Two boroughs vote for police bodycams
Two boroughs, Pierrefonds-Roxboro and CDN-NDG, voted in favour of bodycams for police on Monday night, an idea the city set aside a year ago.
Also in the Journal, MBC supports the idea, floated in comments here, that Sunday’s march was merely aping Americans, since some signs were in English and therefore un-Québécois and invalid because Quebec has no institutional racism. At least, none that can be seen by a white guy.
It may be obvious, but some – like MBC – may be oblivious: because the history of black people in Canada, and Quebec, is different from the history of those in the US, because our ownership of slaves was not so widespread, it doesn’t mean we have no racism here. Because the US had Jim Crow laws we can point at and we didn’t (but if not, what law was Viola Desmond defying in Halifax New Glasgow?), that doesn’t mean our hands are clean.
Update: Montreal North also voted for the cameras Monday.
John S 10:58 on 2020-06-02 Permalink
Viola Desmond was in New Glasgow, not Halifax, when her car broke down and she decided to see a movie while she waited. There were no formal laws on segregation in place – only an unannounced and informal “whites only” on the main floor of the theatre policy.
Ian 11:00 on 2020-06-02 Permalink
Marie-Josèphe dite Angélique is another name that keeps getting swept under the rug but yes of course it’s no surprise that those in power don’t think Quebec is rife with systemic racism, or recognize that it is in fact founded on it to a fairly consistent and well-documented extent, the simple fact of colonialism on inhabited land aside.
DeWolf 11:40 on 2020-06-02 Permalink
Don’t forget Fred Christie, the Habs fan who went for a drink at a tavern in the Forum only to be denied service because he was black. He sued the tavern, took it all the way to the Supreme Court – and Canada’s highest court ruled that racial discrimination was perfectly legal. The court made its ruling the same year that Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Montreal Royals. We hear a lot of self-congratulatory bromides about how Canada welcomed a black baseball player but not how its own black citizens were suffering from officially-sanctioned injustice.
Jack 13:40 on 2020-06-02 Permalink
This take down of MBC and how he constructs his white supremacist ideology by continuously framing the white majority in Quebec as perpetual victims, was written two years ago but is still absolutely topical.
https://xaviercamus.com/2018/07/13/replique-a-mathieu-bock-cote-quant-a-son-mepris-de-lantiracisme/
david99 16:12 on 2020-06-02 Permalink
Good thread here on reducing police violence, in the US context, at least.
https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1180655701271732224
Raymond Lutz 16:36 on 2020-06-03 Permalink
Aping? “ I’ll tell you why people in Germany, France , Britain, Australia and all the other places join the protests. We also feel the chilling and dehumanizing effects of more than two decades of the neoliberal takeover of all aspects of society. We know that our future looks like America’s hellish present, if we don’t stop these “crazy baldheads” and chase them out of town, like Brother Bob used to sing. Crazy fuckin times we’re living in. Anything can happen. Wouldn’t even surprise me if the Aliens stepped in and said we’ve had enough of this shit. This experiment is terminated. ” georgetheonlyporge commenting on The progressive Soapbox channel