‘It’s like they never existed’: Toronto monument will honour mistreated British Home Children

2017/10/02 Leave a comment

As in the case of other immigration restrictions and abuse, important that the British Home Children be remembered. The previous Conservative government did have a ceremony to mark their mistreatment, where former Senator Gerry St. Germain spoke eloquently about his personal experience. Canada Post also issued a stamp:

They were told they would be leaving the bleak conditions of England for fresh air, clean country living and a better life in Canada.

But George Beardshaw, one of the children who made that trek, says that when he arrived alone at an Ontario farm back in 1938, it was soon made clear to him what was expected.

“I was there to work,” says 94-year-old Beardshaw, sitting in his London, Ont., home. “They told me that many, many times: ‘You’re here to work.'”

Beardshaw’s mother was unable to look after her three boys and sent her sons to an orphanage in Woodford Bridge, Essex. Both his brothers had left the orphanage, with one settling in Canada.

So when the school inspector came around asking who would like to go to Canada, Beardshaw raised his hand.

“I wanted to come over here and be a cowboy, or see the wheat fields,” he said.

Instead, only minutes after he arrived at the Little Britain, Ont., farm, 100 kilometres northeast of Toronto, the then 14-year-old was told to put on coveralls and mow the lawn.

In reality, Beardshaw, like so many of these children, found their real purpose was to provide cheap labour.

“They never did a damn thing for me,” Beardshaw says. “I worked, worked, worked, worked.”

Lori Oschefski, CEO of the Barrie, Ont.-based British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association, said few Canadians know about the plight of the 115,000 British Home Children who immigrated to Canada from the U.K. between the late 1860s and 1948.

She learned that 75 children are buried in two graves that were unmarked for years in Toronto’s Park Lawn Cemetery.

To ensure they are not forgotten, Oschefski spearheaded a campaign to erect a monument on the site, with all 75 names inscribed, to be unveiled on Sunday. “We need a place to go and remember these children. A place to go and mourn the loss of these children.”

About four million Canadians are descendants of British Home Children.

Oschefski said the scheme was born out good intentions, with over 50 organizations involved to bring children to Canada.

Hoping for a better life

Thousands of children in Britain were living in squalid conditions, their families in dire straits. Some families, she said, felt they had no choice but to give up their kids to these organizations, hoping they would have a better life in places like Canada. Only about two per cent of the children shipped over were orphans.

The British charity Barnardo’s sent 30,000 to Canada, and many became known as the Barnardo Home Boys.

“Some did receive good homes and some were accepted in as members of the family,” said Oschefski. “But those instances of that happening are far and few between.”

“The vast majority of these children were treated as workers, these children were not welcomed as family members.”

Source: ‘It’s like they never existed’: Toronto monument will honour mistreated British Home Children – Toronto – CBC News

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Confronting Canada’s ugly record of anti-Blackness

2017/10/02 Leave a comment

A needed counterpoint to the sanitized version of Canadian history. However, the arguments might be stronger if the book was not only”grounded in the work of countless renowned Canadian anti-racist scholars and activists,” but included a wider range of scholars:

In the early 20th century, the Canadian Department of Immigration went to great lengths to dissuade Black Americans from immigrating to Canada. Working with doctors, they provided them with monetary rewards for turning Black migrants away at the border and mandated that these medical professionals inflict invasive and unnecessary examinations as deterrence from entering Canada. The government also sent doctors to Oklahoma and Kansas to spread propaganda to Black Americans around the unlivable weather conditions of Canada—some even going as far as telling Black men their daughters would be vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation.

This was done alongside two things: active courting of white settlers and a deep investment in the public appearance of a polite and welcoming neutrality, set apart from the outward race-based discrimination of the United States. This is just one of hundreds of seamless historical examples cited in the new book Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada From Slavery to the Present, written by Black feminist writer, activist and educator, Robyn Maynard.

