McWhorter: DeSantis May Have Been Right

2023/02/22 Leave a comment

Provocative title but substance regarding the diversity of views has merit:

In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida announced he would ban a draft curriculum proposed by the College Board for a new Advanced Placement course in African American studies, criticizing the educational merit of the course. This month the College Board released an official curriculum that revised the course by designating some of the writers and ideas in the draft curriculum as optional topics of study rather than core lessons.

The board claimed that the changes were responses to “the input of professors” and “longstanding A.P. principles.” I am unconvinced, to say the least, especially given the degree to which the counsel of these “professors” was mysteriously consonant with DeSantis’s.

I’d like to make clear that I disapprove of the vast majority of DeSantis’s culture warrior agenda, a ham-handed set of plans designed to stir up a G.O.P. base in thrall to unreflective figures such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. If DeSantis runs for president, he will not get my vote.

However, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and in terms of how we tell the story of Black America, the board did the right thing, whether because of DeSantis’s threat or for more high-minded reasons. The take that I saw in the course’s original draft depicted the history of Black America over the past several decades as an unbroken stream of left protest against a seemingly unchanging racist hegemon. There is certainly drama in the procession. The Black Panthers, the Black arts movement, Black studies departments, Black Lives Matter. Incarceration, reparations and Black struggle. Amiri Baraka, Molefi Kete Asante, Manning Marable (all notably left-leaning writers). But Black history has been ever so much more than protest and professional pessimism; note how hard it is to imagine any other group of people whose history is written with this flavor so dominant.

This is not education but advocacy. And in no sense does racism mean that the difference has no meaning. The key issue is the difference between opinions that are considered and debated and opinions that are mostly uncontested and perhaps considered uncontestable — essentially opinions that are treated as if they were facts.

Of course, it is possible to teach about opinions rather than facts. When that is properly done, the opinions are presented along with intelligent counterproposals. Given that Black conservatives — or skeptics of progressive narratives often processed as mainstream after the late 1960s — were nowhere to be found in the A.P. curriculum (except for Booker T. Washington, who has been dead for over a hundred years, and Zora Neale Hurston, whose conservatism is all too often downplayed), it is reasonable to assume that opinions from the left were going to be presented with little or no meaningful challenge.

Certain takes on race are thought of by an influential portion of progressive Americans — Black, white and otherwise — as incarnations of social justice. To them, our nation remains an incomplete project that will remain mired in denial until these ways of seeing race are universally accepted and determine the bulk of public policy. These issues include ones in the earlier version of the A.P. course, such as the idea that Black people may be owed reparations and that one of the most accurate lenses through which to view America is through the lens of intersectionality.

I imagine that to people of this mind-set, incorporating these views into an A.P. course on African American studies is seen as a natural step, via which we help get America woken by appealing to its brightest young minds. But for all the emotional resonance, the savory intonation of key buzzwords and phrases and the impassioned support of people with advanced degrees and prize-awarded media status, views of this kind remain views.

To dismiss those in disagreement as either naïve or malevolent is unsophisticated, suggesting that racial enlightenment requires comfort with a take-no-prisoners approach and facile reasoning. Not even the tragedies of America’s record on race justify saying “I’m just right, dammit!” as if the matter were as settled as the operations of gravity

For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s article “The Case for Reparations,” which appeared in The Atlantic in 2014 and focused on the injustice of redlining policies in mortgage lending until the late 1960s, stimulated a nationwide discussion. It was initially listed as a “source for consideration” in the course. However, for all the impact of that intelligent, influential and well-written article, the idea that reparations are owed is open to wide dispute. It is a proposal and one that many Black people reject. (Useful examples of that, from long before the Coates article was published, are here).

Some think that despite the injustices of the past, people in the present should achieve via their own efforts. Others contest the causal link between past discrimination and Black America’s current problems — a key plank in today’s reparations arguments. Some observe that Blackness alone is too ambiguous a concept in our endlessly hybridized society, i.e., they acknowledge what almost all believe, which is that our concept of race is a messy, contingent fiction. I think the Great Society programs, affirmative action, the loosening of welfare programs in the late 1960s, the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and other significant policies have already been conceived of as a form of reparations, if not under the name itself. Reparations advocates have some answersto those objections, but even they fail to establish reparations as a moral absolute. The issue remains a controversy.

Intersectionality is a similar matter, in part as it seems a stand-in for the more openly controversial critical race theory. The very definition of C.R.T. has become a shifting target, rather like the term “neoliberal” or what it means to say that two people dated. However, the implication in much discussion — that C.R.T. is a mere matter of the legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, documenting that race, gender and other factors condition how people process life — is coy. No school of legal or academic thought could consist solely of that unexceptionable and even rather obvious observation. What worries many about C.R.T. are the conclusions its advocates draw from this intersectionality.

The original draft did not explicitly mention C.R.T., as opposed to intersectionality. However, it is reasonable to suppose that many teachers would use intersectionality as a springboard for instructing students, for example, that white people can be conceived as a single mass of domination and that racism is baked into America’s very essence in ways inescapable and unending. We must note that criticism of Crenshaw’s removal from the course — which took place in the College Board’s modified draft — often claim that detractors don’t want students to know the truth about America, something that overshoots the mere excision of the term “intersectionality” and implies a sanctioning of students being taught something broader and more judgmental.

Some C.R.T. advocates, for example, conclude that systemic oppression means that views from those oppressed via intersectionality must be accepted without question, as a kind of group narrative that renders it egregious to quibble over the details and nuances of individual experience. As the C.R.T. pioneer Richard Delgado put it, nonwhite people should protest based on a “broad story of dashed hopes and centuries-long mistreatment that afflicts an entire people and forms the historical and cultural background of your complaint.”

But this perspective, called standpoint epistemology, while intended as social justice, also questions empiricism and logic. Who really thinks that its absence from an A.P. course constitutes denying that slavery happened or that racism exists? C.R.T. advocates too often discuss white people as an undifferentiated mass, as in claims that white people resist letting go of their power, a view memorably promulgated by the legal scholar Derrick Bell. There is a rhetorical power in this sociological shorthand, but it also encourages a shallow classification of American individuals as bad white people and good everybody else. Fact this is not.

