I am reluctant to write a letter to the editor of The Citizen since my last three letters have not been published. If I write a non provocative letter thanking the health care system for excellent care I received, for example, it gets published, but a letter on the civil war in Yugoslavia, raging at the time, with local illustration is, I guess, too flammable.
Or my experience departing Hawaii where I was subjected to a shirt pulled over my head, pants down, frisking around in my underwear airport search while departing the U.S. compared to that received upon my arrival home - "welcome back to Canada, Mr. Hoffman, no, it doesn't matter to us that you have a metal hip joint" - does not get published. It will be a rare day that I do another tourist trip to the U.S. Having gotten this off my chest, I am more confident Neil Godbout will publish this letter!
Jo-Anne Berezanski, thank you for your eloquent letter. It was good to read and I am on the same page as you. I also will not be voting Liberal and not because of Justin Trudeau's black or brown face, which I think are of negligible significance but I would like to present a slightly different perspective which I hope can still leave us on the same page.
I am a white man with some questions and observations. Who of us has not done or said something stupid in our immaturity 20 or 50 years ago, something we would say or do a little differently today if we had the chance? I have and I think every one else has, too. The mature way to handle this is to recognize that is the price paid to gain maturity for most of us. And it is not productive to judge history by today's standards.
I have noticed that mankind is racist and suspicious of people different from oneself. This may not be nice but it seems to be the natural way we are. Perhaps part of original sin?
Like Trudeau, I grew up white but I was not privileged, yet I still had a massive blind spot regarding racism. I remember the first black family that moved into Kelowna and their son was seated beside me in Grade 1. Some of us in the class (including me) just stared. I had never seen a black person before and was astonished. I tentatively reached out my hand to touch his crinkly, coiled hair. It was so different from mine. There was no malice or racist intent in our stares or actions - just six-year-old children amazed at a very different looking person from what we had ever seen before.
Kelowna was a white town and most of Canada was white too. But even within the white world we could discriminate. My family was German. My mom remembers being called a Nazi while in Grade 3 in Alberta. Mom's family knew nothing about the Nazis but they had a funny last name and accents and that was enough.
On my father's side, he was told in Canada you don't spell Hoffmann with two "n"s and the teacher crossed one out. Others were told their names were too difficult to pronounce so effective right now your name is John or Mike. Heaven help you if you had the honourable name of Adolph. There was a lunatic in Europe who totally besmirched the name of Adolph so a friend of mine said "call me Al" and that's what we have done for the last 60 years. We wanted to become Canadians so we assimilated. We have no divided loyalty and I think that's a good thing for us and for Canada. When I see people dressing as though they live in another country, that says "divided loyalty" to me.
We prided ourselves on being better than Americans with their history of outright slavery (slavery existed amongst our First Nations but we don't talk about that much) and talked about how the underground railway brought blacks to Canada and to freedom and quietly went on being racist in our own way, to the Chinese, to anyone different from us.
The Japanese situation is a little different because Canada was at war and during war you throw away the rule book. I don't think it is right to apologize to the Germans or Japanese who were mistreated in Canada during the war simply because we were at war and the rule book was out. After all, in war you kill people and give medals to those who kill many. But back on topic, even though we were racist, in the world context we were good and comparatively virtuous. That's why Canada earned such a great reputation and people are dying to immigrate here. So let's not be too hard on ourselves.
On a side note, it's popular today to criticize our colonial past. England was the most enlightened colonial power of the day. There was no other colonial power who would have left a better legacy in Canada. Look at Hong Kong. Young people are fighting to preserve England's colonial legacy there. On the other hand, I just returned from a small vacation on Haida Gwaii where I learned children from isolated fishing villages were sent to Edmonton during the 1960s for reeducation. Considering the poor travel conditions in northern B.C. at the time, that would be similar to sending children to the far side of the moon today. What a horrible, beyond words horrible, way to treat children. And that was enlightened thinking of the day! At least in Canada we can talk about it. There are many countries where this would just be buried. Why is our media so politically correct to give platform to our whiners without balance?
Back on topic, if you went to a party then, where blackface would fit in, a white person did it because there were no black around to play the part. These activities were done without malicious intent.
And that's what Trudeau is guilty of, too, just having fun without malicious intent. But why I won't vote for him is that he has painted himself into such a self righteous, sanctimonious corner by pretending he never did such things and refusing to extend grace to his political opponents who have admitted to doing or saying similar things. Now that the universe knows Trudeau puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us he asks for forgiveness! The office of the prime minister deserves more depth of character and maturity than he can deliver. Besides, I'm not sure Canada can survive another term of his leadership.
And where is the news media in all of this? The CBC must be deep in the Liberal Party's pocket the way they do not present the news but rather interpret it so supportively of the Liberal Party.
While the Dominion of Canada was the best country in the world in 1955, it still managed to improve for the better and we are now used to seeing black, white, yellow, purple, whatever people and our sensitivity towards others has grown. This is a great thing. Let's remember to get out and vote.
Thanks, Neil, for printing this letter.
Ernie Hoffman, Prince George
