Being
an article from 2016 it is not exactly news but illustrates a double
standard.
Criticising
(not even abusing) certain groups such the State of Israel or the
religion of Islam is ‘hate speech’ while abusing white people
(and even hitting them) is NOT (sic).
Logic
would dictate that verbal abuse is OK in most cases but assaulting
someone isn’t – in ALL cases.
What
happened to the principle of equality in front of the law?
Yelling
‘I hate white people’ and punching one isn’t a hate crime,
Canadian judge rules
7
July, 2016
Tamara
Crowchief may have yelled "I hate white people" as she
carried out a violent assault on a white person, but that doesn't
mean her attack was racially motivated, a Canadian judge has ruled.
The
attack occurred outside a pub in Calgary, Canada, on Nov.
1, according
to the Calgary Herald.
Crowchief's victim, identified as Lydia White, lost a tooth in the
assault, the paper reported.
Prosecutor Karuna
Ramakrishnan had tried to put Crowchief behind bars for 12 to 15
months by arguing that the indigenous woman's "unprovoked"
actions represented a hate crime, the paper reported. But Judge
Harry Van Harten of the provincial court strongly disagreed.
“The
offender said, ‘I hate white people’ and threw a punch,” Van
Harten told those gathered in the court during his ruling. “There
is no evidence either way about what the offender meant or whether .
. . she holds or promotes an ideology which would explain why
this assault was aimed at this victim. I am not satisfied beyond a
reasonable doubt that this offense was, even in part, motivated by
racial bias.”
The
Calgary Herald reported that the attack happened suddenly and without
warning.
White
was standing outside the pub talking to another person when Crowchief
walked up and yelled “I hate white people” before punching
White in the face, the paper reported. After the assault, Crowchief
left the scene, but White followed her and called police.
When
authorities arrived and arrested Crowchief, she told them “the
white man was out to get her,” the paper reported.
At
a recent court hearing, White said she's still baffled by the
assault.
“I
still get angry when I think about it,” she said. “I don’t
understand why this woman did this. I never did anything to her.
Never even spoke to her.”
By
the time of her sentencing, Crowchief had already spent more than six
months in jail, according to the Calgary Herald.
Van
Harten agreed with Crowchief's defense attorney, Adriano Iovinelli,
that she'd been behind bars long enough.
The
judge gave Crowchief 12 months probation "and ordered her to get
psychological and psychiatric counselling, as well as counselling for
substance abuse," the Herald reported.
Crowchief
was also banned from drinking or going to a business that specializes
in the sale of alcohol, the paper said.
Her
case brings to light some of the longstanding racial tension between
indigenous Canadians and the descendants of European colonialists,
who vastly outnumber other ethnic groups.
Aboriginals
make up just over 4 percent of Canada’s
population, according
to Canadian government figures from 2011.
Canadians,
Terry Glavin writes
in the Ottawa Citizen,
take pride in living in a country that is free from the "original
sin" of slavery and the century of violent conflict and social
upheaval that followed its abolition in the United States. And
yet, Canada has its own "disgraceful legacy," Glavin
argues:
"Down through the decades, scores of federal and provincial laws isolated, dispossessed and ghettoized one racial or ethnic minority after another. Asians weren’t allowed to vote in Canada until the late 1940s; federally-registered Indians had to wait until 1960."
"There are many heartening, role-model exceptions that are routinely cited, but they only prove the rule: the conditions that torment Aboriginal Canadians to this day are no less a disgrace than the dead-end impoundments so many African-Americans find themselves within today. Aboriginal Canadians and African-Americans suffer from a nearly identical suite of maladies: high rates of cancer, of heart disease, mental illness, suicide, spousal abuse, drug addiction, alcoholism, fetal alcohol syndrome and tuberculosis."
Among
the most sensitive areas of contention between indigenous Canadians
and their government has been the forced separation of more than
150,000 aboriginal children from their families throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries -- a policy many have labeled "cultural
genocide."
Pledging
to work with indigenous communities towards reconciliation, Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year accepted the results of a
six-year investigation into abuses that occurred within the
government's residential schools for indigenous children.
The
investigation identified 3,201 students who lost their lives at
residential schools, but noted that countless other deaths may have
gone unreported. Following the report's release, Trudeau called
for "a
total renewal" of the relationship between Canada and indigenous
peoples based on "rights, respect, cooperation and partnership."
He
added: “A national inquiry into missing and murdered
Indigenous women and girls is now underway. Ministers are meeting
with survivors, families, and loved ones to seek their input on how
best to move forward. We have also reiterated our commitments to make
significant investments in First Nations education, and to lift the
two per cent cap on funding for First Nations programs."
Trudeau
is not the country's first prime minister to acknowledge atrocities
that took place within government schools. In 2008, then Prime
Minister Stephen Harper released a statement apologizing to
former students of Indian Residential Schools on behalf of the
Government of Canada.
"While
some former students have spoken positively about their experiences
at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic
accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of
helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and
communities," the statement said.
"The
legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social
problems that continue to exist in many communities today," the
statement added.
Although
Canadian politicians are beginning to recognize their nation's racist
history, polling suggests the country still harbors deep divisions.
A
Canadian Broadcasting Corp. poll in
2014 revealed that only 50 percent of people living in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta said they'd find a romantic relationship
with an "aboriginal person" acceptable, a full 13
percentage points lower than the national average.
Niigaan
Sinclair, an assistant professor of native studies at the University
of Manitoba, told the CBC that the results highlight a the nation's
pervasive legacy or racism.
When
they were asked about having an aboriginal neighbor, only 61 percent
of respondents from the same regions said they were comfortable with
the idea, down from 75 percent nationally, the CBC reported.
"Starting
from the residential school era, Canadians have been taught, as much
as indigenous people in those schools, that they were inferior and
savage," Sinclair said.
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