sliced bread #2

Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

victim politics

--------------------

It has become fashionable to apologize, and this is particularly true with respect to historical wrongs which, since they involve actions of others, long dead, and hence are free of any personal culpability, are apologies that are inherently easy to make. We have seen Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, apologize for British indifference to the potato famine of the 1840s. On the other hand, Mr. Blair has steadfastly refused Archbishop Desmond Tutu's demand that he apologize for Britain's role in the "immoral" Iraq war. Former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney apologized to Japanese-Canadians in 1988 for their internment during the Second World War, and offered a settlement costing taxpayers $422-million. However, Mr. Mulroney has yet to apologize for putting Canadians through the wrenching and divisive national debate over the Meech Lake Accord.

Now, Stephen Harper has stood in the House of Commons and apologized for the Chinese head tax that was established in 1885 under the Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald, and last collected 62 years ago under the government of William Lyon Mckenzie King. Mr. Harper also announced the government would pay financial compensation and fund programs totalling $35-million.

There is no doubt that the head tax was racist, and its use to try to limit Chinese immigration was shameful. It is not, however, equivalent to the plight of the ethnic Japanese in Canada during the Second World War. It was an unfortunate episode in Canadian history, of which there are many. To deal with these issues, the government of Canada has established a pot of money, appropriately called
Acknowledgment, Commemoration and Education. However, the government is not so awash in tax dollars that it can begin to pay compensation for everything.

Victim groups are swarming to this pot as bees to nectar. According to government records released to the Winnipeg Free Press, Ukrainians want $12.5-million for their internment during the First World War. The Germans want $12.5-million, too. The Italians want $12.5-million for the internment of 700 men during the Second World War. The Sikhs want $4-million, the Croats $2.8-million, and the Jews $2-million for being barred from immigrating to Canada between 1923 and 1945. African Canadians and Doukhobors want another $7-million for unspecified grievances.

Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson, rare among journalists, has counted 13 such groups, and rightly sees Ottawa's surrender to the CCNC as flipping open Pandora's box. When ACE took shape, Simpson wrote, it "quickly attracted lineups of groups claiming victimization and demanding their share of the pot: Ukrainians"
already given some compensation for their internment in the First World War "Italians, Germans, Croatians, Chinese, Sikhs, Jews, blacks. Others are sure to follow."

Stephen Harper has made a huge and costly mistake
it is stupid, divisive and, emphatically, fresh discrimination, since it "discriminates" against other groups that demand similar treatment. History is never black and white — except for the approved Canadian version, which is increasingly a narrative of oppressors and oppressed. A mari usque ad mare, we are a group of victims united only by our collective sense that, somehow, somewhere, Canada has done us wrong. I believe the general principle enunciated by Pierre Elliott Trudeau holds true: we, as Canadians, can only aim to be just in our own time.


--------------------

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home