Monument to Jewish refugee ship MS St. Louis could be Halifax-bound

2015/01/28 Leave a comment

Good reversal (see earlier post Holocaust survivors: ‘Shameful’ that Pier 21 not displaying memorial to victims of ‘voyage of the damned’):

The future of the Wheel of Conscience, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind to honour the vessel turned away by Canada and other nations during the Second World War, had been up in the air while it remained in a warehouse after being sent to Toronto-based builders Soheil Mosun for repairs last summer.

The museum and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) had been working together to find a better home for the monument, which features moving gears that had been experiencing technical difficulties since it was unveiled in 2011.

CIJA sent an email to members of the Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Monday to share the news that they had found a way to return the Wheel of Conscience to the museum, currently undergoing renovations, after it reopens in May.

“In the interim we will find a (site) for it in Toronto to ensure that it operates properly outside of the warehouse in which it is currently being stored,” Cindy Osheroff, assistant director of GA services and project management wrote in the email Monday.

Osheroff directed questions to CIJA head Shimon Fogel, who said in an email Monday that it was too early to comment.

Chapman said the monument will now be displayed on the main floor, which will provide easier access, and that the builders have resolved its earlier problems.

“(They) have said that they’ve made it much more robust and shored up the gears and things so that hopefully it won’t experience the same behaviours it experienced the last time it was here,” said Chapman.

Sidney Zoltak, co-president of the Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, said he welcomed the news.

“I’m glad that it came to positive conclusion and hope that we don’t have to sort of have these kinds of disputes of things that have to do with feelings,” Zoltak said.

Monument to Jewish refugee ship MS St. Louis could be Halifax-bound | Toronto Star.

Filed under Historical Recognition Tagged with , , ,

Rock concert, rallies overwhelm Germany’s anti-Islam group | Merkel Comments

2015/01/28 Leave a comment

Merkel is remarkably consistent in her language against all forms of antisemitism and all forms of racism. Canadian politicians, in their legitimate attention to antisemitism, have largely forgotten the broader anti-racism message:

Earlier on Monday, on the eve of Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germans had an everlasting responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.

In what appeared to be an indirect reference to PEGIDA, Merkel told a memorial for the victims of Auschwitz: “We’ve got to fight anti-Semitism and all racism from the outset.”

“We’ve got to constantly be on guard to protect our freedom, democracy and rule of law,” she said. “We’ve got to expose those who promote prejudices and conjure up bogeymen, the old ones as well as the new.”

Merkel said it was a disgrace that some Jews or those expressing support for Israel had been threatened or attacked in Germany, which was responsible for the Holocaust, and that protecting the growing Jewish community was a national duty.

Rock concert, rallies overwhelm Germany’s anti-Islam group | Reuters.

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , ,

L’intégrisme est un choix personnel, juge le premier ministre | Le Devoir

2015/01/28 Leave a comment

Sensible voices in Quebec:

Philippe Couillard n’a aucune intention de limiter le droit des intégristes de pratiquer une version radicale de leur religion, un choix personnel, selon lui, dans la mesure où ils respectent la loi.

« L’intégrisme, c’est une pratique religieuse poussée à l’extrême qui, tant qu’elle n’enfreint pas les droits des autres — des autres, exemple, les femmes —, bien sûr fait partie des choix personnels de chacun », a déclaré lundi Philippe Couillard, avant de participer au caucus présessionnel de ses députés.

Il ne faut pas confondre intégrisme et terrorisme. « Il y a beaucoup d’amalgames qui sont faits sur des concepts qui sont très distincts », a soutenu le premier ministre. Le terrorisme est « l’expression des extrémismes de tout type, bien sûr celui de l’islam radical, mais il y a d’autres extrémismes sur la planète. Mais celui-là est bien sûr celui dont on est préoccupé. »

Les propos de Philippe Couillard rejoignent ceux qu’a exprimés dans La Presse samedi Gérard Bouchard. « Il y a manifestement un lien entre intégrisme et terrorisme, mais l’un ne conduit pas nécessairement à l’autre. D’où la question : la prévention de la radicalisation religieuse conduira-t-elle à surveiller tous les intégristes et à restreindre leurs droits ? Ce serait inadmissible », juge l’historien et sociologue.

L’intégrisme est un choix personnel, juge le premier ministre | Le Devoir.

Filed under Radicalization, Religion Tagged with , ,

Do Australian Movies Really Reflect Our Multiculturalism?

