David Cameron launches 5 year-plan to tackle Islamic extremism in Britain

2015/07/22 3 Comments

Always interesting to observe and take note of how UK approaches against violent extremism evolve and build upon previous experience and lessons learned (and no, there is no magic bullet).

But encouraging to see a strong emphasis as well on the “soft” side, not just security:

Young Muslims are drawn to fundamentalist Islam in the same way young Germans were attracted to fascism in the 20th century, David Cameron will suggest today, as he sets out a five-year strategy to combat Isis-inspired radicalisation.

In a speech in Birmingham, Mr Cameron will say Islamic extremist ideology is based on the same intolerant ideas of “discrimination, sectarianism and segregation” that led to the rise of Hitler and that still exist in the far right.

He will also reject suggestions that Western foreign policy has contributed to the rise of Isis and its popularity among Muslim populations in the West, arguing that such extremism existed long before the Iraq war.

The Prime Minister will also announce details of a new drive to promote integration led by the Government’s “tsar” for troubled families, Louise Casey. This will include addressing issues around integration, language and employment and learning from “past mistakes” where government funding was “simply handed” over to “self-appointed ‘community leaders’” who “sometimes used it in a divisive way”.

Downing Street said Mr Cameron was determined to make tackling Islamic extremism in Britain a central priority over the next five years with a comprehensive strategy that involved not just the police and the criminal justice system but also “softer interventions” to tackle the root causes of radicalisation.

However he is likely to face criticism for the tough language in the speech from some in the Muslim community who have warned it could play into the hands of extremists.

And on the question of “tough language,” hard to argue with the following:

“It is an extreme doctrine and like any extreme doctrine, it is subversive. [It] subscribes to intolerant ideas which create a climate in which extremists can flourish.

“Ideas which are hostile to basic liberal values such as democracy, freedom and sexual equality. Ideas which actively promote discrimination, sectarianism and segregation. Ideas – like those of the despicable far right – which privilege one identity to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of others.”

David Cameron launches 5 year-plan to tackle Islamic extremism in Britain – UK Politics – UK – The Independent.

Filed under Multiculturalism, Radicalization Tagged with ,

Auschwitz verdict will make it harder for Holocaust deniers, Canadian witness says

2015/07/22 Leave a comment

Another enduring reminder:

“The fact that he was found guilty was, to me, a very satisfactory outcome,” said Bill Glied, the Canadian survivor of Auschwitz who testified in Germany at the trial of Mr. Groening.

“Holocaust deniers will no longer be able to deny it after all, as a Nazi SS officer has said that what has happened is true – which is proof enough that the Holocaust actually existed.”

Mr. Glied was 13 when he arrived in at the camp in May, 1944, with his family. He was the only one who survived.

At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, around 90 per cent of them Jewish.

“So, as far as the jail sentence, I couldn’t care less and I still don’t care. The important part is that he was found guilty,” said Mr. Glied, who works with March of the Living, a group dedicated to remembering those who perished, while also paying tribute to those who survived and making sure the events of more than 70 years ago are not forgotten.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s head Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, also praised the verdict.

“This verdict was critical, because this is the first case brought where the prosecution charged a person who wasn’t involved in the physical side of mass murder,” he said in an interview last week with The Associated Press.

Auschwitz verdict will make it harder for Holocaust deniers, Canadian witness says – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Antisemitism, Holocaust Tagged with

The beauty of Milliken’s ‘multicultural hodge-podge’

2015/07/22 1 Comment

A reminder that it is in neighbourhoods like this one that highlight how multiculturalism in Canada works in practice:

Helen Stratigos’ eyes light up when she talks about her neighbourhood.

For the last 15 years, she’s been living in Milliken – a north Scarborough community on the Markham border that’s a “multicultural hodge-podge” home to mostly first and second-generation immigrants, where only 25 per cent of the population was born in Canada.

“People here are proud to be Canadian – they love to be Canadian – but they retain their cultural identity,” says Stratigos, 43. “And that’s something that’s part of your soul, part of your roots.”

