Canada: The Land of the Free and Tolerant

Oh Canada, the land of the free and tolerant

By Shawn Thompson

Whether applied to the micro (individual) or the macro level (communities, nations), Identity always functions the same way: first, it is absolutely fictive, and second, you have a majority (dominant) that produces the marks of marginalization by opposition, in a discourse that positions the others as inferior without seeming to do so. In today’s context of global migration and global financial flow, the state has lost some of its importance in terms of a closed system that can be regulated from within. Therefore, it seems to rely desperately on the control of its borders to defend itself from immigrant populations. This is not alien to the recent resurgence of the political right in countries around the world: it shows how nations keep holding on to the outdated system of the Nation State in order to legitimize it’s existence, the concept of citizenship and it’s own identity. Such “identity” is constructed and passed on through institution of legitimization of the status quo (read schools and media) that erect mental borders and barriers that blocks the circulation of ideas and ossifies social exchanges.  Applied to racism (or other minority subjects) studies have shown the failure of the educational system to instruct the population of Canada’s past and present “history of discrimination and civil rights abuses.” Even our Prime Minister goes public with such appalling idiocy that “Canada has no history of colonialism.”!?! Well, that also shows that the Canadian political system allows such individuals to get into power (and to be elected by the population? Oh, scary.) Thanks to the “elite” or the fucking oblivious assholes responsible for keeping journalism in a state of a meaningless machine that produces exclusion and discrimination through vacuous discourses that stands for legitimate world views. Cheers.