2015/01/28 Leave a comment

Interesting discussion and debate over diversity and Australian film (Canadian record not so great either):

But many others strongly believe that national cinema industries, especially publicly-funded ones, have some responsibility to open hearts and minds – and that great stories are missed if diversity is ignored.

“Filmmaking is about having something to say and letting people think about it,” says Caradee of his own cinema practise. His production company’s stated aims include challenging audiences and asking questions about identity and justice. The radicalisation of young Australian men, a hot political issue, is a dominant theme in the planned My Country.

“In TV we tell these stories because we have SBS and the ABC, but there’s no equivalent in film,” says Caradee. More diversity within the filmmaker ranks will result in more diverse films, he adds.

“When stories are written by people not from the culture in which they’re set, they come up fake and the rhythms of speech are wrong,” says scriptwriter and assessor Karin Altmann. She estimates that of the 130-160 scripts she reads annually, only about a dozen are not driven by Anglo Saxon creators.

Caradee is for affirmative action focussed on multicultural groups and involving mentoring and technical upskilling; she’s more into creating opportunities, more broadly. “Writers, emerging filmmakers, people from other cultures: all have less opportunity, and when you open up opportunities it is surprising what happens,” she says.

… Another aspect to multiculturalism is Australian cinema’s appalling record of colour-blind casting. In other words, lead roles are usually played by white people, and taxi drivers and criminals by brown or black people.

Do Australian Movies Really Reflect Our Multiculturalism? | Movie News | SBS Movies.

And from Queensland (where Brisbane is located), strong support for inclusive multiculturalism prior to the state elections:

But he [Premier Campbell Newman] also asked the new citizens to respect Australia’s “democracy, our rule of law, our court system”.

“Multiculturalism works,” he said.

“It makes us stronger, it makes us richer. There are all sorts of wonderful things that take Australia forward from being a successful multicultural community.”

Mr Newman said the world had given Australia much and it was up to its citizens to embrace the melting pot of cultures.

“We have ties to people all around the world that help us economically,” he said.

“We have fantastic things that we can see and do, food and dance and festivals and it works.

“Today I say to you it only works while we continue to work hard to embrace one another, to understand one another, to actually be enthusiastic and appreciate of that diversity.

“There have been some things that have happened in the last year or so and we must keep that well and truly behind us. We must say that we are going to continue to make this country work and be so successful.”

Multiculturalism works: Newman

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Anti-terror bill: Can government balance security and civil rights?

2015/01/27 Leave a comment

The debate continues over the scope over the Government’s plans to introduce a bill with new measures on Friday:

The ideological debate is summarized by University of Ottawa national security law expert Craig Forcese.

“A risk-minimizing society would permit mass detentions in the expectation that the minimal increase in public safety from the dragnet would outweigh the massive injury to civil liberties,” he writes.

“A rights-maximizing society, however, would deny the state the power to detain except through conventional criminal proceedings, for which it would impose demanding standards, even at the risk of leaving people free whose intent and capacity are clear but whose terrorist acts lie in the future.”

In a recent statement to the Citizen, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien said: “Canadians want to be safe, but they also care profoundly about their privacy rights.

“Horrific attacks on innocent people obviously raise concerns about safety. But I was struck by the fact that, immediately after the attacks in Ottawa and in Paris, many people were talking about the importance of also protecting democratic rights such as free speech and privacy.

“Security is essential to maintain democratic rights, but our national security responses to acts of terror must be proportionate and designed in a way that protects the democratic values that are pillars of our Canadian society.”

Anti-terror bill: Can government balance security and civil rights? | Ottawa Citizen.

Filed under Radicalization Tagged with , , , ,

Diversity our strength (someone tell the bigots)

2015/01/27 Leave a comment

Elizabeth Renzetti puncturing the myth of Toronto being welcoming of diversity, following a political panel of visible minority candidates:

It’s not just Toronto, of course. This week’s controversial Maclean’s cover story claiming Winnipeg is the most racist city in Canada highlighted the virulence of anti-aboriginal sentiment in the last municipal elections. As mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette told the CBC last summer, “If there’s one person saying it, there’s 1,000 people thinking it.” (It should be noted that the man who was elected mayor, Brian Bowman, is Métis.)

