Digital Journal Article: Writer Blasts The Canadian Public & Media For Racism Against Tamil Migrants.
In the Media
Opinion: Nasty Cycle of Prejudice Repeats Again with Tamil Refugees
By Hans Smedbol .
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The recent unfolding drama of the MV Sun Sea, approaching the coast of B.C. with its cargo of Sri Lankan Tamil refugee claimants, if nothing else, once again highlights the typical response by the Canadian public to an influx of people from foreign lands.
In the last couple of days, we have seen the imminent arrival of a dilapidated freighter, named MV Sun Sea, registered in Thailand, and carrying a cargo of some 500 Sri Lankan Tamils seeking and claiming asylum here in Canada with attendant refugee status, thus bypassing the usual immigrant stream.
They have come because of a perceived danger to the people on board from the recently victorious Sri Lankan, Sinhalese majority government military suppression of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka after a long civil war in which atrocities were committed by both sides in the unending struggle. This struggle was commenced by some of the Tamils living in Lanka due to their perceptions of everyday oppression and repression, as well as prejudicial racist treatment by the majority Sinhalese ever since the liberation of Sri Lanka from British rule.
In reality this conflict can be traced to the British empire methods of “Divide et Impera”, or “divide and conquer”, by which they maintained an easier grip on colonial power if they played the locals off against one another, profiting from supplying both sides until anemic from blood loss they would ask the British for help in governing. It worked very well over the years of the Empire, but it wreaked havoc on the locals after the British left, as the Divide and conquer idea now degraded into just divide and have a civil war…or as in India/Pakistan, divide and murder each other freely. So due to this Imperialistic policy, and due to other more local causes, the country of Lanka has been locked in civil war for a very long time, during which both sides committed unknown amounts of atrocities on each other, each blaming the other for committing war crimes and each being guilty themselves.
Finally the Tamils lost their gamble for freedom from the hated Sinhalese oppression, and have been openly repressed, to the point of being slaughtered, en masse since, as well as being confined to prison camps, while the Sinhalese steal what little land the Tamils previous had. Understandably many Tamils found this unbearable and sought an exit, and finding one on the Thai registered ship MV Sun Sea, hoping that they might find some peace from the eternal hatred and conflicts of their native land, where they may daily face the threat of torture or death from the Sinhalese military. These Tamils, fleeing their native land, have now arrived after a long and perilous journey on a dilapidated and over crowded freighter, in Esquimalt, where they are being processed according to their refugee claims, with the avowed aim by the Canadian government to sift out the “terrorists” and “human traffickers” from the legitimate refugees, and to deal with them swiftly and severely.
The legitimate refugee claimants on the other hand would be investigated as to their actual refugee status, and then either allowed into Canada as refugees, or sent back home as failed claimants. All of this the government is laudably carrying out at some expense, as is expected by the world body, the UNHCR, who praised Canada’s current handling of the crisis. What some may not realise is that Canada has signed international agreements having the force of international law to abide by the UNHCR’s guidelines for accepting or rejecting refugee claimants. When one follows this developing story through various media sources, one is struck by the various words used by media to describe this phenomenon, of a boatload of refugees landing and seeking asylum. We read occasionally of “refugees” , “refugee claimants”, and more often of “migrants”, or even “criminals” and “terrorists”. This choice of language to describe the refugee claimants has seriously coloured and skewed the view which one is encouraged to take towards these people, and many Canadians have responded in a very negative manner to these folks seeking asylum here.
When one reads the comments to these stories, the gloves really come off and the racist and bigoted comments far prevail over cooler heads. I would venture to suggest that about 90% of all the comments that I have read about this story have been filled with negative and bigoted views, spewing lots of venom and racial hatred all over the place. This is unfathomable and unforgiveable in this 21st century, where most Canadians consider themselves to be a civilised people. This fond illusion, or rather self-delusion, is increasingly shown to be utterly untrue, when one reads the prejudiced and bigoted comments by a wide cross-section of the Computer using Canadian public. Despite our claims to being an “enlightened” and “civilised” society, when I read some of the comments made by ordinary Canadians visavis the Tamil refugee claimants, as well as immigration issues in general, I am appalled and amazed by the ignorance and prejudiced bigotry so blatantly displayed by these folks.
Although there is something to be said for such ignorance in a less literate and educated society, I do not believe that there is any place in a somewhat more mature (hopefully)_society, such as we in Canada like to think we embody. Not only must we abide by the international agreements which we sign, but we should be positively enthusiastic about doing so, as it is really only the “right” thing to do.
When the UNHCR gives us some conditional approval for our handling of this refugee crisis on our shores, it is as much to remind us of our obligations, as it is a compliment, and furthermore is meant to force our attentions towards the right and proper thing to do with these folks, which is to admit them to Canada provisionally, whilst under investigation as to the validity of each person’s claim…although i do insist that entire families must be treated as one in this case. If they are deemed “harmless” refugees from state oppression and murder as most of them are, they should (and will) be released into the country wherein they sought asylum from the unbearable pain of living as Tamils in Sri Lanka in these days.