Maynard plainly corrects and downright disrupts the friendly, welcoming and multicultural narrative on which Canada’s national identity relies. Her book examines anti-Black racism alongside every historical moment that Black people have been present in this country, starting from settler colonialism to present day. By characterizing Canadian nation-building as settler colonialism, Maynard effectively calls out the white theft of Indigenous land in the building of Canada and traces it through to a white-dominated hierarchy that exists to this day. It is grounded in the work of countless renowned Canadian anti-racist scholars and activists.

Maynard traces the 200 years of slavery in Canada, often erased or downplayed in the study of our history, noting the same dehumanizing and violent treatment of Black bodies we see in accounts of slavery in the U.S. Anti-Blackness through segregation characterized the post-slavery abolition period, an era often reimagined in Canada as purely positive.

Maynard recounts “Canada’s Jim Crow”, government-enforced racial segregation that had an impact on housing, employment, education and immigration for Black people in Canada. “Racial segregation—a form of violence in and of itself—entails the enforced (rather than voluntary) confinement of racialized populations to particular spaces (e.g. particular neighbourhoods, schools, public spaces, and businesses),” she writes. “The segregation of Blacks—which, like slavery, was a form of controlling Black movement and institutionalizing subordination—was based on the idea that Black people were both inferior and a danger to whites. Formally and informally, segregation was one of Canada’s foremost strategies for maintaining white dominance across all aspects of society after slavery’s end.”

Source: Confronting Canada’s ugly record of anti-Blackness – Macleans.ca

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Todd: Debating immigration wisely means not vilifying opponents

2017/10/02 Leave a comment

Douglas Todd’s piece on my IRPP article “How to debate immigration policy in Canada”:

Canada is one of the few advanced countries that can’t seem to hold an authentic public discussion about immigration policy.

Canadian boosters of high immigration and those who oppose it are mutually contemptuous. Their verbal boxing matches are dominated by sloganeering and name-calling.

If Ottawa is ever going to take seriously public opinion to fine-tune its immigration policies, the combatants need to follow a few rules. They may need a referee, who acts fairly when others are losing their heads.

Andrew Griffith may not realize it, but he has just stepped forward to be the mediator between those who advocate more open borders and those who seek greater restrictions.

The high-level Immigration Department official, who has helped draw up the country’s citizenship policies, is on medical leave to undergo cancer treatment.

But his time away from the bureaucracy has inspired him to write books and a compelling essay just published by the journal Policy Options, titled, “How to debate immigration policy in Canada.”

I’ve experienced Griffith’s diplomat-like poise. Occasionally, I’ve tried to get him to air stronger opinions, yet he doesn’t take the bait. He’s committed to even-handedness.

But he’s also realistic. To use an edgier phrase than he might, Griffith realizes Canadians are pretty pitiful at openly discussing immigration issues.

Like others, Griffith suggests fear of being labelled xenophobic is the over-riding contributor to Canadians’ unusual silence on mass migration, which has arguably defined this country more than any other.

It doesn’t help the cause of dialogue that almost no politician, and few academics, will critique how Canada’s approach to the complexities of immigration affects the host society.

Source: Todd: Debating immigration wisely means not vilifying opponents | Vancouver Sun

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Ai Weiwei, an artist in exile, turns to the refugee crisis – Macleans.ca

2017/10/01 Leave a comment

Bryan Johnson’s review, interview and commentary on Ai Weiwei’s latest project/film. Looking forward to watching it:

With Human Flow, Ai has trained his magnifying gaze on an entire population trapped in horrific limbo. To convey the sheer scale of a catastrophe that has produced a global diaspora of 65 million refugees—a stateless nation roughly the size of France or the U.K.—Ai shot in 23 countries with a crew of 200. In each case, he employed aerial drone shots to portray the refugee camps, vast cities of khaki tents that, from the air, dissolve into a desert landscape like a grid of dunes. But on the ground, his camera captures intimate, often casual moments of people trying to maintain their dignity, even their joy, in the most desperate circumstances. And as he telescopes between panoramic quilts of displaced humanity to tender portraits of individual lives, the result is a film of breathtaking power.

