Premier Wynne, give us the data on police carding | Desmond Cole

2015/08/06 Leave a comment

Agree. The data should and needs to be shared:

Last week, the province launched a public consultation on police carding, the controversial practice of stopping and documenting civilians who are not suspected of any crime (some police forces use the terms “street checks” or “proactive policing” to describe the practice). The news is welcome and overdue — for years, police forces across Ontario have been disproportionately carding people with dark skin in the name of public safety.

The consultation includes an online survey, whose opening paragraph claims that “information collected during street checks may help solve and prevent crime.” Our police have never produced any data to back up this critical argument, and the province fails to do so in its consultation. If Queen’s Park wants meaningful public input on carding, it must publish independent, province-wide data showing how often carding happens, whom it tends to affect, and how much relevant information, if any, it produces.

Carding remains controversial in part because police tend to suppress data about it. The few existing stats tell us nothing about the relationship between carding and public safety. But data from police in Ottawa, Hamilton and Toronto is clear about carding’s racial bias; in each of these cities, black residents are overwhelmingly the most likely people to be carded.

Only 5 per cent of Ottawa residents are black, but 20 per cent of people carded in the nation’s capital in recent years have been black. Since 2010, Hamilton police have carded blacks at a rate of three to four times their share of the local population. The total number of people carded in Toronto dropped sharply in 2013, but during the same period the share of blacks being carded actually went up. This is the reality in three of Ontario’s five most populated cities.

The police forces responsible for this skewed policing deny there is any problem, and simultaneously hide relevant info on their activities. In June, Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau claimed his force did not collect information on the racial breakdown of carding incidents. A month later under growing public scrutiny, Ottawa police produced the race-based data the chief claimed they didn’t have.

…Officers with the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) have done the majority of Toronto police’s carding in recent years. TAVIS has refused the Star’s requests for data on the number of its contacts that result in arrests or the recovery of guns. However TAVIS data from 2008, the most recent year available, shows that officers failed to lay charges during 98 per cent of carding interactions; that same year, TAVIS officers recovered a firearm once in every 650 times they carded a resident.

Premier Wynne, give us the data on police carding | Toronto Star.

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Chapin: White people, stop getting defensive | Ottawa Citizen

2015/08/05 1 Comment

Angelina Chapin on white privilege and defensiveness:

A study from New York University found that the concept of white privilege messes with our sense of personal achievement. It’s easier to believe you landed your job at a law firm through long hours and smarts, not because your parents shelled out for Ivy League tuition and knew a senior partner at the firm (in reality, of course, success involves a mix of hard work and opportunity.) To preserve the self-made myth, white people deny or distance themselves from privilege. You faced struggles, too. You know white privilege exists for some, but you have black friends. Maybe you don’t “see race.” All these tactics dodge personal responsibility.

To fight racism, white people need to own up to their privilege. Of course, the right mentality alone won’t erase discrimination. But without it, there’s little hope of political change. Authors of the New York University study concluded that white people who deny their leg-up in this world don’t support affirmative action policies. That’s a huge shame, since the best way to reverse the racial oppression rampant in criminal, housing and education systems in North America is to legislate greater equality.

White people need to reject the instinct to become defensive about racial issues. Save those feelings for your diary. We must instead recognize our personal role in big picture discrimination, rather than create a narrative that exempts us from blame. You can own up to white privilege without being a bad person. But denying oppression in any way – whether through a hashtag or spraypaint – is at best tone deaf and at worst racist. Canadians should really know better.

Chapin: White people, stop getting defensive | Ottawa Citizen.

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Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote – Now Available

2015/08/04 Leave a comment

For those interested, the pdf version of my book is now available here at Canadian $3.99. I have also posted some Excerpts.

Book information sheet can be found here.

The print-on-demand version will be available in the next few weeks.

