Racism in the Hamilton Spectator?

[Muddy]

The Farmers and truckers protested in a civilized manner for one day on domestic politics. They did not block off access to our hospitals in an manner as the Tamils did for days on end for a cause that had nothing to do with Canada other than we declared the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group. I fully endorse the right to protest, but it must be done in a legal manner. If you and I protest for one legged dogs we better not block off University Ave or we will be discriminated against by Toronto`s men in blue very quickly with a few bumps on our head. Would that be racist because we just might be white? Oh the agony of one legged dogs!

[JB Globe]

If only Tamil groups and native groups protested in a way that complied with all civic, provincial and federal law, you would all be sympathetic to their cause, right?

Then where were you when Tamils were protesting outside in the bitter cold of winter every day on the sidewalks of University? Not impeding pedestrians or cars? The answer is you didn't even know they existed, because no one pays attention to the concerns of minority groups until they make enough of a disruption to get people to pay attention.

Same thing with Native Canadians - no one has ever heard of small and civil acts of awareness-raising or protest that go on all the time (ie - grandmothers walking around the Great Lakes), they only care about Native issues when they hold up traffic and people have to suffer the horror of getting to their cottage an hour later.

All this talk about "I would be on their side if it wasn't for these protests which inconvenience me" are a lie people tell themselves so that they don't have to face the ugly truth: that race and ethnicity play a vital role in determining what protest movements you support or don't support, and what kind of protest you deem acceptable or not.

[Bonam]

Same thing with Native Canadians - no one has ever heard of small and civil acts of awareness-raising or protest that go on all the time (ie - grandmothers walking around the Great Lakes), they only care about Native issues when they hold up traffic and people have to suffer the horror of getting to their cottage an hour later.

You're wrong, those protests don't make people "care about Native issues". They make people annoyed at the Natives and lose any sympathy towards their issues that they may have had.

[kimmy]

If only Tamil groups and native groups protested in a way that complied with all civic, provincial and federal law, you would all be sympathetic to their cause, right?

Where has anyone claimed that?

In these cases, we're talking about the difference between unsympathetic vs unsympathetic and angry. I don't see how unsympathetic and angry is of any great value to the protesters.

Then where were you when Tamils were protesting outside in the bitter cold of winter every day on the sidewalks of University? Not impeding pedestrians or cars? The answer is you didn't even know they existed, because no one pays attention to the concerns of minority groups until they make enough of a disruption to get people to pay attention.

The transparent support for Tamil independence and the LTTE at those rallies is what cost me their support.

People don't support your cause. To try to disrupt their lives until they do support your cause? That's foolish, and it's extortion.

Same thing with Native Canadians - no one has ever heard of small and civil acts of awareness-raising or protest that go on all the time (ie - grandmothers walking around the Great Lakes), they only care about Native issues when they hold up traffic and people have to suffer the horror of getting to their cottage an hour later.

I can only consider native issues on a case by case basis. What's the latest one... armed guards at border crossings? No, I can't bring myself to support the natives on this one, whether they protest it by healing sick children or by ransacking towns.

My opinion of the cause won't change, but the tactics would certainly influence my opinion of the protesters.

All this talk about "I would be on their side if it wasn't for these protests which inconvenience me" are a lie people tell themselves so that they don't have to face the ugly truth: that race and ethnicity play a vital role in determining what protest movements you support or don't support, and what kind of protest you deem acceptable or not.

I don't recall anybody saying they'd be on their side if not for these protest tactics. That's a straw man, Globe.

However, that's not what the author of this thread. She claims that racism, not the protest tactics, is the rea

Which is a load of crap. And you've unwittingly provided proof, Globe:

where were you when Tamils were protesting outside in the bitter cold of winter every day on the sidewalks of University? Not impeding pedestrians or cars? The answer is you didn't even know they existed, because no one pays attention to the concerns of minority groups until they make enough of a disruption to get people to pay attention.

...

no one has ever heard of small and civil acts of awareness-raising or protest that go on all the time (ie - grandmothers walking around the Great Lakes),

Canadians might not have cared about these more civil protests, but Canadians weren't upset about them either. Ergo: the protest tactics, not racism, is the reason the Hamilton Spectator spoke out against these tactics.

-k

[joepublic]

In Toronto the Tamil Tiger supporters held the city's downtown core hostage.

It started with human chains extending more than six miles of people estimated to be about five thousand people.

Then they started a campaign of demonstrating in fron of the American Consulate which later escalated to closing down a major street and the closing of the Gardener Expressway because the demonstrators rushed it and refused to move for six hours and they were using the women and children as human shields.

The police did nothing because the Mayor of Toronto refused to give the order.

If it wasn't for the killing of the Tamil Tigers leader in Sri Lanka Toronto would have to deal with a major riot.

[Oleg Bach]

First - don't be a minority group - don't belong to one and don't join one- this is Canada - assimulate gracefully and have a good life - no one will persecute you - you persecute yourself by complaining about having good accomidations - freedom to speak - good good - and a fairly safe and civil society to bask in- minority groups to not want equality - the have it already - they want postions of dominance - give them nothing! Let the individual stand tall - no one will stop you!

[lictor616]

read the rest here ...

My Letter to the Editor of the Hamilton Spectator:

Ms. Prokaska's point seems to be that "police forces ... don't want to be accused of racism" so they use a "conciliatory approach" to protests, an approach that Ms. Prokaska disagrees with. She wonders "why aren't arrests made"?

I ask Ms. Prokaska:

Why weren't arrests made when the tobacco farmers protested with a slow rolling convoy and illegally gave away their tobacco?