Whereas the immigration folks wanted to have secret hearings with some of the folks who arrived on the last ship, investigating their supposed Tamil Tiger links, when they were pressed for actual evidence, there was none to be found and every single passenger was allowed refugee status (as far as i remember) So despite our disgraceful Public Safety Minister and his even more disgraceful way of addressing the Tamil issue, I would be willing to bet that they will find very few if any terrorists on board, but only families, with mothers, fathers, and children, most of whom have been seriously traumatised by their horrific experiences in a war zone where people of their nation were attacked and slaughtered en masse, simply for disagreeing with the Sinhalese government, and for longing for a homeland of their own, but mainly because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got in the way of the slaughtering armies.
If there is no PTSD among these survivors of horror, I would be surprised. Unfortunately, the Canadian government, just like the Canadian public, was tempted to brazenly flout its most aggressive and egregious ill will upon the Tamils, and forbid them from even entering the Canadian waters, or failing that to just turn them around, like the Komagata Maru in 1914, wherein many Sihk refugee claimants were immediately slaughtered by police upon their forced return to Bengal, and the MS St. Louis in 1939, wherein a boatload of some 900 Jews was turned back to the German gas chambers in 1939.
This right wing conservative “not in my back yard” Harper government nearly acted on the same base instincts of xenophobia and gross bigotry, as the majority of the Canadian public were loudly shouting from the comments sections in the major online media, wherever there were stories about the refugees, and they WOULD have so acted except for the wise advice from government lawyers who insisted this kind of selfish, bigoted behaviour just won’t fly in the company that Canada keeps, in the International Community. The UNHCR was obviously concerned that the reactionary, and indecisive conservatives would act out their basest instincts, rather than observe the letter of the laws and international agreements which Canada had herself signed over the years. This is why the UNHCR have felt the necessity to make a comment upon the Canadian government handling of the affair as it unravels.
There is a long history of this kind of governmental and public behaviour in Canada, beginning, likely, with the founding of the country, and the attitudes even then expressed by the majority of UK descended folks towards other “lesser” European peoples, each of which had its own insulting nickname.
This continued on with the arrival of the so-called “yellow” races with Chinese economic migrants of the late 19th century as well as Japanese, who came to this country looking for a fortune, but who mainly found a grave instead due to overwork, and work site accidents. These foreigners were despised by the “white” Canadians, and were denied full citizenship until after the second world war. Not only that they had to pay a special “poll tax” just to come here, which was actually meant to discourage them by being expensive and out of reach. And then of course there were the Jews, universally hated by all good Christians.
Of course other nationalities who came to Canada still received their fair shares of bigotry as well…Norwegians were commonly called dumb Swedes and so on. When WWII broke out most Canadians couldn’t tell the difference between Norwegian immigrants and Germans, who they claimed were the “cousins” of the Norwegians anyways. Then there were the Doukhobors who came from Georgia in the former Russian Empire…they too got the same treatment, including the lies before they came and the police actions after they arrived, because they didn’t want to assimilate, nor pay taxes to support a military machine.
Later still came the folks from Asia again, from Punjab, and from Islamic states, from Sri Lanka and so on. Each new arriving group of immigrants has had to face the same old gauntlet of Canadian bigotry and racism, each time refreshingly presented in a “new” yet nauseatingly old form, each new immigrant finding him/herself fetchingly named with some “cute” little nickname. After some time of prejudice and bigotry, the new arrivals slowly settle in, and folks see that they are not the scary boogey men that they thought they were, that in fact, they are just like US. WOW!!! What a discovery that is!!
These strangers are really not so different from us, despite their skin colour, or their languages, or their clothing, or even their attitudes and outer cultural ways. We discover that these folks who we formerly alienated and despised for the simple reason that they were different from us, are in fact far more similar to us in all the important ways than we could ever have thought. And slowly we learn that this hatred and bigotry is not really the answer to strangers moving into the neighbourhood.
A little care, yes; hatred and bigotry no. It really IS time that we Canadians grew up and assumed our rightful responsibilities as well as our privileges, and it is time to realise that our selfish greedy ways are not necessarily even in our own best interests, what to think of our prejudiced and bigoted attitudes towards strangers. For a country in which many folks claim to be God-fearing Christians, it is even MORE surprising to read so many comments filled with such venomous ill will and uncharitable thoughts towards needy people.
After all isn’t there a passage in the New Testament which directly addresses this problem and prescribes what folks are supposed to do when confronted with people in need of support, whatever that support might be: “On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, “Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me.” Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, “Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me.”
These will ask Him, “When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?” And Jesus will answer them, “Whatever you neglected to do unto one of these least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!”” Matthew 25: 35-40 That passage seems pretty clear to me, and makes sense whether one is a Christian or not. What is being prescribed is simply what one loving heart would do for another, without asking for thanks or anything else. I hope you all enjoyed my rant but most of all I hope that people would consider what I have said, and strive to behave in more kindly and loving, compassionate ways towards other living beings in this messed up old world of ours. It really is our only hope.
This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com
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