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Brazil’s colour bind: How one of the world’s most diverse countries is just starting to talk about race

2015/08/04 Leave a comment

Brazil’s_colour_bind__How_one_of_the_world_s_most_diverse_countries_is_just_starting_to_talk_about_race_-_The_Globe_and_MailGood, in-depth profile of Brazil by Stephanie Nolen, its history of slavery, its national myth of colour blindness, racial inequality and efforts to acknowledge and address these legacy issues:

Even as the former slave owners set about diluting the country’s blackness, they also went to work on their cover story. In the Brazilian creation myth – the country’s version of Canada’s “cultural mosaic” or the U.S. “melting pot” – the country is a democracia racial, a racial democracy. This official story was built on the idea that from the day slavery ended, Brazilians of all colours were equal. After all, there was no segregation, no apartheid, no Jim Crow. Glossing over the massive disparities between the former owners and the newly freed slaves – who had no education, land or assets – the Brazilian elite, almost entirely white, declared the country uniquely equal and, in effect, postracial.

“It was ‘invisibilization,’” says Marcelo Paixão, who is black and a professor of economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. “The discourse was that we don’t have race in Brazil, so you don’t have race problems in Brazil, and you don’t need to discuss the inequality.”

The first census after the end of slavery, in 1890, asked not about race, but about colour: Citizens were asked if they were white, brown, black, yellow or caboclo – a Portuguese word for those with some indigenous ancestry, more commonly known here as being vermelha, or red. Over the next years, racial identity was steadily replaced with considerations of colour. In 1976, the national statistics institute, seeking to hone the precision of the census, surveyed thousands of Brazilians about what word they themselves used – and came back with a list of 136. They included terms such as amarela-queimada (burnt yellow), canela (cinnamon) and morena-bem-chegada: very nearly morena, a word for brown.

On some level, it was a progressive ideology, notes Prof. Paixão – it allowed for nuance instead of clear-cut indicators of racial purity. It also resulted in a more genuinely mixed culture, although that mixture is the outcome, in part, of appropriation. Cornerstones of black culture – such as samba music and the martial art capoeira, practised in secret by slaves – have been thoroughly co-opted into Brazilian identity.

But within that culture, and that society, there was an ineluctable hierarchy of what were to be considered racial traits. The dominant idea, propagated by whites, and eventually accepted by many black and mixed-race people as well, he explains, was that the “white” part of the mix brought a European rationality, while Africans brought happiness and creativity, a positive outlook – he ticks off adjectives and rolls his eyes. The more white that one was, the more of the “valuable” characteristics one had. To be whiter was to have a better chance of getting a job, and of earning more in that job. To be whiter, in other words, was to have it easier. Brazil became what is sometimes called here a “pigmentocracy.” (Prof. Paixão is among the fewer than five per cent of faculty members at the Federal University who are black.)

Brazil’s colour bind: How one of the world’s most diverse countries is just starting to talk about race – The Globe and Mail.

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Refugees Describe Life Under ISIL | Al Jazeera America

2015/08/04 Leave a comment

Haven’t seen much detailed reporting like this:

In the Syrian capital of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s self-declared caliphate, Raqqa, the group’s extreme interpretation of Sharia law is enforced through extraordinary punishments, including death. The list of potential violations is long and reminders of the consequences of crossing the groups are on constant display, with executed and beheaded men displayed in public squares and roundabouts, their crimes often detailed in notices pinned to their corpses.

And even so, some say the chaos and destruction that characterizes most of Syria after four years of war is such that the comparative calm in Raqqa resulting from ISIL’s strict governance actually offers a respite.

Those who recently fled from Raqqa to Turkey describe a new form of governance taking root as ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh, continues its effort to entrench itself into the social fabric of the capital. Despite daily bombardment from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the city, ISIL has managed to expand its reach both geographically and socially, taking control of even the minute details of everyday life.

The group has restored electricity supply, painted road signs, imposed taxes, implemented a new education system and operates a highly functional — albeit punitive and brutal — judicial system. The organization now controls about one-third of the country, and rules over millions of people across Syria and Iraq. The group has commandeered oil refineries and gas fields in the desert terrain, helping to finance its operations.

ISIL police battalions made up of mostly foreign fighters patrol the streets in 4×4’s and on foot, also setting up checkpoints across the city to inspect identification documents and report any violations to the strict code. Residents must provide tax receipts, proving they have paid the mandatory portion of their agricultural or retail dividends to the state, in order to cross.

Refugees Describe Life Under ISIL | Al Jazeera America.

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The suffocating experience of being black in Canada

2015/08/04 Leave a comment

Anthony Morgan on the Black experience:

As we enter early adulthood we are collectively realizing that, despite what many think, blacks in Canada cannot speak about their lived experience and the ongoing injustices they face without being met with silencing indifference, dismissal and sometimes hostility.

