The View From Here

2021-06-30

Reflections on "Cancel Canada Day"

By Fareed Khan

There have been growing calls by many Canadians to "Cancel Canada Day" since the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children in an unmarked mass grave at a former residential school site in Kamloops, BC. Since May the remains of 1143 Indigenous children in total have been found in unmarked burial sites at former residential schools in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with the largest number (715) being found at the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

In light of these horrible discoveries the “Cancel Canada Day” hashtag has been trending, to the dismay of many Canadians who see this as an effort to tear down Canada and eliminate the July 1st holiday. But this could not be further from the truth.

The vast majority of Canadians take for granted the advantages and opportunities that living in Canada offers us. However, this has not been the case for Indigenous people since long before Confederation. From the arrival of white Europeans in the land that became Canada into the 21st Century, colonial and Canadian governments put into effect policies meant to exterminate First Peoples in order to remove them from their traditional lands that were coveted by colonial and Canadian political leaders. In effect they were genocidal policies.

This history of Indigenous genocide and the recent discovery of the Indigenous children’s remains are at the crux of calls to cancel celebrations for Canada Day 2021, and mark it differently in the future. In other words, it is about doing things differently for July 1st, rather than eliminating Canada Day.

In the years following World War 2 the issue of genocide was so urgent that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention as its first treaty (a treaty which Canadian diplomats helped draft). Under Article 2 of the Convention, it states: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The inconvenient and ugly truth is that all the crimes outlined in the Genocide Convention were committed on Canadian soil against Indigenous people. In light of this why would they want to be reminded annually with a national celebration about this genocide, as well as about stolen land, abducted children who were sexually abused, tortured and killed, and the fact that they live in a country that still does not accord them full human rights.

The discovery of the Indigenous children’s burial sites and unmarked graves has also woken something across the country in non-Indigenous people. Anyone with an ounce of compassion feels the pain that Indigenous people are feeling, and they are thinking about what they can do to stand in solidarity them. It is from this that the call to “Cancel Canada Day” has sprouted and gained momentum.

Marking Canada Day from this year forward cannot be as before. It can no longer be about cheering the creation of Canada with parties and festive fireworks. Because the reality is that this nation was founded on white supremacy and genocidal policies that attempted to wipe out Indigenous people in this land.

Non-Indigenous settler Canadians can no longer ignore the very ugly truth about how this country was created and how it got to where it is today. All of us have to acknowledge this very ugly reality, pressure politicians to officially recognize that genocide was committed against Indigenous people, and make sure that future Canada Day events are done differently. We have to concede that we live as we do in this prosperous land because Indigenous people paid a deadly and horrific price at the hands of people who saw them as less than human.

Moving forward our relationship with Indigenous people must take into account the truth of Canada’s very dirty past, and make "reconciliation" mean something more than political platitudes uttered by the white privileged men and women who govern this country. It is the right thing to do.

It is the just thing to do. It is the human thing to do.

2021-03-16

On prosecuting genocide, will Canada fail the Uyghurs as it has failed the Rohingya since 2017?

By Fareed Khan

On February 22nd Canadian Members of Parliament voted 266 to zero in favour of a motion to designate the crimes being committed by the Chinese government against its Uyghur Muslim minority as genocide. Unfortunately, 72 MPs (mostly Liberal), including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his entire cabinet, chose to abstain from voting on the motion.

On March 8th the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington D.C. and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights issued a comprehensive report which examined the Uyghur genocide and China’s breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The report supports a finding that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of each and every action which defines genocide under the Convention.

The report was authored by 24 prominent and respected human rights and genocide scholars. Included among them were former Canadian cabinet ministers Lloyd Axworthy and Irwin Cotler, former Canadian ambassadors to the United Nations Yves Fortier and Alan Rock.

Despite the release of this report and its findings the prime minister and his cabinet have made no public statements about the Canadian government taking action on the Uyghur genocide motion in light of the damning evidence presented in the report about China’s multiple genocidal crimes.

