Boer War memorial a ‘sensitive’ affair, bureaucrats warned Tories

2014/03/13 Leave a comment

Good example of fearless advice, and a reminder of how governments “use and abuse” history, to use Margaret MacMillan’s phrase:

“I never want to see this again, this is the 10th time I have commented on this,” an assistant deputy minister acidly responded to a list of invited officials.

The same senior bureaucrat was asked to sign off on Blaney’s prepared speech for the event and responded with a fundamental observation: “Speech doesn’t tell what the war was about, we are missing a learning opportunity.”

Boer War memorial a ‘sensitive’ affair, bureaucrats warned Tories – The Globe and Mail.

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FIFA Accepts the Turban and Hijab

2014/03/13 Leave a comment

Premier Marois and Charter advocates to take note: Quebec Soccer Federation reverses controversial turban ban.

http://www.ledevoir.com/sports/soccer/401521/le-voile-et-le-turban-officiellement-autorises-dans-le-football

Filed under Multiculturalism

Quebec Values Charter and Elections

2014/03/12 Leave a comment

More catching up, starting with the polling numbers:

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/charte-de-la-laicite/201403/03/01-4744020-lappui-a-la-charte-est-maintenant-majoritaire.php

Continuing with running on the Charter, confirming identity politics rather than substance:

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-quebecoise/201403/04/01-4744656-marois-veut-une-majorite-pour-adopter-la-charte.php

No surprise that allophones and anglophones see the Charter primarily targeting Muslim women:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/most-anglos-allophones-say-secular-values-charter-targets-muslim-women-1.2558409?cmp=rss

A rare declaration of principle from the a senior staffer in Jean-Francois Lisée’s office:

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-quebecoise/201403/04/01-4744694-lisee-perd-sa-directrice-de-cabinet-adjointe-a-cause-de-la-charte.php

A wide range of commentary on the elections, and have selected only a few. From the Globe, Antonia Maioni’s fatalistic prediction, The PQ’s appeal is locked in, a more nuanced assessment by Chantal Hébert, Quebec election not a foregone conclusion, and Daniel Weinstock’s longer-term perspective, Québec at a Crossroads

Following the announcement of Pierre Karl Peladeau, the owner of Quebecor, Quebec’s media conglomerate, that he will run as a PQ candidate, lot’s of commentary and speculation what this means in the short and long-term. Summary by Chris Selley in the National Post provides a good sense of reactions, Full Pundit: Will Péladeaumania cure Marois malaise? Makes it clear sovereignty is on the agenda despite Maurois’s calculated ambiguity.

Lastly, a reminder that the election call meant the end of Parliamentary hearings on the proposed Charter, including this good brief from the Montreal Holocaust Centre, which has done good work in engaging the diverse communities in Montreal on Holocaust and intolerance issues:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/touch/story.html?id=9593693

Filed under Charte des valeurs québécoise, Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

Diasporas and Canada

2014/03/12 Leave a comment

Mowat Centre report “Diaspora Nation” on the impact and potential of the various diaspora communities:

http://mowatcentre.ca/diaspora-nation/

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Aga Khan Interview

2014/03/12 Leave a comment

Good and thoughtful interview with the Aga Khan:

Some people refer to it as Islamification. I can’t think of one single country where that has succeeded. The reason is the diversity within Islam, the different types of attitudes towards inheritance, towards zakaat. The attempt to bring a Muslim country that has a multiple of interpretations of Islam around one single interpretation of Islam has never worked. They may try to force it. That’s a different issue. I’ve never seen it work where it wasn’t followed by some form of dictatorial government.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/aga-khan-without-a-doubt-i-am-seriously-worried-about-the-world/article17185492/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-exemplary-leader-in-unity-and-pluralism-aga-khan-says-1.2553527?cmp=rss

Text of speech before Parliament here:

I believe that Canada is uniquely able to articulate and exemplify three critical underpinnings of a quality civil society: a commitment to pluralism, to meritocracy, and to a cosmopolitan ethic. A cosmopolitan ethic is one that welcomes the complexity of human society. It balances rights and duties, freedom and responsibility. It is an ethic for all peoples, the familiar and the other, whether they live across the street or across the planet….