To pretend that where Blackness is concerned, certain views must be treated as truth despite intelligent and sustained critique is to give in to the illogic of standpoint epistemology: “That which rubs me the wrong way is indisputably immoral.”

And I hardly see this as applying only to people I disagree with. I have broadcast my views about race for almost a quarter century. Naturally, I consider my views correct — that’s why they are my views — and contrary to what some may suppose, conservative white people are by no means the core of people who often see things my way. I am always gladdened to find that there are quite a few Black people from all walks of life who agree with me. Yet I would protest seeing my views on race included in an A.P. course as facts or uncontested opinions.

There are certainly conservatives who think discussion of racism should be entirely barred from public life. This is, on its face, blinkered, ignorant and pathetic. But to pretend that controversial views on race from the left are truth incarnate is being dishonest about race as well. It sacrifices logic out of a quiet terror of being called racist (or, if Black, self-hating). How that is progressive or even civil in a real way is unclear to me. In being honest enough to push past the agitprop, I hate having to say that in this case, DeSantis, of all people, was probably right.

Source: McWhorter: DeSantis May Have Been Right

Filed under Multiculturalism, Racism Tagged with , , ,

Lederman: To create a better future, students need an education about race

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Indeed, even if it will not result in change for some:

At his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, the teenager who murdered 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket last year acknowledged that he had killed them because they were Black. He believed in the Great Replacement Theory – a racist conspiracy theory that falsely argues that the white race is threatened, and that liberal elites (Jews, in particular) are bringing in immigrants to replace white Americans.

“Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it,” he said. “I believed what I read online and acted out of hate.”

It’s impossible to know if this specific person was salvageable – but imagine what role a real education in Black history might play in the life of vulnerable young Americans like him. There are many – a frightening many – other potential bigoted autodidacts reading the stuff he was reading online.

How might their reception of this garbage be influenced by a proper education about the Black experience and the role racism has played and continues to play in society?

And yet, in some states, schools influenced (or forced) by right-wing groups and opportunistic politicians are having to shirk their responsibilities to properly educate their students about race. Some say this is out of a (wrongheaded) fear that white children might feel personal shame and responsibility. Or maybe it’s just plain ignorance; perhaps they actually believe that there is no longer racism operating in society.

But of course systemic racism is at play in the United States. Just ask the descendants of generations of slaves upon whose tortured backs many rich, white Americans built their wealth. Just ask the architects and victims of policies that segregated schools, buses, water fountains and lunch counters, or the laws that denied Black people the vote.

Just ask the family of George Floyd. Or the family of Tyre Nichols, a victim of Black police officers invested in what has been described as a systemically racist institution.

Why shouldn’t American students learn about the racism that has infected their country? It is, after all, the truth.

In the wake of the racial reckoning emerging from the 2020 police killing of Mr. Floyd, the once-obscure concept of critical race theory has become a flashpoint. CRT, which emerged out of the Civil Rights movement, argues that racism is embedded in the U.S. legal system, policies and power structures. But it became a favourite target for far-right blabbermouths and then-president Donald Trump. Its meaning has been twisted and obscured in hysterical campaigns in several states, including Florida. There, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the Individual Freedom Act, more commonly known as the Stop W.O.K.E. (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act, to combat CRT’s “state-sanctioned racism.” (George Orwell must be rolling his eyes in his grave.) Speaking to the state’s board of education last year, Mr. DeSantis said: “the woke class wants to teach kids to hate each other, rather than teaching them how to read.” He called CRT “nonsense ideology.”

This rhetoric is itself nonsense. The kids are still learning to read, of course – even if their options are being limited by other scary developments in Florida schools, such as book bans.

Last November, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of some of the provisions of the law. “The First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark,” Judge Mark Walker wrote in his conclusion.

Then in January, Mr. DeSantis banned a new Advanced Placement course on African-American studies from Florida high schools. The multidisciplinary course, currently in a two-year national pilot program, teaches literature, the arts, politics and history – including the origins of the African diaspora, enslavement and resistance.

Thank goodness there are still some grown-ups in charge. In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy has announced that his state will expand AP African-American studies. “Black history is American history,” Mr. Murphy said Wednesday.

In Canada, Black History Month gives schools the opportunity to teach Black history and contemporary contributions – lessons that should be happening all year. Schools are also now – finally – teaching about this country’s Indigenous history, embracing the fact that to achieve reconciliation, there must be truth: an understanding of the racist policies that targeted Indigenous people and continue to reverberate.

This is not shaming. It’s explaining.

Teaching about race is not indoctrination; it is education. And if the schools won’t do it, there are all sorts of nefarious websites and sketchy media platforms that are happy to fill in the gap with their brand of brainwashing.

Misinformation has never been so accessible – and so dangerous. Knowledge is power, and public educators have an obligation to their students: to teach them to be critical thinkers, to teach them the honest history of their land, and to have faith that the kids will understand what to do with this information – contribute to a better society, for all.

Source: To create a better future, students need an education about race

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Nadeau: Les ballons de l’immigration

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

A reminder from Quebec service provider organizations that the provincial government has failed to act in terms of settlement services and in its public messaging blaming the federal government:

Cela fait plus d’une semaine, mais Mary Claire ne décolère pas. « Lorsque je vais m’être calmée, je vais appeler Denis. Je vais l’appeler, certain ! » Denis qui ? Trudel. Le député du coin, élu sous la bannière du Bloc québécois.

