Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Letters Accuses Harper of Racism

A letter signed by 185 groups and individuals charges that Harper is anti-Muslim.
Harper government anti-Muslim, letter charges.
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Signed by Muslim and non-Muslim lawyers, academics, and public policy commentators, the letter says Harper's silence and inaction on Khadr's case is much different than his approach to other cases, and suggests it is motivated by a lack of regard for Muslim Canadians.
I think this letter is deserving of comment, and I have to say I agree with the central charge of this letter. This is a serious allegation and for the first time in recent times the government of Canada has been accused of racism.

I have no sympathies with the Khadr family and I wish the US soldiers who captured him had put a bullet right and prevented us from dealing with this saga. However, he has been captured alive and it is Canada's duty to see justice prevails.

If he is guilty, punish him. If he is innocent, bring him home. To have him remain in limbo is not justice, and the "new" government of Canada has dragged its heels.

On the flip side, I am surprised the help provided to Lebanese-Canadians during the Israel attack on Lebanon in 2006 is not mentioned by the letter.

4 comments:

KC said...

This is a serious allegation and for the first time in recent times the government of Canada has been accused of racism.

No its not. Not by a long time. Canada's treatment of First Nations people, asian immigrants, and others have attracted this accusation before.

mezba said...

Noted. You are right.

mezba said...

Lyn: Canada actually started to open her borders to non-Anglo immigrants and embrace multiculturalism very lately, driven by Pierre E Trudeau and the Liberal Party.

Canada's acceptance rate of refugees is one of the lowest in the Western World. I support this position as I think one of the reasons why diversity of cultures has worked in Canada is because they have let in mostly high quality and educated immigrants.

Canada is one of several countries where Muslim immigrants took advantage of charity and hospitality, became "citizens," got passports, and travelled around the world joining jihadist movements.

Do you have any numbers on this? If you did you would find the numbers statistically insignificant. I mean, I only know of Khadr and that airport bomber, and that's 2 families out of a population of 3 million Muslims in Canada.

And you also naively assume all Muslims in Canada are immigrants.

KC said...

Mezba - 3 million Muslims in Canada? Thats significantly higher than any estimate I've heard before. The 2001 Census had the number pegged at 579,000 and while Im sure there has been substantial growth since then I find 600% growth hard to believe.

... Not that it matters. 2 out of 579,000 is as statistically insignificant as 2 out of 3,000,000. I've just never heard that claim before.