Ai has previously directed small documentaries in China, but Human Flow is his first major film. Weighing in at two hours and 20 minutes, it violates an unwritten rule: documentaries that go beyond 90 minutes do so at their peril, unlike blockbuster dramas. But asking an audience to sit still for that long to spend time with refugees who wait years for freedom seems an essential part of the exercise. “Yes, people have to make an effort to see a film like this,” he says. “But in comparison, a young boy may wait five or ten years to get an education, and the average refugee spends 25 years as a refugee.”

Simply dressed in black cotton shirt and trousers, his hair and beard more neatly trimmed than in the movie, Ai Weiwei has a quietly commanding presence, soft-spoken and patient, but with a weary air of resignation that suggests doing publicity is not his favourite pastime. As a film guy, I had the naive impression that making a movie would be a bigger deal for him than creating armadas of art objects for a museum. Not so. “The only difference,” he says, “is that a film reaches a very general public, so you have to do a lot of promoting in every city. You have to convince people to see the film, which you don’t do with an art exhibition. All my exhibitions were breaking records for visitors. I would easily get a few hundred thousand people to look at the work. But film seems difficult, especially documentary. I just found out that in Toronto, a very liberal city, we may reach an audience of 20,000 to 30,000. To me it’s a big disappointment.” Then, warming to the math with the calculus of a man who once filled a museum with millions of fake sunflower seeds, he added, “If you want to get 20,000 people, that means in a theatre of 200 you have to show it 100 times! This is the reality of film. Very few people still go to theatres.”

Invited by Six Degrees, an annual conference on “global inclusion,” Ai was visiting Toronto for the first time to receive the Adrienne Clarkson Award for Global Citizenship, and to promote a film that was clearly a humbling experience for him. As a celebrated dissident artist, he once loomed as China’s Buddha-like answer to Michael Moore, a larger-than-life trickster who played a defiant game of tag with the regime’s censors until they called his bluff with cruel consequences. He grew up a refugee in his own country, the son of a poet who was branded an enemy of the state. The year Ai was born, his family was banished to the Gobi Desert by Mao Zedong’s government. And while he’s no Angelina Jolie as he roams through the refugee camps with his Human Flow crew, he remains a figure of considerable privilege. So he keeps a modest profile in the film, popping up every now and then as a comforting soul who offers solace and diversion to those around him. Migrating from one camp to another, he manages to submerge himself in his own film.

“You have to be quiet, shut up, and just watch,” he explains. “At the same time, you have to be patient, and let the audience come to its own conclusion. This is not an educational film. It’s about beauty, feeling, suffering, empathy, and how to share. It’s about tolerance.”

Yet there’s much to be learned along the way, as subtitled statistics float across the screen: the up-to-the-moment number of almost half a million Muslims escaping rape and murder in Burma; the one million refugees in Macedonia who over the years have squeezed through a crude metal gate the size of something you’d find in a farmer’s field; the three million trapped in Turkey as Europe turned its back; the Palestinians’ grim world record for having the largest refugee population of more than four million; the fact that whole generations in Gaza have never known a world without a wall or checkpoints; and a note that the number of countries that have fenced-off borders has risen from 11 to 70 since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

But keeping pace with the numerical tide are lines from ancient poets, like this one from the 11th-century Persian mystic Baba Tahir: “I am that sea and have come into a bowl.” And as we hopscotch from one refugee camp to another, from the Mediterranean to Iraq, from the ruins of Lebanon to sub-Saharan Africa, the declension of catastrophe is framed with jarring interludes of visual poetry. Human Flow’s aerial vistas recall Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky’s epic images of environmental ruin, which portray the infernal beauty of the oil sands and tailing ponds without needing to pass judgment. There’s a satanic majesty to the blackened skies and orange blaze of oil wells torched by ISIS forces retreating from Mosul. As hordes of African refugees are systemically swathed in golden space blankets, then marched into buses, it’s like an alien abduction. And the cool cinematic neutrality of a drone shot that shows a tent city as an intriguing off-white canvas, where insects slowly turn out to be people, is deeply disturbing.