« Quand j’ai vu la publicité du Bloc, qui dit que c’est comme un “tout-inclus” pour les immigrants au Québec maintenant, j’avais envie de leur dire de commencer par venir voir c’est quoi, les conditions réelles de ces gens-là, avant de dire n’importe quoi ! C’est pas un “tout-inclus” pantoute ! Ça n’a pas d’allure de dire ça ! »

Sur la Rive-Sud dans la région de Montréal, Mary Claire Macleod dirige L’Entraide chez nous. Aucune demi-coquille de noix de coco, remplie à ras bord de piña colada, ne traîne dans ses locaux. À midi, une poignée de bénévoles et de permanents mangent leurs sandwiches. Ils attendent qu’arrive, sur le coup de 13 h, un lot de nécessiteux, comme on disait autrefois.

L’Entraide chez nous est installé dans le sous-sol d’une église plantée au milieu d’un quartier défavorisé, comme on dit aujourd’hui pour éviter d’être confronté au sens des mots pauvreté et inégalité. L’organisme a été fondé en 1970 par Mme Robidoux. Elle avait accouché de vingt-trois enfants, Mme Robidoux. Vingt-trois. Elle éprouvait la fragilité de son milieu. Un milieu laissé à lui-même, avec pour seule promesse d’avenir son lot de misères. C’était à l’heure où Robert Bourassa, nouveau premier ministre, se gargarisait de projets de béton et d’acier, au nom d’une modernité dont le monde d’en bas était exclu d’emblée. Bourassa est passé. La misère du quartier est restée.

Yvane Fournier et Diane Roberge distribuent du pain, des fruits, des légumes, de la viande congelée. Ça fait trente ans qu’elles travaillent là. « C’est pire que jamais », dit Yvane.

Ces bénévoles gardent leur téléphone portable à portée de main. Ils l’utilisent à tout moment pour traduire, en espagnol, quelques mots de français. « Le plus dur est de voir des hommes à mon bureau se mettre à pleurer. Ce sont eux qui craquent le plus, on dirait. Ils sont à bout », dit Mary Claire Macleod d’un air dépité.

« Les familles de nouveaux arrivants se retrouvent à devoir vivre les unes avec les autres », explique Lydie, une des responsables de l’accueil. Elle me parle de six adultes, forcés de vivre dans un 5 ½, avec une dizaine d’enfants. « Ils n’ont même pas de matelas pour tout le monde. »

Pour obtenir de quoi manger, il faut présenter sa carte. Les habitués de L’Entraide, avant, l’appelaient « la carte pain ». Cela dit bien le degré de précarité dont témoigne ce bout de carton plastifié.

« Avant, on offrait environ mille services de dépannage par an. Là, en moins de six mois, on en a déjà offert plus que ça », expose Mary Claire. Ce n’est pourtant pas la première fois que la situation est difficile. En 2001, après les attentats aux États-Unis, il y avait eu un afflux de demandes, se souvient-elle. En 2008 aussi, avec la crise financière. Et de nouveau en 2010, avec le tremblement de terre en Haïti. En 2017, pour aider les demandeurs d’asile, le Stade olympique avait été réquisitionné. Mais là, le soutien venu d’en haut fait défaut. Les organismes d’aide sont laissés à eux-mêmes. « En plus, la boîte de tomates coupées en dés que je payais 99 ¢ coûte maintenant le double. »

Pour Eva Gracia-Turgeon, coordonnatrice de Foyer du monde, un centre d’hébergement pour familles demandeuses d’asile, le gouvernement de la CAQ réussit un exploit en matière de communication politique. « La CAQ projette l’illusion que cette situation chaotique dépend entièrement du gouvernement fédéral. Beaucoup de gens achètent ça. Pourtant, c’est faux ! En fait, il faut savoir que, depuis la réouverture des frontières après la pandémie, le provincial n’a pas revu les services. Si ça va mal, c’est beaucoup par sa faute. C’est un gros shitshow. »

En principe, les demandeurs d’asile sont pris en charge par les services québécois du PRAIDA, un programme provincial remboursé par Ottawa. Ses assises remontent à 1956. En 2021, le bel édifice historique qu’occupaient les bureaux du PRAIDA, rue Saint-Denis, a été vidé. N’aurait-il pas pu servir encore, en ces temps où tout déborde ?

Durant la pandémie, le nombre de places d’hébergements du PRAIDA a été réduit, en raison de la fermeture temporaire des frontières. Les places n’ont pourtant pas augmenté depuis, même si tout est redevenu comme avant. Des dix sites d’hébergement, il n’en reste plus que deux, soit 1150 places au total. Ce qui est largement insuffisant. Des hôtels, que le fédéral utilisait pour des quarantaines, sont désormais réquisitionnés pour héberger les migrants, dans des conditions qui laissent beaucoup à désirer. On est loin de Playa del Carmen. « C’est le fédéral qui ramasse les pots cassés, parce que l’administration du PRAIDA ne relève pas de lui », explique Eva Gracia-Turgeon.

« Ça arrange Québec de ne pas bouger », dit Eva. « Ça donne l’impression que, par la seule faute d’Ottawa, nous n’avons pas la capacité de nous occuper de ces gens. Ce n’est pas vrai ! Si ça ne fonctionne pas en ce moment, c’est beaucoup parce que le gouvernement du Québec ne fait rien, qu’il laisse les groupes communautaires s’arranger tout seul, qu’il s’en lave les mains, tout en accusant le fédéral. » Personne ne penserait pour autant donner une médaille du mérite au fédéral.

Pendant ce temps, nos bretteurs aux épées de fer-blanc, ceux qui tiennent des propos incendiaires à propos des immigrants, ont trouvé là des cibles commodes et faciles. Hormis un temps d’arrêt pour considérer quelques ballons chinois, toute leur attention est pointée vers ces boucs émissaires, au nom d’une rhétorique identitaire. Au point de détourner l’attention publique de problèmes pourtant importants. C’est à se demander si nos vaillants tigres de papier, obnubilés par ce seul sujet, ne trouveraient pas le moyen de nous gonfler d’autres ballons si les migrants n’existaient pas. D’ailleurs, n’est-ce pas un peu ce qu’ils font déjà, en nous en parlant tout le temps ?

