Maxime Bernier’s racism is showing online
Does Maxime Bernier think that most Canadians are intensely racist people with no historical memory?
That’s the only way to make sense of his reaction on Twitter to two Black parliamentarians: Ahmed Hussen and Celina Caesar-Chavannes.
Hussen tweeted that the 2018 budget has “historic” investments for “racialized Canadians.” Bernier, ultra pissed that he’s a big ‘ole white guy I guess, bit back at Hussen on Twitter with this gem of a tweet:
“I thought the ultimate goal of fighting discrimination was to create a colour-blind society where everyone is treated the same. Not to set some Canadians apart as being “racialized.” What’s the purpose of this awful jargon? To create more division for the Liberals to exploit?”
Bernier is incorrect: the ultimate goal of fighting discrimination is to eliminate discrimination, not to “create a colour-blind society where everyone is treated the same.” Such a utopia may be Bernier’s dream (which actually I doubt because Bernier’s ultimate dream is a libertarian dystopia that is not likely to be colour-blind), but his powerful ignorance on this issue doesn’t disqualify him airing his terrible and incorrect opinions.
Bernier must know that it isn’t Hussen who is setting “some Canadians apart as being “racialized,” nor is this “awful jargon.” Bernier seems to think we live in a colour-blind society already, a belief that is in itself racist and inaccurate. We have racist legislation (the Indian Act and immigration laws, for example) and we have systemic racism sewn throughout all of society’s structures. Far from creating “more division for the Liberals to exploit,” the Liberals are finally acknowledging that anti-Black racism is real, and it needs to be confronted.
Bernier’s response is powerfully bad, and Caesar-Chavannes responds as one should, with incredulity. “@MaximeBernier do some research, or a Google search, as to why stating colour blindness as a defense actually contributes to racism. Please check your privilege and be quiet. Since our gvt’t like[s] research, here is some evidence: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/26/do-not-see-race-ignoring-racism-not-helping…” Her response is excellent and defensible. She eventually walks it back, apologizing for telling Bernier to be quiet.
Caesar-Chavannes’ reply must have triggered something inside Bernier’s bowels because he amps up the exchange. In a “no Black woman will talk to me like this” kind of way, Bernier asks if Caesar-Chavannes understands how Free Speech works. He then uses the opportunity to blow so hard on his dog whistle, that he surely drove some local dogs to serious pain.
He tweets: “3/4 But that doesn’t mean the gov’t officially defining us on the basis of “intersectional race, gender and sexual identities” and granting different rights and privileges accordingly. This only creates more division and injustice and will balkanise our society …
4/4 I say it’s time we conservatives stop being afraid to defend our vision of a just society made up of free and equal individuals, and push back against those who want to silence any opinion that differs from theirs.”
So what exactly is that vision, Maxime? Where brutish, powerful men can ignore fact, plough over Black colleagues and create a cause célèbre for their pathetic whiteguy fanboys to take to the barricades? Nothing that Bernier tweets is true, nor is any reply an attack on his free speech.
Bernier is speaking to the swath of Canada who think that “intersectionality” is a bad word. But everyone experiences intersectionality, especially Bernier, who profits off of it in a major way. As the son of a popular long-time politician, Bernier was handed a political career to do with it what he pleased. Bernier’s whiteness, his family relationships and his economic power is an intersectional windfall. And he’s pretending that it doesn’t exist, hoping to attract the minority of Canadians who think that their success is wholly the result of their individual hard work.
At the same time, Bernier hopes that our memories are short. To level the charge that his free speech is being trampled by Hussen and Caesar-Chavannes requires us to forget 2006–2015.
The Harper Conservatives’ “tough on crime” fetish waged an intense attack on the freedom of Canadians. From mandatory minimums to eliminating prison maximums, Bernier is the last human who can credibly complain that his Free Speech is under attack.
Example: do you remember Private Members’ Bill C-309?
Despite the fact that the Criminal Code already made it illegal to disguise oneself with the intent of committing a crime, Bernier and his caucus enthusiastically supported Bill C-309, which makes wearing a mask at a protest that the police deem to be illegal. Extremely illegal.
The maximum sentence? A whopping 10 years in jail.
For wearing a mask.
A damn mask.
Now, for sure, there are Conservatives who find clowns freaky and all that. But this is an intense attack on our right to free speech and free expression. I use our deliberately — us: average Canadians whose dads weren’t longtime MPs who want to protest … whatever. Anything. This sweeping legislation targets workers, strikers, activists, community organizers, grandparents — anyone that has ever protested to make a point. We know that police declare protests illegal when it suits them. We know that we can expect to be gassed. We know that gasmasks are considered masks. We know that the state’s powers to crush dissent have grown and become more sophisticated.
And, we know that the state uses this power to disproportionately target racialized Canadians, especially Indigenous and Black people. Bernier might find the word “racialized” icky but he sure as hell benefits from the racist segmentation of Canadian society.
The sum total of these factors is this: Bernier is trash and he needs to be called out as such. I get why Caeser-Chavannes felt she had to apologize, and it’s a damn shame. Bernier thinks his arguments will build his political currency. And, he might be right, indeed, he confused NDP MP Nathan Cullen enough to Retweet some back-ass defense of Bernier’s right to say incorrect and racist stuff. But if we don’t take the time to obliterate his foolishness when the dog whistles come out, then we can expect it to get worse.