Under the Genocide Convention any one of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group is classified as genocide:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The last time Parliament voted on a genocide motion was in September 2018 when both the House of Commons and the Senate decided in two unanimously supported motions that the atrocities committed by Myanmar against its Rohingya minority was genocide under the Genocide Convention. The motions came a year after atrocities against the Rohingya were instigated by Myanmar, and the House of Commons motion was supported by the prime minister and his cabinet.

However, if the Trudeau government’s lack of subsequent action in response to those two motions is an indication of the government’s efforts at follow through, then Canada will very likely fail to live up to its international legal obligations in response to Parliament’s Uyghur genocide declaration.

Since the two 2018 motions MPs and Senators, along with Canadian human rights organizations, have called on the Canadian government to file a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on multiple occasions. These calls for action were repeatedly ignored.

When the West African nation of Gambia filed a genocide case against Myanmar at the ICJ in November 2019, there were calls by Parliamentarians and human rights activists for Canada to join the case. But those calls were also ignored by the Trudeau government.

Overwhelming evidence in the form of media reports, satellite photos, and eyewitness testimonies has shown that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs. This evidence justifies Parliament’s declaration, and it puts to shame the decision by the prime minister’s and cabinet to abstain.

Some of the crimes that China is alleged to have committed include:

● imprisoning more than a million Uyghurs in concentration camps;

● abducting Uyghur children from their parents and putting them in state run indoctrination camps to strip them of their faith, language and culture;

● forcibly sterilizing Uyghur women, and forced abortions of pregnant Uyghur women;

● the systematic rape of Uyghur women by concentration camp personnel;

● the use of Uyghur slave labour to produce goods for export;

● summary executions of Uyghur prisoners in order to harvest their organs;

● the destruction of thousands of mosques, including some dating back many centuries; and

● the bulldozing of hundreds of Muslim cemeteries.

On January 27th – International Holocaust Remembrance Day – Justin Trudeau put out a statement about preventing the sorts of crimes that resulted in the death of 17 million people in Nazi concentration camps. He intoned the mantra "never again" as he has done every year on that date since becoming Prime Minister.

However, "never again" is a meaningless slogan when uttered by the prime minister if he and his government fail to recognize the Uyghur genocide, and fail to take action to prevent further genocidal crimes. The decision to abstain on the vote by Trudeau and his ministers insults the memory of Nazi genocide victims, and repeats Canada’s failure to act on Canada’s last genocide motion relating to Rohingya Muslims.

If the Trudeau government is not willing to recognize the worst crime imaginable under human law, when overwhelming evidence shows it is occurring, then Canadians need to question the government’s moral commitment to defending human rights, and Trudeau’s often repeated claims that his government is a defender of the international rule of law.

If there was ever a case where the term genocide needed to be applied and action taken to prevent further genocidal crimes, it is in the case of the Uyghurs. One can only hope that Canadians see the need to take action and pressure the Trudeau government to act so that Canada doesn’t fail the Uyghurs as it has failed the Rohingya.

2021-02-24

DIVERSITY DIALOGUE / DIALOGUE DE LA DIVERSITÉ – Tom Woodley, President / Président, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East / Canadiens pour la justice et la paix au Moyen-Orient

By Fareed Khan

Diversity Dialogue is a conversation series with prominent people who work in the area of human rights and anti-racism. It is hosted by Fareed Khan.

For this edition we are speaking with with Tom Woodley, president of the Montreal based NGO Canadiansfor Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME).

Tom has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and a master’s degree in the same field from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He also has a Master’s in Public Administration from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Tom has considerable experience in the public sector having worked for the federal government for a number of years. In addition, he has a long history working in the NGO and volunteer sector, having volunteered for several international NGO’s in Africa and the Middle East. Tom has been involved with CJPME since its founding in 2004.

The topics covered in this conversation include: the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians; Canada's approach to addressing justice for Palestinians; efforts by Israel's allies to pressure western governments to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which includes defining as anti-Semitism any legitimate political criticism of the government of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians; racism and Islamophobia in Canada and Quebec; and Canadian society and culture in terms of racism, human rights, equality of citizenship, and the place of minority communities in the country.