Source: Nadeau: Les ballons de l’immigration

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CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence 2021 election

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Not a good take on the government’s (lack of) response and the naiveté of some:

China employed a sophisticated strategy to disrupt Canada’s democracy in the 2021 federal election campaign as Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing.

The full extent of the Chinese interference operation is laid bare in both secret and top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents viewed by The Globe and Mail that cover the period before and after the September, 2021, election that returned the Liberals to office.

The CSIS reports were shared among senior government officials and Canada’s Five Eyes intelligence allies of the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Some of this intelligence was also shared with French and German spy services.

Over the past decade, China, under President Xi Jinping, has adopted a more aggressive foreign policy as it seeks to expand its political, economic and military influence around the world.

MPs on the Commons Procedure and House Affairs committee are already looking into allegations that China interfered in the 2019 election campaign to support 11 candidates, most of them Liberal, in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Drawn from a series of CSIS intelligence-gathering operations, the documents illustrate how an orchestrated machine was operating in Canada with two primary aims: to ensure that a minority Liberal government was returned in 2021, and that certain Conservative candidates identified by China were defeated.

The documents say the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing was “pressuring its consulates to create strategies to leverage politically [active] Chinese community members and associations within Canadian society.” Beijing uses Canadian organizations to advocate on their behalf “while obfuscating links to the People’s Republic of China.”

The classified reports viewed by The Globe reveal that China’s former consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, boasted in 2021 about how she helped defeat two Conservative MPs.

But despite being seen by China as the best leader for Canada, Beijing also wanted to keep Mr. Trudeau’s power in check – with a second Liberal minority in Parliament as the ideal outcome.

In early July, 2021 – eight weeks before election day – one consular official at an unnamed Chinese diplomatic mission in Canada said Beijing “likes it when the parties in Parliament are fighting with each other, whereas if there is a majority, the party in power can easily implement policies that do not favour the PRC.”

While the Chinese diplomat expressed unhappiness that the Liberals had recently become critical of China, the official added that the party is better than the alternatives. Canada-China relations hit their lowest point since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre after December, 2018, when Beijing locked up two Canadians in apparent retaliation for Ottawa’s arrest of a Chinese Huawei executive on an extradition request from the United States.

Most important, the intelligence reports show that Beijing was determined that the Conservatives did not win. China employed disinformation campaigns and proxies connected to Chinese-Canadian organizations in Vancouver and the GTA, which have large mainland Chinese immigrant communities, to voice opposition to the Conservatives and favour the Trudeau Liberals.

The CSIS documents reveal that Chinese diplomats and their proxies, including some members of the Chinese-language media, were instructed to press home that the Conservative Party was too critical of China and that, if elected, it would follow the lead of former U.S. president Donald Trump and ban Chinese students from certain universities or education programs.

“This will threaten the future of the voters’ children, as it will limit their education opportunities,” the CSIS report quoted the Chinese consulate official as saying. The official added: “The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support.”

CSIS also explained how Chinese diplomats conduct foreign interference operations in support of political candidates and elected officials. Tactics include undeclared cash donations to political campaigns or having business owners hire international Chinese students and “assign them to volunteer in electoral campaigns on a full-time basis.”

Sympathetic donors are also encouraged to provide campaign contributions to candidates favoured by China – donations for which they receive a tax credit from the federal government. Then, the CSIS report from Dec. 20, 2021 says, political campaigns quietly, and illegally, return part of the contribution – “the difference between the original donation and the government’s refund” – back to the donors.

A key part of their interference operation is to influence vulnerable Chinese immigrants in Canada. The intelligence reports quote an unnamed Chinese consulate official as saying it’s “easy to influence Chinese immigrants to agree with the PRC’s stance.”

China wants to build acceptance abroad for its claims on Taiwan, a self-ruled island that it considers a breakaway province and still reserves the right to annex by force. And it seeks to play down its conduct in Xinjiang, where the office of former UN Human Rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet last year said China has committed “serious human-rights violations” in the region, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

Similarly it wants to generate support for a draconian 2020 national-security law to silence opposition and dissent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that Beijing had once promised would be allowed to retain Western-style civil liberties for 50 years.

Beijing also seeks to quell foreign support for Tibet, a region China invaded and annexed more than 70 years ago, and to discourage opposition to Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea and sweeping maritime claims in the region.

A month after the September, 2021, vote, CSIS reported that it was “well-known within the Chinese-Canadian community of British Columbia” that Ms. Tong, then the Vancouver consul-general, “wanted the Liberal Party to win the 2021 election,” one of the reports said.

CSIS noted that Ms. Tong, who returned to China in July, 2022, and former consul Wang Jin made “discreet and subtle efforts” to encourage members of Chinese-Canadian organizations to rally votes for the Liberals and defeat Conservative candidates.

CSIS said Mr. Wang has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), a vast organization that uses mostly covert and often manipulative operations to influence overseas ethnic Chinese communities and foreign governments. CSIS said Mr. Wang served as an intermediary between the UFWD and Chinese-Canadian community leaders in British Columbia.

In early November, 2021, CSIS reported, Ms. Tong discussed the defeat of a Vancouver-area Conservative, whom she described as a “vocal distractor” of the Chinese government. A national-security source said the MP was Kenny Chiu. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who risks prosecution under the Security of Information Act.

The source said Mr. Chiu was targeted in retaliation for his criticism of China’s crackdown in Hong Kong and his 2021 private member’s bill aiming to establish a registry of foreign agents, an effort inspired by similar Australian legislation to combat foreign interference. The United States has a long-standing registry; Canada is still studying the matter.

Mr. Chiu, who was elected to represent Steveston–Richmond East in 2019, lost the 2021 federal election to Liberal candidate Parm Bains and is widely believed to be a victim of a Beijing-led online disinformation campaign.

According to CSIS, Ms. Tong talked about China’s efforts to influence mainland Chinese-Canadian voters against the Conservative Party. She said Mr. Chiu’s loss proved “their strategy and tactics were good, and contributed to achieving their goals while still adhering to the local political customs in a clever way.”