“It becomes so abstract,” says Ai, “then gradually you see some movement. It’s beautiful and shocking at the same time. As you jump from one location to another, you need an overview. Luckily, we have a technology—only God can have a view like that. It shows how fragile our human condition can be.” And it suggests the perspective of a world that wants to keep its distance from what’s happening on its borders. In Germany, where refugee camps are cleaner and better organized, the camera flies indoors, over a white-cubicle maze of numbered bedrooms without ceilings in an aircraft hanger. The camp looks like a movie set, an Orwellian parody of suburbia.

At the core of Ai’s vision, which slides so fluidly between global and individual arenas, is a challenge to the conventional wisdom that, amid so much mass suffering, an individual—one of countless sunflower seeds—is powerless to effect change. When I ask if he does in fact feel like one of the world’s most powerful artists, Ai says, “I feel powerful when I’m really defending essential values such as human rights. If you still have a voice and can constantly talk about freedom of speech, you feel powerful. But you also feel disappointed because those things require everybody to act. Everybody has to make a decision—to make one action against those human conditions.”

Source: Ai Weiwei, an artist in exile, turns to the refugee crisis – Macleans.ca

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Proposed citizenship oath change prompts some to call for more education about Indigenous people: Consultations

2017/09/30 Leave a comment

Good account of the results of the consultations:

A revised oath of citizenship that will require new Canadians to faithfully observe the country’s treaties with Indigenous people is nearly complete.

The proposed new text was put to focus groups held by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in March, following months of consultation by departmental officials.

The language comes from the 94th and final recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined the legacy of Canada’s residential schools.

Implementing that recommendation was one of the tasks given to Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen when he was sworn into his portfolio in January 2017, but work on it began soon after the commission delivered its recommendations in late 2015, briefing notes for the minister suggest.

Focus groups mixed on proposed changes

The notes, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, show the government also wants to modify the script delivered by those who preside over citizenship ceremonies. The proposed notes say the script should refer to ceremonies on traditional territories, and include remarks on the history of Indigenous people.

When it comes to the oath, the inclusion of a reference to treaties is the only proposed change.

Changing the wording requires a legislative amendment to the Citizenship Act. The Liberals are in the process of overhauling the act in a bid to make citizenship easier to obtain.

When the proposed text was put to focus groups composed of both recent immigrants and longtime Canadian residents, reaction was generally positive, according to a report posted online by the Immigration Department this week.

But there was a caveat: “Participants only agreed with the modifications insofar as newcomers are adequately educated about Indigenous Peoples and the treaties,” the report said.

“Many felt that they themselves would struggle with this new formulation, given their own limited knowledge of the treaties.”

Some wondered about the need for changes at all.

“A few participants took it upon themselves to question the need to modify the oath and that it might represent a precedent whereby other groups in Canada will want to be represented in the oath,” the report said.

The new oath comes along with a major overhaul of the study guide used for the citizenship exam. A draft copy obtained by The Canadian Press earlier this year revealed it, too, will include extensive references to Indigenous history and culture.

The Liberals had originally been aiming to unveil both the new guide and oath around Canada Day, but work is ongoing.

It reads: “I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including treaties with Indigenous Peoples, and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”

Source: Proposed citizenship oath change prompts some to call for more education about Indigenous people – Politics – CBC News

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Pope gets political in Italy’s debate on citizenship for immigrants

2017/09/30 Leave a comment

Not totally surprising:

While in the United States, the concept that the Vatican might influence public policy is outrageous, in Italy, the relationship between politics and the Catholic Church is like a well-made cappuccino: The espresso and milk foam may seem separated at first, but once you drink it, they blend into one.