While tolerating degrees of anti-black racism may have been a successful survival strategy for a previous generation of blacks in Canada, our generation has never known a Canada without a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or provincial human rights codes that enshrine our universal entitlement to equality as Canadians.

As such, we find it impossible to accept today’s black Canadian experience: extreme marginalization and disadvantage; restricted access to housing; racial profiling in policing, security, education and child welfare; criminalization; over-representation in the criminal justice system; high levels of unemployment; and disproportionate and extreme poverty.

This is part of the reason why when you tell the upcoming generation of social justice-oriented black Canadians to “Go back to your home country if you don’t like it here,” we stare at you with blank confusion, if not in angry defiance. Canada is the only home country we’ve ever known.

Our righteous resistance is not an expression of hatred for Canada, cops, or Confederate flags. It’s a thrashing attempt to break the stranglehold of Canadian-brand anti-black racism and wake our society up to an irrefutable fact:

We have the right to be treated equally as human beings, but also as Canadians. And as such, we resist suffocating racism because we are true black strong and free.

The suffocating experience of being black in Canada | Toronto Star.

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New Aussie anti-Islamic party guns for 20 per cent of the vote

2015/08/04 Leave a comment

Australia’s newest political party:

Australia officially now has a political party modelled on the far-right wing movements in Europe and dedicated to the idea that Islam is a “totalitarian ideology with global aspirations”.

The Australian Liberty Alliance gained approval from the Australian Electoral Commission on Wednesday for registration as a party, having signed up well over the required 500 members and attracted no objections.

Its national secretary, Ralf Schumann, confirmed that controversial anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders planned to launch the party on October 20.

Mr Schumann told sympathisers this week that the party faced “a strong headwind and … some nasty windshears”, but reminded supporters that “so did like-minded parties with similar policies in Europe”.

…Mr Schumann refused an interview about the party, which is the political offshoot of the “Islam-critical” Q Society. But Q Society national president Debbie Robinson, who is also a director of the ALA, told Fairfax Media that Islam was “a dangerous ideology that’s definitely not compatible with Western culture and society”.

“There is no moderate version of Islam … there may be people who don’t follow it to the letter, but there is no moderate version, so it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous for our society.”

In Q Society emails, Ms Robinson has said the Australian Liberty Alliance intends to “rebuild the lucky country”.

The party’s manifesto says “Our Australia stands for individual liberty, small government, Western values built on Judaeo-Christian and Humanistic foundations, social fairness and an integrated multi-ethnic society”.

It outlines a number of policy positions including “smarter, smaller government”, and “integration over separation” when it comes to multiculturalism.

Islam, the manifesto says, “uses the religious element as a means to project itself onto non-Islamic societies … No other religious ideology in our time has both the doctrinal aspiration as well as the economic and demographic muscle to impose itself globally”.

New Aussie anti-Islamic party guns for 20 per cent of the vote.

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Air travel and religion don’t always mix. Examples and Jon Kay commentary on El Al

2015/08/01 Leave a comment

Further to the Porter incident, useful list of other examples:

El Al

A more dramatic incident in 2014, aboard a flight from New York to Israel, drew attention to the challenges of accommodating some ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who refuse to sit next to women to whom they are not married or otherwise related.

The El Al flight turned into an “11-hour nightmare,” according to one passenger, after a group of men, who had earlier tried to switch their seats with other passengers, reportedly stood up and blocked the aisle shortly after takeoff.

The Tel Aviv-based daily newspaper Haaretz had earlier reported that Orthodox Haredim were causing “a host of logistical problems” for the Israeli airline. But despite outcry at home and abroad, El Al said it has no official policy for dealing with religious seating requirements, and no plans to introduce one.

…Patting down priests

CBC News revealed last year that Canada Border Services Agency managers at Toronto’s Pearson airport allowed a small group of Hindu priests to avoid screening by female border guards to comply with their religious beliefs.

 

…Check your dagger, please

Kirpans, the ceremonial daggers that many Sikhs are required to carry, have been the focus of controversies across Canada — not the least of which was an outright ban by a Quebec school board that the Supreme Court overturned in 2006.

The daggers are allowed in some places that don’t permit weapons — including Parliament buildings and some courthouses — but don’t try to take one on a plane.

