Minister of National Defence announce Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism, Discrimination with a focus on anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, LGBTQ2 Prejudice, Gender Bias and White Supremacy
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| Sergeant Johnny Wayne and Sergeant Frank Shuster, two Jewish comedians from Toronto who enlisted in the Canadian Army, recording a CBC radio broadcast in January 1944. Photo: Library and Archives Canada PA-152118 |
"[The panel set up to provide advice on how the Canadian Forces can prevent individuals holding racist or white supremacist beliefs from entering the military or remaining in the ranks will] focus on anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, LGBTQ2 prejudice, gender bias and white supremacy."Department of National Defence"This is a serious omission.""Given that Jews are usually the number one target of extremists, I find it odd that anti-Semitism has not been made part of what they are looking at."Bernie Farber, head, Canadian Anti-Hate Network
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| Canadian soldiers celebrating a Passover Seder meal in Belgium in March 1945. Photo: Library and Archives Canada PA-174319 |
The Canadian Military has lately been accused of harbouring racists in their ranks, of failing to take firm and serious steps to rout out hate-mongers and anti-Semites, prejudice and active membership among Armed Services personnel in white supremacist groups. This issue, serious as it is, has taken a back seat to the revelations of late that the most senior executive members of the Armed Forces, including two Chiefs of Defence Staff are under police investigation for sexual misconduct. Every week or so, another senior military officer's name and rank is released with the notation that he is under investigation.
For years the Canadian military has been accused of sexism and sexual misconduct in the ranks. Chiefs of Defence Staff, and the Minister of Defence have all pledged to take action to eradicate sexual misconduct and gender harassment from the Forces. Investigations have been launched and recommendations published, and intentions stated that a real effort to uproot the problem is set to take place. The very Chiefs of Defence Staff who made those promises are now themselves under investigation.
And now it's the turn of racist extremists in the Forces being identified and uprooted that has come into focus. Wth Mr. Farber's stinging criticism of the appointed panel's mission statement absent direction on including anti-Semitism as a problem to be addressed alongside the others, a response came from a spokesperson for the Minister of Defence, that panel members "are well-equipped to examine various forms of prejudice including anti-Semitism", with no explanation how it could be that the focus of the panel was absent anti-Semitism among the other cited targets. Left to after-thought status.
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| The Olfman brothers in uniform during the Second World War (from left: Abraham, Jack, Solomon, Maurice and Hymie). Photo: Canadian Jewish Heritage Network |
Four retired Canadian Forces members make up the advisory panel. There have been high-profile incidents related to racism and anti-Semitism in the Forces which the military has faced criticism for handling, including the case of a reservist who attempted to recruit for the Forces among a neo-Nazi group, and was arrested in the U.S., accused of planning a race war.
A sailor with ties to a neo-Nazi organization last year saw re-admission to the Royal Canadian Navy, despite the sailor's involvement with violent white supremacist groups and who had attempted to sell military grade weapons to hate groups. A military supervisor in Ottawa pinned a racist poster at headquarters featuring the N-word and a caricature of two black men holding spears. Though a black employee filed a complaint, the same supervisor posted another image, this time a racist joke referencing Hitler and Jews.
No action was taken over this event until the nation's public broadcaster published an image of the poster featuring the N-word, and finally the National Defence department ordered an investigation. A white reservist had targeted black soldiers with racial slurs, taunting and challenging them to fight. He was counselled, but permitted to remain in the military in view of his claim that his military training stressed him and motivated his actions.
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| A Jewish Canadian recruitment centre in Montréal during the Second World War. Photo: Alex Dworkin, Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives. |
- Between 2018 and 2019, the number of police-reported crimes motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity increased 10%, from 793 to 876. Much of this increase was a result of more hate crimes targeting the Black (+40 incidents) and Arab or West Asian populations (+35 incidents).
- Police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation increased 41% in 2019 to 263 incidents, compared with 186 incidents a year earlier.
- For the second year in a row there was a decline in the number of police-reported hate crimes motivated by religion, declining from 657 to 608 incidents (-7%). This decrease was due to fewer police-reported crimes motivated by hate against the Jewish population, which declined from 372 incidents to 296 incidents in 2019 (-20%). Hate crimes against the Muslim population rose slightly in 2019, from 166 to 181 incidents (+9%).
- Hate crimes targeting the Black and Jewish populations remained the most common types of hate crimes, representing 18% and 16% of all hate crimes, respectively. As well, hate crimes targeting sexual orientation accounted for 14% of all hate crimes. Statistics Canada
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Canadian Armed Forces
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, June 08, 2021
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