In mid-November, CSIS reported that an unnamed Chinese consular official said the loss of Mr. Chiu and fellow Conservative MP Alice Wong substantiated the growing electoral influence of mainland Chinese-Canadians.

Former federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has alleged that foreign interference by China in the 2021 election campaign, using disinformation, cost the party eight or nine seats. The Liberals won 160 seats compared with 119 for the Conservatives, 32 for the Bloc Québécois and 25 for the NDP, while the Greens picked up two seats.

While the Conservative Party’s overall share of the popular vote increased slightly in the election, the party lost a number of ridings with significant Chinese-Canadian populations. These included the defeat of incumbents such as Mr. Chiu, Richmond Centre MP Ms. Wong and Markham–Unionville’s Bob Saroya.

However, the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force set up by the Trudeau government to monitor threats to federal elections never issued any public warning about foreign interference during the 2019 or 2021 campaigns.

Mr. Trudeau has said it found no meddling, telling the Commons in November of last year that the task force “determined that the integrity of our elections was not compromised in 2019 or 2021.” He also told reporters that “Canadians can be reassured that our election integrity held” in the two elections.

The Globe has reported that the Prime Minister received a national-security briefing last fall in which he was told China’s consulate in Toronto had targeted 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election. CSIS Director David Vigneault told Mr. Trudeau that there was no indication that China’s interference efforts had helped elect any of them, despite the consulate’s attempts to promote the campaigns on social media and in Chinese-language media outlets.

Nine Liberal and two Conservative candidates were favoured by Beijing, according to the national-security source. The source said the two Conservative candidates were viewed as friends of China.

Source: CSIS documents reveal Chinese strategy to influence 2021 election

Filed under foreign policy, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Bouchard: La lutte contre la discrimination II – Pour une politique québécoise

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Always worth reading. Of course, équilibre, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. And interculturalism, like multiculturalism, also has variants ranging from status quo to the more woke and activist:

Il presse pour la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) de mettre en oeuvre une politique énergique de lutte contre la discrimination, une politique alignée sur les grands objectifs à atteindre et qui s’inspire des principes en vigueur, mais les traduit et les applique à notre façon. On devrait viser une approche originale qui s’accorde avec notre tempérament, nos traditions, notre culture, tout en nous affranchissant de la dépendance fédérale et de son moralisme intolérant.

Notre histoire offre plusieurs exemples de formules collectives novatrices que nous avons mises au point, parfois à l’encontre des voies convenues. Pensons à la façon dont, à partir des années 1960, nous avons conjugué l’essor de l’entreprise privée avec l’État partenaire, d’où a résulté une forme originale de capitalisme. Pensons aussi à l’adoption, durant les décennies qui ont suivi, de pratiques économiques néolibérales conjointement avec l’expansion du filet social (seulement pour la fin des années 1990, époque triomphante du néolibéralisme : assurance médicaments, garderies, congés parentaux, logement social). Nous avons également mis au point un modèle de gouvernance qui fait largement appel à la concertation générale sous la forme de sommets. Sur ces trois plans, le Québec a fait bande à part en Amérique.

Parallèlement, le syndicalisme grossissait ses rangs, la taille de l’État se maintenait, le chômage déclinait, l’économie sociale continuait son essor, la pauvreté et les inégalités diminuaient.

On trouve un phénomène similaire dans l’ouverture de la culture québécoise à la mondialisation, une manoeuvre audacieuse pour une culture inquiète de son avenir. Le Québec y a trouvé une voie pour démontrer sa créativité et exporter ses productions culturelles à travers la planète.

L’exemple le plus éloquent, peut-être, réside dans la façon dont nous avons étroitement conjugué un nationalisme fervent avec une philosophie libérale et des politiques progressistes. Peu de nations y sont arrivées. Aux yeux de nombreux Européens, ce genre de mariage est impossible.

Je peux en témoigner. À l’occasion de conférences en Europe, notamment en France, je faisais état de ce que nous avions réalisé. Le public manifestait un profond scepticisme. Dans la plupart des esprits, le nationalisme, c’était les horreurs des deux guerres mondiales : le racisme, la xénophobie, le génocide et la guerre (c’est une formule que le président Mitterrand affectionnait : « le nationalisme, c’est la guerre »). Puisque notre exemple ne convainquait pas, j’évoquais aussi les nationalismes écossais, finlandais, néo-zélandais… Rien à faire.

En matière d’intégration et de relations entre majorité et minorités, l’interculturalisme relève du même esprit : une formule qui bouscule certains tabous, prône la solidarité, les rapprochements et les interactions entre cultures. En se fondant sur une quête d’équilibre, d’équité, de pragmatisme, elle s’applique à raccorder des impératifs concurrents tout en laissant une grande autonomie aux acteurs sociaux. Pourtant, aucun de nos gouvernements n’a voulu jusqu’ici mettre cette formule à l’essai alors qu’entre-temps, le multiculturalisme canadien gagne rapidement du terrain à Montréal (voir La métropole contre la nation ? de David Carpentier, 2022).

La lutte contre la discrimination appelle un effort de même nature : poursuivre en matière d’équité et de protection des droits les mêmes objectifs, les mêmes valeurs, mais en suivant nos voies. Cependant, il faudrait d’abord dégager le terrain de certains obstacles, notamment l’aversion de M. Legault pour la notion de racisme systémique, coupable apparemment de faire passer tous les Québécois pour des racistes, ce qui n’est évidemment pas le cas.

Si l’expression choque au point de freiner le combat contre le racisme, il n’y a qu’à la contourner. Parlons d’une forme spécifique de discrimination qu’on pourrait qualifier de banalisée, au sens que, souvent inconsciente, elle est incrustée dans les mentalités, les stéréotypes, les coutumes, les pratiques courantes, d’où découle une forme d’institutionnalisation de facto.