Popes theoretically handed in their temporal power almost 150 years ago, but their voice and opinions still hold considerable weight in public discourse, which, in Italy as well as in many parts of the world these days, is centered around the immigrant crisis.

In the past, Pope Francis has been hesitant, if not downright opposed, to using his hefty popularity to intervene directly in matters of Italian public policy. But while the pope remained quiet as Italy’s parliament passed a law on de facto-couples, which critics say opened the road towards gay marriage, he was vocal on a recently proposed law concerning citizenship to the children of long-term immigrants.

The legislation is based on the concept of ius soli, which establishes citizenship depending on where you are born and not ius sanguinis, requiring a blood lineage, and would offer citizenship to the children of immigrants born in Italy who have completed at least five years in the Italian school system.

Under Italy’s current ius sanguinis system, it’s difficult and somewhat rare for the children of immigrants to the country to acquire citizenship. Under a ius soli standard, it would become much easier.

The country’s senate is currently at a standstill on the law, with opposing parties entrenched in a battle where no political blows are spared.

At the weekly general audience Sep. 27, Francis extended his arms wide toward St. Peter’s square and called faithful to welcome migrants and refugees.

“Just like this,” the pope said, “arms wide open, ready for a sincere, affectionate, enveloping embrace.” He then praised the work done by the civil organizations involved in collecting signatures in order to push the ius soli legislation forward.

This wasn’t the first, nor most adamant time the pope publicly expressed his support for the legislation, causing distress and outrage on the part of those who strongly oppose it. Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist right-wing party Northern League tweeted that if the pope “wishes to apply the law in his State, the Vatican, he can go ahead. But as a Catholic, I don’t believe Italy can welcome and sustain the entire world. To God what is of God and to Caesar what is of Caesar. Amen,” to which he added his staple hashtag ‘stoptheinvasion.’

The pope had used the same quote from the Gospel in an interview with sociologist Dominique Wolton, where he stressed how “the lay state is a healthy thing,” but Francis’s recent statements on the ius soli show that when the topic is close to his heart, he is not willing to back down.

…A chorus of priests, bishops and cardinals joined in their support of the ius soli legislation, with Bishop Nunzio Galantino, secretary general of the Italian Bishop’s Conference (CEI), saying that if a way was found to accelerate things with regards to the rights of same-sex couples, “the same attention should be given to the rights of Italians left without citizenship.”

“The Vatican doesn’t vote,” the bishop clarified, “but the Church is bound to call out the heart of the matter.”

On Sep. 25 the president of CEI, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, also joined the ranks in favor of the controversial law, adding that while welcoming immigrants is an important first step, “there is another responsibility, promulgated over time, that has to be tackled with prudence, intelligence and realism.”

Many reporters spotted a difference of expression between Francis’s “open arms” approach and CEI’s call to caution, but Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, quickly shot them down.

“You can welcome people with open arms, but also with prudence,” Parolin told reporters Sep. 27, before taking part in Rome’s Lateran University’s conference sponsored by the pontifical organization Aid to the Church in Need on the situation facing Christians in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains area.

“The fundamental thing is welcome, because they are our brothers and sisters,” Parolin said. The prelate said that in the context of this “very intense Italian political debate,” it’s best if the Vatican sticks with “recalling principles.”

“What’s important is that these people not just be welcome but integrated, so that they can be inserted in a positive way into the fabric of our society,” Parolin said.

Source: Pope gets political in Italy’s debate on citizenship for immigrants

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From My Detention in Malaysia, Thoughts on Islam and Tolerance – Mustafa Aykol

2017/09/30 Leave a comment

Good piece:

I am writing this column from an airplane, on my way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to my new home, Wellesley, Mass. I’m in a comfortable seat, and I’m looking forward to getting back to my family. About 12 hours ago, though, I was miserable, locked in a holding cell by Malaysia’s “religious police.”

