Talking Bigotry
Apparently, Liberal MP Raymond Chan has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission over what he calls discriminatory remarks made by a top music promoter.
Bruce Allen, who represents singers Michael Buble and Bryan Adams (Sooey fact: I don't actually know who Michael Buble is, except that he's Canadian and has hit the big-time) - during a daily editorial (no good EVER comes of daily editorials) said the usual bigoted things doofii say on hate radio during their daily editorials, essentially that "immigrants should stop seeking special treatment in Canada or not move here".
Oh - and Mr. Allen, super-agent to the Canadian stars, is also on the team that will organize the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
His rant mostly focused on the usual target out West - Sikhs and Turbans - with a more up-to-date doofii-at-large inclusiveness that also tagged Muslim women and THE VEIL!!
Seriously, do you ever wonder if bigotry in Canada could be eliminated altogether if only these new-fangled religions that aren't Christian would can the foreign-looking headgear and switch to something Her Majesty the Queen would wear on a day out meeting the mourners outside Buckingham Palace or the Masai in Africa or perhaps even on one of her anonymous excursions to the Dollar Store for cheap underwear and glow-in-the-dark candy?
Anyway, Mr. Allen led into his bit of immigrant bashing with this head's up: "If I didn't know any better, I'd say there has been a lot of immigrant-bashing going on in recent months," before proceeding to damn the torpedoes.
And remember - this was all on the radio. It's not like Mr. Allen, Olympic Organizatian, went into his closet to say this stuff. He said it on the radio for all and sundry - including the alluded to much bashed immigrants - to hear and be so apprised of his gratuitous bigotry.
He went on about immigration officials refusing to admit Sikh immigrants who used only Singh as their last names "to avoid administrative mistakes," (a policy that has already been reversed), and, of course, to attack the oh-so-done turban-wearing Mounties, etc etc (you know, because that signature dork hat is so effective in fighting crime).
But by way of updating his bigotry, he then carried on about Elections Canada allowing VEILED WOMEN!! to vote in elections, yaddayaddablahblah. (Sometimes I think if there weren't VEILED WOMEN!! trying to vote in elections, the New Conservative Government of Canada would have to invent them to deflect attention away from its election advertising irregularities.)
But this somewhat incredible bit, given that it's the year 2007 and it was said in Canada on the radio, is what caught my eye when I read it on my forum courtesy one of the posters there:
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"This is all very simple," he said. "We have laws in this country. They are spelled out and they're easy to get a hold of. If you're immigrating to this country and you don't like the rules that are in place then you have the right to choose not to live here.
"But it seems more and more that we are being pilloried by special interest groups that just want to make special rules for themselves. This is easy to solve: these are the rules, there's the door. If you don't like the rules, hit it. We don't need you here. You have another place to go - it's called home. See ya."
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Okay. That, Dear Reader, is typical of the pointless bigotry that passes for political commentary on hate radio. Because, in fact, when one is Canadian, if one doesn't like the rules, one has every right to challenge them. It's part and parcel of being Canadian - no matter when you got here or how you arrived. That's how women's rights were advanced in this country - by Canadians challenging existing rules. It's the same thing with our laws. Laws can be challenged in court - that's how we became the democracy that we are.
Discriminatory rules and laws can be challenged and defeated and we are the better society for it.
It's called progress.
And the very fact that someone like Bruce Allen has a voice in this country - on the radio, no less, and not to mention being on the organizing team for the 2010 Olympics when he isn't also representing Canadian pop stars - tells me that, in fact, we DO need recent immigrants to challenge our rules and laws - or whatever word you want to use for the status quo. If we aren't accommodating new Canadians because we have discriminatory rules and laws in place, then those rules and laws need to be canned. There simply is no place for discrimination in this country - anymore.
It was previous generations of Canadians who got the ball rolling and it's not up to Bruce Allen or anyone other Canadian to stop it just because he already has all his rights now, thank you very much.
We evolve. It's what we do best.
The 2007 fact is, Canadians cannot have one system for people already here and another system for all the people who will come here. Democracy and the right to freedom from discrimination are for everybody, not just Judeo-Christians.
So yeah, those days are over and Mr. Allen will be censured for his opinions, not because he has them, but because he splattered them all over the airwaves.
