#1. CABBIE STABBED - ASSAILANT AN ASIAN
That sure came as a surprise to cabbies: an Asian robber. So far, the robbers have tended to be white males and females, usually druggies. But this one caught them by surprise.
Santokh Heer of Bonny's Taxi was robbed at knife-point and suffered slash wounds to wrists and a stab wound to the neck on Wednesday at 6:45 a.m. at 56 Avenue and 201A Street in Langley.
Langley RCMP Cpl. Peter Thiessen said the stabbing resulted in significant blood loss and he was taken to Royal Columbian Hospital. He said the police had seized the security camera in the cab for evidence.
The Asian passenger had been apparently picked up in Surrey and made several stops en route to Langley and within Langley. He was in his 40's and wore dark clothes. The Langley RCMP Serious Crime Section is investigating.
Meanwhile, a Surrey cabbie told The VOICE that the police should have released the suspect's picture since they seized the security camera in the cab. He said he wanted to know what the suspect looked like so that he could protect himself.
He was very angry with the Surrey RCMP, saying that he didn't even bother telling them about being robbed himself three months ago by a white passenger who took out a hypodermic needle and demanded cash from him. He said he was too scared to get scratched by a needle and possibly get infected with the HIV virus. So he whipped out a $20 bill and handed it to him. However, when the robber demanded more money, then the cabbie, who's white himself, got angry and told him to go away, warning him that he would never forget his face and to stay away from his cab in future.
He said it was of no use telling the police because he alleged they never catch the robbers. He pointed out that they could not even catch the killers of the six men who had been executed gang-style on October 19 in an apartment near the King George SkyTrain Station.
It's unfortunate that cab drivers have to put up with such risks. Even security cameras and other measures do not guarantee 100-percent security. Cabbies also face racial slurs from white passengers quite often. There have even been cases of white women not paying their fare and then threatening Indo-Canadian cabbies that they would accuse them of sexual assault.
#2. IMPORTANT TO WOO MINORITIES
I found it really amusing to read an opinion piece by none other than Karl Rove - U.S. President George Bush's powerful former top advisor who is considered to be a brilliant political strategist - in the prestigious Newsweek magazine entitled "How to Beat Hillary (Next) November."
Under the sub-heading, "Go after people who aren't traditional Republicans," he notes: "Aggressively campaign for the votes of America's minorities. Go to their communities, listen and learn, demonstrate your engagement and emphasize how your message can provide hope and access to the American Dream for all. The GOP candidate must ASK for the vote in every part of the electorate. He needs to do better among minorities, and be seen as trying." (Emphasis is Rove's).
Read that once again and notice words and phrases such as AGGRESSIVELY, GO TO, LISTEN AND LEARN, DEMONSTRATE, EMPHASIZE, ASK FOR, BE SEEN AS TRYING.
That paragraph sure packs a punch!
You can be sure that is the SAME advice that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have been receiving in some form or the other. Because the fact is - as The VOICE has been pointing out consistently and aggressively for the past decade - you cannot hope to won an election in Canada without the support of minorities. The same is now true in the U.S. where white racists are hysterically shrieking against especially Latinos or Hispanics whose political, cultural and linguistic influence is giving them nightmares. But without their support, the Republicans cannot dream of winning a Presidential election. Even many governors, senators and representatives from states where they form a solid chunk of the population quiver before them.
The times they are a-changin', me thinks!
#3. WHY CANADA HAS TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO IMITATE U.S.
There are too many STUPID Canadians in authority who want to blindly imitate the United States, especially in the post-9/11 era. What is even more amusing (or should I say, disgusting) is that while even in the U.S. many are determined to reverse some of the highly undemocratic steps the U.S. has unfortunately adopted out of fright in the new terrorist era, quite a few DUMB Canadians want to introduce those Draconian measures here in Canada.
Newsweek's Editor of International editions Fareed Zakaria in a column entitled "America the Unwelcoming" notes: "Every American who has a friend abroad has heard some story about the absurd hassle and humiliation of entering or exiting the United States. But these pale in comparison to the experience of foreigners who commit minor infractions."
