After the Montreal shootings, Charlesbourg MP Daniel Petit of the Conservative Party of Canada made the following comment:
"the reason that the three gunmen terrorized Montreal campuses was because they were not "pure laines" (old-stock francophones)."This is a racist comment. This comment is unbecoming of a Member of Parliament of any party. An apology is not enough, punishment is necessary.
Where is the outrage on the Blogging Tories? I remember a few weeks ago when they jumped on Denis Coderre for attending a pro-Lebanese rally in Quebec, without acknowledging the fact that the MP spoke against terrorism. Garth Turner is all over those Lebanese-Canadians, who have now returned to their homes after being evacuated.
The Liberal Party of Canada has already issued a statement calling for Mr Petit to resign, or for Prime Minister Harper to sack him.
See also A Conservative Blogger's "Paki" Rant
Tags: Racism Canada Conservative Party
8 comments:
May 2005 12:40:20 EDT
CBC News
OTTAWA - Treasury Board President Reg Alcock has apologized to a Conservative MP who accused him of racism for saying the Liberals would look "a little higher up the gene pool" if they wanted to recruit a new ambassador from opposition ranks.
Alcock denied his comment was racist, however, and rejected Inky Mark's call for his resignation.
TORONTO. The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) is appalled by the references made by an ex-Vice President of the Liberal Party, Mike
Klander, who compared Toronto NDP candidate, Olivia Chow, with a chow chow dog on his internet blog. The blog has been described as "bordering on racist”.
I think he should at least be suspended from caucus and expelled permanantely if he makes another such comment.
I agree that racism still exists in Quebec as everywhere in Canada, but to say the attack was because there were not pure laines is nonsense. Lets work on stopping racism against all groups in all parts of Canada. Anyways with an election likely within the next eight months and considering he only narrowly won his riding, there is a good chance he will lose his seat anyways.
Maybe I'm just getting cynical about the intelligence level of MPs, but I don't think it's that big a deal. Wrong, sure - but not wrong enough to get me excited enough to be angry. On the other hand, maybe I'm just so blown away by Jan Wong's ignorance that this, on that story's heels, doesn't seem as big as it might otherwise? Heck, maybe it's just too late at night...
All I can say is that an elected official would best serve his or her constituents by minding one's words and taking care to be be inclusive of people rather than taking a side (off-side in this case).
If an elected official, or one who hopes to be officially elected, wants to cast aspersions based on race, or on cultural priority, perhaps he or she is not the best representation of the constituents as is possible.
I'm just sayin' eh.
ontario lad, wilson61: as usual you have run away from the issue. Do you support such statements by a member of the governing party or not. If you do not, then you should join in asking for the member's resignation. Don't bring to the discussion what this lberal or that liberal may have said some long time ago.
miles: he should be dropped from committees where he is a member of and given reduced parliamentary priviledges.
jason: it is not that big a deal but still is - he has shown an ugly racist side here that is truly offensive to immigrants, and Harper must punish him as member of the governing party.
anon: truly.
I agree with anonymous, but - like I said, I think I'm just getting cynical about MPs. I'm actually not even surprised by this. Two years ago, maybe I'd have really been shocked - today, not at all. Out of the 308 of them, or however many there are, there's just a handful that would surprise me by saying stupid things. They're all just idiots.
This guy of course should have thought harder - a lot harder - before speaking. I guess I'm just resigned to expecting a moron-level IQ from them all. (Which sucks)
Ontario Lad - Mezba is right. The old 'they did it too' is an ad hominem argument and contributes nothing. The question is whether people in his position - in any party - should feel free to make such comments without censure. I for one think they should not. Instead of hiding behind the fact that you can find racists in the woodwork of any sufficiently large institution, you should be denouncing these comments so the next time a Liberal does it you can take them to task without being a complete hypocrite.
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