Current Events
Stephen Harper's Bigotry For Votes Divides Canada
NAVDEEP SINGH BAINS
A few years ago, I attended the annual Robbie Burns supper on Parliament Hill, Ottawa (Canada).
The event was a welcome opportunity for all the Members of Parliament -- I was an MP then -- to do something collegial while celebrating the heritage of Scot-Canadians.
To make the event memorable I decided to go in full Highland dress, a kilt and all. Peter MacKay -- then a Conservative MP, now a senior cabinet minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government -- and I presented the haggis and we all enjoyed the poetry of that great Scottish bard.
I learned about a culture different than my own but one inextricably linked to our wider Canadian identity.
This is the Canada I know, this is the Canada I want to preserve.
The reaction to my tartan attire, which was once banned in Britain by the Dress Act of 1746 in an attempt to suppress the Scottish culture, was one of great amusement as I was, naturally, also sporting a turban.
My children enjoy the pictures to this day. To me that image is also a fun encapsulation of our shared mosaic: distinct cultures coming together to create something uniquely Canadian.
Yet there are those who seek to turn our differing beliefs, our choices of dress, into tools for political division.
In the early 1990s, Stephen Harper and the then Reform Party (the antecedent and predecessor of the current incarnation of the Conservative party) were leading the charge in a campaign against a young RCMP officer who wanted to wear his Sikh turban while in uniform. Mr. Harper used inflamed rhetoric and encouraged the impression that part of Canada was being lost by changing a national symbol.
At the time his Reform Party called it a "needless concession to a Canadian minority."
In my view, they seemed intent to sow an "us" versus "them" mentality.
Now, uniform-appropriate turbans and kilts are worn unremarkably by police officers and by members of the Canadian Forces.
Yet, the same Stephen Harper -- now, as Prime Minister of Canada -- finds himself again on another crusade against unfamiliar clothing.
Mr. Harper is appealing a Federal court ruling which overturned his ban on wearing the niqab during citizenship ceremonies. Mr. Harper and his government seem intent on whipping us into a frenzy by claiming that allowing minor exceptions for religious beliefs in public life threatens our very way of living.
Members of his caucus, including Ontario's Larry Miller, have questioned whether someone can even be Canadian while wearing a niqab.
All this comes from the same government that introduced the Office for Religious Freedom. What purpose does this serve? How does this strengthen the fabric of our society?
By playing his latest edition of "What Not to Wear," Mr. Harper is attempting to leverage the unease some Canadians feel about Islam. But the message heard by Muslim women in Canada in 2015 will be the same heard by young Canadian Sikh men in the 1990s and as was heard by Scottish Highlanders back in the eighteenth century: there are those who do not want you here and are willing to do anything to fight the threat they perceive.
Mr. Harper's contemporary target has shifted from observant Sikh men to Muslim women but the consequence is the same: dividing Canadians.
I believe that Canadians see the strength of our shared diversity. Individuals like the young women who took to Twitter with #DressCodePM to express their displeasure with the idea of undue restrictions on religious expression, or fashion, remind me of that.
As a father of two daughters I know the kind of Canada that I want my children to grow up in. I want them to grow up in a Canada where we celebrate our differences and teach a better understanding and encourage an acceptance of other cultures. Whether you're a Sikh in a kilt or a Jew in a yarmulke or a Christian wearing a cross or a Muslim in a hijab or a niqab, your Prime Minister should be building a better country … not telling you how to dress.
The author is Visiting Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management as well as a Canadian politician with the Liberal Party.
[Courtesy: The Huffington Post. Edited for sikhchic.com]
March 25, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Harsaran Singh (Indonesia), March 25, 2015, 10:19 AM.
What a prudent statement: "Your Prime Minister should be building a better country ... not telling you how to dress". It is high time we understand that religious and ethnic tolerance is the only mantra for global peace. If most of the present day conflicts are studied, one can understand that it is the sense of insecurity and inequality which instigates a minority of people to use violent means for achieving what they think is their right. Leaders should not use jingoistic approaches for petty electoral gains. It only alienates sections of society who lose faith in the rule of law and social norms. Politicians from developed countries should be an example for the rest of the world, rather than behaving like radical elements themselves.
2: Roopinder Singh Bain (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada), March 25, 2015, 2:46 PM.