Why weren't arrests made when (now MP) Randy Hillier and other farmers protested with a slow rolling convoy down the 401, into Toronto, and around and around Queen's Park?

Why weren't arrests made when truckers protested with a slow rolling convoy on the 401?

Ms. Prokaska makes it an issue of race, and the Spectator Editorial Board apparently agrees, since she speaks for them.

But it isn't about "minority groups". It is about the right of protest in a free country. The police, whose responsibility it is first and foremost to uphold the Constitution of Canada, negotiate and patrol to ensure public safety.

Ms. Prokaska, and Spectator Editorial Board that allowed this racist rant to be printed in their name, have become so complacent in their racism, they now don't even bother to disguise it.

Hamiltonians deserve better than to be delivered constant thinly veiled racism for breakfast.

A complaint has been sent to the Ontario Press Council, and I invite other readers to join me in standing up against racism in the Hamilton Spectator by contacting:

THE ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL

2 Carlton Street, Suite 1706,

Toronto, Ontario

M5B 1J3

Telephone: (416) 340-1981

FAX: (416) 340-8724

E-mail: [email protected]

Since I have sent a complaint to the Ontario Press Council, the Spectator refuses to respond to my letter.

Let's see if they have the guts to print it!

... to be continued ...

there as precisely nothing racist about this... not even a word about racial differences even...

has the word racist really lost all meaning? Do people now resort to calling an opinion racist because it is mildly unflattering or even criticizing to a sacrosanct "minority group"? have we passed that point?

The guts to print bruised feelings about this trifle? are you this deluded? this supremely sensitive?

[Mr. Whiteman Esq.]

Ms. Prokaska makes it an issue of race, and the Spectator Editorial Board apparently agrees, since she speaks for them.

Ms. Prokaska, and Spectator Editorial Board that allowed this racist rant to be printed in their name, have become so complacent in their racism, they now don't even bother to disguise it.

"Editorials are written by members of the editorial board. They represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the individual author."

Since I have sent a complaint to the Ontario Press Council, the Spectator refuses to respond to my letter.

Let's see if they have the guts to print it!

I think they did so for the sake of you not making a public fool out of yourself.

[Oleg Bach]

"Editorials are written by members of the editorial board. They represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the individual author."

I think they did so for the sake of you not making a public fool out of yourself.

ouch!

[lictor616]

read the rest here ...

My Letter to the Editor of the Hamilton Spectator:

Ms. Prokaska's point seems to be that "police forces ... don't want to be accused of racism" so they use a "conciliatory approach" to protests, an approach that Ms. Prokaska disagrees with. She wonders "why aren't arrests made"?

I ask Ms. Prokaska:

Why weren't arrests made when the tobacco farmers protested with a slow rolling convoy and illegally gave away their tobacco?

Why weren't arrests made when (now MP) Randy Hillier and other farmers protested with a slow rolling convoy down the 401, into Toronto, and around and around Queen's Park?

Why weren't arrests made when truckers protested with a slow rolling convoy on the 401?

Ms. Prokaska makes it an issue of race, and the Spectator Editorial Board apparently agrees, since she speaks for them.

But it isn't about "minority groups". It is about the right of protest in a free country. The police, whose responsibility it is first and foremost to uphold the Constitution of Canada, negotiate and patrol to ensure public safety.

Ms. Prokaska, and Spectator Editorial Board that allowed this racist rant to be printed in their name, have become so complacent in their racism, they now don't even bother to disguise it.

Hamiltonians deserve better than to be delivered constant thinly veiled racism for breakfast.

A complaint has been sent to the Ontario Press Council, and I invite other readers to join me in standing up against racism in the Hamilton Spectator by contacting:

THE ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL

2 Carlton Street, Suite 1706,

Toronto, Ontario

M5B 1J3

Telephone: (416) 340-1981

FAX: (416) 340-8724

E-mail: [email protected]

Since I have sent a complaint to the Ontario Press Council, the Spectator refuses to respond to my letter.

Let's see if they have the guts to print it!

... to be continued ...

no wonder he didn't respond... say something that isn't stale old lefty "crambe repetita", the same mindless orthodoxy that way too common today to be even noticeable...

The fact is that more and more people are beginning to perceive the harm done by mutliculturalism and leftist "egalitarianism". And "diversity"(of the kind we are forced to celebrate in this befouled country) is a source of weakness and tensions not strength.

Everyone with two eyes and half a brain can see this... even you see this tango... although you will deny it.

"Racism" is beginning to be a meaningless word now, many of us are beginning to be immune to it.

Prokaska merely was pointing out to the sickening double standards that are all to common in "diverse" canada, double standards which many of us are sick on to death of hearing about.

Its time for Euro Canadians to recognize that they are now SECOND CLASS CITIZENS. The tax paying animals of this crumbling country.

Some of us are not certain it is possible to salvage from the chaos immigration is bringing to this country a nation of which our grandchildren can even feel a part, much less be proud. But unless "white canadians" wake up from their stupor, unless they—like the "white" counter protesters in Caledonia —realize they have legitimate rights as a group and are prepared to fight for them, they will be shoved aside by Africans, Natives, Haitians, and Muslims who have, in addition to very sharp elbows, a keen sense of their own interests.

Edited July 1, 2009 by lictor616

[Mr.Canada]

Tango, the Tamils were marching on the Gardiner Expressway and the Mohawks block rail lines with burned out cars. Both of these actions put the rest of the public at considerable risk and danger. I don't see how a slow moving convoy does this...

What if a car with a family in it careened off of the side of the Gardiner trying to dodge these protesters or if a car plowed through the Tamils? Or if a passenger train was derailed and hundreds died?

Edited July 25, 2009 by Mr.Canada