Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Canada: Our Time To Turtle - Globe and Mail Hits Multiculturalism with Yellow Journalism

According to the Globe and Mail, we are now a nation living in fear of immigrants' "barbaric practices" where tolerance is a myth.


I find this article totally off the mark and very carelessly written, to give it the benefit of the doubt.

For example, the paragraph that begins...

The prevailing fear was that multiculturalism would provide cover for barbaric practices, such as...

"Prevailing fear"? excuse me? I haven't noticed fear prevailing anywhere, either in the '90s or now. Other than fear emanating from purveyors of fear.

Sounds more like ad nauseum repetition of same old same old.

So because of 9-11 and some ridiculous mythical "prevailing fear" (give me a break - LOL) we are going to start rethinking multiculturalism?

No. It's just that xenophobia is a tried and true rallying point for the fearful and the bullies, and serves as a convenient magnet to attract certain people to a political position that is totally against their own best interests.

The only thing new here is that up until now it isn't what the Globe and Mail has been most noted for.

And, by the way, spare us the "Canada: Our Time to Lead" jingoistic appeal to the patriotic among us. Just because your Stephen Brunt did hit a clear and rather genuine patriotic note with most Canadians in a CTV piece half a year ago doesn't give you any right to surf with your awkward and illogically constructed gibberish on his coattails.

At that, a possibly even better description of Canada was found in a Ben Mulroney interview of Donald Sutherland which, interestingly, disappeared off the internet leaving scarcely a trace within a couple of days or even hours after its first appearance at the tail end of the Olympics. In it, Sutherland said Canada feeds the wolf of generosity and kindness...

No, tolerance is still not a myth in Canada. Tolerance, not fear, does prevail. However my tolerance for crappy journalism is coming to an end.

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