The story began a few months ago, when the Islamic Renaissance Front, a reformist, progressive Muslim organization in Malaysia, invited me to give a series of lectures on Islam, reason and freedom. The group had hosted me three times before in the past five years for similar events and also published the Malay version of my book “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty.” I was glad for the chance to visit Malaysia again.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 22. The next day I gave my first lectureon the suppression of rational theology by dogmatists in early Islam, making the point that this “intellectual suicide” still haunts Muslim civilization.

The second talk was on a more controversial topic: apostasy from Islam. I argued that Muslims must uphold freedom of conscience, in line with the Quranic dictum “No compulsion in religion.” I said that apostasy should not be punished by death, as it is in Saudi Arabia, or with “rehabilitation,” as it is in Malaysia. The practice of Islam must be on the basis of freedom, not coercion, and governments shouldn’t police religion or morality.

It turns out all you have to do is speak of the police and they will appear.

At the end of my talk, a group of serious-looking men came into the lecture hall and showed me badges indicating that they were “religion enforcement officers.”

“We heard that you just gave an unauthorized talk on religion,” one of the men said. “And we got complaints about it.” They took me to another room, photographed me and asked questions about my speech.

When they were done with their questioning, they handed me a piece of paper with Malay writing on it and told me that I shouldn’t speak again without proper authorization. They also warned me away from my next planned talk, which was going to be about my most recent book, “The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims.”

“We heard that you will speak about commonalities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity,” one officer said. “We don’t like that kind of stuff.” Then they left.

After all this, I consulted with my hosts, and we decided to cancel the final lecture. I assumed that was the end of the matter and went shopping for gifts for my wife and children.

“You need to wait, sir,” said the woman who checked my passport. She called some police officers, who called other police officers, who took me to a room where my arrest order was read to me. Apparently the religious police, known as JAWI, wanted to interrogate me again for my “unauthorized” talk on religious freedom and had issued that arrest order to make sure I didn’t leave the country.

I was taken from the airport to a police station, then to another station. Finally, I was taken to the JAWI headquarters, where I was locked up.

To be fair, nobody was rude to me, let alone cruel. Still, I was distressed: I had been arrested in an alien country whose laws and language I did not understand. I had no idea what would happen to me — and, most painfully, when I would see my wife, Riada, our 2-year-old son, Levent, and our 2-month-old baby, Efe.

In the morning, I was taken to a Shariah court, which is used in Malaysia to adjudicate religious issues, where I was interrogated for two hours. At the end, to my surprise, I was let go. Soon I learned that this was greatly facilitated by the diplomatic efforts of my country, Turkey — and especially the contact made by a former Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, with Malaysian royalty.

This incident showed me once again that there is a major problem in Islam today: a passion to impose religion, rather than merely proposing it, a mind-set that most Christians left behind at the time of the Inquisition.

Luckily, there are antidotes within Islam to this problem. One of them is the Quranic verse that the JAWI officers repeatedly chided me for daring to recite: “No compulsion in religion.”

In fact, mainstream Muslim tradition, reflecting its illiberal context, never fully appreciated the freedom implied by this verse — and other ones with similar messages. “The ‘no compulsion’ verse was a problem to the earliest exegetes,” as Patricia Crone, a scholar of Islamic history, has noted. “And they reacted by interpreting it restrictively.” The verse was declared “abrogated,” or its scope was radically limited.

This is still evident in a parenthetical that is too frequently inserted into translations of the verse. “There shall be no compulsion in religion (in becoming a Muslim).” I’d known that Saudi translations added those extra words at the end. Now I have learned that the Malaysian authorities do, too. They append the extra phrase because while they agree with the Quran that no one should be forced to become a Muslim, they think that Muslims should be compelled to practice the religion — in the way that the authorities define. They also believe that if Muslims decide to abandon their religion, they must be punished for “apostasy.”

