Hypocrisy of opposition leaders on Justin Trudeau’s “brownface” and “blackface” photos needs to be called out, media need to have a real debate about racism and hate during election campaign

By Fareed Khan

 
It has been a week since the uproar in the media about the Justin Trudeau “brownface” and “blackface” photos. However, at the height of the media frenzy attention was mostly focused on his "apology tour" and ignored the hypocrisy of some of the opposition party leaders in the present to racism within their own parties, and the larger issues surrounding hate, racism and white supremacy in Canada.

The discussion surrounding racism triggered by the Trudeau photos now needs to go beyond what the prime minister did a generation ago, and look at all the political parties, their leaders, and what are their policy responses to racism, bigotry and hate in Canada today.

The media can help with this by pushing the party leaders to present their policy ideas for how they will respond decisively to the growing tide of hate and white supremacy in Canada – ideologies that resulted in the murder 6 Muslim men and the wounding of 17 others by a white supremacist shooter in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.

Despite his righteous indignation about the Trudeau photos, Andrew Scheer has no credibility on issues of racism to most minority communities and people of colour, and should not to the majority of Canadians. 

In case people have forgotten, Scheer appointed as his campaign chair Hamish Marshall, a man who was the co-founder of the white supremacist friendly website Rebel Media, and was involved in organizing an anti-Muslim hate group when the M-103 Islamophobia motion was being debated in 2017.  At that time Scheer was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party and did not hesitate to employ Islamophobic narratives in his campaign.  Neither Marshall nor Sheer have ever been held accountable by the media or in the court of public opinion for their outright bigotry.

Scheer's hypocrisy around the Trudeau photos is even more egregious when one recalls that in a June speech he said bigots, extremists and racists aren’t welcome in his party.  This happened the same day that Conservative MP Michael Cooper launched a racist tirade against a Muslim witness at a Justice Committee hearing, by reading into the record portions of the white supremacy laced manifesto of the Christchurch mosque shooter, where 51 people were murdered.  Despite this, Sheer only gave Cooper a slap on the wrist and allowed him to remain as a Conservative MP.

Elizabeth May also needs to clean her own house, and explain her hypocrisy about a brownface incident with one of her candidates.  She has accepted as a Green Party candidate comedic actor Greg Malone, who admitted in an interview with CBC that he has indulged in brownface for some of his performances.  In spite of this history, and contrary to her reaction about the Trudeau photos, May said she is “proud” to have Malone as a Green Party candidate.

May also needs to answer for the nomination of Green candidates in Quebec who may support the provincial government's racist Bill 21 “secularism” law.

This issue was raised during a Muslim community town hall event with May in Toronto on September 6th.  When asked whether she would tell Quebec Green Party candidates to oppose the law her response was that she "does not dictate what issues candidates support or how they have to vote on issues."  Mustafa Farooq, Executive Director of National Council of Canadian Muslims, believes it is “unacceptable” for any political party to have candidates who support the Quebec law, which legal experts say is legalized bigotry against racialized religious minorities. 

Maxime Bernier, leader of the new People’s Party of Canada, is the most transparent when it comes to issues around racism, diversity, and immigration. He seems comfortable wearing his racism and prejudice like a comfortable sweater. At least Canadians know where he stands on these issues unlike Scheer and May, whose reactions to the Trudeau photos would have you believe that there is no racism in their parties.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is the only party leader that comes away from this unsullied. As the first person of colour to lead a national political party in Canada he is the only one who knows intimately what it feels like to be a victim of racism.

Canadian media executives have the power to change the channel from the Trudeau photos, and have a real debate around issues of hate, bigotry and racism in Canada. Only then can Canadians hold each of the party leaders accountable for their actions and policies on matters that have the potential to create social instability and rip apart the fabric of society.

As we get closer to election day, to ignore the broader issues surrounding racism and hate that affects so many would be irresponsible, given the potential of these ideologies to encourage additional violence against communities already feeling fearful and unsafe in the current climate where racism and white supremacy are on the rise. 

© 2019 The View From Here.  © 2019 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.

By refusing to use the “fascist” label for Donald Trump and Boris Johnson British and American media are failing democracy in their respective nations

By Fareed Khan

When Adolf Hitler decided to enter Germany’s political arena he was a figure on the fringe of society with lunatic delusions of his place in history.  In the early stages of his political career, no respectable German who had any dealings with him (or his followers) took him seriously.

