Adam Zivo has written a powerful op-ed in the National Post:
Growing up in suburban Toronto, I occasionally had classmates who, being the children of immigrants, like myself, seemed spiritually homeless. They spent their summers in their parents’ countries, which were like gauzy pocket universes, while Canada remained a land of mud and chores, tolerated but not loved, pallid against the glow of a romanticized elsewhere.
As a teenager, I did not want to be like these people. My Serbian parents taught me to be Canadian first, and, though this identity seemed nebulous (peacekeeping and hockey?), I assumed, perhaps naively, that it would later solidify and provide an enveloping sense of belonging. Against this promise, maintaining ties to the home country seemed parochial and claustrophobic.
As I got older, though, Canadian nationalism was not reinforced, but demolished under the auspices of “inclusivity.” The architects of this transformation were, broadly speaking, cultural and economic elites for whom nationalism was superfluous, because they already belonged to a global community defined by class — an urban world of minimalist AirBnbs and fusion tapas that looked identical whether in Toronto, Paris, Tokyo or Mumbai.
Some personal thoughts:
I’m the son of a German immigrant father and Polish-Ukrainian Canadian mother. I grew up in Vancouver in the 1960’s & 70’s. In both elementary & high school, we had kids of Filipino, Chinese, Indian, and Jewish ancestry, plus all the rest of us. Nobody cared what anyone looked like, where they came from, or what religion they belonged to.
In September 1972, we all cheered when the Canadians defeated the Soviet Union in hockey. We intermixed at Canucks hockey and Lions football games, at the beaches in the summer and the ski slopes in the winter. We all unified under a red maple leaf and were darn proud to be Canadian.
Fast forward to today, and I’m told by countless teachers throughout Metro Vancouver that each racial/national group of kids have self-segregated in every aspect of their lives. The kids from China don’t associate with the kids from Taiwan or Korea, those of Indian descent stick to themselves, as do Muslim kids, and nobody talks to the white kids.
How did this happen? Waves of new immigrants came into Canada and were told to celebrate their own heritage and not really care much about being Canadian. Was this an intentional policy or one that evolved out of stupidity? I do not know. But the end end result is obvious. And it’s not good.
My daughter works in government as a policy analyst. She is doing work at a level above hers and both her immediate supervisor and her department head think she should be promoted. The position they say she is working at and should be promoted into is empty and has been for any months. They cannot fill the position because no one has applied who has the most essential qualification. She cannot be promoted because she does not have that most essential qualification. And what is that most essential qualification?
Only an indigenous person with treaty status can get that job.
How did this happen to Canada? How is that “reconciliation?” How is that not racist?
Since she cannot advance in Canada due to her white race, she is applying for jobs in the USA. She already has had one offer.
I keep hearing stories like this. Wasn’t this once completely illegal in Canada? When did it not become illegal?
It is absolutely illegal in America, though some Democrat politicians allow the law to be ignored at times.
Seems to me it is illegal and a violation of her constitutional rights but I have concluded our constitution is written on toilet paper and used accordingly.
Charter of Rights and Freedoms – (2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
I believe the precise legal definition is,”If you’re white they can shit on you.”
Yup, toilet paper constitution.
Right around 1982, when the Trudeau constitution enshrined Official Government Racism in both Section 15(2), and the Tribal recognitions in section 35.
Well in Canada, due to the idiotic “amelioration clause”, only government is allowed to discriminate. After all, government is the source of all that is good!
I think schools have failed. In the days of my youth schools reinforced nationalism. Every morning was the Lord’s Prayer, O Canada, and God Save the Queen. Every year we studied Canadian history where we were taught how we kicked everyone’s ass. We were taught how Wolfe the dauntless hero kicked French asses. Canadian nationalism was a subset of British nationalism and we were the greatest people on earth. At the front of every class was a Union Jack and a photo of the Queen and the Prince. The immigrant kids who couldn’t speak English quickly learned to speak unaccented English. We all tried to be the same. Now we are a mishmash of recent immigrants from all over the shithole world are here for the sole purpose of squeezing every penny out of the country. They hate us and don’t try to make a secret of it.
