The first is what I consider a blatantly racist editorial in my beloved National Post. I can't believe this!
At least the Chinese who paid the bigoted tax in order to come to Canada have something to show for it. They were able to buy a better life. You wouldn't think that is something anyone would require compensation for.
The second is about an abdication of duty by the OPP in Caledonia:
OPP officers will no longer respond to calls from non-native home and property owners who live on the 6th Line, a county road running along the southwest border of a housing development occupied by native protestors — a move that has some residents feeling helpless and sick with worry.
Wow! But the Nanny State always protects, right? Wrong! As soon as things get tough, you're on your own, Charlie!
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Saturday Update: Great column in the Toronto Sun by Salim Mansur, "Divided we fall".
It highlights the perils of multiculturalism as it has evolved in Canada:
Very pithy statement. Is that what we have become - A country of self-serving self-interest groups all looking for our little share of the taxpayers' pie? Is that the Canada we want?
And the natives aren't the only ones holding Ontario hostage!
It highlights the perils of multiculturalism as it has evolved in Canada:
"The experiment in multiculturalism has made Canada a divided house vulnerable to the quarrels of the global village within its borders.."
Very pithy statement. Is that what we have become - A country of self-serving self-interest groups all looking for our little share of the taxpayers' pie? Is that the Canada we want?
And the natives aren't the only ones holding Ontario hostage!
17 comments:
I find the first comment disturbing.
Zac - You mean the Post editorial? I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that. Now there is a good target for the trolls to attack.
I bet there will be a few letters to the editor over that one!
That OPP thing just stinks! Just who is in charge there? Obviously no one with a functioning brain. Anyone who was supposed to be in charge has been rendered impotent by political correctness.
Why is it disturbing? The compensation scam is something that should never have been suggested in the first place. How many more heirs to wronged people are salivating at the prospect of more handouts? I wish my parents or grandparents were members of one of these groups. I'd start shopping for a new car.
I wish my parents or grandparents were members of one of these groups. I'd start shopping for a new car.
That's a pretty shallow thing to say. I certinaly hope you don't actually mean that.
Despite my admiration for Mr. Harper, I too feel that this kind of policy, trying to redress the wrongs of history, are highly questionable. History should teach us which mistakes to avoid; it should not be used as a form of payoff for wrongs that cannot ever be righted.
I felt Mr. Mulroney, whose policies I also generally agreed with, started the Canadian government down an irreversible path by offering compensation for wrongs committed during WWII against the Japanese community.
I believe Mr. Mulroney then and Mr. Harper now could have recognized that yes, those policies were wrong viewed from TODAY'S perspective. However, those policies have been more than atoned for by the fact that today's Canada has such an open door policy. (My family was a beneficiary of that open door policy).
Rather than offering compensation to individuals, the country as a whole would have been better served with the establishment of scholarships open to Canadians of Chinese origin.
Seems the government of Ontario is sinking to new depths.
I'm betting someone is going to get fired at OPP headquarters.
The sooner the better.....and I'm pretty sure that the citizens of Caledonia can sue the force.
I wonder what the courts would award them for damages!
Gabby - That's a great suggestion about the scholarships! Or they could have made a charitable donation or something.
But what bothered me about the Post editorial is that the Chinese community and especially those particular ones involved with the head tax were so happy yesterday. There were tears in their eyes. I just thought that the remarks in the Post cheapened all that. If I had been one of those old folks, I think I would have been hurt.
Soccermom - Anyone who was supposed to be in charge has been rendered impotent by political correctness.
Well said!
PGP - It seems that the judge that ordered the blockades etc. down is fuming that his orders had been ignored. How can that happen? Every other time we have to obey what the courts say, whether it's swingers' clubs, or how much support a distressed woman gets in her divorce, or how about the child rapist who said he was recovering from PTSS and therefore not responsible for his actions?
O.K. I'm rambling here, but you get the point.
Joanne - great points you are making. What the heck is going on here? It's political correctness/namby-pamby dithering/limp-wristedness run amok! (try to say that three times quickly!)
I hope that judge has the gonads to get to the bottom of this, because McGuilty sure doesn't.
I think that yellow bellied mcshifty is trying to scare residents into selling and moving so he can just give their land over.
If I were those tax payers, I would begin paying my property taxes into trust until the lawsuit that is forming is settled.
Watch for them to turn off the civic water and electricity next.
I think this demonstrates the danger of cherry-picking quotes out of context. If you read the whole editorial I think the writer makes a perfectly valid point. Notwithstanding being a bleeding heart liberal, I happen to agree with it. Who qualifies to be an aggrieved party and where do you draw the line? Maybe Chirac should apologize for persecution of the Huguenots or Bush for the bombing of Cambodia.
Both items are difficult ones for me reconcile. Both situations seem to be pure political correctness and you know how I feel about that.
Sir John A. Macdonald instituted a head tax on Chinese immigrants. It stayed in place for decades.
The governments of the day thought head taxes were prudent. They weren't evil men. They did what they thought was the right thing for Canada. With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and enlightened outlook, we see it was neither fair nor equitable.
Should we learn from this? Certainly for those who do not learn history's lessons are doomed to repeat them.
Should the government apologize for the wrongdoing of it's predecessors? Yes, this acknowledges they've learned histories lesson.
Should the government compensate the victims? No, it would serve no purpose at this point. The victims don't need it; it's their families with dollar signs in their eyes.
These policies affected individuals but did not target individuals. The policies were racially based and that's why they were wrong.
Compensation raises the stakes from being a matter of principle to being a matter of tort law.
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As for the OPP and Caledonia, I feel for the cops on the beat. They're damned if they do anything and damned if they don't. Cops aren't passive observers as a general rule. This situation must be absolutely frustrating on so many levels.
I don't know what the OPP brass are thinking by playing this waiting game. I can understand why they'd be gun-shy given the mess from the Oka conflict but this response doesn't make sense to me.
McGuinty and his Liberals are trying to keep their hands clean of this sticky situation but buying a solution won't work. Someone used the analogy of feeding the bears. As long as you keep feeding them, you should be safe but watch what happens when you run out of food.
Whether the natives are right or wrong in their position on the land claim, it does not give them the right to flout the law of the land. They should be arrested and charged but that's not happening.
You're watching history unfold, folks. I predict the consequences of this will be long reaching and ugly.
Who qualifies to be an aggrieved party and where do you draw the line? I hear you, and yet I can't help thinking these two news items are related. The Chinese community went about their grievance patiently, and used all legal channels available to them. On the other hand, we all know what's going on in Caledonia. It's anarchy. Yet, the natives are being rewarded for their method of handling things.
Why is the Ontario government sucking up to the militant natives in Caledonia, and yet everyone is worried about the Chinese head tax being resolved in a way that didn't cause a whole town to be taken hostage?
"Roby" left a comment which I'll have to edit due to language:
This should have been resolved 100 days and more ago. The OPP should have stepped in in the first few hours, and said "look, you have an hour to clear the road before 1000 officers arrest the lot of you."
Is that racist? No. I don't care who you are, you keep your protests peaceful and off to the side. Now, because this government is lame and a bunch of wussies, we are in this mess. Not only can protestors torch a $20 million dollar hydro station (and keep me in the dark for 2 days); they are going to get money and land? F--- that. Absolutely f--- that. Round them up and lock them up. End of story.
Roby, it sounds like you live in Caledonia. Is that true? If so, please give us some first hand reporting (without the F-word if you can). I'm trying to tone things down a bit here. Thank you.
I didn't get that you were making a correlation between the two articles/issues.
RT - Actually, I just thought about that after having read Mansur's piece.
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