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Dialogue de la Diversité est une série de conversations avec des personnalités qui travaillent dans le domaine des droits de la personne et de la lutte contre le racisme animée par Fareed Khan.

Pour cette édition, nous discutons avec Tom Woodley, président de l'ONG montréalaise Canadiens pour la justice et la paix au Moyen-Orient (CJPMO).

Tom est titulaire d'un baccalauréat en génie électrique de l'Université Carnegie-Mellon et d'une maîtrise dans le même domaine du Stevens Institute of Technology du New Jersey. Il est également titulaire d’une maîtrise en administration publique de l’École des affaires publiques et environnementales de l’Université de l’Indiana. Tom possède une expérience considérable dans le secteur public, ayant travaillé pour le gouvernement fédéral pendant plusieurs années. En outre, il travaille depuis longtemps dans le secteur des ONG et du volontariat, ayant fait du bénévolat pour plusieurs ONG internationales en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient. Tom est impliqué dans CJPME depuis sa fondation en 2004.

Les sujets abordés dans cette conversation incluent: l'occupation et l'oppression Israéliennes des Palestiniens; l'approche du Canada en matière de justice pour les Palestiniens; les efforts des alliés d'Israël pour faire pression sur les gouvernements occidentaux pour qu'ils adoptent la définition de l'antisémitisme de International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), qui comprend la définition d'antisémitisme toute critique politique légitime du gouvernement d'Israël et de son traitement des Palestiniens; le racisme et l'islamophobie au Canada et au Québec; et la société et la culture canadiennes en termes de racisme, de droits de la personne, d'égalité de citoyenneté et de place des communautés minoritaires dans le pays.

2021-01-30

Canadian political leaders paying lip service to fighting hate, as Canadian Muslims mark fourth anniversary of mosque shooting

By Fareed Khan

Yesterday Canadian Muslims marked a sombre anniversary. On January 29, 2017 a man radicalized to believe in the ideology of Islamophobia and white supremacy, fuelled by the toxic racism and bigotry coming from online sources, walked into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City and went on a shooting spree targeting Muslims who were worshipping. By the time it was over six men were dead and 19 were injured, some critically.

During the subsequent weeks anti-Muslim demonstrations and Islamophobic acts occurred across the country. On social media bigots and racists vented their hate towards Muslims, rejoicing in the trauma of the Canadian Muslim community.

Canadian politicians were quick to condemn the massacre, as they have done on other occasions when violent incidents of hate have occurred. But if actions are any indication then they are paying lip service to fighting hate in any meaningful way, and Muslims and other racialized communities that are paying the price.

Canadians gather in Montreal on January 30, 2017 to support the Muslim

community as it mourns the victims of the Quebec City mosque shooting.

Since the shooting, politicians have demonstrated their lack of conviction when it comes to decisively tackling hate, racism and bigotry. One of those occasions occurred following the Quebec City shooting when a Parliamentary debate on a motion to fight Islamophobia (M-103) elicited Islamophobic reactions from Conservative Party MPs, even though days earlier they had been standing with Canadian Muslims in vigils to remember the victims of the shooting.

Muslim organizations and anti-racism groups have repeatedly called on the federal government over the last four years to take an aggressive national leadership role in fighting Islamophobia and other forms of hate. But the government’s actions have been inadequate. When there has been occasional progress, like funding for anti-racism programs announced in the 2019 federal budget, the responsibility to lead a national anti-racism effort has been left to small community organizations without the experience or resources to take on the role.

In 2017, after winning the Conservative Party leadership, Andrew Scheer claimed that the Conservatives were a “big tent” party. But he then proceeded to appoint as a senior advisor (and later as Conservative Party election campaign manager) the co-founder and former director of Rebel Media, a website with a well-documented history of promoting Islamophobia.

