition ethnique est plus diversifiée, dont la langue est plus facile, où les accents divers sont plus acceptés, et où la pression pour s’intégrer à une culture précise n’existe tout simplement pas.

Et c’est là qu’on trouve la spécificité du cas québécois. Dans le monde entier, les ados sont rustres, et l’intégration, difficile. En Allemagne, au Chili ou au Cambodge, il n’y a pas d’autre choix que celui de l’intégration à la langue et à la culture de la société d’accueil, même lorsqu’elle accueille mal. Ici, un autre univers est à portée de main, l’anglophone.

Dubreuil nous apprend qu’une fois l’enfer du secondaire traversé, les tensions s’atténuent au cégep et à l’université. La maturité des uns et des autres y est pour quelque chose. Mais ce passage a laissé des traces. Les enfants d’immigrants connaissent le français, mais l’utilisent moins que les immigrants de première génération. On est en présence d’une acquisition, puis d’une distanciation de l’expérience québécoise, à la fois présente, mais étrangère.

Le commissaire propose, pour juguler ce phénomène, un gigantesque chantier, multiforme, d’intégration. Sa créativité force l’admiration. On voudrait partager sa détermination et son volontarisme. Peut-être y arriverons-nous, après avoir digéré la douleur générée par ses constats.

Source: Jungle identitaire

….In comparison, it is much more pleasant to be among immigrants or with Anglophones, whose ethnic composition is more diverse, whose language is easier, where diverse accents are more accepted, and where the pressure to integrate into a specific culture simply does not exist.


And this is where we find the specificity of the Quebec case. All over the world, teenagers are rude, and integration is difficult. In Germany, Chile or Cambodia, there is no choice but to integrate into the language and culture of the host society, even when it is poorly welcomed. Here, another universe is at hand, the English-speaking.


Dubreuil tells us that once the high school hell is crossed, tensions ease at CEGEP and university. The maturity of each other has something to do with it. But this passage left traces. Immigrant children know French, but use it less than first-generation immigrants. We are in the presence of an acquisition, then a distancing from the Quebec experience, both present but foreign.


The commissioner proposes, to curb this phenomenon, a gigantic, multifaceted integration project. His creativity forces admiration. We would like to share his determination and voluntarism. Maybe we will get there, after digesting the pain generated by his observations.

Filed under Integration, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

LILLEY: Time to end foreign flag-raising ceremonies at city halls across Canada

2025/11/19 1 Comment

Agree:

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas has an idea that should be adopted at city halls across the country — end the practice of raising flags of other countries. It’s one thing for the federal government in Ottawa to follow protocol and fly the flag of a visiting foreign dignitary; that’s accepted and expected.

Municipalities, though, have no role in foreign affairs, and this practice, which likely started as a unifying measure, is now divisive, which is why Farkas says he wants to see it end.

“Calgary’s flag policy means any country recognized by Canada may have their flag flown at City Hall on their national day. But national flag-raisings are now creating division,” Farkas said last week.

Flag-raising policies now creating division, not unity

We’ve seen those divisions recently in attempts to get the raising of the Israeli flag cancelled at various city halls and now we’ve seen that with the Palestinian flag raising since Canada officially recognized a Palestinian State in September. Flag raisings over the past few days in cities like Mississauga and Toronto have been incredibly divisive and even involved attempted court injunctions.

Of note regarding the City of Calgary policy — and it appears similar for Toronto — we could be raising the flags of countries that we shouldn’t really be honouring all simply because the federal government recognizes the existence of that state.

City Council does not have legal authority to determine which countries Canada recognizes. Under our existing policy, any national flag request that meets the criteria must be considered equally,” he wrote.

Canadian cities recognizing countries with widespread human-rights abuses

By recognizing the Palestinian State, the Carney government is recognizing a state government in part, some would argue in whole, by a terrorist group. Hamas, which governs Gaza, is clearly a terrorist group and the Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of the West Bank, is an organization that doesn’t hold elections and is credibly accused of arbitrary arrest and torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses.

It goes beyond just this conflict in the Middle East, though. Toronto has held flag raising ceremonies this year for several countries with questionable human rights records that we wouldn’t want to celebrate.

