Doug Ford’s ignorance about how racism spreads on display in his comment about immigrants

By Fareed Khan 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s response to criticism about a comment he made relating to immigrants, at a media conference in Windsor on October 20th, demonstrated ignorance about how racism is perpetuated that is shocking in a political leader.  In non-scripted remarks about a shortage of workers in Ontario Ford put his foot in his mouth when he called for more immigrants to come to the province, but not “If you think you’re coming to collect the dole and sit around.”

His comment not only created a furor in the Ontario Legislature, it also elicited strong reactions from pro-immigrant and anti-racism organizations which consider Ford’s comment to be objectionable and racist, despite Ford’s claims to the contrary.  What he said has been widely condemned for denigrating immigrants and fuelling anti-immigrant and racist narratives.  Despite widespread calls for Ford to apologize he has refused to do so, indicating an unwillingness to undo the harm his words have done.

The trope about immigrants coming to Canada so that they can collect social assistance rather than work and pay taxes like other Canadians is a very old one.  Over the decades this toxic myth has often been used by those opposed to the increasing diversity of Canada’s population, and by some right wing politicians.

Ford’s failure to see the potential danger to immigrants and people of colour of repeating a well-known anti-immigrant and racist trope is itself dangerous.  At a time when there has been a significant rise in racist attacks and hate crimes for the Premier of Ontario to make such a comment gives ammunition to anti-immigrant and white supremacist groups.  In addition, Ford’s decision to double down by refusing to apologize pours gasoline on this fire and emboldens those who believe that immigrants are a drain on Canadian society.

Canada would not exist as it is today if not for immigrants choosing to pursue their dreams of a better life in this country.  Over the last 50 years Canada’s population has grown from 21.5 million to an estimated 38.2 million today due primarily to immigration.  These people have not only benefitted Canada through their skills and ambitions, but also by taking on jobs that many other Canadians would not.

In all cases immigrants choose to settle in Canada to build a better life for themselves and their families.  Approval to settle in Canada is based on a points system that determines whether they are good candidates for immigration.  For anyone, particularly a political leader, to say that immigrants choose Canada as their new home because they want to live off “the dole” is not only ignorant but it flies in the face of extensive research about immigrant contributions to this country’s economic success.

By making his comment Ford shredded what little credibility he had on the issue of fighting racism.  That credibility was paper thin considering that he allowed candidates who promoted hateful and racist ideas to run for his party in the last provincial election.  That lack of credibility was reinforced when he cut funding to Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate after getting elected, and cancelled a mandatory anti-racism conference in 2019 that was part of a provincial strategic plan to combat racism.

People should also remember that Ford has a documented history of consorting with unsavoury characters who hold anti-immigrant and racist views.  In the past he was unwilling to condemn white supremacist Faith Goldy and happy to pose in photos with her and her supporters.  He was also willing to take a meeting with the head of the Hamilton chapter of the white supremacist group the Proud Boys.  This is not the behaviour of someone who is a champion for immigrants and opposes those who promote racist and anti-immigrant narratives.

Actions speak louder than words, and Ford has demonstrated through words and actions that he is unwilling to stand against the anti-immigrant and racist voices that see him as an ally.  Even worse is his penchant for saying and doing things that give energy to those voices.  His recent comment repeating a well-worn anti-immigrant and racist stereotype shows the true nature of someone who claims to be pro-immigrant and against racism.  Ford must apologize for fuelling racist and anti-immigrant sentiment with his comment.  Failure to do so will once again show Ontarians who Ford is, and this should not be forgotten in the lead up to next year’s provincial election.

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved

Facebook and other social media companies profit from hate on their platforms and need to be regulated

By Fareed Khan

Frances Haugen, a former data scientist and product manager at Facebook, became a hero to many critics of social media when she testified before a US Senate committee that her former employer knowingly magnifies hate and seeks to profit from promoting hateful content on its platforms.  Her bombshell revelations made to Senators were supported by information contained in thousands of internal Facebook documents which she leaked to the Wall Street Journal, and in her comments during an interview she did with the investigative journalism program 60 Minutes.

The information Haugen brought to light about the toxic nature of Facebook’s business model, and its willingness to put profits ahead of the well-being of society, should be a wakeup call for lawmakers in Canada and other nations that it can no longer be business as usual in how social media companies operate.  Her damning testimony should provide motivation for governments to take action against the senior executives of Facebook to hold them liable for the harms their platforms inflict on society, and to look at regulating all social media platforms.