“Every morning was the Lord’s Prayer, O Canada, and God Save the Queen. ”
?
you were there in the friday afternoon assemblies where the chief child beater george aberhart led us all in prayer? l remember way after once l delved into scripture more thinking, hey, george, He said ‘suffer the children to come to Me’ He DIDNT say ‘make the children suffer’.
along with Albert’s quip about ‘insanity doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result’ in regards to your penchant for BEATING UP CHILDREN.
of note:
https://www.whsc.on.ca/What-s-new/News-Archive/Growing-violence-in-schools-%E2%80%93-disturbing-reality-study-finds
ah, but once again, long after that, the full truth occured to me, *you knew bloody well inflicting violence on the kids wasnt working, you just needed an excuse to take out your frustrations on them*. and one other final question occured to me; howcum none of the prettyboys and darling gorgeous princesses NEVER GOT HIT? why just the buck tooth skrawny freckle-faced girls and mule faces like me targetted? hmmm? why the correlation???
anyways it truly deeply delights me to see Ms Karma has finally addressed the 150 years of elementary teachers BEATING UP the most vulnerable sector of society. (kinda looks like they figured it out eh? sumbuddy coming at you hit them with everything you got).
6 and 1/2 decades later the injustices and violence aimed at ME by the ones tasked to PREVENT IT, well, the local teachers college got a communique pointing out why some, to this day, are delighted their careers are a hell on earth. feel free to thank the ones that came before and their abject demonic behaviour.
and a hearty and long awaited thank you thank you Ms Karma making their working life a misery.
I’m not sure what development of nationalism has to do with school whoopings? I was a bit of an asshole and never had corporal punishment once in school. Advice – let them think they’re in charge. Don’t be obtuse and belligerent. There’s no prize at the end of the day. You lose. Not a problem today.
A century of progressive rot in the academies, now Marxist/fascist and fully actualized by the Trudeaus, Quebec politics, and a Laurentian elite. A failed multicultural state now actively committing property rights seppuku through the courts and state all behind closed doors, a clear invitation to revolution and or societal collapse.
Dissimilar immigration breaks continuity with the past. Decades of that combined with progressivism have rendered Canada increasingly pointless, identitiless, manipulable and confused.
It happened because the political advisors found a way to win elections without coming up with sustainable policies.
The politicians are motivated by winning those elections and the bureaucrats are motivated by growing their bureaucracies and their budgets, nothing is more effective at that effort than making re-election and growth of the government co-dependent.
The risk is that the politicians no longer are concerned about the welfare of the nation and instead under the control of those they are supposed to be controlling namely the bureaucracy.
So when the government sees a situation that will result in less taxes, in this case a declining birth rate, the go to for the government isn’t to adjust to the new reality, it’s to find more bodies to bring into the country without regard to whether this new population wants to come into the country in good faith or bad faith. The goal wasn’t to bring in those that want Canada to prosper or not, it was just a body count.
So if you put in place enough onerous regulations so that the aspiring immigrants find it far easier to claim asylum rather than play by the rules it is moot because when you get a massive influx of asylum seekers you can declare goal accomplished because you got the numbers, to hell with the associated mess. Politicians either go along to make sure the newly arrived vote for them and the bureaucrats never raise an eyebrow lest they find themselves downsized.
Then wash rinse repeat.
Sorry Robert, but this gentleman doesn’t even hear himself speak. He’s all over the place with his doctrinaire understanding of what “Nationalism” even means. He had me wanting more after reading … minimalist AirBnbs and fusion tapas … hahahaha … and let me add Pho-ny noodle bowls and Tapioca Tea balls.
But then … I read how he had substituted his LGBTQueeriness for Nationalism … until that “proved unsatisfactory” (read: aged-out of anonymous gay bathhouse hook ups).
He continues to give a very precise description of what he admires in his old countries Nationalistic urges … My resentment of post-nationalism goes deeper after visiting countries where nationalism is still vigorous. … In Serbia, where nationalism has often been a toxic force, I witnessed it buttress anti-authoritarian protests last year — fraternity deepened the country’s hunger for justice.
By his own admiration of Serbia’s “Nationalistic” anti-authoritarian protests … he should feel intimately connected to Canadian Nationalistic “elbows-out” anti-authoritarian anti-Trumpian “Authoritarianism” This man has just admired Serbia’s (a minority of Serbians) “Nationalism” … because anti-authoritarian “Justice” or something.
Let me guess … he considers American Nationalism “toxic” … but elbows-out Canadian Nationalism wholesome and beautiful?
Sorry, but this fool has ZERO concept of what Nationalism truly means … for ALL people of a nation … of ALL political beliefs to feel a connection to country deeper than transient, fashionable, political opinions. This man utterly NO understanding of what Nationalism means. He is seeing it through a tainted political lens … just like most Canadians do.
You’re wrong on a couple of fronts.
The guy doesn’t mention American nationalism at all and gives no indication of approving of elbows-out Canadian nationalism.
As for his having zero concept of what nationalism truly means he sums up nationalism nicely:
“In Ukraine and Israel, I was struck by the stability, strength and great-heartedness that is possible when citizens are united by an ardent belief in shared history and common destiny.”
And this:
“It simply feels good to exist within a society whose constituents are meaningfully tied to one another, and who share a fierce pride in their heritage.”
Except ! When he believes those same Nationalistic values are TOXIC … when he disagrees with the objectives. He established himself as the political arbiter … of which brand of Nationalism is “good” and which is bad.
Nope, he didn’t mention America specifically … however he described himself as an anti-authoritarian “Nationalist” … standing against those same Eastern European “authoritarian” leaders with whom Trump is closely allied. Those same “authoritarian” leaders who are resisting the Socialist EU erasure of National independence and free will.
Pssst … BREXIT is Nationalism. The EU isn’t.
He favorably mentions East European countries, namely Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. You’re inventing things he never said.
Also, what does Brexit have to do with the Op-ed?
A final quote:
“Last summer, I visited a Polish-Canadian friend in Warsaw; he had moved there recently, despite having been born in Canada, and was enamoured with the city. He seemed at home. Our sentiments were the same: we wanted to be Canadian, and had once carried so many expectations, but then the country told us this didn’t matter, so we sought belonging elsewhere.”
a. You cannot connect BREXIT to Nationalism? Your brain is broken
b. He unfavorably mentions those same Eastern European countries “authoritarian Nationalism”. Proving he has a political agenda with what HE deems “toxic Nationalism”. Where did you go to school? because your reading comprehension is for shit. Are you an ESL speaker?
Now you’re outright lying.
And as always you resort to insults when you’ve lost the argument.
Cheers Karenji
As with all your argumentativeness … your arguments are ridiculous and you cannot defend them with facts. So you just call me a “liar” … as if I’ve lied about anything … and cite no examples. You are a tiresome nag.
Hahahahahahahahar! Ohhhhhhhmammamia—vaya delirio.
But is he a bob-tailed nag? I have money riding on this.
Somebody bet on The Bay, and you see where that got them…
A vacant essay describing not assimilating:
… “post-national… post-national… post-national”
… “Who are these (Canadian) people? What brings us (Canadians) together?”
A: Hatred of self, others, and truth, but never the homicidal institution which is The Liberal Party of Canada.
Spit it out Adam, Justin Trudeau is mentally deranged,
and insisted all Canadians become likewise.
Most have. That would be an interesting essay.
When Trudeau became our prime minister and supposedly began to speak for us, I became embarrassed to be Canadian. He made a fool out of himself and of us, but somehow my fellow Canadians thought that was OK and voted him in. Same scenario with Carney I’m afraid. We’ve been taught to apologize for our country and our heritage.
These odious politicians and the media that supports them are the ones that are deserving of contempt. The glorious country that is Canada is populated by many who are kind, strong and proud. Those who hate us are trying to steal our birthright and must be held accountable, but I fear it is too late. One of our fabulous Canadians, Gad Saad, has created the label: Suicidal Empathy.
L- “Poor is a nation that has no heroes. Poorer still is a nation that having heroes fails to remember and honour them.” – Cicero 43 BC
Canada has been impoverished deliberately. Who will rediscover and make public our historic wealth?
I wish I could bother to care any longer, but I can’t. Canada failed because it is a coward nation, a group of tiny weak people who are spineless and selfish. It deserves it’s fate. And it’s fate is sealed.
This being why almost all of my family is in the process of leaving.
gawd gawd gawd. little did l know but now sadly all too clear.
l make amusing and serious note that being “high functioning autistic” l was born at the *exact* moment to capitalize on the golden age of IT. the gigantic dinosaurs who were my co-workers.
the time l sensed minutes before the PDP-10 was going down, and then it did. like it was a cry to me to rescue it but l didnt know it at the time. now l do. the desktops were my brothers and sisters.
my favorite sci fi character Data from STNG, ‘think like a computer and inordinately strong’
and now l declare given the rot, the long accelerating slide this ‘post national state’ is iundergoing l am SO GLAD AGAIN l was born at a time where the lifetime devastating effects of the decay will miss me. to recaap:
-born to grow up in the emphasis on non-violence hippie era
-born exactly when my autism translates into a stellar career in IT, and
-born well ahead of the very worst of the dismemberment of a place now called CanaDUH.
You can trace it all back to ’68 with the election of el turdo 1. He was already singing the praises of multi-culturalism and brought in legislation to make it official in 1971. And our ovine electorate just couldn’t get enough of the bastard.
Yup….it actually started under Pearson with the Bi and Bi Commission. It accelerated under Comrade Pierre Trudeau. A good history of it is written in “The Trouble with Canada” by William Gairdner. The whole concept was to elevate Quebec in Confederation and water down the rest of the country with “multiculturalism” so that it could be said that Canada was not British, but mainly French with a whole bunch of other cultures that spoke languages other than English. Even that idiot Joe Clark talked about Canada being a “community of communities”. Powerfully stupid.
One of the other factors was why Canada was established in the first place and by whom.
There was always a desire to establish a national identity but the establishment of the day were obsessed with not being American.
So much so that the establishment was allowed to dictate what “Canadian” meant, and usually it meant not like the US except when it was convenient.
We followed Britain into war (Boer war I and II, WWI and WWII) then when the UK lost its world power status we followed the lead of the UN (Korea) then later meekly into Kosavo and the first Gulf War, but kept out of Gulf war II by pivoting to Afghanistan (without the capacity and as a rear guard involvement until Martin full of bravado pushed our troops ill equipped to Khandhar).
Now we are again faced with an existential fork in the road.
Support the US but risk being put on the spot when asked contributing exactly what? Or admitting we really have nothing of substance other than our resources which we’ve spent the last decade obstructing development of to get the cool kids at the UN to invite us to the cool kid party’s, and demonstrate we aren’t like those ruffians in the US.
But that’s just my opinion
Rant off
JoeyB, thank you for mentioning “The Trouble With Canada” William Gairdner’s excellent book. I have read no better explanation of the sequence of political decisions that led us to where we are today. Gairdner’s updated edition is even more relevant. I recall Conservative politicians at the time holding up this book as a policy handbook.. so what happened? Well Thomas Sowell’s first rule of politics kicked in and the rest is history…
I think this is the result of a high trust society electing untrustworthy people.