On Oct. 9, we raised the flag of Uganda at Toronto City Hall, a country where basic rights such as freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association are all curtailed and where homosexuality is punishable by death. This isn’t exactly the type of country that we should be celebrating with a ceremony at City Hall, the flag is a symbol of the government in charge and that government is repressive.

Similar complaints, though not as harsh, could be made against Angola. Their flag was raised on Nov. 12 at Toronto City Hall.

This past May 23, Calgary raised the flag of Eritrea, a country accused of widespread human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings and sexual violations, specifically in the Tigray region which is disputed with Ethiopia. Toronto raised Ethiopia’s flag on Sept. 11, despite their government facing many of the same accusations.

Both countries criminalize same-sex relations and yet here are two Canadian cities — likely more — celebrating and honouring these countries. Raising the flag that represents the regime in place does not honour the people, the diaspora living here, it is an honour to the repressive regime in place.

Honouring foreign regimes doesn’t represent local communities

Can you imagine seeing the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran flying at a government facility in Canada? It should never happen, but with these policies in place, it clearly could.

That’s why Calgary’s mayor wants to move a motion this week to end the practice.

It’s a good move; let’s hope it passes and then is replicated across the country.

Source: LILLEY: Time to end foreign flag-raising ceremonies at city halls across Canada

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C-3 Citizenship: My Planned Remarks

2025/11/17 2 Comments

It will be a long SOCI meeting, as the Senate is holding all testimony in an over 4 hour session. Given the other witnesses, I will be the only contrarian voice on the need for a five-year limit to meet the residency requirement and the need for annual reporting of citizenship proofs issued under C-3 provisions (which the House immigration committee recommended but the Liberals and NDP reverted to the original bill at third reading).

CBA and CILA submissions focus largely on adoptions, advocating for birth date of adoptees, not the adoption date). CBA argues against requiring a consecutive residency requirement but doesn’t acknowledge that this can be cumulative within a five year period and would likely still be Charter compliant (allowing, to use their example, for Disneyland holidays).

Given the compressed timelines due to the court deadline, and the witness list, unlikely that SOCI will recommend and changes to C-3.

My planned remarks below:

C-3 Citizenship SOCI Remarks – FinalDownload

Link to meeting: Agenda

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Rioux | Les dix ans du Bataclan

2025/11/15 Leave a comment

More war of civilization commentary but correct that it is internal, not just external:

…Dix ans plus tard, l’idéologie qui a inspiré les assassins du Bataclan n’a cessé de progresser. Tout cela à la faveur d’une naïveté coupable, mais aussi, et c’est nouveau, d’intérêts politiques bien sentis. Certains partis étant prêts, pour rameuter une nouvelle clientèle, à faire l’impasse sur quelques vérités dérangeantes.

Aujourd’hui, constatent les meilleurs analystes, l’islamisme n’est plus un courant venu de l’étranger, comme plusieurs de ces assassins du 13 novembre arrivés par bateau de Syrie pour se mêler aux migrants qui débarquaient sur les côtes grecques. Il est devenu endogène et fleurit dans les banlieues de toutes les grandes villes d’Europe. Nos pays ont beau avoir délocalisé usines et capitaux, ils sont dorénavant capables de produire des djihadistes maison 100 % pure laine. Ce qui faisait dire à un spécialiste des stratégies militaires comme David Betz, du King’s College de Londres, que, face à l’effritement des consensus sociaux et de la confiance envers l’État, les conflits à venir ont de plus en plus de chances de ne pas être des guerres traditionnelles entre pays, mais des guerres civiles.

« Tout le drame, c’est que l’ennemi est devenu endogène et que nous n’avons plus la même capacité à le reconnaître », nous confiait l’ancien président de la commission parlementaire sur les attentats du 13 novembre, Georges Fenech.

Souhaitons que ces commémorations, par ailleurs nécessaires, ne servent pas à blanchir la conscience de ceux qui ont fermé les yeux et n’ont rien vu venir. Il ne faudrait pas que les victimes du Bataclan soient mortes en vain.

Source: Chronique | Les dix ans du Bataclan

… Ten years later, the ideology that inspired the Bataclan’s assassins continued to progress. All this thanks to guilty naivety, but also, and this is new, of well-felt political interests. Some parties are ready, to attract a new clientele, to ignore some disturbing truths.