Rappelons-nous qu’autrefois, le dimanche était un jour de congé réservé au culte. Mais il s’agissait du culte chrétien, sans égard pour les autres. C’était aussi l’époque où les femmes étaient tenues pour faibles, émotives, inaptes à exercer diverses responsabilités. De nombreux Noirs et musulmans sont présentement soumis à un traitement analogue. Et tout récemment, nous avons appris de la bouche de nos gouvernants que les immigrants sont réfractaires à nos valeurs, rejettent le français, refusent de travailler et menacent la cohésion sociale… C’est sur de telles bases que se construit la discrimination banalisée.

Un autre obstacle réside dans une conception radicale du racisme systémique (ou banalisé). Ici, le danger est de provoquer dans la population des effets dissuasifs similaires aux excès du nouveau multiculturalisme. Il ne s’agit nullement de diluer la notion de racisme ou d’édulcorer les politiques destinées à le contrer. Il s’agit simplement de ne pas susciter des résistances pour de mauvaises raisons.

En somme, oui pour les valeurs EDI (équité, diversité, inclusion), bien sûr, et pour les objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU, mais modelés et appliqués à notre manière. Ce serait le bon moment pour une offensive gouvernementale dont la première étape consisterait à inventorier les réflexions et les propositions déjà mises en avant chez nous pour en extraire les prémisses d’un modèle québécois. Un exemple : agir contre la discrimination en aval, certes, mais plus encore en amont, comme l’a suggéré Patrick Moreau dans Le Devoir du 7 février.

C’est une tâche qui demandera un effort collectif, incluant celui des administrations universitaires dont certaines se font très conciliantes avec les diktats du multiculturalisme afin de conserver les subventions fédérales. La mise en garde adressée récemment par la ministre Pascale Déry dans Le Devoir du 17 janvier était donc bienvenue, tout comme l’objectif d’« équilibre » qu’elle préconise.

Source: La lutte contre la discrimination II – Pour une politique québécoise

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Near Roxham Road, RCMP border patrol relies on locals’ help – and tests their patience

2023/02/21 Leave a comment

Interesting account regarding the local residents affected:

While politicians in Ottawa and Quebec City bicker and negotiate over what to do about Roxham Road, locals must put up with frequent RCMP stops while at the same time trying to keep an eye open to help Mounties enforce border rules.

Matthias Kaiser, a farmer who owns land in the area near what is now internationally known as the official unofficial point of entry for asylum seekers in Canada, is used to interacting with law-enforcement agents from both sides of the border.

But with the rise in irregular crossings at Roxham Road and the RCMP operation there, “it’s more severe now,” he said. Mr. Kaiser, members of his family and his employees were all stopped on several occasions by the RCMP last fall.

Once, he was intercepted while driving with his wife on Alberton Road – Mr. Kaiser’s private farm road lined by his soy, alfalfa, and corn fields that runs 2½ kilometres to the east of Roxham Road and is the subject of intense scrutiny by the RCMP. Five police cars came after them.

“Unbelievable. I thought they were going to arrest me … When they asked me what I [was doing] here, I said, ‘Well, I drive on my road, and what are you doing on my road?’ ” Mr. Kaiser recalled.

He allowed the RCMP to patrol Alberton Road under the condition that they “put some gravel down once in a while,” something they have not done yet, he said.

On another occasion last fall, officers stopped his youngest son, driving with a Guatemalan employee. Somebody had to go and get the employee’s paperwork to prove he was not being smuggled.

RCMP officers also stopped other employees during harvest time while they were transporting truckloads of grain, saying they were looking for someone who got out of a car in the area. The interruption disrupted Mr. Kaiser’s operations, and he lost patience with the officers. “I had to apologize” after the heated exchange, the farmer said.

“I’m surprised they’re not here yet,” Mr. Kaiser said of the RCMP when The Globe and Mail met him on the private road Friday morning.

Sure enough, the flashing lights of a police cruiser and two agents appeared near The Globe’s rental vehicle parked on the farm road. Constable Tommy Pepin politely asked for ID and explained they wanted to make sure the vehicle was not abandoned by someone who planned to cross the U.S. border through the fields on foot.

Mr. Kaiser stressed that he has nothing against the officers and wants to maintain a good relationship with the RCMP. Most stops are short, he said, and he understands the importance for federal agents to look for potential smugglers.

But he questions the relevance of such efforts on the Canadian side. “They’re running after us, they’re running after one man but on the other hand, they let thousands come in, which they have no control over,” he reasoned, referring to Roxham Road.

The famous cul-de-sac, at the border between New York State and Quebec’s Montérégie region, has become the primary route for irregular entries into Canada in recent years. The RCMP intercepted 39,171 asylum seekers who did not use official ports of entry to enter Quebec in 2022, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data, compared with just 369 in the rest of the country.

People who cross irregularly elsewhere are often brought to the RCMP’s Roxham Road facility for their application to be processed there, said Sergeant Charles Poirier, a spokesperson for the Mounties.

The long-standing Safe Third Country Agreement requires border agents from the United States and Canada to turn away asylum seekers from the other country if they arrive at official land border crossings. Because of this and given all the media attention it has received, most people coming from the U.S. who want to claim asylum in Canada use Roxham Road to avoid being turned away.

But sometimes, through bad luck, lack of knowledge of the area or for other reasons, people cross elsewhere, Sgt. Poirier said.

The RCMP’s main concern remains the smuggling of items such as firearms and drugs, he said. As the interaction with Constable Pepin showed, Mounties are also on the watch for smugglers and migrants going the opposite direction, into the U.S., sometimes risking their lives trying to cross in isolated areas in difficult weather.

This is likely what happened to Fritznel Richard, a Haitian migrant whose body was found on Mr. Kaiser’s land on Jan. 5. A little less than a year earlier, an Indian family of four died near the borderbetween Manitoba and the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection noticed a drastic uptick in recent months of people trying to enter North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin illegally from Canada. Swanton sector, which includes counties in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, also had “historic highs” of apprehensions and encounters with migrants illegally crossing into the U.S., the U.S. border service said in a news release last week.

