A rchive Date
[ 03-09-2020 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/fatah-no-macdonald-no-canada/
No Macdonald, no Canada
Tarek Fatah Sep 02, 2020
In October 2015 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that Canada has “no core identity” and that there was “no mainstream in Canada,” he set the ball rolling for the toppling and decapitating of the statue of Canada’s founder and its first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
As I wrote on these pages two years ago, if we don’t have a core identity, then who are we? Did we just waste 400 years crystallizing what was best in Britain and France while embracing the United States as our neighbour for over 200 years?
Trudeau can speak for himself, but not for us Canadians - especially those of us who fled the horrors of race-based supremacist societies where women are baby factories and gays are thrown to their death from rooftops and where people are still crucified in public squares.
The Canada-haters among us have not yet crucified people in public squares, but they’ve taken the first steps on that path by crucifying the statues of those they wish to destroy. That’s not me giving an opinion; that is a fact of history from where I come.
Statue breakers, or “But Shikan” as they are known in the vast Indian subcontinent, became honorific titles of mass murderers, a fact every Kashmiri and Afghan would testify to. Remember the Bamiyan statues of Lord Buddha?
Ironically the first persons to outrightly condemn the toppling of the statue were from Quebec, the only part of Sir John A’s confederation that has attempted to break away from the country he created. Both Premier Francois Legault and Mayor Valerie Plante of Montreal denounced the violence, as did the new Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who has personally experienced racism yet would not validate such behaviour.
Yet there are people at the highest levels in academia who gave a nod of approval to the decapitating of Sir John A’s statue.
Professor Melanie Newton, who teaches at the University of Toronto and specializes in the social and cultural history of the Caribbean, was one of them.
When asked on CBC News about her reaction to the violent incident, Newton refused to condemn the criminal act, saying: “Since the killing in June of George Floyd, all levels of government in Canada have issued platitudes about being opposed to institutional racism, but have not taken serious leadership on how we address this issue … it also reflects deeper anger on a part of ordinary people,” saying when governments fail to address these issues, “people will fill that void.”
When the CBC host interrupted, saying many Canadians were offended and see the toppling of the statue as an affront to Canadian history and to the country’s first prime minister, who was a key architect of confederation, Professor Newton claimed the destruction was “part of the democratic process to re-think what his legacy is and recognize that his legacy includes racism, authoritarianism, violence and genocide.”
She added: “Our democracy is not so fragile that it needs this kind of simple and facile symbol as a means of holding this country together.” Adding that “the country is stronger when everyone is respected.” Sir John A. Macdonald being the obvious exception.
It seems many believe it is acceptable to migrate to this land, profit and prosper from the institutions created by Sir John A’s Canada, and then label that very country as racist and denigrate it as a product of cultural genocide.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said it best on Facebook:“As his biographer, Richard Gwyn wrote, ‘No Macdonald, no Canada’. Both Macdonald and the country he created were flawed but still great.”
As for Newton and those who share her views, I recommend they read up on how Cassius Clay got rid of his racist shackles when he roared in the ring, “What’s my name?” and stayed loyal to America to the end.
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