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Harper has been replaying the War of 1812 all year, to commemorate its bicentennial. More important, to deflect criticism for cutting heritage and cultural funding for various programs such as Library and Archives Canada, he is setting himself up as a heritage hero with his splashy commemoration. The cost of the celebration? $28 million, but that is not quite enough.
On September 2, a piece by the Ottawa Citizen's Heavy Thinker Robert Sibley appeared in that paper. "Digging up hatred" was the headline. Beginning with a discussion of a Peruvian neo-Nazi Jew-hater, it continued by examining anti-Semitism in other places. The existence of the problem in Canada was illustrated by the case of Klibanov and Bergamini, Carleton University students and Israel supporters, allegedly pursued from a bar in Hull, Quebec, by Muslim students from that same university.
Mira Sucharov, who teaches political science at Carleton University, was invited to deliver the sermon at First Unitarian Congregation in Ottawa on September 23, during the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Jacob Caines, the church's music director, blew the shofar for the service.
Carleton University's effort at promoting intergroup harmony has been received on campus with something less than universal applause. The report of the Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial relations on Campus relies on a survey of students, faculty, and employees. The Commission was chaired by former Senator Landon Pearson. An immediate issue arises with the response rate. Fewer than 12% of the students responded. Does that response rate itself tell us something? Perhaps that the concerns explored in the study were simply not salient, that people were not concerned? Then there is the question of sheer numbers. The report gives particular attention to Jews. Yet there were only 29 Jewish employees and 28 Jewish students in the sample.
Back in 1971, President Richard Nixon's special counsel Charles Colson compiled an enemies list, a list of people Nixon did not like. John Dean, another Nixon counsel, explained the purpose of the list-"how we can use available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." Well, it appears that the Harper government has its own enemies list, with Cindy Blackstock having a strong presence on the list. Why might that be?
It was some years ago when Bill Davis was Premier of Ontario that I attended a program put on by Toronto Muslims to acquaint people, thought to be of authority or influence, with the Muslim community and its wants and needs. I was invited because I was the Unitarian in a group representative of the various religions working on a broadly based book of prayers and readings for the Toronto Board of Education, a book to replace the sole reliance on the Lord's Prayer in opening exercises in the schools.
When it comes to a coordinated effort to address crime in Winnipeg, key actors, including the mayor and chief of police, have been missing, not in action but in inaction. That is what Lisa Monchalin, a Métise, concluded in her Ph.D dissertation on reducing crime among Aboriginals in Winnipeg. She earned her degree in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.
Foreign Minister John Baird went down to New York to address the UN General Assembly in opposition to admission of Palestine as a non-member observer state and to cast Canada's vote against it. He issued Canada's condemnation of the move "in the strongest possible terms." The extent of his influence in the international community can be judged in the resulting vote, where Canada stood foursquare in the General Assembly with the United States, Israel, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, and a handful of other ministates. (Incidentally, may we expect to see the opening of an Israeli embassy in Majuro sometime soon, with an Israeli-Marshallese exchange of ambassadors?) Baird's reasoning is that peace between Israel and Palestine can only be achieved through direct negotiations, not through a unilateral request by Palestine for recognition.
One of the criteria of anti-Semitism listed by the so-called Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism reads as follows: "applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation." This criterion is a bit strained, suggesting the necessity of chasing after other nation's misdeeds before being able to say an unkind word about Israel's, but let's take it as it is.
When Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall was confronted with the case of a refugee with cancer, one of the many cut off medical care by the federal Tories, he was outraged, and committed his province to meeting the health care needs of refugees in his province. "It is unbelievable that some of the decisions that have been taken federally are having this impact on people who are clearly the most vulnerable, refugees who are obviously fleeing something quite terrible-that's why they're refugees." And this from a man who is thought to be a potential successor to Stephen Harper as head of the federal Conservative Party.
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