Readers of sikhchic.com may be pleasantly surprised to learn that the ancient Celts trace their "origins" to the Northern part of the Indian subcontinent. (All humans, ultimately, have their origins in Africa). Gaelic is a Sanskrit derived language as are nearly all European languages. The bagpipe also has its origins in Northern India / China.
3: Tara Kaur (Ottawa, Canada), March 25, 2015, 3:32 PM.
Sadly, neither the Conservatives (any incarnation of it) nor the Liberals (or, for that matter, any of the other parties once they actually attain power) have been impressive in their behaviour towards minorities -- ever! They never fail to disappoint, particularly in their willingness to exploit the minorities either by lying to them and making false, unkept promises, or by bad-mouthing them in order to ingratiate the ignorant ones in the majority. Sorry, Navdeep ji ... you're right, but your own party has little to be proud of in this regard.
4: Jasvir Kaur (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), March 25, 2015, 11:17 PM.
As long as ISIS is in existence I want to see in public every human being's face visible and not just the eyes. I will support any prime minister in this. No it's not islamophobia. There is no correlation between a Sikh in uniform and a burqa. Wish our own community would stop linking the two in the media. I would have loved to have seen this woman pulling this stunt during a citizenship ceremony or walking the streets freely here in the 1970s.
5: Jasmer Singh (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), March 26, 2015, 7:12 AM.
Here are the incontrovertible facts about this whole mess. Harper is a bigot who has found it opportune to go after the Muslims; he thinks it's the only chance in hell he has to get re-elected again. However, the issue he has latched on to is, ironically, an important one. I agree with those who feel that the niqab is not acceptable, even if it is shrouded in religiosity. Then, that brings me to the Liberals, whose position Navdeep represents. They are a bunch of hypocrites too, not much better than Harper's own party. They too have never done anything for the minorities and use them cynically at each election juncture, and then go about the usual politicians' shenanigans. Where does that leave us then? I think we need to turn to some other parties and give them a shot, if for nothing else, at least some variety. Out with the racist Conservatives, first, though!
6: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 26, 2015, 12:53 PM.
The author is an ex-MP as well as a wannabe MP -- he is a political candidate in the coming elections later this year -- which tells me that we need to take what he says, with a grain of salt. No doubt there is still some bigotry and racism here in Canada, but by no stretch of the imagination can our wonderful nation be painted with a broad brush: ours is an extraordinary and enlightened society where democracy works better than most places in this troubled world. I believe most Canadians including many of our elected political representatives are decent people who want the best for Canada and all Canadians. Leadership (as in a Prime Minister, for example) is an important function of Canadian democracy. Leaders of all parties in such a system must engage to unite and not divide Canadians, and lead so that Canada, our beloved country, remains at the forefront in every which way. Success of a political party in any democracy is also a function of numbers, whoever has most votes wins the majority and hence the election to form the government. This is akin to success being measured by weight and quantity. However, it is important that we nevertheless do not succumb to the game of numbers, and keep an eagle eye on quality as well. Which entails remaining steadfast with our fundamental values, such as those enshrined in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Great nations like Canada and USA have been built on the visions of their great founding fathers who tackled problems of their times by having a clear vision of the kind of nation they wanted to create, and not by leaders who resorted to injecting fear in the electorate or fragmenting it. The election of President Obama in 2008 provides the world with an example as to what I mean re looking for quality in a politician. I hope we all learn to insist on electing leaders of vision who would steer our country in the right direction and keep it at the forefront when it comes to prosperity, respect for rights and freedoms, and all our precious Canadian values ... and we continue to show the world how it should be done.
7: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), March 27, 2015, 1:10 AM.
@4: Agreed! There is absolutely no way that any of us should be supporting any comparison between a turban and a niqab. One is a symbol of empowerment, the other the complete opposite. The one is not like the other. We should not be encouraging backward aspects of peoples' culture and their manifesting themselves in a liberal democratic society. I wouldn't support backwards practices such as female infanticide or spousal abuse which are endemic in so many worldwide societies even today. Nor do I support the niqab.
8: Tony Singh (Kenora, Ontario, Canada), March 27, 2015, 11:03 PM.
How ironic to see some Sikhs supporting the wearing of face coverings by women when our Third Master discouraged the practice many centuries ago. Sikhs should distance themselves from the fundamentalist Muslims or risk being tarnished with the same brush.