Canada used to have a reputation as a peaceful, law-abiding country. At least, most of it did: while Quebec harboured a terrorist organization for a few years in the 1960’s and early 70’s, the rest of the place was a snooze-fest. Toronto the Good. Cowtown, aka Calgary. Victoria, home of the newly wed and nearly dead. Canada was boring, and that boring-ness was highly attractive to millions of immigrants fleeing the ravages of war-torn Europe, or communist Vietnam, or various other oppressive or poverty-stricken regimes.
Not anymore. Now, we have pro-Hamas rioters torching stores and attacking police in Montreal last Friday night. We have anti-Israel protesters blocking streets, vandalizing Jewish business, and terrorizing Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto and Ottawa with impunity. We have pro-Khalistani mobs beating up Hindu worshippers outside their temple, and brawling in the streets of Brampton, Ont. two weeks ago. Our cities have become ground central for ethnic grievance. Scores of people now think it acceptable to appropriate public space for their personal use and attack fellow citizens and damage private property in the name of their “cause.”
Where are our leaders in this mess? Well, during the Friday riots in Montreal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was partying at the Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. It’s fine to enjoy a night out with your kids, except that a national leader doesn’t get to Shake it Off: Trudeau should have left the event to deal with the crisis. Then on Sunday, at yet another pro-Hamas rally in Toronto, police arrested Ezra Levant, CEO of Rebel News who was on site filming the event. The demonstrators were allowed to continue breaking hate laws, while Levant was taken away “in the interests of public safety.”
What the hell has happened to Canada? Have we entered the Upside Down? And just how did we morph from America’s over-polite neighbour into an angry balkanized grievance factory?
As usual, the road to hell was paved with good, if not smug, intentions. Instead of a melting pot, where everyone became “American,” Canadians prided themselves on being a mosaic, where newcomers were encouraged to retain their cultural identity. In 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau instituted a policy of official multiculturalism, tossing federal dollars at organizations dedicated to preserving the heritage of immigrant communities. In 1982, he officially enshrined multiculturalism in section 27 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, giving the concept constitutional status.
While multiculturalism has always been a fact in an immigration-fuelled country like Canada, making it a policy with perpetual legal protection is a different story. Trudeau père did so for two reasons: as a counterweight to the rise of domestic terrorism in Quebec, in the form of the Front du Liberation du Quebec, or FLQ, and as a way to coopt voter blocs to the Liberal Party. It’s easy to forget today how divided the country was in the 1970s and 80’s, when the predominant question was whether Quebec would exit Canada. Papering over the “two solitudes” with a multicultural veneer was a strategic choice, with the added benefit that “cultural communities” would give Trudeau’s party electoral support.
The irony, of course, is that Trudeau wasn’t one to tolerate violent dissent. When the FLQ kidnapped and murdered provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte in October 1970, the prime minister invoked the War Measures Act, deployed the army, and jailed 600 people. This crushed the FLQ, and the independence movement instead pursued its quest under the Parti Quebecois by democratic means.
Today, as sectarian mobs perpetuate violence, hatred, and destruction on the streets of our cities, it shouldn’t take a death to restore law and order. We don’t need the Emergencies Act, as the War Measures Act is now known, but we do need our leadership to take a stand, and our police to apply the law. It’s very simple: Hate speech is not protected, and vandalizing property, beating people up and attacking the police are illegal. Anarchy is not ok, and multiculturalism does not entitle you to force your grievances on everyone else. We must restore public order in Canada, and it starts at the top.
Postmedia Network
Tasha Kheiriddin is Postmedia’s national politics columnist.