One of the officers at my Malaysian Shariah court trial proudly told me that all of this was being done to “protect religion.” But I have an important message for her (which I didn’t share at the time): By policing religion, the authorities are not really protecting it. They are only enfeebling their societies, raising hypocrites and causing many people to lose their faith in or respect for Islam.

I came to understand that while I was being held in the JAWI headquarters, listening to a loud Quranic recitation coming from the next room. I heard the Quran and for the first time in my life it sounded like the voice of an oppressor. But I did not give in to that impression. “I hear you and I trust in you, God,” I said as I prayed, “despite these bigots who act in your name.”

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Massey College under pressure to cut ties with professor after comment denounced as racist

2017/09/30 Leave a comment

Surprising that someone like Marrus whose extensive scholarship on the Holocaust and human rights could make such a flippant and inappropriate remark:

Massey College, an independent residential college affiliated with the University of Toronto, is under pressure from faculty and students to sever its relationship with one of the university’s professors after a comment he made was denounced as racist.

The comment was made during lunch on Tuesday by Michael Marrus, an emeritus history professor at the University of Toronto, scholar of the Holocaust, and a Senior Fellow at Massey.

Dr. Marrus was sitting with three Junior Fellows, graduate or professional students whose academic and extracurricular accomplishments have earned them a prestigious residence spot at Massey.

Hugh Segal, who leads the school and has the title of Master of Massey College, asked whether he could join the table. At that point, Dr. Marrus asked a black Junior Fellow: “You know this is your master, eh? Do you feel the lash?”

After the students left the table, Mr. Segal stayed and spoke to the professor.

“I made it clear to the Senior Fellow that the remark was completely inappropriate,” Mr. Segal said.

The three students took the issue to the dean of the college the same day and the comment was raised at a meeting of Massey’s governing board the same day. A written complaint by nine students – the three present during the lunch and additional members of the diversity committee – has been lodged with Mr. Segal, who is working with Massey’s governing board to deal with the requests made by the students.

In the wake of the comments, a petition signed by almost 200 faculty and students was sent to Massey College on Thursday asking for Dr. Marrus to end his association with the college.

“In our eyes, the very legitimacy of Massey College hinges on the effectiveness of your response to this incident,” the petition states. “We encourage you to approach this moment with the seriousness it demands, and with the courage and vision to make this an occasion for fulsome transformation.”

The petition also asks that the college issue a formal public apology, organize mandatory anti-racism training and drop the title “master” to refer to its director.

Mr. Segal said he would be open to that change.

“The term is tied to Oxbridge and the idea of master of one’s craft or art, not a master-slave reference. But we should be open to revision if it is no longer appropriate,” he said.

That demand has been made in the past. As a result, a task force has worked for several months examining whether to drop the title. It will report back in several weeks, Mr. Segal said.

He has also invited the students to meet with him.

Dr. Marrus did not respond to a request for comment. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the author of eight books on the Holocaust, including The Holocaust in History, Lessons of the Holocaust and co-author of Vichy France and the Jews, and a former dean of the University of Toronto’s school of graduate studies.

That history does not excuse the remark or make it less hurtful or offensive, Mr. Segal said.

“His scholarship would indicate someone who has fought his entire life for human rights. Younger Junior Fellows may not be familiar with it; it is reasonable to react how they did,” he said.​

Source: Massey College under pressure to cut ties with professor after comment denounced as racist – The Globe and Mail

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with ,

Pluralism is a path to lasting peace and prosperity: Outgoing Governor General Johnston

2017/09/30 Leave a comment

Well stated:

A predecessor, Vincent Massey, once said: “Canada is not a melting pot. Canada is an association of peoples who have, and cherish, great differences but who work together because they can respect themselves and each other.” Today we call this pluralism, and I believe Canada’s opportunity lies in its ability to show the world how pluralism is a viable path to lasting peace and prosperity. Canada is a social innovation, a constantly evolving work-in-progress based upon the notion that diverse peoples can live and work together toward an ever-more inclusive, fair and just society.