Sgt. Poirier worked for years with the local RCMP detachment, whose agents take care of Roxham Road arrivals and patrol a vast territory between Valleyfield and Lake Memphremagog. He said good relationships with locals are paramount to help prevent smuggling and avoid other deaths.

Dominique Martin, the owner of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle’s Coolbreeze camping, said RCMP officers have questioned his clients on occasion. “If you walk on the road with a backpack, they are sure to stop you,” he said. Conversely, Mr. Martin called the Mounties several times when taxis left people near the campground, suspecting they made the hour drive from Montreal to cross irregularly into the U.S.

“It’s often people who call us,” Sgt. Poirier said of the locals. The RCMP monitors numerous surveillance cameras on the border, but “we need their intelligence,” he stressed.

Source: Near Roxham Road, RCMP border patrol relies on locals’ help – and tests their patience

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A surge of temporary residents is boosting demand for homes in supply-starved market 

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

More on immigration and housing:

A record-setting influx of temporary residents is putting additional strain on the Canadian housing market, just as the construction industry is pulling back on new builds.

By the end of 2022 there were roughly 1.95 million people from abroad with temporary work or study permits in the country, an increase of about 560,000 (40 per cent) over the previous year, according to recently published figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The International Mobility Program accounted for slightly more than one million of those permits – a new high, up more than 300,000 in a year. The program covers a broad group of people, including the spouses of skilled workers and company transfers from foreign offices.

There were slightly more than 800,000 study permit holders at the end of last year, also a record high. Another 120,000 people held permits under the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, the most since at least 2000.

Canada is deliberately raising its intake of immigrants, with the goal of admitting 500,000 permanent residents annually by 2025. However, that reflects just a portion of newcomers to the country.

Based on the latest estimates, in the third quarter of 2022 Canada’s population grew at its quickest pace in more than 50 years, mostly because of the increase in temporary residents. Their ranks grew by more than 225,000 during the three-month period, well above the previous record. Many of them aspire to stay in Canada permanently.

Experts say the country is increasingly moving to a two-step immigration process, in which people come for an education or work experience, then apply for permanent resident status.

In recent months, the federal government has been criticized for its immigration policies, particularly when the country is struggling to build enough homes and deliver basic medical services.

It has become “an unplanned, unmanaged, improvised immigration system,” said Anne Michèle Meggs, a former director of planning and accountability at Quebec’s Immigration Ministry. “Who is this helping?”

To some degree, special circumstances have contributed to the population surge. Canada has been admitting thousands of people fleeing Ukraine since the Russian invasion, and there has been a forceful rebound in the number of international students, many of whom delayed their studies here during the acute phases of the pandemic.

Still, the spike in temporary residents over the past year was “driven” by people with work permits, Statistics Canada said in its latest population report.

The federal government is courting more foreign workers, broadening access to low-wage workers through the TFW program and allowing foreign students to work longer hours – moves that it says are aimed at easing labour shortages.

Several economists have criticized Ottawa for flooding the market with cheap labour and suppressing wages.

Meanwhile, colleges and universities have dramatically increased the enrolment of foreign students, who pay significantly more in tuition than their domestic peers. There are no limits on this form of migration.

Many newcomers are discovering that homes in Canada are both pricey and in short supply.

A report by Desjardins Securities published this week said residential home construction would need to immediately increase by 50 per cent through the end of 2024 in order to support higher immigration targets and keep prices from climbing further.

It does not appear that will happen. Facing steep costs and higher interest rates, some developers are cancelling or delaying projects. Earlier this week, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that housing starts fell 13 per cent in January from December, to an annualized pace of about 215,000 units.

In parts of Ontario with a population of 10,000 and higher, housing starts fell 31 per cent to an annual rate of roughly 71,500 units. That is well below the provincial government’s target of building 150,000 units a year for the next decade to alleviate the housing crisis.

“It certainly makes sense that building activity would be cooling amid a steep drop in sales and prices,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said in a note to clients, referencing the recent slump in real estate activity amid higher borrowing costs.“Notwithstanding the broad and wide calls for the need for massive increases in new home construction in Canada, the reality is that starts are dictated by the market, and not by pundits.”

Source: A surge of temporary residents is boosting demand for homes in supply-starved market

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Yakabuski: Déplacer le problème

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Good analysis of the issues and the problem for the government, particularly should the Supreme Court rule against the STCA. Potential for a comparable impact to the 1985 Singh decision which required the government to provide due process to anyone who arrived on Canadian soil:

La ministre de l’Immigration du Québec, Christine Fréchette, s’est dite heureuse d’apprendre que les autorités fédérales avaient transféré vers l’Ontario la presque totalité des quelque 500 demandeurs d’asile arrivés par le chemin Roxham en fin de semaine dernière. Selon Mme Fréchette, voilà bien la preuve que le gouvernement du Québec « peut avoir des résultats » en exprimant sans cesse son mécontentement face à l’inaction d’Ottawa devant le flux grandissant de migrants irréguliers qui passent par le chemin Roxham depuis sa réouverture, en novembre 2021.

La ministre Fréchette a imploré le gouvernement fédéral de continuer d’envoyer ailleurs au Canada plus des trois quarts des demandeurs d’asile qui traversent ce poste frontalier non officiel pour ne laisser au Québec qu’une proportion de migrants équivalente à son poids démographique au sein de la fédération canadienne. « On espère que ça va se maintenir dans le temps, et que ça va être la nouvelle approche de gestion de la frontière », a-t-elle ajouté.

Toutefois, le bonheur des uns fait parfois le malheur des autres. Dans la région de Niagara, dans le sud de l’Ontario, l’arrivée des migrants en provenance du chemin Roxham suscite de vives inquiétudes chez les autorités municipales et les organismes de bienfaisance. Cette région est dotée d’un plus grand nombre de chambres d’hôtel que la moyenne en raison de sa vocation touristique, active surtout en été. Alors, il n’est pas surprenant qu’Ottawa l’ait choisie comme destination pour les migrants que le Québec dit ne plus avoir la capacité d’accueillir.