Zakaria then goes on to relate the experiences of people such as a tourist from New Zealand who mistakenly overstayed his visa by a couple of days and ended up in jail for six weeks or a German visitor who overstayed her visa by a couple of days and landed up in jail, too, facing deportation and a 10-year ban.
So why would any sane, self-respecting person want to go to the U.S.? That's why the U.S. is the ONLY country in the world to which travel has actually declined in the midst of a tourism boom all around the world. As Zakaria notes, this is NOT about Arabs or Muslims. In the past seven years, the number of Japanese visiting the U.S. has plunged from 5 million to 3.6 million. Although the numbers are now increasing, they are not expected to reach the 2000 levels even by 2010.
Even tourists from Great Britain - America's "special relationship" ally - are staying away from the U.S. Between 200 and 2006, the number of British visitors declined by 11 per cent. Yet in the same period, British travel to India went up 102 percent, and to Turkey 82 percent.
What does all that tell you?
The Taser death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski has damaged Canada's image worldwide. It has also damaged the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency's image.
But still, Canada is known as a DECENT nation, though we can't take it for granted. Unless the CBSA and the police change their attitude, things won't be too good for Canadian tourism or business or anything else.
#4. CANADIAN SUBTLE RACISM GOES ON AND ON!
Canadian Muslim Shahid Mahmood, a Toronto-born editorial cartoonist, has complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for not being allowed to buy a ticket for a domestic Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Victoria in 2004 quite apparently because of racial profiling. He was flagged as a security threat. But his Chilean-born wife was allowed to buy a ticket. The airline has never provided him with a reason for that refusal.
Maybe, all of us should boycott Air Canada - I will for one. Screw them!
I noticed the same discriminatory treatment from a white CBSA officer when I returned to Canada from a trip to Seattle last weekend on a Greyhound bus. He scanned my passport to verify its authenticity although he was very polite and let me through within seconds. Yet he never scanned the passports of all the WHITE guys before me. But he did scan another Canadian passport - that of a white guy with a Spanish accent!
On the other hand, another white CBSA officer easily allowed a young white woman to enter Canada although she claimed she had lost her birth certificate in the U.S.! Can you imagine a BROWN person getting the same treatment?
In my case, I have found the American border agents to be really good - indeed, a bit too good, to me.
That is the typical white Canadian SUBTLE racism for you!
#5. POLITICIANS SHOULD REMOVE THEIR OWN IGNORANT, RACIST VEILS
Back on September 15, I had in an article entitled "Chief Electoral Officer exposes ignorance of Prime Minister and leaders of opposition parties," exposed the hypocrisy and/or ignorance of our politicians in regards to the Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand allowing Muslim women who wear niqabs or burkas to vote even if they refuse to show their faces at the polling station as long as they show two government-issued IDs or have another voter vouch for their identity.
I wrote about Prime Minister Stephen Harper accusing Mayrand of undermining Parliament and noting that Parliament had passed a law this past spring that required visual identification of voters and calling on him to reconsider his decision. Opposition leaders were quick to jump on Harper's bandwagon, but they ended up with egg on their face when Mayrand pointed out their IGNORANCE of the law that they themselves had passed:
* The Act does not require confirming the identity of an elector by use of photo ID.
* Electors can also vote by mail - so you don't have to show your face anyway. In fact, more than 80,000 electors did so in the 2006 general election.
* On May 16, during the study of Bill C-31, while testifying before the Senate, he indicated that under the rules being studied, individuals could vote without having to uncover their face; yet Parliament did not choose to amend the bill at the time.
Later, Mayrand also bluntly let the Commons standing committee know that it cannot "adapt and amend an Act of Parliament" and pointed out "that would be a request for me to amend the Act, not uphold the law," when its members tried to pressure him into changing the rules so that veiled women would be forced to show their faces.
So I was really thrilled this week when I learned that at least the federal Liberals had gathered enough guts to oppose any stupid law that was really not necessary - BUT I was terribly dismayed at the federal NDP for going with the crwod, so to speak. I had expected the NDP to do what the Liberals were doing. Talk of hypocrisy! Shame on NDP Leader Jack Layton and his spineless NDP MPs!
