Columnists
Cumulus behaviour
It all starts with snowflakes. Tiny, harmless, bits of crystalline water, so delicate they will disappear on contact. When they drift down gracefully, it’s an enchanting sight.
But as snowflakes begin to come down thicker, faster, they amass on the ground, forming a single entity that causes all sorts of havoc. In the cities, streets fill with skidding cars, events are cancelled, roofs threaten to buckle. In the wilderness, a weak layer of snow, triggered by the softest step, causes an avalanche, suffocating everything in its path.
Something unassuming, even entertaining, becomes a disaster before we’ve had a chance to realize what’s happened.
In Canada, we might think we’re watching from a safe distance as a new style of politics wreaks havoc. But that is as misguided as standing at the foot of a mountain in winter, feeling safe from the snowy peaks above.
We have always known there are those who feel hatred toward the other: people of differing religions, languages, skin colours. But as long as they remain on the fringes, people to be pitied for the emptiness their hatred brings, we can begrudgingly accept their existence and shake our heads when they lash out.
But like snowflakes, a harmless dusting can suddenly become a treacherous blizzard.
When the US election results were published, and in the following weeks, Canadians saw small, seemingly insignificant peaks in activity from these people. Hate crimes, to be sure— threats leveled against minorities and racialized vandalism—but crimes that hurt the soul, not any physical being.
Then, on the heels of the US announcement of a ban on Muslims from specific countries; a massacre that killed six people and injured 19 others at prayer in a Quebec City mosque. The perpetrator was a far-right sympathizer.
Still, he was a lone wolf, we said. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country came to vigils, pledged their support, formed chains around mosques on Friday so Muslims could pray in peace.
But emboldened by a low-pressure effect and gathering speed, the hatred is no longer a light dusting.
When Mississauga MP Iqra Khalid introduced an independent bill to study and eliminate Islamophobia and other forms of religious racism last week, she received so many hateful and threatening messages she had to accept extra protection.
Four of the PC’s leadership candidates opposed the bill. At a protest rally hosted by The Rebel Media, a Canadian media outlet reminiscent of Breitbart News in the US, hundreds were riled up by candidate Kellie Leitch, whose policies have been compared to that of the US president.
Protesters showed up outside a mosque in Toronto on Friday bearing signs with Islamophobic messages. It was a small group. Only 15 people. Still the minority.
But not so small a minority as we’d like to think.
An Angus Reid poll published Monday shows that one in four Canadians support a ‘Trump-style’ ban on Muslim refugees. A minority, yes, but a significant one.
After WWII, many Germans said they had always been against the ideals of the Nazi party. They did not accept the racist scapegoating, the extreme nationalism. But they were too afraid of their neighbours to speak up. Ironically, their neighbours were too afraid of them to do the same.
They were staring in wonder at a shift in power, weakening some vital layer of their society. They were left unprepared for the avalanche that followed.
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