Columnists
Meanwhile, in Canada
A popular Internet meme, Meanwhile, in Canada was once used to represent stereotypical Canadian politeness, resilience to cold and an intense amount of snow. It’s a lighthearted way to laugh at ourselves as Canadians and also to take pride in our strengths.
Canadian police officers are often included in these images, like a photograph captured by Toronto Star photographer Carlos Osorio in 2011 of a police officer laughing and throwing the contents of his water bottle at a crowd during the Toronto Pride Parade, as he’s assaulted by a barrage of water guns.
Lately, images like that have become a little more profound.
A videographer from Ottawa named Yves Soglo, on a mission to create a Canada Day video for Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling, convinced a female police officer to join him in a few moves. The moment was caught by passersby and widely shared on social media.
Soglo is a black man. In the days that followed, the U.S. witnessed two black men shot to death by police, followed by a mass shooting that killed five officers during a Black Lives Matter protest. The significance of the footage, and its timeliness, has not been lost on the public.
Of course, as it became more famous, the footage was shared with those three words— Meanwhile, in Canada.
While there are certainly fewer police shootings in Canada, it’s not accurate to conclude that there is less racism here.
Last week, Louizandre Dauphin, director of parks, recreation and tourism for the city of Bathurst, New Brunswick, was pulled over on his way home. The police had received several tips of a suspicious black man in a car that matched the description of the one he was driving.
It turned out that while sitting in his car by the ocean during his leisure time, reading a book, nearby residents saw him and called the police.
Nothing came of the incident. The officer who stopped Dauphin looked at his identification and was satisfied with his explanation. But the event incensed him and he shared it, adding, “so, a black male, sitting in his car, reading a book is suspicious activity. Good to know. At this rate, I may never leave my home again.”
There are similar systemic issues, if fewer fatal shootings, in Canada when compared to the U.S. Black and Aboriginal people, along with those suffering mental illness, are overrepresented in the Canadian prison population.
Crimes against Aboriginal people—including murder—have been underinvestigated or even dismissed.
A protest by Black Lives Matter at the Toronto Pride Parade this year led to more people defending the police than the protesters as they demanded, among other things, that police be excluded from the event.
Certainly, it is cheering to see images like that of Soglo dancing with a member of the Ottawa police. But it is not the whole story. Not even in Canada.
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