Scheer became the focus of criticism again in June 2019 when he failed to live up to his words that bigots and racists were not welcome in the Conservative Party. On the day that Scheer was delivering a speech with an anti-racism message, Conservative MP Michael Cooper attacked the presentation of a Muslim witness at a Justice Committee hearing by quoting from the white supremacist manifesto of the New Zealand mosque shooter. This was considered so racially insensitive and egregious by other committee members that his statement was stricken from the record. For this act Cooper received nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Federal leaders again demonstrated a lack of conviction to opposing racism during the 2019 federal election. When they were asked if they would take action to oppose Quebec’s Bill 21 “secularism” law if they formed government – a law deemed to be racist and unconstitutional by lawyers and human rights experts – Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh said they would not act while the law was being challenged in Quebec courts, despite the fact that the process could take years and affect thousands of Quebecers before it reached the Supreme Court.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a US police officer and the resulting anti-racism demonstrations that erupted across North America, some federal and provincial politicians denied the existence of systemic racism, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In addition, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois recently was roundly condemned for committing an anti-Muslim and racist smear against MP Omar Alghabra (a Syrian-Canadian Muslim) following his appointment as Transport Minister.

In the province of Quebec, Premier Francois Legault says Islamophobia is not a problem in the province. He made this comment in response to a request by provincial and national Muslim groups to declare January 29th a day of remembrance for the victims of the Quebec City shooting, and a day of action against Islamophobia. According to Legault, since it isn’t a problem in Quebec there is no need to designate a special day to high light the issue.

The Quebec government’s attitude towards racism in general is also less than enlightened. Quebec Immigration Minister Nadine Girault refused to attend a ministerial meeting on human rights because the issue of systemic racism was on the agenda, a problem which Legault has refused to acknowledge exists in Quebec.

In addition, recently Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet was roundly criticized by the prime minister and other federal party leaders for what’s been referred to as a drive by Islamophobic and racist smear targeting Canada’s newly appointed Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, who is a Muslim of Arab background. Apparently Blanche took issue with the fact that Alghabra had been the president of the Canadian Arab Federation (a secular advocacy organization) before he became an MP.

There have been ample opportunities for federal and provincial leaders to shelve political platitudes about hate and racism in favour of meaningful and decisive actions in the years since the Quebec City mosque massacre. Despite widespread media reporting and social media coverage of hate motivated incidents against Muslims, Black people, Indigenous Canadians, and others, politicians seem apathetic to the need for immediate and decisive action to tackle the rise of hate in Canada. Moreover, when politicians make statements that deny the existence of Islamophobia, systemic racism or other forms of hate, or worse end up behaving in a way that is deemed to be racist or bigoted, they give fuel to hateful elements in society.

To quote 18th century statesman Edmund Burke, all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing. Hate is growing in our society, and its perpetrators have been emboldened over the last several years. Doing nothing fight this evil is not an option if Canadians want to erase hate bigotry and racism from our society and have the inclusive and accepting society we all desire. Therefore, it is up all political leaders to help make that a reality, and the time to do that is now. For Canada’s racialized and minority communities words are cheap and they are no longer enough. Action speaks louder!

2020-12-31

DIVERSITY DIALOGUE – Interview with Valerie Peay, Founder and Director of the International Observatory of Human Rights

By Fareed Khan

Diversity Dialogue / Dialogue de la Diversité is a conversation series with prominent people who work in the area of human rights and anti-racism. It is hosted by Fareed Khan.

For this edition we are speaking with Valerie Peay, Founder and Director of the International Observatory of Human Rights – a media NGO located in London in the United Kingdom, which focuses on human rights issues.

Valerie attended the University of Glasgow where she graduated with an MA in English, Film and Television.

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Diversity Dialogue / Dialogue de la Diversité est une série de conversations avec des personnalités qui travaillent dans le domaine des droits de la personne et de la lutte contre le racisme animée par Fareed Khan.

Pour cette édition, nous nous entretenons avec Valerie Peay, fondatrice et directrice de International Observatory of Human Rights – une ONG médiatique située à Londres au Royaume-Uni, qui se concentre sur les questions des droits de l'homme.

Valerie a fréquenté l'Université de Glasgow où elle a obtenu une maîtrise en anglais, cinéma et télévision.

https://youtu.be/Y4elV_DFKPk