  

However, within a few short years Hitler and his followers had succeeded in dismantling the government and political institutions that stood in the way of his total reconstruction of the German state – an independent judiciary, the checks and balances of Germany's political structure, the intellectual class, progressive social and political forces, etc.  He took the control and security institutions of a democratic society and transformed them to serve his political agenda, and then merged them into a totalitarian entity that would go on to commit mass-murder on an unimaginable scale, and plunge the world into a war that would result in the death of tens of millions.

In the United States Donald Trump, before his entry into the political arena, was a gaudy and bombastic businessman, with multiple bankruptcies under his belt, a reputation as a womanizer, the front man for an inane reality TV show, and no real world political experience.  When he decided to seek the Republican Party's nomination for president few though he would be successful.  But his entry into the US presidential race shattered America’s political culture as he defeated his Republican rivals for the nomination and eventually went on to become president.  Since winning the presidency, he has proceeded to tear down the institutions, and the checks and balances, that hinder his personal and political ambitions, and in the process unleashed a political ugliness that threatens the democratic foundations of the US.

In the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, a former newspaper reporter fired by The Times for forging quotes in a story he filed, was for a long time derided as a buffoon.  Critics and various journalists labeled him a “clown”, a “racist and bigot”, a “jester”, a “self-absorbed sociopath”, and a “serial liar.”  The public disrepute was so widespread that his own father, a former EU employee, went on a BBC show 10 years ago to defend him and claim, "my son is not a buffoon".  However, like Trump he went from one political success to another, eventually becoming prime minister of the UK.

Neither Trump nor Johnson ever cared about facts, principles, ideals or morals, because they got in the way of what these men wanted to achieve.  However, in their politics, they demonstrated the worst elements of modern fascist ideology.  Some of these included: 
*  protection and enhancement of the power and wealth of corporate / financial elites;
*  support for ethnic supremacy, nativism and ethno-nationalism;

*  disdain for civil liberties and human rights;
*  identifying "enemies" as a unifying cause;
*  contempt for fact-based policy and decision-making; and
*  tolerance of widespread racism, bigotry and misogyny.

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*  The American version of fascism is alive and prospering

Trump defeated Hillary Clinton – a seasoned (but widely disliked) opponent with a big war chest – and her Democratic Party's internally rigged election machine.  He then went on to reshape the right-wing Republican Party in his image, and stacked his cabinet with individuals bent on dismantling those laws and state institutions that stood in the way of them lining their own pockets, and protecting the interests of the public.

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   of the Reichstag in Nazi Germany?

Johnson ousted from the mayorship of London, Ken Livingston – a seasoned and decent mayor and Labour politician.  To gain the leadership of the UK Conservative Party he knifed Prime Minister Teresa May in the back and then gave it a twist to secure the keys to 10 Downing Street.  Since taking power he has proceeded to use every legal executive power vested in the PM's office to hobble the Parliament that - at least in theory - represents "the will of the people".  Furthermore, Johnson appointed to his cabinet unscrupulous individuals who wear their elitism and depravity on their sleeves, and wage war against decency, religious "others" (particularly Muslims), ethnic non-Whites, immigrants and asylum seekers.

Scotland’s highest civil court in a unanimous decision ruled that Johnson acted "unlawfully" by misleading Queen Elizabeth to gain her assent in shutting down the UK Parliament to prevent Brexit opponents from attacking him in the House of Commons in the run up to the Brexit deadline.

Despite all of this, despite the mountains of evidence available, despite the destructive path they have put their nations on, despite the lessons of history from Nazi Germany, gullible voters have made these sociopaths leaders of their respective nations, and Western mass media have yet to label either of them as the fascists they are.

Regrettably for the masses, by the time corporate media and the journalists they employ wake up to the reality in front of them and recognize that both of these men are fascist in their politics, the new "gestapos" in US and UK will be knocking on the doors of their news outlets and paying midnight visits to journalists’ homes, preventing them from publishing their "Adolf Trump" or "Adolf Johnson" features!

What follows will be a repeat of history that will destroy lives and societies, a history that could be avoided if the "guardians of democracy" in the media only open their eyes to the truth before them and warn their publics of the dystopia towards which these two men are leading their nations.

With thanks to Prof. Maung Zarni for the foundation of this commentary.

© 2019 The View From Here.  © 2019 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.