07) A GLIMPSE INTO OFFICIAL RACISM

People’s Voice Editorial

            In the sanitized world of right-wing politicians trained in perfect sound bites, we rarely see the full extent of racism, misogyny and other forms of bigotry which permeate the ruling class. But occasionally a glimpse of their reactionary ideology becomes visible.

            One such moment came in late 2012, during the courageous hunger strike by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence and the emergence of the Idle No More movement. Desperate to shift attention away from their callous indifference to the deaths of Aboriginal peoples, Tory cabinet ministers spread cowardly lies about Chief Spence, blaming impoverished First Nations bands for the crisis caused by centuries of genocidal colonialist policies.

            At the same time, an RCMP official was filing a report saying, “This Idle No More Movement is like bacteria, it has grown a life of its own all across this nation.” RCMP Cpl. Wayne Russett also warned ominously about “flash mobs, round dances and blockades (becoming) much less compliant to laws in an attempt to get their point across.”

            The true heroes of that winter were Chief Spence and her colleagues, trying to get clean drinking water and livable homes for their people, and the thousands of Idle No More supporters in the streets and shopping malls. But instead of being lauded for defending human rights, they were labelled “bacteria” and put under constant police surveillance.

            This shows why Bill C-51 is so dangerous. This legislation openly encourages security forces to monitor opposition to government policies, supposedly because this might lead somebody, somewhere, to someday “undermine the security of Canada.”

            In fact, our security has already been badly undermined, by the very governments and police forces which claim to protect us. Five months from now, we can vote to drive the Harper Tories out of office, and then start to press any new government to repeal this vicious law, and to scrap the racist, anti-working class security forces which have suppressed the peoples of Canada for far too long.

(The above article is from the May 16-31, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)