Kirpans are specifically mentioned by the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority among the “religious and cultural items” that “should be packed in your checked baggage.” They are also banned by the Transportation Security Administration in the U.S.

Air travel and religion don’t always mix – World – CBC News.

Jon Kay on El Al:

There is a simple way to address such complaints from a Haredi passenger: Have the flight attendants (preferably women) throw him off the plane, give him back his money, and instruct him that he should instead travel to Israel on a mode of transportation more suited, in technological sophistication, to his primitive mindset — such as a canoe made from a hollowed out tree.

Of course, stories of Haredi sexual segregation of have been coming out of Israel for years now. In a move that would make Saudi Arabia proud, some Israeli communities even have sex-segregated busses. And some ultraorthodox communities practice a disgusting mouth-to-penis circumcision practice called Metzitza B’peh, which would be the subject of child-sex abuse charges here in North America if Muslims were doing it. Israeli society shouldn’t stand for such deplorable practices, but ultimately that is Israel’s business.

El Al, on the other hand, is a company that uses Canadian airports and flies hundreds of Canadian passengers to and from Israel every day. Putting aside the question of whether the episodes described above violate Canadian human-rights law, how does it look for Israel’s national flagship carrier to put on display, in front of rows of horrified passengers, the poisonous prejudices of the most narrow-minded constituency in Israeli society?

We are always told (by Stephen Harper and Benjamin Netanyahu alike) that Israel is a beacon of progressive thought, democracy and pluralism in a Middle East brimming with repressive, retrograde attitudes. And in general, that is true. But it seems to me like Elana Sztokman can be forgiven for feeling otherwise.

Jonathan Kay: On El Al’s planes, a case study in appalling sexism

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A politician in Finland declared war on multiculturalism. This is how his country responded.

2015/08/01 Leave a comment

More on Finland:

Finland is one of the less diverse nations in northern Europe. In 2010, only 250,000 people out of population of around 5 million were born outside the country, according to government statistics. But that number is steadily growing.

Immonen’s party is something of a rising force in Finland’s politics. It got 17.7 percent of the national vote in elections in April, making it the second biggest party in Finland and winning it a place in the country’s governing coalition. Timo Soini, Finland’s current foreign minister, is the leader of The Finns party.

While Soini issued no comment about Immonen’s declaration, other prominent Finns did. The post struck a nerve, in part because it came so close to the four-year anniversary of the massacre carried out by Norwegian far-right bigot Anders Breivik, who in his writings also fumed about the evils of multiculturalism.

“I want to develop Finland as an open, linguistically and culturally international country,” tweeted Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä soon after the post emerged. “I cannot accept Immonen’s remarks.” His finance minister, Alex Stubb, said on Twitter that “Multiculturalism is an asset. That’s all I have to say.”

Erkki Tuomioja, a member of the Social Democrats, the main opposition party, was a bit more direct. “When multiculturalism and diversity are put into question it must be answered loudly,” Tuomioja told Bloomberg News. “There is no such thing as a harmless hate speech, and it’s a short step from there to hate acts. It must not be tolerated.”

The biggest response, though, came on Tuesday, when thousands of Finns gathered in Helsinki in defense of multiculturalism. Images and messages of solidarity appeared on social media under the hashtag  #meillaeonunelma, or “we have a dream” — a direct riposte to the beginning of Immonen’s statement.

A politician in Finland declared war on multiculturalism. This is how his country responded. – The Washington Post.

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Increase in UK anti-Semitism this year ‘due to better reporting’

2015/07/31 Leave a comment

A reminder that a number of different factors influence statistics, including better reporting, making it harder to isolate underlying trends (CST is better than most in identifying these factors):

A 53 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain during the first six months of 2015 can be ascribed to greater communal awareness of the problem coupled with better reporting, the Community Security Trust reported on Thursday.

There have been 473 reported incidents this year, compared to 309 for the same period last year, and 223 in the first half of 2013.

Despite the rising trend, the figures do not come close to the 629 incidents reported in 2009 – the year in which most of the fighting in Operation Cast Lead (against Hamas in Gaza) took place.

The CST monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for Britain’s Jewish community.

Increase in UK anti-Semitism this year ‘due to better reporting’ – Diaspora – Jerusalem Post.

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