The power that Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies have to shape the hearts and minds of their users and society is unparalleled in the era of mass communications.  Hundreds of millions of Facebook users log on every day and consume content that, according to Haugen, is dangerous and destructive.  The corrosive and destructive power of social media has no better example than the presidency of Donald Trump, where social media was weaponized and used to target, vilify and attack communities and individuals, with violent and at times deadly real world results.

Haugen’s allegations about the toxic nature of Facebook’s business practices are not fresh news.  For years research published by academics revealed that social media plays a role in promoting toxicity and hate in society.  In addition, The Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed the willingness of Facebook to abuse its power to benefit its bottom line.  However, governments either refused to take action to regulate online platforms, or were unwilling to act due to intense lobbying by social media companies.

With all the information revealed through the leaked Facebook documents and Haugen’s testimony, along with previously published academic research, politicians can no longer ignore the role of social media in promoting hate.  Through her actions Haugen has provided governments the justification needed to impose legislation and regulations on all social media companies to ensure that they do not continue to wilfully turn a blind eye to hateful and destructive content propagated through their platforms.

Claims made by Facebook that it removes hateful materials from its platforms were also proven to be untrue according to one of the leaked documents.  A January 2021 Facebook study contained analysis which stated, “We estimate that we may action as little as 3-5% of hate and about 6-tenths of 1% of V & I [violence and incitement] on Facebook despite being the best in the world at it.”

Information revealed in the Facebook documents would also justify governments charging the company and its senior executives under hate crime laws to hold them criminally liable for their destructive business practices which ignored the safety and stability of society and the communities targeted by hateful content.  Haugen’s revelations made it clear that Facebook’s leadership cares little that their platforms are responsible for people getting hurt and killed because of voices and content that promoted racism, bigotry, homophobia, misogyny and other types of hate.

An Abacus Data poll released in January this year revealed that 93 per cent of Canadians believe that online hate speech and racism are a problem, and 60 per cent believe that the federal government has an obligation to regulate online and social media platforms to prevent them from being used as virtual megaphones to spread hateful and racist rhetoric.

It is the responsibility of governments in Canada and other democratic nations to reign in the social media giants since their leadership are unwilling to be good corporate citizens.  The “Wild West” environment in which social media has operated has proven to be a danger to civil society, social cohesion and democracy.   The time has come to regulate all social media companies for the sake of the common good, because failure to do so is a danger to the health and well-being of social media users and more broadly to civil society.

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved

Fighting pandemic of hate and racism in Canada must be a priority in the new Parliament

By Fareed Khan

If the results from the federal election say anything it is Canadian voters speaking loudly and telling Justin Trudeau, Erin O'Toole and Jagmeet Singh to stop the politicking and get back to work.  One of the areas of business where Parliamentarians need to work harder when the House of Commons is back in session is to deal with Canada's other pandemic that has been around long before COVID-19, the pandemic of hate and racism that has been ignored for decades, which has resulted in deadly violence, and for which insufficient resources and political capital have been committed.

Many Canadians were incredulous that during the election campaign the issue of fighting hate and racism was barely mentioned, despite the fact that 60 per cent of Canadians see racism as a serious problem facing the country.  An IPSOS study released on September 3rd revealed that there is increased awareness among Canadians about the continued mistreatment against Indigenous people, domestic terrorism targeting Muslim Canadians, racism against Black Canadians, and anti-Asian hate crimes.  This awareness has led to Canadians expecting governments to implement policies and programs to address these issues.

The lack of discussion about fighting hate during the campaign defies logic considering that since May 2020 Canadians have come out in the tens of thousands to protest in the streets against hate and racial injustice.  Canadians called for racial justice for Black people in the thousands following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US.  They took to the streets again in the thousands calling for action to fight Islamophobia following the murder of the Afzaal Family in London, Ontario in an act of anti-Muslim hate.  They demonstrated in the thousands again in support of justice for Indigenous people following the discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at former residential school sites.  In light of this racial awakening and public calls for action it makes no sense that the leaders of the three major parties did not make these issues key points in their campaign messaging. 

However, Trudeau and Singh should be commended in one respect.  Among the three major parties the Liberals and NDP both included sections dedicated to addressing racism and hate, demonstrating that they are aware of the importance of these issues to Canadians.  Yet despite that political nod to these concerns it is puzzling that the Liberals and NDP chose not to highlight them in their messaging to set themselves apart from the Conservatives, who did not do themselves any favours when they avoided using the words “racism” and “Islamophobia” anywhere in the Conservative campaign platform.  This not only showed the inability (or unwillingness) of O’Toole’s party to address the concerns of racialized Canadians, but it was a clear indication of the party's very weak commitment to fighting hate and supporting racial justice.  It does not bode well for O’Toole or his party's future prospects among Canadians who see fighting racism as a priority.

