{"id":6192,"date":"2015-12-20T16:23:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T21:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6192"},"modified":"2018-08-24T14:57:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T18:57:05","slug":"6192","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6192","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, December 20, 2015 \u2014 Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"15-12-20<\/a>

Canada\u2019s Cab\u00adi\u00adnet Min\u00adis\u00adters of Immi\u00adgra\u00adtion (John McCal\u00adlum), Defense (Har\u00adjit Saj\u00adjan), and Health (Jane Philpott) with Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugee children.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m a cur\u00admud\u00adgeony cyn\u00adic, most of the time, so it\u2019s not often I get to pro\u00adclaim that I\u2019m proud of my coun\u00adtry. But the behav\u00adiour of Cana\u00addi\u00adans in the last week has filled me with pride. <\/span>Last month, I post\u00aded a let\u00adter I sent to my Mem\u00adber of Par\u00adlia\u00adment, ask\u00ading that the com\u00admit\u00adment to admit\u00adting Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees to Cana\u00adda be expand\u00aded to greater num\u00adbers. My sen\u00adti\u00adments seem to be shared by most Cana\u00addi\u00adans, but that is not the case elsewhere.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Unit\u00aded States, the major\u00adi\u00adty of politi\u00adcians (all Repub\u00adli\u00adcans, of course, but many Democ\u00adrats, too) have decid\u00aded to be pals with ISIS<\/span>, col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adrat\u00ading in their attroc\u00adi\u00adties by mak\u00ading it dif\u00adfi\u00adcult for their vic\u00adtims to find refuge. The March\u00ading Morons have tri\u00adumphed, and there have been numer\u00adous acts of ter\u00adror\u00adism against inno\u00adcent peo\u00adple, encour\u00adaged and abet\u00adted by Fox Prav\u00adda and the usu\u00adal Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive scumbags. <\/span><\/p>\n

My friend Fil\u00adip Marek, in Prague, sends me dis\u00adtress\u00ading news items. Milo\u0161 Zeman, the pres\u00adi\u00addent of the Czech Repub\u00adlic, has been spout\u00ading vile racist and xeno\u00adpho\u00adbic garbage of the most dis\u00adgust\u00ading sort \u2014 and soar\u00ading to pop\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adty for it. He might as well be on the ISIS<\/span> pay\u00adroll. The news from many oth\u00ader Euro\u00adpean coun\u00adtries is just as depress\u00ading, if the news\u00adpa\u00adpers I con\u00adsult are giv\u00ading an accu\u00adrate pic\u00adture. There are decent peo\u00adple in all coun\u00adtries who are step\u00adping for\u00adward to help the Syr\u00adi\u00adans, but the depth of nas\u00adti\u00adness demon\u00adstrat\u00aded by a very large num\u00adber of peo\u00adple is extreme\u00adly depress\u00ading and disturbing.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"images\"<\/a>

Our Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter with a Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugee arriv\u00ading in Toronto.<\/p><\/div>\n

But Cana\u00addi\u00adans have respond\u00aded to the refugee cri\u00adsis in a way that glad\u00addens my heart. Although there was some ini\u00adtial neg\u00ada\u00adtive response when the new gov\u00adern\u00adment announced its plan to quick\u00adly bring in 25,000 refugees, this melt\u00aded away as pub\u00adlic sen\u00adti\u00adment shift\u00aded to sym\u00adpa\u00adthy for the refugees. \u201cLet\u2019s live up to who we are as Cana\u00addi\u00adans by tack\u00adling this chal\u00adlenge, seiz\u00ading this oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty,\u201d said David John\u00adston, Gov\u00ader\u00adnor Gen\u00ader\u00adal (in Cana\u00adda, the for\u00admal Head of State) at the Forum on Wel\u00adcom\u00ading Syr\u00adi\u00adan Refugees to Cana\u00adda, which was set-up to map out logis\u00adtics. Groups of every reli\u00adgious creed have orga\u00adnized cloth\u00ading dri\u00adves, hous\u00ading funds, and band\u00aded togeth\u00ader to spon\u00adsor refugees. The very small num\u00adber of anti-refugee inci\u00addents were denounced by the vast major\u00adi\u00adty of Cana\u00addi\u00adans, and the hate-filled cranks have crawled back under the floor\u00adboards and into the sew\u00aders. There are no politi\u00adcians in any par\u00adty voic\u00ading hos\u00adtil\u00adi\u00adty to the Syr\u00adi\u00adans. The first plane-load of refugees arrived in Toron\u00adto to be greet\u00aded per\u00adson\u00adal\u00adly by the Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter (who was cheer\u00adful\u00adly hand\u00ading out sweaters from a car\u00adton). Sure, this was a pho\u00adto-op for the new\u00adly elect\u00aded PM<\/span>, but the footage left no doubt that the sen\u00adti\u00adment was sin\u00adcere, and his sym\u00adpa\u00adthy real. School chil\u00addren and church groups from across the coun\u00adtry sent wel\u00adcom\u00ading greet\u00adings and gifts. <\/span><\/p>\n

In my blog post, I men\u00adtioned that among the most active in wel\u00adcom\u00ading Syr\u00adi\u00adan refugees have been the com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty of Viet\u00adnamese Cana\u00addi\u00adans. They know all too well the hard\u00adships that refugees under\u00adgo. This video appeared on the web\u00adsite of the Man\u00adches\u00adter Guardian:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/video\/2015\/oct\/30\/canada-vietnam-syria-refugees-video<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s per\u00admis\u00adsi\u00adble for as grumpy a cyn\u00adic as myself \u2014 now and then \u2014 <\/span> to be open\u00adly proud of his country. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a cur\u00admud\u00adgeony cyn\u00adic, most of the time, so it\u2019s not often I get to pro\u00adclaim that I\u2019m proud of my coun\u00adtry. But the behav\u00adiour of Cana\u00addi\u00adans in the last week has filled me with pride. Last month, I post\u00aded a letter \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[1289,1292,1290,1291],"class_list":["post-6192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-al-blog-2015","tag-migrants","tag-milos-zeman","tag-syrian-refugees","tag-syrian-refugees-in-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6192"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7433,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6192\/revisions\/7433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}