I can't bring myself to retweet the most recent Bernier tweet thread. It doesn't deserve oxygen. But he has joined the chorus of CPC voices saying there are 2 kinds of Canadians. Those the CPC like: white, Christian, "old stock"/"pure laine"... And everyone else. #cdnpoli 1/
And I feel that this is not the way any party seeking to run our country should be thinking and speaking. They are making bolder and bolder anti-immigration statements. Well, ok, specifically anti-brown people immigration. Australians and Brits and so on are cool with them. 2/
It is no good for a party, especially one who thinks they should be making laws and stuff, to be hating people who live in that country. To be dismissing some Canadians because they look or sound or love or worship or dress differently than the CPC ideal. 3/
Canada is a vast land mass. Our population is getting OLD. We are not having babies to replace us. We need immigrants. We have excellent security processes to make sure scary people don't get in, regardless of where/how they enter our country. 4/
If someone crosses at an irregular place along the border, they are still legally entitled to apply for refugee status. There are no "illegal" border crossers. They are, actually, only legally allowed to apply for refugee status if they cross irregularly. 5/
Irregular border crossers do so because they are afraid of the US administration. Our safe third country agreement makes it necessary for them to cross somewhere other than an official border crossing. They surrender to the RCMP and border officials for vetting... /6
People are not "disappearing" once they come across. They enter the system and are processed. And they are not queue jumping. There is not one single line-up of people waiting to get into Canada. /7
Unless you are Indigenous, at some point your family were immigrants. One line of my family were UEL. They fled the US after the war of independence. Interesting really, how history repeats itself. 8/
It is an incredible conceit to imagine that Canada should be a white Christian country. The people who built this country, actually physically did the back-breaking work of laying rail and clearing land and building roads, were from all over the world. 9/
And most of them, those people who did the hard work, came to this country because they were fleeing war, famine, poverty, discrimination, violence... And the people who are coming here now are fleeing the same things. 10/
They want the same things your ancestors did: a place to be safe, to raise children, to work and contribute and have a decent life. And immigrants continue today, in shocking numbers, do the dirty work in this country. 11/
Doctors and judges and engineers and scientists trained in other countries come here and wind up working as taxi drivers, home care workers, janitors, burger flippers and dog walkers. 12/
We don't make it easy for immigrants and refugees. Their credentials aren't accepted here. They face difficulties in getting a job, any job. But they take what they can get, even if it is way below their qualifications... 13/
Because it is worth it to get away from what made them left home in the first place. And they contribute and work hard and pay taxes. How dare an elected representative presume to say they don't belong, they can't fit in? 14/
Has anyone noticed how, if there is an act of violence, the CPC get all excited if the perpetrator has an Arabic sounding name? "This is what you get when you let all these people in!" they screech. But, these perpetrators, here and other places... 15/
Are almost never newly arrived refugees. They are 2nd or 3rd generation of Arab descent. Or desperately alienated people of other ancestry who have been "radicalised". We create the home-grown terrorists when we shun new arrivals. When we isolate and persecute ... /16
Any people for their religion, their skin colour, the sound of their name... And the vast majority carry on leading their normal lives despite hostility, even from elected politicians. But every population has people with deeper troubles. We don't hear the dog whistles when../17
A shooter is a white guy. The blame is placed on mental health problems. Do you suppose any group is immune to mental illness? Refugees are more likely to be severely traumatised than suburban kids raised in Canada, but they are not the ones shooting up mosques... 18/
We make kids susceptible to bad influences when we villainize them for attributes they have no control over. Kids join gangs when they feel isolated from the larger community. Kids get radicalized in various ways when their need for belonging is not met. 19/
A party that shows disdain or revulsion for a group in society emboldens members of the public to act out that ideology. And members of that society feel fear, anxiety, isolation. And yet, most do not behave badly. 20/
In spite of the hatred that is heaped upon them for who they are, the vast majority of people in villainized groups just keep on doing what they need to do to make a life for themselves. 21/
A popular thing among right-wing/CPC/UCP supporters to say is something about how Islam is the religion of violence, that attacking non-believers is at the core of the religion. I suspect these people don't actually know any Muslims. 22/
The Muslims I know are kind, decent, hard-working people. You know, every group has a few bad characters. The white "mainstream" certainly has plenty. I don't understand why we feel we have a right to hold others to a higher bar. 23/
There is so much hatred roiling around barely below the surface in Canada right now. Whether it is hatred for Anishinabe people, Muslim people, queer people, people of colour in general, it is wrong. /24
It is wrong for any of us to hate others based on attributes like skin colour, genetic heritage, religion (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, gender... And it is doubly wrong for a political party to encourage that kind of hatred. /25
Elected officials have a responsibility to serve ALL Canadians, not just the ones they like. Their constituents have placed their trust in them, or are forced to count on them, even if they didn't vote for them. They have a duty to represent all their constituents. /26
Politicians at federal or provincial levels do their constituents a disservice, and neglect their duty, when they make public statements or enact laws that harm segments of our society on the basis that they see some Canadians as less than others. /27
Maxime Bernier, Michelle Rempel, Andrew Scheer, Jason Kenney, Doug Ford, and numerous of your caucuses, I'm looking right at you. 28/28