Stratigos, a full-time mom with two daughters aged 6 and 15, comes from a Filipina-Greek background and says most of the Milliken community comes from mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

On this July afternoon, she’s leading the Star on a tour of the neighbourhood, pointing out the community’s lush parkland, authentic Asian cuisine and welcoming atmosphere for newcomers to Canada.

“Every time I step out my door, I’m getting an education in world cultures and world religions,” Stratigos says.

The beauty of Milliken’s ‘multicultural hodge-podge’ | Toronto Star.

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Canadians deserve stronger response on assisted death

2015/07/22 Leave a comment

More on the lack of balance on the assisted death advisory panel (see earlier Federal government appoints panel to review assisted dying but critics fear bias):

Just as importantly, to improve end-of-life care there needs to be a commitment and investment in palliative care – but that is a complement, not a substitute, for right-to-die legislation.

A panel of experts could be helpful in making recommendations. But the threesome chosen by the government features Harvey Max Chochinov, the Canada research chair in palliative care at the University of Manitoba; and Catherine Frazee, former co-director of the Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education, both of whom are opponents of assisted death; and Benoît Pelletier, a constitutional law professor at the University of Ottawa and proponent of asymmetrical federalism (meaning he’s not a big believer in federal legislation).

The three are top-flight academics but they come to the table with clear biases – or a perception of bias – that strips the exercise of any real credibility. There is little doubt the government wants them to recommend the most restrictive rules imaginable.

This is an issue that cries out for rules that are consensual and compassionate, not restrictive and partisan. The nitty-gritty of right-to-die legislation should be determined by an all-party committee of elected representatives.

Let’s not forget the most important admonition of the Supreme Court, that denying the choice of a hastened death to those who are suffering “intolerably and permanently” amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Delaying a correction to this injustice is doubly and unnecessarily cruel.

Canadians deserve stronger response on assisted death – The Globe and Mail.

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Long-term Canadian expats lose right to vote, court decides

2015/07/21 2 Comments

Good call and passes the common sense test.

In a split decision, the Court of Appeal overturned a ruling that had restored the right of more than one million long-term expats to vote.

Canada’s “social contract” entails citizens submitting to laws because they had a voice in making them through voting, the ruling states.

“Permitting all non-resident citizens to vote would allow them to participate in making laws that affect Canadian residents on a daily basis but have little to no practical consequence for their own daily lives,” Justice George Strathy wrote for the majority court.

“This would erode the social contract and undermine the legitimacy of the laws.”

Strathy said the relevant part of the Canada Elections Act aimed to strengthen the country’s system of government. While it infringed on the rights of the expats, he said, the infringement is reasonable and can be justified in a free and democratic society.

Two Canadians living in the United States — Montreal-born Jamie Duong and Toronto-born Gillian Frank — launched the constitutional challenge, arguing the five-year rule was arbitrary and unreasonable. Both argued they had only left for educational and employment opportunities and still had strong attachments to Canada and a stake in its future.

In May last year, Superior Court Justice Michael Penny threw out the voting ban, noting that mass murderers have the right to cast ballots but long-term expats who care deeply about the country do not. Penny also said expats could well be subject to Canadian tax and other laws.

The Appeal Court said Penny’s judgment was clouded by the government’s assertion that expats “do not have the same connection” to Canada as residents.

“This caused the debate to be cast as whether non-resident citizens were worthy of the vote,” said Strathy. “As a result, he overlooked Canada’s democratic tradition and the importance of the social contract between Canada’s electorate and Parliament.”

Long-term Canadian expats lose right to vote, court decides – The Globe and Mail.

