VOL. 9 NO. XX
c o m
How not
to handle
a genteel
racist
DALHOUSIE NON-DEBATE
White supremacist
invited, disinvited,
roughed up and in
the end, glorified
BY JOSEPH BREAN
Fussing over his last-minute trav-
el plans, David Divine, James R.
Johnston chair of Black Canad-
ian studies at Dalhousie Univer-
sity, seems a worldly fellow, not
at all the poster child for naïveté
on racism.
At his suburban Halifax din-
ing table last week, with his
phone ringing off the hook and
teenage children coming and go-
ing, he explained that he is not
afraid to vigorously defend his
belief in the rightness of multi-
culturalism. “Only one look at
my background will tell you I’m
up to any challenge,” he said.
With his command of black
history in Canada, his cautiously
precise speaking style, strong aca-
demic reputation and seat on the
board of the Canadian Race Rela-
tions Foundation, to say nothing
of his pleasant Scottish trilling
nor his skin like milky coffee from
his African-American father and
Irish-Scottish mother, he seems as
good a candidate as any to debate
racial diversity against Jared Tay-
lor, a notorious American white
nationalist who was booked to
speak at Dalhousie last week.
Canadians have a “lewd curi-
osity” about racism, says Karen
Mock, former executive director
of the CCRF. They also have the
naïve confidence that good argu-
ment will refute lies. Together,
she says, curiosity and confi-
dence make for a broad vulner-
ability to the propaganda strat-
egies of modern “race realism.”
In its reaction to Mr. Taylor’s
brief visit last week, Halifax failed
on almost every measure. Prof.
Divine did not check his back-
ground before agreeing to debate
him as an intellectual peer, an
omission that later forced him
to publicly refuse to debate. The
media courted Mr. Taylor, then
shunned him, then courted him
again, turning a non-story into a
near-scandal; and citizens stooped
to mob violence and an anonym-
ous e-mail that read: “Next time
he comes, we’re going to cut off his
head.”
“Must be Muslims,” Mr. Taylor
said.
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Toronto Magazine
Eatingcommunity Quebec
Adult baby community
community
Scrabble community film hits
Role-playing game community
Pedophile community
Storm chasing community Questioning community socialiste
eBaycommunity
nerve
Breast-feeding community
World community
Targets unions,
Amateur community
state monopolies
Coffee connoisseurcommunity
B Y G R A E M E H A M I LT O N
M O N T R E A L • A new disaster
movie is playing in Quebec the-
Hate community
Graffiti community
atres, but this one features no
tidal waves or nuclear Armaged-
don. The nightmare scenario in
L’illusion tranquille involves an
ageing society living beyond its
means, unable to shake the grip
Cat lovers
of meddlesome government and
powerful trade unions. The place
is Quebec, and the year is 2007.
The low-budget documentary,
Composting community made by two novice filmmakers
and financed from their own
savings, is fuelling debate on a
topic considered taboo until re-
cently. Has the so-called “Quebec
Two-spirited model” for development, with
its emphasis on government
commuunitiy Fat intervention in the economy and
sweeping social programs, run
its course?
“What I concluded is very sim-
ple,” the film’s director, Joanne
Marcotte, says through the voice
of a narrator as the film opens.
Animal sex community “Quebec is suffocating under
the weight of state monopolies
and a new union clergy. Our sys-
tem for redistributing wealth is
obsolete. Universality is an illu-
sion, and the glory years of Que-
GROUPTHINK?
bec’s union movement are well
behind us.”
Playing in art house cinemas
in Montreal and Quebec City,
L’illusion tranquille is hardly a
blockbuster. About 5,000 people
will have seen it when it closes
its run next week. What is note-
Word ‘community’ imparts instant legitimacy worthy is that the movie — which
builds its argument using inter-
views with academics and young
Quebecers, punctuated by light-
community and the cigar aficionado com- be both positive and politically correct; hearted animation — has found
D
BY MELISSA LEONG munity; and there would be 1.2 million deviant or controversial groups apply the its way on to screens at all.
hits on Google for the seemingly nonsens- label community as an affirmation. See FILM on Page A11
ecades ago, the word ical phrase, “world community.” “It’s spun so thin nowadays,” said
community was associ- In the past week alone, the CBC has Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the Uni- PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL POST COMPANY,
ated with a place, a reli- used the phrase “sex-trade community” in versity of California, Berkeley. He says A SUBSIDIARY OF CANWEST MEDIAWORKS INC.
RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN COPIES TO
gious group, an ethnic its coverage of the trial of Robert Pickton, the term has become so trivialized as 300-1450 DON MILLS RD.,
population — the lake- the Toronto Police Services announced it to be an abuse of language — “If you go DON MILLS, ONT. M3B 3R5
front community, the Catholic commun- was launching an educational campaign online, you’ll see the Campbell’s Soup
ity, the Chinese community. These days, targeting the “questioning community” community, people swapping recipes.
however, the word has become a catch- (as distinct from the gay, lesbian, trans- “A lot of things aren’t communities,”
all to describe any number of people gender communities), and the Globe and he said. “I saw once a reference to the
who share any common interest — no Mail, in a story about men who copulate ‘pedestrian community’ — ‘We have to
matter how bizarre, brief, frivolous or with horses, referred to the animal-sex reach out to the pedestrian community,’ a Publication Mail Agreement Number 40069573
fringe-like it may be. community — without any sense of irony group I commune with every time I park I N D E X
So it is that there is now the clubbing or even the use of quotation marks or ital- my car. Merely being a pedestrian isn’t
community, the composting community, ics. The National Post has written stories something that shapes your sense of self. CLASSIFIED FP14, FULFORD A23
S6, S7, FW8, 9, 10, 11 LINDA FRUM A3
the conspiracy theorists community; and citing the “education community” and the Everyone’s a pedestrian sooner or later.” COYNE A20 LETTERS A21
online, people form the “diaper-lover com- “investment banking community.” See MEANING on Page A10 DIVERSIONS WP19 REMEMBERING WP18
munity” (often associated with the “adult- Political leaders and political organ- EDITORIALS A20 WEATHER S5
baby community”), the fans of MacGyver izations find the word useful as it can Share your views at nationalpost.com
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There are 192 countries in the world and MasterCard® can help you see every single one. From Kathmandu to the Great Wall of China, no other card
is more accepted worldwide. Go to mastercard.ca for more details. there are some things money can’t buy. for everything else there’s MasterCard.™