Or, alors que le gouvernement s’apprêterait à louer environ 2000 chambres d’hôtel afin d’y loger temporairement les migrants dans le sud de l’Ontario, certains intervenants expriment des réserves sur la nouvelle stratégie d’Ottawa. « Sans préavis, sans préparation, cela nous met dans une position très difficile, a affirmé cette semaine le maire de Niagara Falls, Jim Diodati, dans une entrevue au St. Catharines Standard. Comment pouvons-nous gérer une situation comme celle-ci quand nous avons déjà une crise du logement et une crise d’accessibilité au logement ? Cela va absolument exacerber un problème déjà existant. » À quelques semaines du début de la saison touristique printanière, il a dit prévoir « un gros problème » à l’horizon.

En agissant de la sorte dans ce dossier, le gouvernement du premier ministre Justin Trudeau démontre de nouveau ses piètres capacités en matière de gestion de crise. Il est pris entre sa base progressiste, qui souhaiterait ouvrir les frontières canadiennes à tous ceux « qui fuient la persécution, la terreur et la guerre » — comme M. Trudeau avait lui-même promis de le faire en 2017 dans un gazouillis dorénavant entré dans l’histoire —, et les contradictions de ses propres politiques d’immigration.

Les véritables réfugiés se voient damer le pion par des passeurs qui exploitent la vulnérabilité des migrants fuyant des conditions de vie difficiles en Amérique latine ou en Afrique pour leur retirer le peu d’argent dont ils disposent. On a beau vouloir être généreux envers ces personnes, l’intégrité de notre système d’immigration en prend pour son rhume et le Canada consolide sa réputation de passoire dont profite quiconque veut s’en prévaloir.

Ottawa se trouve dépourvu d’arguments face à un gouvernement américain qui n’a aucun intérêt à accéder à sa demande de « moderniser » l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs (ETPS). Les quelque 40 000 demandeurs d’asile qui sont arrivés au Canada par le chemin Roxham en 2022 ne constituent qu’une goutte d’eau dans l’océan migratoire américain. Même des politiciens démocrates comme le maire de New York, Eric Adams, ne voient pas pourquoi ils devraient se priver d’utiliser cette « faille » dans l’ETPS pour pallier quelque peu leur propre crise migratoire. Avouons-le, leur crise est infiniment plus sérieuse que la nôtre.

Alors, quoi faire ? Le transfert des demandeurs d’asile du chemin Roxham vers les autres provinces permet peut-être au gouvernement fédéral de réduire la pression sur le Québec, mais il risque de créer des tensions ailleurs au pays. Il est aussi possible que les passeurs voient dans la démarche fédérale un geste qui facilite leur travail. La capacité d’accueil du Québec atteint peut-être ses limites, mais le transfert par Ottawa des demandeurs d’asile vers l’Ontario crée plus de possibilités pour les profiteurs du système.

Espérons que le gouvernement Trudeau se dotera d’un plan B au cas où la Cour suprême invaliderait l’Entente sur les tiers pays sûrs. En 2020, la Cour fédérale avait trouvé que cette entente violait le droit à la vie, à la liberté et à la sécurité de la personne garanti par la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés. La Cour d’appel fédérale avait par la suite infirmé cette décision.

Toutefois, la notion selon laquelle les États-Unis ne constituent pas un pays « sûr » pour les demandeurs d’asile jouit de l’appui de beaucoup d’adeptes au Canada. En cas d’invalidation de l’ETPS, le Canada devrait accueillir tous les demandeurs d’asile qui arrivent en provenance des États-Unis, même ceux qui passent par un poste frontalier officiel. Cela créerait un méchant dilemme pour M. Trudeau, au point de peut-être même le forcer à répudier le fameux gazouillis dont il semble encore si fier.

Source: Déplacer le problème

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COVID-19 Immigration Effects – December 2022 update

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Full-year data for 2022 across the suite of immigration programs.

The government continues to make progress on backlogs although the percentage failing to meet service standards has largely not improved: temporary residence 45 percent, permanent residence 48 percent and citizenship 28 percent. The backlog of visitor visas, highlighted in recent media articles, remains high at 70 percent (Dec 31 data).

All programs show a seasonal decrease in December except where noted.

PRs: 435,000 in 2022 compared to 404,000 in 2021. Drop in TR2PR transitions, from 279,000 in 2021 to 177,000 in 2022. Quebec 69,000 in 2022, compared to 50,000 in 2021 (despite public debates).

TRs/IMP: 494,000 in 2022 compared to 326,000 in 2021.

TRs/TFWP: 137,000 in 2022 compared to 106,000 in 2021.

Students: December end-of-year increase. 576,000 in 2022 compared to 469,000 in 2021.

Asylum claimants: Increased in December compared to November. 92,000 in 2022 compared to 25,000 in 2021. I have added a slide on “irregular arrivals” and their percentage of total asylum claimants.

Settlement Services (July): Decrease compared to June. YTD 1,031,000, 2021 same period 918,000.

Citizenship: 369,000 in 2022 compared to 137,000 in 2021.

Visitor Visas. Stable compared to November. 1,238,000 in 2022 compared to 236,000 in 2021.

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with ,

Japan to grant residency to high-earning professionals after 1 year

2023/02/20 Leave a comment

Shift of note, even if limited:

The Japanese government decided Friday to update immigration rules in hopes of luring world-class talent, including through slashing the wait for high-earning professionals to obtain permanent residency.

Japan currently grants visas to highly skilled professionals under a point-based system, accounting for factors like academic history, work experience and research achievements. Those in this category can obtain permanent residency after up to three years instead of the typical 10.

The update, which the government hopes to implement in April, shortens the period to one year for researchers and engineers who make at least 20 million yen ($149,000) annually and have either a graduate degree or at least 10 years of work experience.

Source: Japan to grant residency to high-earning professionals after 1 year

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