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

‘White People’: MTV Takes On White Privilege – The Daily Beast

2015/07/21 1 Comment

Looks like an interesting and needed doc:

“It was hard, but this was goal from the very beginning with MTV: ‘How do we create a space that’s judgment-free, that allows these young white people to say how they feel?’” continued Vargas. “The moment you hear ‘white fragility’ or ‘white privilege,’ people think of a very intellectual, academic thing. They think of the academic work that surrounds this kind of study—but how do you make that accessible? How do you say ‘white privilege’ without having someone just roll their eyes and say, ‘Stop making me feel guilty, slavery’s over, I didn’t do that to the Native Americans?’ That’s why it was important to me that we made the film the way that we did. We’re not letting them get away with anything, I’m constantly questioning and probing, but it’s about holding people accountable without letting them shut down.”

Vargas references Katy, the young white woman he spoke with who believes that people of color are hogging all of the scholarships. Vargas genuinely appreciates the way that Katy was able to open up and be honest about her feelings—it allowed for an authentic documentary experience, and also gave him the opportunity to redress a misconception that many young people hold.

“We wanted to make a film that creates a space where we can hear people,” said Vargas. “I traffic in empathy. That’s what I do. To me, the reaction just proves how necessary this documentary is. Talking about race is hard enough—the moment you start racializing white people, that’s really hard for people. Many white people are so not used to seeing themselves as a race, as a race to be questioned and dissected and explored. Think about Soledad O’Brien specials on being black in America, Asian in America…we’re thought of as the other. But to people of color in America, white people are the other. We’re standing there going, ‘Do you know what you’re saying…do you see yourself…do you know what’s going on?’”

Despite its empathetic treatment of its young white subjects, White People does not validate its cast’s feelings, especially when they’re factually inaccurate. Vargas does not treat racism or racial ignorance lightly. Discussing the black lives matter movement, he notes how so many white people took to social media to rebrand the hashtag as “All Lives Matter,” despite the fact that #BlackLivesMatter is a response to a criminal justice system created by white people for white people. In light of painfully common incidents like these, one can read White People not just as an anthropological study, but as a step towards reeducation—a move against the brand of sheer ignorance that gave rise to the all lives matter counter-reaction.

‘White People’: MTV Takes On White Privilege – The Daily Beast.

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

This Ruling Could Change Online “Free Speech” Forever

2015/07/21 Leave a comment

On internet harassment and hate speech, and the Canadian court case that is attracting attention:

The law itself is still trying to understand how the Internet works. Consider a recent case in Canada that’s about to get a ruling. It may be the first case in the country of alleged criminal harassment solely via Twitter.

While we don’t have the full details, previous articles on this case convey that women expressed concerns of harassment when a man they blocked continued to interact with them. Regardless of being blocked, his comments at and about them continued, escalating to the point of concern when he commented on locations they apparently visited.

What’s interesting to note, however, is how The National Post phrases this:

“The graphic artist and father of four lost his job shortly after his arrest, which was well-publicized online, and if convicted, could go to jail for six months…These are astonishing repercussions given it’s not alleged he ever threatened either woman (or any other, according to the testimony of the Toronto Police officer, Detective Jeff Bangild, who was in charge) or that he ever sexually harassed them.”

Notice what the Post thinks are the only reasons worth being punished for: threats and sexual harassment. This is a thorough misunderstanding of what constitutes online harassment and the many ways it can and does occur. Worse, it completely ignores the effects it has on targets.

Consider, for example, the teen hacker who recently pleaded guilty to 23 charges relating to online harassment. More importantly, consider his targets. As Wesley Yin-Poole writes:

“[The teen hacker] would…post personal contact information [of victims] online and repeatedly call victims late at night…Victims ranged in location from B.C. to states across the US, including Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, Ohio and California.

One woman, a student at University of Arizona in Tucson, was forced to drop out of her course due to the teen’s continued harassment. Armed police were called to her house twice within the same week, and family members were removed from the home at gunpoint.”

None of this required sending threats or expletive-filled messages directly to the targets. But we already know this: Stalkers leave letters filled with adoration; catcallers shout out what they consider to be compliments to women.

And harassers are the ones often protected by the current nature of the Internet. As WHOA (Working to Halt Online Abuse) notes: “The very nature of online crimes means that we have little information regarding the harassers, as most victims either don’t know their harasser or do not know enough information about them for us to record.”