Liberal boss Stéphane Dion told the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations in a speech last Friday: "The truth is this bill is nothing but political pandering and Liberals will not participate in this kind of political ploy. If the Conservatives want to come forward with serious measures that improve the integrity of our voting system we will be prepared to work with them, but if they are going to play politics with our voting system in a manner that targets a specific segment of our population, we will oppose them."
As the Liberals explained, "the Conservative government has proposed new election legislation requiring individuals to uncover their faces before voting in a federal election. Many have argued that this legislation is targeted at veiled Muslim women and has deliberately framed the debate about voter identification in a dishonest way.
"It is important to remember that many groups representing Muslim women pointed out that they were not asking to be excluded from identification at voting stations under current election rules and felt that the government was unfairly creating the impression that they were lobbying to be excluded from a law that did not even exist."
Dion noted: "The Conservatives are now introducing legislation they say will require visual identification during an election, when in reality, all their bill does is force voters who show up at a polling station to uncover their face with no corresponding requirement to show a piece of photo identification. I ask you: what is the point in forcing someone to show their face if that person is not required to show photo identification? How does that make our electoral process more secure?
"Equally perplexing is that those who vote by mail never even need to meet with another human being, let alone uncover their face."
Under the new legislation, individuals will still be allowed to vote after providing two pieces of non-photo identification and will still have the option of mailing in their ballet with no visual confirmation of their identity.
Dion blunt,y noted: "While Canada has long been a beacon of human rights in a troubled world, racism is unfortunately still a reality in our society. The best way to fight racism is to educate Canadians about our differences and in doing so, we will move beyond the concept of a tolerant society toward one of true equality."
Meanwhile, Liberal Multiculturalism Critic Colleen Beaumier slammed the NDP for supporting the new bill.
She said: "The support of the NDP ensures that the government will have enough votes to pass this shameful bill through the House of Commons."
#6. SOME INDO-CANADIANS SHOULD STOP PLAYING DIRTY POLITICS
It is now quite obvious that certain individuals in the Indo-Canadian community who want to get themselves appointed to a VANOC committee or board for their own fat ego are inciting others to re-ignite the Bruce Allen controversy and are unnecessarily involving the community just to achieve their selfish personal ambitions. I would support their stand if they publicly declare that themselves are not trying for such positions and will not accept them.
In fact, the Burnaby City Council's VANOC resolution requesting Jack Poole, chair of VANOC, to make certain that persons serving on VANOC committees and boards appropriately reflect and represent Canada's rich multicultural diversity comes too late in the day. (See NEWS ROUNDUP). Why did it take so long to come up with this resolution - and that too after the whole Bruce Allen controversy is dead for all practical purposes?
The VOICE supports Allen who has already apologized for certain ignorant comments he made about immigrants on Radio CKNW and cleared up the matter. I would advise those out to replace him to do something more constructive. These same people never spoke up when The VOICE attacked Premier Gordon Campbell for not including an Indo-Canadian cultural item at the welcoming ceremony for visiting Olympic Committee members a few years ago. They should stop playing dirty politics.
#7. BRING IN NEW LEGISLATION TO SOLVE RCMP-CSIS CONFLICT
I am sure glad that the former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was brutally honest before the Air India inquiry on Friday in Ottawa when he said that the relationship between the RCMP and CSIS is "AMOST UNWORKABLE" and new legislation is required to solve their problems and place both agencies under one authority.
He said: "There is exchange of information, and good co-operation takes place, but the legislation and the policies around the legislation and the creation of CSIS actually forced the men and women of CSIS and the RCMP to work under a very difficult and almost unworkable regime. That's the essence of the problem here. So the exchange takes place. But every time it was a laborious process. It was a very difficult and frustrating process for both organizations."
Zaccardelli alleged that CSIS had a very narrow interpretation of the 1984 CSIS Act and that made it very hard for police to get information they needed in criminal investigations.
However, I must put any blame for confusion on the bureaucrats and politicians who should have made sure that the 1984 legislation was workable. Also, they should have taken measures to rectify matters much earlier than now.
I must give credit to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for keeping his promise to hold an Air India public inquiry to get the truth out. The head of the inquiry, Justice John Major, was an ideal choice. We will all benefit from this whole exercise.
- RATTAN MALL
|