On the matter of Quebec's Bill 21 "seculrism" law none of the political leaders scored any political points with racialized communities when they sacrificed human rights on the altar of political expediency.  Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh turned their backs on those impacted by the racist legislation when they refused to challenge outrageous allegations made by Bloc Québécois Leader Yves François Blanchet.  In a media scrum following the English language debate Blanchet claimed that the moderator had called all Quebecers "racists" by asking a question about the Quebec law.  Instead of taking a principled stand against this outrageous accusation all three federalist party leaders retreated into their corners and let Blanchet dominate the narrative around the issue, perpetuating the ridiculous myth that the law was about defending secularism in Quebec.

The one man who must be singled out for his position on Bill 21 is Jagmeet Singh.  It was supremely discouraging that an observant Sikh who knows the law was unwilling to commit to taking action to defend the rights of observant Sikhs, Muslims and Jews in Quebec, despite claims that the NDP will be there for the people that need them.

When Parliament reconvenes, anti-racism and human rights activists expect Trudeau, O'Toole, and Singh to get to work to decisively address these issues, and help Canadians to push back the ever-increasing hate and the rise of white supremacy we are seeing across the country.

We will be watching and we will hold our federal political leaders accountable for their actions or lack thereof.

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved

Canada’s reconciliation with Indigenous People will be incomplete without official acknowledgement of the Indigenous genocide on Canadian soil

By Fareed Khan

Today, September 30th, marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.  It is seen as a historic occasion where Canada officially acknowledged the history of what was done to Indigenous People on this land.

Creation of this commemorative day was one of the 94 "calls to action" in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which was released in December 2015.  Establishing the holiday, according to the TRC report, was intended to honour survivors of Residential Schools, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.  It is also an opportunity for settler-Canadians to consider the trauma that was inflicted on Indigenous Peoples, and the trauma that they have been dealing with generation after generation until the present day.

Establishment of this day is a positive development in the process of reconciliation, but it is still only a small step forward since most of the TRC calls to action have yet to be implemented.  Canada still has a long way to go to address and undo the legacy of anti-Indigenous racism on which this country was founded.  While acknowledgement of Canada's racist legacy towards Indigenous People is part of the process of reconciliation it also needs to include an official acknowledgement by Canada's Parliament that colonial authorities and the Canadian government willfully and knowingly committed genocide against Indigenous People on the territory that became Canada.  Without this the process of reconciliation will be incomplete.

Evidence in the form of academic research, historical documents, actions by political leaders, and policies established by colonial and Canadian governments demonstrate that Canada was founded on policies of white supremacy, anti-Indigenous racism, and acts which constituted the genocide of Indigenous People.  The Indian Act and Indian Residential Schools are two examples of Canadian government policies that attempted to suppress and eliminate the Indigenous history, culture and people of this land.  Combined with colonial policies in the centuries before Confederation this led to a precipitous 95 per cent decline of the Indigenous population on Canadian territory.  This needs to be acknowledged officially at the highest levels of political leadership if the process of reconciliation is to have any meaning, and if Canadians are to understand the history underlying the nation that Canada became.

Under the Genocide Convention there are five acts which constitute genocide.  They include: 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; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.  All the crimes defined under the Genocide Convention have been committed by colonial and Canadian governments against Indigenous People.  While officially acknowledging these crimes as genocide was not part of the TRC's 94 calls to action, doing so would send a strong message to Indigenous People about the desire of the government and political leaders to accept Canada's anti-Indigenous history.

The Indian Residential Schools system is one area that has received considerable public and political attention, especially so since the discovery of thousands of unmarked graves on the sites of former residential schools since the spring of 2021.

 

From 1831 to 1996 there were 140 residential schools across the country operated directly by the federal government or in collaboration with various Christian church denominations.  For decades, school survivors and communities spoke out about the intergenerational trauma caused by these institutions, which included physical and emotional trauma inflicted on Indigenous children, loss of language, community, and culture, and the ongoing forcible removal and assimilation of children under the present day child welfare system. 