This Ruling Could Change Online “Free Speech” Forever – The Daily Beast.

Filed under Hate crimes Tagged with ,

Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote – Detailed Table of Contents

2015/07/20 1 Comment

For those interested, the detailed table of contents provides a sense of the scope and depth of the book.

Multiculturalism in Canada Detailed Table of Contents (pdf)

Book is on track to be out in early August.

Filed under Citizenship, Multiculturalism Tagged with

La radicalisation des intellectuels noirs

2015/07/20 1 Comment

Interesting piece on how the views of prominent Black intellectuels have become more radical and challenging, citing Ta-Nehisi Coates as an example:

L’insistance de Ta-Nehisi Coates à parler des sujets qui fâchent le distingue nettement de la génération précédente. Les identités étaient alors pensées dans leur pluralité, et non dans leur singularité, et le multiculturalisme devait pouvoir les réconcilier. Un nouvel ordre politique devait naître de la collaboration entre minorités par la défense d’intérêts communs. La large coalition qui permit l’élection de Barack Obama, en novembre 2008, confirmait cette thèse et signait l’entrée des États-Unis dans une ère postraciale où les discriminations, sans être tout à fait vaincues, étaient du moins significativement atténuées.

Hélas, le multiculturalisme, s’il a banalisé l’idée de diversité, n’a pas mis fin au racisme. Et c’est ce que Ta-Nehisi Coates estime nécessaire de rappeler à la majorité blanche. L’égalité devant la loi, obtenue dans les années 1960 par le mouvement des droits civiques, ne suffit pas. Le rappel de cette triste vérité est au coeur du nouveau radicalisme noir. Sur le plan des idées, l’intégration politique des descendants d’esclaves passe au second plan pour revenir à une question primordiale : la dignité des personnes noires. Ta-Nehisi Coates et plusieurs intellectuels interpellent donc aujourd’hui directement l’Amérique blanche pour lui demander une pleine reconnaissance des violences subies hier comme aujourd’hui. Le philosophe Chris Lebron et le politologue Fredrick C. Harris ont tenu des positions similaires dans le New York Times et la revue Dissent. La juriste Michelle Alexander avait en quelque sorte préparé le terrain, il y a deux ans, en publiant un livre dénonçant l’incarcération massive des hommes noirs, qu’elle assimilait à une nouvelle ségrégation.

La radicalisation des intellectuels noirs | Le Devoir.

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Federal government appoints panel to review assisted dying but critics fear bias

2015/07/20 1 Comment

For an issue so sensitive to both sides of the debate, a more balanced panel would have been more appropriate:

The panel, announced Friday by Justice Minister Peter MacKay and Health Minister Rona Ambrose, will conduct online consultations with Canadians and “key stakeholders” on possible options to the high court’s ruling. It is to report back to the government by late fall, likely after the October federal election.

The panel will focus on which forms of assisted-dying should be permitted — assisted suicide, where a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of a drug the patient takes herself; and voluntary euthanasia, or death by lethal injection — eligibility criteria and safeguards to protect a doctor’s “freedom of conscience” not to participate against his or her moral or religious objections.

Chochinov’s fellow panellists are disability rights lawyer Catherine Frazee, professor emerita at Ryerson University and former chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Benoit Pelletier, an expert in constitutional law at the University of Ottawa and former Quebec cabinet minister.

Both Chochinov and Frazee were witnesses for the B.C. government in the original case that eventually made its way to the Supreme Court.

… The B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which filed the original lawsuit that led to the landmark ruling, said the government appointments to the panel hint of bias.

“Two of the three members of the panel were actually witnesses for Canada in the case against physician-assisted dying,” said Josh Paterson, executive director of the civil liberties group.

“They’re people who are deeply engaged in the fight to stop physician-assisted dying from being recognized as a right in Canada.”

“I have nothing but respect for either of them in terms of their credentials, and as individuals. But their majority on the panel does for us raise questions on the appearance of bias. There’s just no getting around it.”

Federal government appoints panel to review assisted dying but critics fear bias

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