Address of His Highness the Aga Khan 49th Hereditary Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims

Only unfortunate aspect was partisan exclusion of other political parties from Toronto event. The Government never seems to learn that when it rises to the occasion, as in the residential schools apology and the Mandela funeral, it benefits; when it plays partisan games, like the Toronto event, the mission led by Minister Baird to Ukraine etc, it loses. It is not the only government to play such games, but seems to show less sense of when and where.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/aga-khan-praises-canadas-commitment-to-pluralism-and-education/article17135632/

And the quasi-trolling of event attendees for political follow-up, while an understandable temptation (not convinced that other parties would behave better) does cheapen the Government:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Conservatives+send+email+blast+addresses+harvested+from/9579134/story.html

Filed under Multiculturalism, Religion Tagged with

Q&A: Irshad Manji on Multiculturalism

2014/03/12 1 Comment

Good short interview with Irshad Manji on Islam and multiculturalism. Continues to surprise me that so many forget that multiculturalism was about integration from both the diversity and equity aspects, and never was about an “anything goes” or extreme relativism. Always in the context of the Canadian Constitution, including the Charter, and overall Canadian laws and regulations.

http://read.thestar.com/?origref=#!/article/531a454bec0691424b000165-q-a-irshad-manji-on-multiculturalism

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/controversial-muslim-writer-says-multiculturalism-isnt-what-it-once-was/article17384146/

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The Aga Khan: the singular appeal of a pluralist – The Globe and Mail

2014/02/27 Leave a comment

Good piece by Janice Stein on the Aga Khan:

Not only Quebec struggles with the contours of pluralism. Canada is redefining the meaning of citizenship in an age when many are citizens of more than one state. What obligations, some Canadians ask, do we have to those who spend most of their time abroad? When at risk abroad, should they be rescued? And what responsibilities fall to those who come to Canada seeking refuge and opportunity? What should “they” learn and be required to do?

Such concerns are new to the debate on pluralism – and come at a time when we, too, are aging and need new faces, new cultures and new talents if we are to flourish.

We may need new immigrants badly, but our approach to pluralism cannot be purely pragmatic. We must, as the Aga Khan has said in the past, recognize that “the other is both present and different, and appreciate this presence – and this difference – as gifts that can enrich our lives.”

The Aga Khan: the singular appeal of a pluralist – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Citizenship, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Vacation Stop

2014/02/24 Leave a comment

Will be traveling the next few weeks and will restart March 12.

Filed under Multiculturalism

Your Ancestors, Your Fate – NYTimes.com

2014/02/24 Leave a comment

A somewhat controversial study by Gregory Clark on how ancestry is the best predictor of success. Much more sophisticated analysis than the pop-culture Amy Chua “Triple Package” theory. Suggests greater policy modesty at the individual and governmental level:

Culture is a nebulous category and it can’t explain the constant regression of family status — from the top and the bottom. High-status social groups in America are astonishingly diverse. There are representatives from nearly every major religious and ethnic group in the world — except for the group that led to the argument for culture as the foundation of social success: white European Protestants. Muslims are low-status in much of India and Europe, but Iranian Muslims are among the most elite of all groups in America.

Family resources and social networks are not irrelevant. Evidence has been found that programs from early childhood education to socioeconomic and racial classroom integration can yield lasting benefits for poor children. But the potential of such programs to alter the overall rate of social mobility in any major way is low. The societies that invest the most in helping disadvantaged children, like the Nordic countries, have produced absolute, commendable benefits for these children, but they have not changed their relative social position.

The notion of genetic transmission of “social competence” — some mysterious mix of drive and ability — may unsettle us. But studies of adoption, in some ways the most dramatic of social interventions, support this view. A number of studies of adopted children in the United States and Nordic countries show convincingly that their life chances are more strongly predicted from their biological parents than their adoptive families. In America, for example, the I.Q. of adopted children correlates with their adoptive parents’ when they are young, but the correlation is close to zero by adulthood. There is a low correlation between the incomes and educational attainment of adopted children and those of their adoptive parents.

Your Ancestors, Your Fate – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Public Policy Tagged with , ,

A. Alan Borovoy: Going to court with Ernst Zündel

2014/02/22 Leave a comment

An excerpt from Alan Borovoy’s book, recounting his experience on some of the more thorny free speech issues when he was head of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA):

In 1990, a few years later, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the Keegstra case, and upheld the constitutionality of Canada’s anti-hate law by a narrow margin. When the press asked me for a comment, I noted that, by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, Keegstra had been removed from the classroom, disqualified from the teaching profession, and ousted as mayor of Eckville, Alberta. By then, he was working as a garage mechanic. And so, in addition to the free-speech-chilling implications of the Court’s Keegstra decision, it was gratuitous given all that already had happened.

“In my view,” I said, “he should have been allowed to wallow in the obscurity he so richly deserves.”

A. Alan Borovoy: Going to court with Ernst Zündel | National Post.

Filed under Antisemitism, Hate crimes, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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