As Ms. Chow said, “We’ve become complacent.” Because Canada’s largest city mostly trots along in peace and prosperity, it’s easy not to notice the bitter undercurrents that the past four years stirred up. Or perhaps to think that they’ve disappeared, along with the brothers who did the stirring. But that would be wishful thinking.

Politics is, of course, a hurly-burly – a brutal, elbows-up game. I don’t think any of the women who were on that panel thought otherwise when they stepped into public life. “I have very thick skin,” Ms. Chow said. “Probably too thick.” What they didn’t expect was the idea that they had no right to be in the game in the first place.

But those are precisely the kinds of candidates who should be playing the game. If we’re presented with more of the same faces touting more of the same platforms, an already apathetic, disillusioned electorate will switch off – in which case everyone loses.

And diversity among municipal elected representatives is proportionately less compared to other levels of government.

Diversity our strength (someone tell the bigots) – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Canadians cry ‘fowl’ over lack of ethnic chicken, document shows | Toronto Star

2015/01/27 Leave a comment

When supply management can’t meet the demand, particularly for kosher and specialty birds:

Canadians cry ‘fowl’ over lack of ethnic chicken, document shows | Toronto Star.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

The Data Behind Radicalization

2015/01/26 Leave a comment

Findings of a recent study of 1,500 individuals radicalized in the US since WW II:

Compared to violent domestic terrorists on the Far Left and Far Right, Islamists stand out. They’re more likely to be young (between 18 and 28 years old), unmarried and unassimilated into American society. They are also more likely to be actively recruited to an extremist group.

But in other important ways, Islamist extremists in the U.S. as a whole — violent and nonviolent — are not so different from other extremists. People in the three groups were equally likely to have become radicalized while serving time in prison — complicating the narrative that Muslim prisoners are unusually likely to commit to extremism from behind bars — and to be composed of individuals who have psychological issues, are loners, or have recently experienced “a loss of social standing.”

“Social networks are incredibly important to radicalization, but that’s not unique to Islamists at all,” [researcher Patrick] James said. “There’s almost always a facilitator — a personal relationship with a friend or family member who’s already made that leap.”

The Data Behind Radicalization « The Dish.

Filed under Radicalization Tagged with , ,

Study Says Creativity Can Flow From Political Correctness

2015/01/26 Leave a comment

Interesting study on political correctness and the diversity of teams:

Duguid and her co-authors set up an experiment to see if the notion that politically correctness impedes creativity held up to scientific scrutiny.

They sat down students in groups of three to brainstorm ideas on how to use a vacant space on campus. Some of the groups were all men, some all women, others mixed. Control groups got to start right away on the brainstorming, but the test groups were primed with a script.

The research team told those groups that they were interested in gathering examples from college undergraduates of politically correct behavior on campus. They were instructed to, as a group, list examples of political correctness that they had either heard of or directly experienced on this campus.

“They did that for 10 minutes,” Duguid says.

In the same-sex groups, the old notion held true. Groups of three men or three women who were instructed to think about political correctness were less creative than the control group. But in the mixed-gender groups that got the politically correct instructions, creativity went up.

“They generated more ideas, and those ideas were more novel,” Duguid says. “Whether it was two men and one woman or two women and one man, the results were consistent.”

Study Says Creativity Can Flow From Political Correctness : NPR.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

‘Satire is the fastest way to destroy someone’: How Arabs use the Internet to mock dictators and terrorists

2015/01/26 Leave a comment

More on Arab comedy with some funny and biting examples on extremists:

The parody commercial for “Tak Firi” — the caliph’s favourite cheese — begins with two ISIS terrorists enjoying a picnic in a lush field.

It’s shot in the vein of ads for the French cheese spread La Vache Qui Rit, known in the middle east for corny commercials that often feature a parent encouraging their child to eat a cheese sandwich while waxing poetic about its health benefits.

One of the terrorists spreads the cheese onto a round of pita with his dagger and hands it to his giddy companion. “From the fields of Raqqa,” says the narrator, “we bring you this cheese. Take it with you to wherever you decide to blow yourself up.”

The “Tak Firi” ad — the name references the Arabic term for a Muslim who accuses a co-religionist of apostasy — aired in October on the Albasheer Show, an online Iraqi comedy news program hosted by Ahmed Albasheer, a 30-year-old native of Anbar province.

‘Satire is the fastest way to destroy someone’: How Arabs use the Internet to mock dictators and terrorists

Filed under Radicalization Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →