Canadians have been beseeching Justin Trudeau to open up Canada’s borders to those affected by Donald Trump’s ban on refugees as well as immigrants and visitors from seven Muslim nations. Canadians also want the prime minister to stand up to the president, whom he meets in Washington on Monday.
We should be agitating just as vigorously against the dangerous levels of anti-Muslim bigotry right here at home. And rather than have Trudeau pick a fight with Trump over domestic American issues already being contested in the courts there, we want the prime minister to stay focused on safeguarding our economic lifeline to the U.S. and also ensure that Canadian citizens are not targeted for bigoted harassment when travelling to the U.S.
The Jan. 29 massacre in a Quebec City mosque did not happen in a vacuum. The alleged killer, Alexandre Bissonnette, is a fan of Trump and also of Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s extreme right, who brought her anti-Muslim message to Quebec last year.
Canadians jolted by the tragedy have been demonstrating exemplary solidarity with Muslims. Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard have struck the right chords. But far too many politicians, especially Quebec nationalists and federal Conservatives, are shedding crocodile tears, given their own record in recent years of stigmatizing Muslims and stoking public fear of Muslims.
Jason Kenney, Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander may have been the spear-carriers for Stephen Harper’s cultural war on Muslims. But Rona Ambrose, interim Conservative leader, and many on her front bench in the House of Commons are equally guilty of having introduced Trumpism in Canada long before Trump mainstreamed it in the U.S.
In the days after the Quebec City murders, Jean-François Lisée, leader of the Parti Québécois, offered a half-hearted mea culpa for the excesses of its Charter of Quebec Values. But by last week, he was back playing identity politics in the National Assembly.
To pull Canada back from such toxic polarization, here’s a to-do list.
- Canadians should not let the Leitches and Lisées off the hook.
Leitch, of “Barbaric Cultural Practices” fame, remains an unapologetic admirer of Trump. So is Kevin O’Leary, another leadership candidate.
Her proposal to vet potential immigrants for anti-Canadian values is a dead ringer for Trump’s “extreme vetting,” to ban those with “hostile attitudes toward” the U.S.
As immigration minister, Alexander kept the door mostly shut on Syrian refugees, while holding it open for Christians from that region, implementing religious discrimination well ahead of Trump.
Like Trump, the Harperites conflated Muslim terrorists with all Muslims. They falsely accused mosques of fomenting jihad and undermined legitimate mainstream Muslim organizations by boycotting them or libelling them with unsubstantiated charges of Islamic militancy.
In some instances, the Harperites and the Quebec nationalists were worse than Trump — for example, bullying Muslim women by associating their dress with misogyny, barbarism and terrorism, and concocting absurdly discriminatory policies against them.
- Trudeau must protect our trade with the U.S., but not at the expense of Canadian Muslims.
One Montreal woman was turned back from the Vermont border, while a Toronto woman was grilled at a border crossing in Buffalo. Neither had faced such harassment before, or had anything to do with the Muslim-majority countries listed in Trump’s executive order. But both were wearing hijabs.
Their treatment puts a lie to Trump administration claim that it is not targeting Muslims. Trudeau has a duty to ensure that all Canadians are treated fairly.
- Expand the remit of the intelligence and security services, as well as anti-radicalization groups, to include the monitoring and ferreting out of right-wing extremists.
There are about 100 white supremacist, anti-immigrant and virulently anti-Muslim groups active across Canada, especially in Quebec. They need to be on the radar.
- Protect mosques and Muslims.
Dozens of mosques have been vandalized, and Muslims physically assaulted or harassed in public spaces, and discriminated against at work. Women have been disproportionately targeted — perverse testimony to the falsehood of Islamophobes’ ostensible concern about the status of Muslim women.
Federal, provincial and municipal governments should audit the many police investigations into such incidents, to see what was done or mostly not done. Police services have a duty to seriously investigate allegations of incitement of hatred, prohibited under the Criminal Code.
- Ottawa should restore the hate speech provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Harper axed Section 13 in deference to those demanding unfettered freedom to malign Muslims and Islam. The media joined them, citing free speech, without ever answering whether they favour free speech for anti-Semites and homophobes, for example.
The need to balance free speech with protecting vulnerable groups has long been a cherished Canadian value. The Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly upheld hate speech prohibitions of both the Criminal Code and the Human Rights Act. But Harper ignored the rulings, just as Trump does not want the American courts to stay in the way of his diktats.
- Mayor John Tory needs to stop obfuscating his close links with Nick Kouvalis, who recently quit the Leitch campaign for using Trump-like tactics of name-calling and telling the big lie to unsettle the opposition.
Tory is a decent man but he’s known to compromise principles in trying to appease all sides.
Kouvalis was his chief strategist in the 2014 election. Tory must publicly rule out any role for him in the 2018 mayoral election.
Tory’s other friend, Andy Pringle, whom he installed as head of the Police Services Board, raised funds for Leitch’s leadership bid. He stopped only after media raised questions. The harm is already done. How can he possibly be assumed to be impartial about issues involving the policing of minorities after his financial and political support for someone peddling racist policies? He should resign. Tory should ask him to.
- Premier Couillard must abandon his bill before the Quebec National Assembly banning niqab-wearing Muslim women from giving or receiving government services, even health care. He had introduced it to pacify anti-Muslim nationalists, who are not easily pacified. Lisée and François Legault, leader of the third-party Coalition Avenir Québec, announced Tuesday they will target both the niqab and the hijab.
It matters not whether Couillard — or you or I — dislike the niqab. At stake is a secular principle — the state has no business telling women how to dress or to how practise their faith, so long as that practice does not cause harm to others.
- Quebec City needs to be transparent as to why a permit for a Muslim cemetery has been held up for years, necessitating the transportation of bodies to the Montreal area.
- Municipalities across Canada must re-examine all delayed construction permits for mosques to ensure that the objections over zoning and traffic are not smokescreens for anti-Muslim prejudices. They should take a lesson from Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who last year blew the whistle on anti-Muslim bigots.
Islamophobia is the new anti-Semitism. It is our collective duty to roll it back — and not just because Canada has proportionately more Muslims than the U.S., nearly four in 100 Canadians to one in 100 Americans.
It is in our enlightened self-interest to keep Canada as the only G7 nation that values diversity; maintains national consensus on relatively high levels of non-discriminatory immigration; and has an enviable record of integrating newcomers. As the latest census data shows, two-thirds of our population growth comes from immigrants. They will increasingly be critical to our prosperity and global reach.
While Americans and Europeans wallow in deep divisions, we must maintain our civility, mutual respect and harmony. We need only look to Quebec City to remind us why.
Haroon Siddiqui, former columnist and editorial page editor emeritus of the Star, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University. Siddiqui.canada@gmail.com
Haroon Siddiqui, former columnist and editorial page editor emeritus of the Star, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University. Siddiqui.canada@gmail.com
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