 

An estimated 150,000 children were forcibly taken from their families and communities, and sent to residential schools, which in many instances were thousands of kilometres away from their homes. They experienced horrific conditions of physical and sexual abuse, unsanitary conditions resulting in disease, malnutrition and starvation, forced labour, and indoctrination to wipe out their identity, languages and cultures. Thousands of them never returned home, dying and being buried on residential school sites without their families being informed, or running away from the schools and dying in their attempts to return to their families. 

 

The colonial policies and practices which created Residential Schools continue today.  Indigenous children are overwhelmingly represented in Canada’s child welfare system. Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people experience staggeringly high rates of violence. And governments frequently approve industrial projects on Indigenous territories without the free, prior and informed consent of the communities directly affected. 

 

As Canadians observe this historic day they also need to think about pressuring the Canadian Parliament to officially acknowledge that an Indigenous genocide was committed on Canadian soil.  Because if Canada is going to recognize and condemn international genocides, like that of the Uyghurs, the Rohingya, and the Yazidis, then it would be supremely hypocritical for Canada's political leaders to refuse to acknowledge the genocide perpetrated on Indigenous People in Canada.  It is something that our political leaders must do if we want to demonstrate our integrity in the process of reconciliation. 

 

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved

Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh didn’t address racism during the election, they need to make it a priority in the new Parliament

By Fareed Khan

The election that a majority of Canadians did not want is over and it returned a Parliament barely different than the previous one.  Now that it is over it is time for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh to get to work dealing with Canada's other pandemic, the one none of the party leaders addressed during the election campaign that has been around long before Covid19 landed on our shores, namely the pandemic of racism and hate which has been ignored for decades.  

Addressing this issue is even more urgent given that more than 800,000 Canadians voted for the People’s Party of Canada, a party that is anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, and has embraced racism and white supremacists.

Many Canadians, particularly members of racialized communities, were troubled that combatting hate was barely mentioned by Trudeau, O’Toole or Singh during the campaign.  It begs the question “why not” when 60 per cent of Canadians see it as a serious problem, according to a poll released on September 3rd.

Canadians took to the streets to protest in the tens of thousands over the last year and a half calling for racial justice, for action to fight Islamophobia, and supporting justice for Indigenous people.  Yet none of the three major party leaders took this as a signal to make the fight against hate and racism one of their priorities in their campaign messaging.

However, the Liberal and NDP leaders should be credited for including proposals to fight racism in their respective policy documents while O’Tooles Conservatives did not.  In fact the Tories failed to mention the words “racism” and “Islamophobia” even once in their campaign platform.  This says volumes about how serious the Conservatives are about fighting hate and supporting calls for racial justice.  It also shows that they have a ways to go before racialized minority communities see them as a sincere partner in the fight against hate.

 

One area where all three party leaders were spectacular failures with racialized communities is around Quebec’s Bill 21 “secularism” law, a law deemed racist by human rights experts and legal scholars.  For the sake of political expediency all three leaders turned their backs on those Quebecer’s impacted by the discriminatory Quebec law which targets racialized religious minorities.  Furthermore, all three leaders need to be chastised for failing to challenge Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois Blanchet for his specious claim that the moderator of the English language debate had called Quebecer’s “racists” by asking a question about Bill 21.  And while Trudeau left the door open to a legal challenge to the law by the federal government, it should be noted that he made the same promise in the 2019 election but did nothing to follow up on it afterwards. 

As the only racialized leader of a major party Singh also needs to answer for his failure to take a strong and principled stand against Bill 21, and support of the rights of Sikhs, Muslims and Jews in Quebec.  One would expect him to be at the forefront of opposition to the Quebec law instead of caving in to Quebec’s Francophone ethno-nationalists.  The fact that he is not is deeply disappointing and contradicts his claims that the NDP would be there for the people that needed them, and that he is committed to the cause of anti-racism.

These actions demonstrate the hypocrisy of all three men for claiming to be defenders of human rights in their campaign platforms, but refusing to stand up for the human rights of Quebec’s minority religious communities against an unjust Quebec law that promotes government sanctioned racism.  In so doing they sent the message that in Canada not all minority communities are worthy of human rights, or having them defended by our national political leaders. 

As soon as Parliament reconvenes Trudeau, O’Toole and Singh must put the fight against hate into high gear and help push back this pandemic which is deeply affecting the lives of millions of Canadians.  They also need to rethink their positions on Bill 21 if they want to have any credibility as defenders of human rights.  If they fail to do this in the new Parliamentary session the anger of Canadians who have marched in the streets over the last year and a half will be expressed loudly and politically.  Anti-racism activists in particular will be watching what they do closely, and will hold all of them accountable for their failure to confront this deeply rooted and ugly disease which needs a forceful national effort led by principled political leaders to counter it.

