The right direction

by Brandon Mayer way of life, whatever that means.

Canada’s second annual Truth and Reconciliation Day has now come and gone. It is just one of many days in Canada intended to celebrate diversity and work toward an equal cultural mosaic that is the dream of so many. Another that passed just days before Truth and Reconciliation Day was Franco-Ontarian day on September 26. These types of days are meant to keep us moving forward. We cannot change the past, but we can certainly learn from it.

The idea of a cultural “mosaic” is that people with different beliefs and value systems can live together peacefully and happily. This is something that Canadians can be proud of, because not all countries approach diversity this way. Many readers are probably familiar with the term “melting pot”, which refers to the traditionally American style of expecting immigrants to assimilate to an “American”

It is interesting to think of how our ideas of inclusivity have changed over the years. In fact, just the word “inclusive” is a step forward from using the word “tolerant” to describe welcoming those from cultures other than our own. Decades ago, those seen as the most culturally forward-thinking were anthropologists and research professors who were interested in studying and documenting practices and customs in other cultures.

The keyword here is “other”, as the basis for such research was usually in making a comparison between “us” (the in-group) and the “other” culture (the out-group).

Of course, considering that a century ago half the population was openly racist, and just a few decades ago the level of discrimination was far worse than it is today, it is easy to see why researchers who actually cared enough to document diverse cultural practices were considered the liberal heroes of their

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, re: WPS incident

We are parents of a (just graduated) student from WPS.

We reported another similar incident (during this past summer vacation), that occurred within the village to our child’s friend as they were travelling on their scooter to our home for a play date: an unknown adult male approached and asked if they wanted ice cream. The child knew what to do, kept their head down, answered no and kept travelling as fast as possible. Once arrived and very shaky, they immediately reported the incident to us. We informed the other parents and asked permission, and received it,-to seek out the individual or at least try to see if we could spot them based on the description, report the incident to the police and maybe post a calm alert to a well-known local social media group-mentioning no names, no personal details day. No one questioned the euro-centric way of doing things because it was at least a step in the right direction.

We now know that in order to facilitate true cultural diversity, people must be able to share their own stories and teach their own values. Why have a Caucasian university professor study a particular ethnic group and then teach a group of students about this “outside” culture, when it makes so much more sense to let diverse groups do their own teaching? When studying music in undergraduate university, I took one of my two seminar courses on the music of Canadian Indigenous peoples. Yes, the professor was a Caucasian woman, but she understood that she was not in a position to have the greatest expertise on Indigenous practices, despite being a professor of such. Our teachers for the course were mostly Indigenous musicians and Indigenous elders. Oh what an enriching experience that was!

When we think back to the mistakes we have made in this country, including with Indigenous people, it can be daunting to even begin to imagine how we are going to fix it. We acknowledge that we live, work, and raise our families on unceded Indigenous territory, but of course that does not mean we are planning to give it back anytime soon. I recall listening to a radio talk show years ago during a discussion on how our land is unceded territory, wherein the host of the show quipped “well, I own my piece”. Yes, I own my property as well, but I think the host missed the point. No one is asking us to give up our homes and our properties – to do so would not be the Indigenous way. The best way forward from any situation of such immense wrongdoing is to begin listening – truly listening – to the affected group. A group of Euro-Canadian policymakers sitting in a boardroom have no right to come up with ways to make amends with Indigenous peoples. Only Indigenous peoples can tell us how to truly make things right, and the process is gradual.

Of course, it is not only Indigenous people who have been marginalized throughout the years. For example, LGBTQ2S+ individuals have had a rough go for centuries. Progress has been made, but there is much more to do. One thing society still seems to struggle with is not acting like we are doing marginalized groups a favour when we treat them fairly. Fair treatment of all is an imperative, and is something we can be proud of not because we are going above and beyond, but because we are fundamentally doing the right thing – nothing more, and nothing less.

Of course, there will always be groups and individuals who continue to spread hate and division. Some religious groups have a bad reputation for this, including locally. Why don’t we shut them down? Why don’t we limit our tolerance to only the most forward-thinking of ideas? Irony, that’s why. It is ironic to think that imposing our beliefs and shutting down entire religions that disagree with us is forward thinking, when the shutting down of an entire set of cultural beliefs was the goal of the now infamous Residential School System. We must be careful that in our quest to shut out hate, we don’t end up creating more division and hostility. Speaking out against specific acts of hatred is one thing, but painting entire groups with one brush and moving to eliminate them because of their beliefs is hypocritical when done under the guise of inclusivity. of the child and just a gentle suggestion to go over ‘what to do’ as children are maybe out in the village playing with friends etc. We thought people, parents need to go over this again…

As days like Truth and Reconciliation Day pass, it can be disheartening to know that there is still hurt to fix, and still progress to make. The important thing to remember is that we don’t always have to get to our destination quickly – we only have to keep moving in the right direction.

The post was initially accepted but then removed. (The other parents noticed this)..we shrugged it off thinking that perhaps they (the group moderator) didn’t like ‘negative news’ and in the end, we (most importantly) had made an official report to local police.

Before reading the article, as parents still on the school email list-we were already aware of the incident.

Nevertheless, thinking about it again brings it back. We have not breathed a sigh of relief-this person wasn’t ultimately identified or cautioned that we know of. We (both sets of parents) drive the children to each other’s houses nowadays.

This is a sad reminder of the importance of keeping our children alert and safe no matter where we live-it doesn’t just happen to kids in cities.

Kind regards

A concerned parent

Dear Brandon, I was compelled to response by your incredibly well written and thoroughly relatable editorial from the September 22 NG & ND times. Thank you so much for a very enjoyable and thought provoking read.

I’ve often thought all of those same things! How writers and futurists that created science fiction back in the day gave us future humans so much credit for being far more advanced than we have been able to keep up with! (while still keeping women in the lesser roles??) Except of course Star Trek which inspired cell phones, tasers and equality and diversity in the work place.

And the newspaper!

The love of the newspaper. Friends and I were just discussing this recently. My husband has the record store Vinyl Destination in Merrickville and he had an email sent to him from a reporter from the Toronto Star who gave him an advance view of an article that was to be printed in the Saturday edition about their visit to the Village that his store was mentioned in.

We reached out to friends in Toronto to see if they could find a hard copy of the newspaper for him, and one friend went to seven stores until he was able to find a newspaper! He lamented that no one carries them anymore. We reminisced how when we were school kids in the 1960s, we looked forward to coming home at the end of the school day and opening up not one but two separate newspapers that our family got delivered to the door; the morning Montreal Gazette and the evening Montreal Star. They had you covered, no matter what happened in the city, we’d find out, eventually.

It seems every generation has to reinvent itself as we continue to strive for the better, the quicker, the faster than what came before. It always has me thinking (never mind the potential of how the next inevitable world war will be fought – simply remove all the technology and people would certainly be at a loss since we rely on it now for virtually everything) of what skills, craftsmanship and creativity we are sacrificing and leaving behind to history with this constant need to ‘improve’ . Anyway my real intent was just to say thank you for that AND many other articles of yours that I have enjoyed reading since you started writing for our local paper!

I think you just keep getting better and better! dawn