Up Too Late: An Endless Search for Mr.Right & Other Important Things in Life

This Tuesday will be the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Queen signed the document on April 17th, 1982, after we pleaded with her and her politicians for decades, centuries even, to have our own planefull of rights.
In the presence of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, letter H's favourite Prime Minister and French Quebecers' least liked politician, the Queen signed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the Constitution.

This year, the Conservative minority government, which has never been a fan of the Charter ("Rights?? Who needs'em???!!!"), apparently has no major celebrations planned for the day that marks a symbolic breaking away from the strict and controlling mother Queen two and a half decades ago.

Five years ago, when, at the time, the Liberal government was in power, Canadian Alliance, the co-founding group of today's Conservative Party of Canada, said that the whole Charter thing had been overdone by the Liberal government, underlining that its need was exaggerated in a sense, ignoring some fundamental human rights that would never have been challenged had the Charter not been enshrined in the Canadian Constitution. The Alliance said at the time that the Charter went against the will of many Canadians who thought the rights revolution "had gone too far".

This week, on Monday and Tuesday, the University of Ottawa is holding a two-day conference on the Charter. Apparently, all of the invited guests, except for Stephen Harper and his run-alongs, are coming. Stephane Dion, who first declined the invitation, must have changed his mind when he found out about Harper's decision to unofficially boycott the event.

Jean Chrétien, the former Liberal prime minister who initiated the same-sex marriage vote is apparently talking at a $150-per-plate gala fundraiser in Montreal about the importance of having a Charter.Harper must be staying home and enjoying Bill O'Reilly and Fox News.

His government recently (last fall), canceled funding for the Charter Challenges Program, which helped individuals and groups/organizations challenge federal laws on the grounds of equality. The Program, known as the pillar of federal court challenges, has given out funding in the past to groups demanding a change in the definition of marriage, prisoner's rights to vote and, among other things, the limits of the parents' disciplining of children.

Oddly enough, Canadians seem to be turned on by the idea of going conservative. A prime minister who refuses to acknowledge the importance of one of the most important and fundamental human rights documents is gaining popularity, according to polls.

The pendulum is swinging right once again...wonderful. We are already explicitly supporting Israel's so-called anti-terrorist measures that cause thousands of civilians' deaths, Israeli and Palestinian. Every few days, our "anti-terrorist troops" are attacked in Afghanistan. We are going under in our environment policies. Refugee claimants are being deported every day.

At the tennis club, a member sees me typing my paper on racial profiling in Montreal. He asks me what I'm doing and when I tell him what it's all about, he asks me what I think of the Montreal police. I say that I have no personal opinion on it, but that so far, I've only found negative info. on them. He looks at me and says,

"Our Charter was overdone. It gives every nobody, especially the first generation Canadians a chance to claim the race card when a policeman pushes him or treats him like he should, for beating up someone or for sexually assaulting someone else. Frankly, and a lot of lawyers agree with me, the Charter of Rights was overdone." I ask rhetorically, in a curious tone: "But you can't change it, can you?"...he replies, with a sad face: "It's too hard to change it."... Take that, racist millionaires.

In other news, Quebec's ADQ is considering pressuring the provincial government to sign the Canadian Constitution it never signed in 1982. Quebec is the only Canadian province not to have approved the Constitution. The signing would allow the province to finally propose an amendment to the constitution, in order to, according to the Action Démocratique du Québec, achieve greater autonomy from the rest of Canada.

What surprises me is why Quebecers have to go to the most conservative party in the province to get help to make the province sovereign...or autonomous...or whatever.

Sources:

Justice Canada

"Conservatives skip out on Charter events" - The Gazette, Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Labels: Canada, conservatism, human rights, politics, quebec

I laughed hard when I saw this as I'm sure you will...

The Israeli Minister of Defence should think about re-training. Or maybe just learning how to use binoculars. On February 21st, an Associated Press photographer took a pic of Amir Peretz as he was looking over Golan Heights, while being told what the troops in the distance were doing by one of his advisors. Apparently, Peretz kept using his binoculars in the directions the advisor would point at numerous times, never actually taking the caps off the lenses. This is the problem Israel needs to solve: It needs to learn how to see the reality.


Change of topic again. FIFA ruled today that Asmahan Mansour, an 11-year old Nepean, ON girl who was refused play on a soccer field in Quebec because she wore a hijab, apparently "dangerous" for the girls safety, has no right to wear a head covering while playing soccer. Oh, yeah? How about hypocrisy? If FIFA itself, on its website, says that you can wear "headgear", and some of its member countries (Iran, as an example) ALWAYS feature the hijab as part of their uniform, then they should probably go over a/their policies b/their press releases. They don't know what they do or don't allow anymore.

Stranger things could NOT have happened...A woman in California gave birth to a 3.18 kg baby without knowing she was pregnant. April Barnum must have gone through quite a shock when the x-rays of her body showed a living baby in her stomach: "ooops,...how could that happen?" *looks around*

Speaking of parently feelings, a mother in England was barely allowed to keep the custody of her son after social services threatened they would take the boy away because she was not doing a good job feeding him (the boy's five times the weight of a boy his age).When asked what his favourite food is, Connor McCreaddie, 8 years old, says: "Bacon. Mmmm… That's my favorite. Um … chicken , steak, sausage,".

Photo credit: Associated Press and My EFx2Blog

Labels: Canada, Islam, Israel, obesity, quebec, soccer, United Kingdom, United States

Accusations make you want to defend yourself, but they also often make you say things you wouldn't otherwise say. Heated discussions lead to comments that are rarely uttered. Words of passion can cause an emotional and not intelligent reaction...

Fearing procrastination [battling against procrastination is one of my "unofficial" new year's resolutions], I went in to work early, so early in fact that I had nothing to do for the 30 minutes that I had to wait for my class to begin [this is my language assistant job]. i checked my e-mail [not much new, since I'd just checked it before coming to school ... e-mail maniac, that's me].

I noticed a Wednesday's copy of "Le Journal de Montréal" and what got me was the cover page. On it, two men, one of whom is smiling... In large font, a title of the size that would otherwise be saved for some world catastrophe or some hockey victory: "Selong les communautés, les Québecois sont accueillants" ("According to the [cultural/ethnic] communities, Quebecers are welcoming"). I had seen the page before but I hadn't paid as much attention to it.

The fact that le Journal de Montréal would take such an ethically low stoop on crisis prevention struck me all of a sudden. I wondered what Quebecers thought of this interesting idea. And checked I did. Still, the messages on online forums seem somehow unreal, somehow plastic. Anyone can say anything on the web nowadays, including me, but hearing people say something to you in person is more valuable. It carries more weight for me, somehow. Call me old-fashioned, if you will [some of my students sort of do...will write about that soon], but it takes guts and real emotion to say something you care about to someone else, while knowing that there is a chance they may disagree.

Seeing as Celine, a teacher who teaches across the hallway from my classroom, was the only one in the teachers' lounge, I approached her and showed her the paper. She was preparing for her class in the afternoon, but she welcomed a distraction. She looked at it once and said "well, yeah, in Montreal, we're welcoming, but go to Blainville [not far from Montreal] or the regions of Quebec and you'll see how friendly we are to them."

I mentioned how my Poli. Sci. prof had talked about the fallacy of the survey. She agreed, but at the same time, said it was prejudice that Quebecers carry most in their everyday lives and not racism. This got me thinking, since prejudice is one of the initial steps towards discrimination and then on a more focused lens, racism. I didn't, however, say anything. Her words were far too interesting to distract and I enjoyed hearing honest words from someone who is a "Québecoise de souche" [a born-and-bred in Quebec Quebecer].

She started mentioning things here and there and suddenly, we got to the question of what the reason behind the Quebec racism was, or should I say, Celine did. She said students in her classes were not racist. I mentioned that yes, children are born innocent. Unfortunately, the adults are the ones teaching them about the negative aspects of life and often, imposing their views onto their children. This is a gist of what she said:

"Well, I had a student in class who, when I mentioned how in Montreal, there is a rise in numbers of people wanting to learn arabic, said that they should all be sent home because they are taking over our culture.

Naturally, I told him that he couldn't say things like that in class, especially because I have three Muslim students in that particular section. I could just imagine his father saying something like that...He probably didn't mean it that way, but said it because he heard his father say it.

I do have reservations when it comes to them [by "them", she implied Arabs]. I mean, they are coming in big numbers and they ARE in some ways, influencing and changing our culture negatively. You know, they want their religious needs answered and they ask us to remove our crucifixes from our schools because they say it goes against their religion. Well, I'm sorry, but we were here before them. This school was a Catholic school! Catholicism [the word she used] was here before Islam.

You know, they wanted to wash their feet at Concordia [referring to the actual McGill Muslim Students' Association complaint to the university, which refused to allow the group to have a prayer space ]. They are the kind of people who always want more and more and more. They bring their opinions here and pressure us to accept them. You know, I'm not racist and I am not being one, but I am telling the truth.

Besides, racism and prejudice are two different things. They are not one and the same. We all pre-judge.

Oh, and they are having SOOO many children. I mean, we used to be that way ["we" is used for "Quebecers"] and tried to have as many children as we could. We were all about the family. And then, after the quiet revolution , nothing was the same anymore. Now, the women are all about advancing their careers. And their women are all about having children and taking care of the family. Very soon, Quebec won't be the same anymore...We will not have the same values that we do now. We will be taken over by them."

This was a teacher talking, someone whose likes will teach my children someday.

Somehow, I couldn't understand why this woman, who knows I am Muslim, was telling me all these derogatory things so openly.

I suppose she didn't see me as one of "them".

The crucifix over her head made me think of how threatened she felt. I could only sympathize with her, but I also felt saddened that even in an accepting and welcoming society as the one of Quebec, I witnessed an opinion based on misinformation, ignorance and simple perception of rivalry. It reeked of the ancient balkanic hatred, here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, North America, the so-called New World.

Photo source: February 11, 2006, Danish Cartoon Protests, Montreal - David Metraux

Labels: Canada, integration, Islam, journal de montreal, Kosovo, Montreal, Muslim, prejudice, problems, quebec, quiet revolution, racism, TVA

Since Monday, Quebecers are furious at Journal de Montreal and the TVA TV network for a controversial poll they commissioned with Leger Marketing on what they first called a "poll on racism" and later, fearing repercussions, renamed it to "poll on tolerance" in Quebec. The first article on the results of the poll came out on Monday and some would say caused lots of stir in Quebec, including an attack on a mosque in Montreal on Tuesday night. Funny enough, no major newspapers seem to have covered this incident and few community papers have written on it [a Google search leads me to "Little mosque on the prairie"...perfect].

My political science course professor said it was an unacceptable and subjective poll. The result of 59% of Quebecers being racist was shocking for most... Wednesday, Le Journal de Montreal published an article that tried to downplay the sad statistics they published a couple of days before that. It stated that 82% of immigrant Quebecers stated Quebecers were very friendly and welcoming, yet the poll, aimed at Quebecers born in the province, avoided contact with cultural and religious communities in Quebec. How they got the results, I have no idea...

All I know is yesterday, after my Poli Sci. class, I had a rather interesting conversation with Maria, a girl born here, whose family has Greek origins, who said despite the fact that she was born here, she is made to feel somehow less respected because of her family origins. Her exact words were "they think we are only here to work for them and that's our only objective in life."

Meanwhile, the francophone media is trying to change the focus on the issue. They have been playing and re-playing excerpts from the upcoming episode of "Fifth Estate", which is airing an exclusive interview with "a Muslim fundamentalist who infiltrated the cell" who reveals "the inner workings of the cell and its members. These are young men who have adopted a brand of Islam that they believe sanctions jihad in their home city and against their fellow citizens."

Expect more mosque break-ins and nights of broken glass.
Finally, a distraction for all the problems of Quebec.
The show airs on Friday at 10 pm on CBC.

Labels: fifth estate, Islam, Montreal, quebec, racism