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved

Maxime Bernier’s “People’s Party of Canada” is no different than the “MAGA” cult of Donald Trump

"Bernier’s affinity for far right (and frankly fascist) ideology is a draw to the anti-vax crowd, white supremacists, Islamophobes, anti-Semites and other hateful elements in society."

By Fareed Khan

On the day the federal election was called, the far right People’s Party of Canada (PPC), led by former Conservative Maxime Bernier, was polling at 3.3 per cent, below the Green Party.  A month later, the PPC has surged past the Greens, and as of September 18th it is polling at 7.3 per cent, placing it fourth nationally for voter preference.  

 

If voter turnout in this election is the same or surpasses that from 2019 it means that more than 1.34 million Canadian voters are thinking of casting their ballot for a party that would undo measures to curb hate speech and fight racism, reverse climate change initiatives, whose leader has refused to get a Covid vaccine and supports Covid conspiracy theorists, is seen as anti-science, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, has promoted homophobic and anti-trans messaging, and is okay with having extremist right-wing and white supremacist voters among its supporters.  This ideological and policy direction of the PPC makes it no different than the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) cult of Donald Trump in the US.

Given Bernier’s embrace of far right ideology, the Conservative Party seemingly dodged a bullet when he lost the leadership of that party to Andrew Scheer in 2017.  However, if current polling trends hold Bernier could be back in the House of Commons in the next Parliament with a level of voter support that the Green Party has only managed to achieve once (in the 2019 election).  Even if Bernier does not win his seat, gaining the support of over 1.3 million voters will give him a platform and financial resources that could make him a bigger threat to Canadian political discourse in the future than he and his party already are.

This surge in support for the PPC is a potentially dangerous trend that has not received the media coverage or analysis it should since the start of the election.  If there are well over a million Canadians thinking about voting for a political party rooted in far-right ideology, that is reminiscent of the worst elements of Donald Trump’s MAGA extremists, then Canadians should be worried and prepared to see a level of political ugliness in our future similar to what we have witnessed from Trump supporters in the US.

Canadians have already seen a very disturbing side of politics in this election with PPC supporters showing up at campaign stops for Justin Trudeau to shout racist and misogynistic obscenities at him, and in one instance assault him by throwing gravel at him.  Within their midst have been known white supremacists who the PPC has not disavowed.  This should not be surprising considering that Bernier expelled a candidate from the party during the 2019 election for calling on him to denounce white supremacy and racism.

Bernier’s affinity for far right (and frankly fascist) ideology is a draw to the anti-vax crowd, white supremacists, Islamophobes, anti-Semites and other hateful elements in society.  If a PPC candidate were to be elected on Monday it would be like having a neo-Nazi sitting in Parliament and showing a middle finger to Canadian soldiers who fought and died to defeat Nazism in World War 2.

To get a sense of the hateful nature of the PPC, one only needs to look at a media release put out by them last week where they opposed Bill C-16 – an amendment to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression – and parts of C-6 – an amendment to outlaw activities related to conversion therapy.  In public statements the PPC made outrageous and bigoted statements conflating transgender identity with homosexuality by claiming, “Boys and girls suffering from gender dysphoria are being encouraged to start transitioning, when most of them would grow up to become healthy gays and lesbians.”

The latest polls show that the PPC has more than tripled its support from what it received in the 2019 election.  If political developments in the US over the last decade are any indication, this evolution should be considered a danger to political and social stability in Canada, and Canadians need to be worried if we want to avoid falling down the same black hole that American politics has fallen into during and after the Trump era.

The danger posed by the PPC should not be underestimated given its embrace of the most extreme right wing elements of society.  Even if the party does not win a seat the support of almost 1.4 million Canadians would give this anti-science, homophobic, white supremacist and racism friendly party a level of legitimacy that would be detrimental to Canada’s political culture.  Should their polling numbers translate into votes on Election Day then Canadians who believe in a diverse, accepting and progressive society with a progressive political culture had better get prepared for political discourse in this country that is more like the distasteful and hostile politics that we have witnessed in the US over the past several years.  All signs point to Trump style populist politics becoming a reality in Canada.  How much prominence it will have and how long it will be a factor in Canadian politics remains to be seen.

© 2021 The View From Here.  © 2021 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved