Racism strikes Canada’s Parliament.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Racism can strike in unexpected ways, often shocks and confounds, leaves indelible bitter memories. Canada experienced it in their Parliament this week.
Canada’s first Sikh Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, 45, emigrated with his family from India at the age of five. He’s a proud combat veteran who has served in Bosnia, along with three deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan. He’s around three months into his new job in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 30-member Liberal cabinet.
The turbaned Sajjan, a proud practicing Sikh who has served his country with distinction, surely must have got his unfair share of racism and bullying growing up in Canada in the seventies and eighties. Even then, the hardened veteran must have still been shocked when heckled in Parliament by conservative opposition MP Jason Kenney, who shouted that “we need to have English-to-English translation” as Sajjan responded to a question on fight against ISIS.
Really, what does ‘English-to-English translation mean?
Somehow, it doesn’t seem to be the case of Kenney growing up in a part of Canada where only French is spoken, never got around to studying English (his bad) and he needs desperate help in his question being translated to English, and Sajjan’s response in English to be translated to French for him. It’s unlikely, especially, considering that Kenney even studied at the University of San Francisco, and was a former defence minister of Canada.
It’s more likely that the ugly head of racism reared up and emboldened Kenney to spite Sajjan with the basest of taunts, probably on the lines of: ‘You dirty Sikh man, when you talk, you sound like all those illiterate turbaned Punjabis in Canada who really don’t know how to talk in English, but have somehow immigrated to our fine country, are a blight on our country, so shove off’.
Pardon me Mr. Kenney; that was my ‘translation’ of your need to decipher lines spoken in ‘English’ by Sajjan. Apologies if that was incomprehensible to you.
Liberal members were quick to criticize Kenney for his stupid words. Kevin Lamoureux termed it rightly as “inappropriate comments and demanded an apology.
Ruby Sahota, a Sikh herself, showed her chagrin by tweeting: “Shame on @jkenney for his racist remarks during today’s qp toward #harjitsajjan. His refusal to apologise is unacceptable.”
Kenney’s fine explanation for his seemingly double entendre: he found Sajjan’s answer “totally incoherent.”
“Unfortunately, I find his answers on ending combat against ISIS to be at best unpersuasive (and) at worst incoherent,” Kenney wrote apologetically, adding he was sorry if his comment was “misconstrued in any way,” reported Huffington Post Canada.
Kenney then doubled down with some praise for Sajjan, calling him a “fine, intelligent man” and “a role model in the Discover Canada Citizenship guide” when he served as immigration minister.
Point is Mr. Kenney: usually after a racist crime is committed somewhere, and the culprit caught, he or she is penitent, apologetic. The crime, however, was committed.
(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar)
1 Comment
Hey Sunripe Ramman, what do you have against White people? Obviously you’re buying into Liberal propaganda designed to divide everyone and label them by race,gender and religion. Kind of like this piece of trash bought into it when he unjustly insulted our defense minister who speaks perfect english.