Today, the best analysts note, Islamism is no longer a current from abroad, like many of these murderers of November 13 who arrived by boat from Syria to mingle with the migrants who landed on the Greek coasts. It has become endogenous and blooms in the suburbs of all major cities in Europe. Our countries may have relocated factories and capital, but they are now capable of producing 100% pure wool homemade jihadists. This made a military strategy specialist like David Betz of King’s College London say that, in the face of the crumbling of social consensus and confidence in the state, future conflicts are increasingly likely to be not traditional wars between countries, but civil wars.

“The whole drama is that the enemy has become endogenous and that we no longer have the same ability to recognize him,” told us the former president of the parliamentary committee on the November 13 attacks, Georges Fenech.

Let us hope that these commemorations, which are also necessary, do not serve to whitewash the conscience of those who closed their eyes and saw nothing coming. The victims of the Bataclan should not have died in vain.

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McWhorter: ‘The Zorg’ tells a story we all must hear

2025/11/14 Leave a comment

Another good column, again a reminder that simplistic Manichean dichotomies don’t reflect historical realities and complexities:

…As the African American studies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written and I have experienced, people are often uncomfortable learning that Africans sold one another into this living hell. A common objection is that Africans had no way of knowing what conditions their captives would encounter. But they saw those captives being marched all but to death, sold like animals and penned into a slave castle hold. Black African slave traders had more than enough information to understand the fundamental immorality of the undertaking. If whites had seen even only what the Africans saw, we would not hesitate to judge them as unforgivably complicit in sin.

One lesson of “The Zorg” is that history and people are complex. The recently fashionable view of American (or Western) history as just one extended hit job, with whiteness always the oppressor and people of color always the subaltern, is ultimately a childish temptation, excusing us from engaging detail and nuance. Humans of all shades have quite often been awful to one another. Our job is to work against that tendency, not to pretend it doesn’t exist. And to celebrate those who overcome it, whatever their race. Abolitionism — a Western, Anglophone achievement, which Kara recounts in a final chapter — was a keystone example of that effort, and “The Zorg” is invaluable instruction in what made it so important….

Source: ‘The Zorg’ tells a story we all must hear

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Parkin: Spot the backlash [DEI]

2025/11/12 Leave a comment

More interesting analysis that bucks some of the commentary:

…But maybe we’re not looking closely enough. Thanks to the support of our survey partners at the Diversity Institute and the Future Skills Centre, the survey sample allows us to narrow the focus. Follow along in the chart below, which starts with the responses for employed adults in general, but then zeroes in on gender, racial identity, sexual orientation and age.2

Can you see the backlash taking shape? No, me neither.

Certainly, opinions are influenced by age. Older people are less likely to say that they’ve been positively affected by DEI policies (this holds true for older people in general, not just older white men). But opinions mostly shift to the neutral position (no impact). The proportion of white, heterosexual men age 50 and older who say their own opportunities have suffered as a result of DEI is only five percentage points higher than the average.

Source: Spot the backlash

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Japanese immigrants fought for Canada during WW I while denied the right to vote 

2025/11/11 Leave a comment

Part of our less proud history:

For the first time the faces of Japanese Canadian veterans who fought in the First World War are on display on the streets of Vancouver after a century largely unrecognized.

A community historian spent more than 15 years digging through archives, tracking down descendants and uncovering heroic acts to bring this group of forgotten soldiers’ stories to life and push for the recognition she says they deserve.

“These were young men who gave their whole lives and no one remembers them,” Debbie Jiang told CBC News.

“I feel like I’m bringing back to life that person and their names that would otherwise be unknown.”

Jiang calls it a “travesty” that a dark chapter in Canadian history overshadowed their service and kept their stories hidden not only from the public, but in many cases their families, too. 

During the Second World War, Canada labelled all Japanese Canadians including veterans “enemy aliens” and forced thousands in B.C. into internment camps, seized their property and sold their belongings. 

Kelly Shibata says it wasn’t until he spoke to Jiang that he started learning more details about his grandfather’s remarkable military career. 

“That is the mystery of all of it — we had virtually no information about his time in the military,” Shibata said. 

His grandfather, retired private Otoji Kamachi, was part of a distinct group of Japanese Canadian soldiers who enlisted during the First World War in Canada’s military…

Source: Japanese immigrants fought for Canada during WW I while denied the right to vote

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