Of course, we have no cause for complacency. Intolerance does exist here and it is essential that we resist efforts to reduce diversity and restrict inclusiveness. Canada’s progress as a country has always grown from a commitment to diversity, inclusiveness and pluralism. Success in such a vast, diverse and challenging land requires that we work together. This is the story of our country and it’s important that we know and understand its uniqueness, significance and how embedded the principles of partnership and compromise are in the very fabric of Canada. This is the path forward.

There are two related, critical elements that Canada should pay close attention to in the years to come: learning and trust. As a lifelong student and teacher, I believe education is the key to ensuring equality of opportunity for all Canadians and to achieving the pinnacles of excellence that allow us to innovate and lead in a technologically advanced world. From early-childhood education and literacy to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to research at the outer limits of knowledge, we must make learning a central part of our lives. Doing so will reinforce the second critical element – trust – by which I mean trust in one another and in the institutions which are the glue that binds Canadians together. Inequalities and the rapid changes brought about by globalization have undermined trust in Canada and throughout much of the world, but a society that learns and works together in an inclusive manner will see the basis for that sense of mistrust replaced by a sense of hope.

So, what have I learned as Governor-General? One, while Canada still has much work to do in building a more inclusive society, our diversity is a strength and a comparative advantage in the world. Two, in Canada, past, present and no doubt future, we’re stronger and more prosperous when we compromise and work together. And three, despite our many cultures, ethnic origins and languages spoken, we all have a great deal in common – a great deal called Canada. Let this be a country that draws on the diverse talents and abilities of all its peoples in steering a course through this complex, changing world.

Source: Pluralism is a path to lasting peace and prosperity – The Globe and Mail

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After 200 years without land title, Nova Scotia black communities offered hope

2017/09/29 Leave a comment

Hard to understand why this took so long:

The empty lot in North Preston, N.S., has been in the hands of Elaine Cain’s family for many years, a connection that stirs in her a sentimental bond with the piece of land.

But despite the fact her family has long paid property taxes on it, they have never held the deed.

On Wednesday, Cain welcomed as a “bright day” an announcement by the Nova Scotia government that it will provide funding to help people in five historically black communities gain legal ownership over land they’ve claimed as theirs for generations.

“I think it will be great because this is what we have been looking for,” she said in an interview. “It will give us … a boost, actually, to do whatever it is that we have or plan to do. I’m confident that they’ll help me.”

The province said it will spend $2.7 million over two years to help residents obtain legal title to land in the communities of North Preston, East Preston and Cherry Brook in the Halifax Regional Municipality, and in Lincolnville and Sunnyville in Guysborough County.

No deeds to black settlers

The problem can be traced back two centuries, when the government gave plots of land to Black Loyalists for their support during the American Revolutionary War and to Black Refugees, former slaves who sought refuge after the War of 1812. The government, however, did not give deeds, which meant those who settled never officially owned the land they lived on.

The repercussions today are that, without clear title, residents cannot sell their property or legally pass it down to other relatives. The province says that out of the 1,620 total land parcels in Cherry Brook, East Preston and North Preston, for instance, about a third are without clear title.

Cain said she’s had her property surveyed, but because of a dispute with some family members, she can’t get the deed. She said she needs money to pay for legal costs.

If she gets clear title, Cain plans to build a home and a small teahouse for seniors. She hopes to make an application for funding within a week.

African Nova Scotian Affairs Minister Tony Ince made the funding announcement Wednesday in Cherry Brook. The money will pay for a surveyor and two surveyor technicians, two community liaison officers to help residents with the process, and will help cover legal fees related to clarifying land ownership.

Source: After 200 years without land title, Nova Scotia black communities offered hope – Nova Scotia – CBC News

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