To the editor,
The 2022 Ontario provincial election shook me up a lot. My concern is not only about the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party gaining more strength, but as well the apathy of more than half of the eligible voters, who neglected their citizen roles and responsibility in what we ought to proactively support, namely, a ‘participatory democracy.’
What is worse, and a threat to democracy as we know it, are the increasing inroads being made by political parties who are filling the vacuum of voter indifference. Their mandates are much further to the right of PCs. A movement is afoot in Ontario, and other parts of Canada, in which newer political parties, together with several so-called independent news publications, and various organizations, are promoting a backlash to racial equity through the promotion of disinformation.
I still shudder from an encounter at one all-candidates meeting during the recent Ontario election in midwestern Ontario, where I expressed my disagreement with a woman sitting next to me, who supported the New Blue Party’s local candidate. Her hostility was chilling as she immediately retorted that she is “pro-Trump.”
Here I want to expose the enormous lie – widespread among far-right ideologues – that Bill 67, Racial Equity in the Education System Act, 2022, is a “woke ideology” to be feared because it is grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT). I am here to expose this repugnant co-opting and distortion of what “woke” originally meant, and identify CRT as a red herring in regard to Bill 67. Both of these terms have been imported from the far-right Republicans in the USA who continue to loudly support Donald Trump, the latter whom I perceive to be the catalyst to bring far-right views into mainstream communications.
Believe it or not, a web page of the New Blue Party showcases a petition whose intention is to stop Bill 67, characterizing the New Blue Party campaign as: “Stop ‘Woke’ Activism.” Please note that nowhere in Bill 67 does the term ‘critical race theory’ exist, because I have read every word of it – twice.
Two recent online CNN News items articles communicate excellent details about the origins of “woke,” since its creation many decades ago among Black Americans, to point to the need to be awake and aware about mechanisms of anti-Blackness. Read “How ‘woke’ went from a social justice term to a pejorative favoured by some conservatives,” which maps its origins up to and including the mention of the “Stop WOKE Act,” initiated by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, coming into effect this month. A further exploration is published on July 9 by W. Kamau Bell, who is the TV host of United Shades of America. This season’s opening episode on July 10 is “The Woke Wars.”
As for CRT, right-wing ideologues similarly have abused and exploited it beyond its original purpose, namely, to be a framework to discuss race issues in law school. A Black American school teacher, interviewed in “The Woke Wars,” emphasizes how CRT has been reinvented today by conservatives as a “boogeyman” to instill fear about the teaching of the whole history of America, and “not to demonize white people.” Another educator pointed out, teaching about the fuller history is about “adding to, not about erasing and replacing.”
Meanwhile, the misuse and distortion of these American terms, to communicate disinformation about Bill 67, has even spread to other parts of Canada. Almost the identical phrases, and the same American sources, are parroted in a number of right-wing Canadian publications, such as The Western Standard, True North, and more, as well as organizations, such as Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada and, as well, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).
Most recently, the populist right-wing federal candidate Pierre Poilievre, in a July 11 online CBC News article “railed against a `new religion of woke-ism” according to the photo caption, under a photo of Poilievre speaking from his podium in Calgary, Alberta.
Poilievre’s own federal campaign web page, on June 20, speaks from one side of his mouth to protect academic freedom and free speech – while he refers to university gatekeepers as “thought police.” But, next, he declares how he will recommend federal grant reductions to universities who are accused of censorship. Accused by whom, I ask? In other words, would what Poilievre’s justifies as “free speech” in reality actually give full reign to “right-wing speech” and permit all forms of hate speech?
Speaking of “thought police,” I also find it ironic, as well as democratically dangerous, that the New Blue Party’s fuller mandate – which includes as well an anti-vaccine mandate – advocates to “Defund the establishment media and promote a free press.” Who are they kidding? We have a free press, which voices a range of political perspectives. What I believe New Blue actually would promote are news media limited only to right wing publications systemically focused on delegitimizing other news media sources.
I appeal to the human decency and intelligence of thinking Canadians that each and every one of us has the moral responsibility to seek out information from a range of news – diverse both politically and culturally – to understand more fully who we are as a human family and, as well, to understand different perspectives on complex issues even when we disagree.
What scares me is hearing from more and more individuals, particularly the younger generations, that they do not read any news media and instead choose to get information from social media. That trend, which usually means using limited silos of data which, in turn, become “echo chambers,” totally removes the opportunity of authentic dialogue. What this trend portends is one of the surest pathways to undermine democracy.
Finally, what is misguided about right-wing politics in Ontario does not rest solely at the feet of the far right. Why did the PCs last March decide to delete a newly prepared Indigenous science lens from our provincial curriculum? Is doing so not contrary to the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations?
This revelation, by the way, happened through the investigative journalism, and an Access to Information request, carried out by The Globe and Mail, printed in its July 2 newspaper edition. Such news stories about what too often happens behind closed doors without public consultation is why we truly need to support our currently existing mainstream news media, to dig for deeper truths.
Dr. Sandy Greer, PhD
Blyth
