I mulled over whether to write this story or not. I get abused and attacked every time I highlight something negative about our city; even though what I write about is true.
When I wrote about Swastikas in a local high school and used the R word it led to being legally bullied by a school board. It was silence or face huge legal bills and potential loss.
“It’s 73 years ago today that Canada declared war on another tyrant… The people of Nazi Germany didn’t know what was going on, and over my time here I find it hard to believe how hard it is to find out what’s going on and how easy it is for the government to hide things”
When our racist or simply stupid MPP Jim McDonell dropped the N word (quote above) at Queen’s Park I offered to assist him out of the mess, but he made it worse eventually leading to an apology after comparing the government to Nazi’s.
“Although I have already retracted my original statement in the legislature,” wrote McDonell, “after hearing from B’nai Brith Canada,
I understand it is necessary for me to state unequivocally that my comments comparing the Ontario government to Hitler’s Nazi regime were inappropriate. I look forward to working with all communities in the future to raise awareness of these issues.”
McDonell of course boycotts CFN on the public dime. The school board had boycotted CFN prior and has since.
Politically locally our premier, Kathleen Wynne gets roasted for openly being a Lesbian instead of being roasted for her horrible politics. Is it any wonder that some local politicians like Eric Duncan choose to stay in the closet?
Calling people out has a price. I was speaking with one health care worker who shared her own horror stories and when I asked if I could quote or interview her she refused citing fear of reprisal and losing her job.
That happens a lot in Cornwall. Ever wonder why Laura Vincent isn’t teaching at her school after the ice hockey rink story? Now that wasn’t racism, but it’s sadly the culture of this city. If you don’t roll over you pay a price. If you voice out when someone crosses a line you could end up unemployed.
Now we have of all things a charming group of girls hockey parents getting the boot from a game after allegedly shouting “Go home Mohammed” to a ref at a game. LINK
Some hurried apologies have been issued, but would they if the CBC had not done a story? The Freeholder even jumped in, but honestly they’ve been missing in action for the most part, and would they too have written about this if the CBC had not exposed it?
Nobody likes to admit a negative. I don’t. I’m at fault for tons of socially incorrect things like calling people like these parents retards which a friend reminds me is totally inappropriate.
But then she’s not a visible minority or born into a non Catholic religion in Cornwall. Recently I received an apology from our out going Bishop as the Diocese was not sending us their press releases. (the vast largest religious group in the riding are Catholic, over 55,000) Who knows? Maybe they too are sensitive after we covered some stories about sex abuse by some of their clergy?
When I linked the CBC story on one of our local facebook pages I was of course attacked and accused of having a grudge against Cornwall which is kinda retarded, because if I really hated Cornwall I would have left ages ago as so many others have. Bullying and racism are not hallmarks for building a community. Mix in some ignorance and corruption and you have a recipe for a place that gets socially isolated and has a reputation worse than fungus.
I’m a firm believer in trying to make my home better rather than running away or leaving for greener pastures which are rarely ever there.
Is there intolerance in Cornwall Ontario? Well we’ve offered the City a discount to say Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish community for a few years now (as we offer them for Christmas) and the city doesn’t even reply even though some councilors do.
Is that more about racism or the bullying that this newspaper is going through via City Hall? It could be both?
Kisa Lanctot didn’t respond to our interview request after she posted this, but she’s a big fan of Councilor Bernadette Clement whom many have cited of losing this past Federal election for factors like Dundas isn’t big on Colour, rather than her lack of Moral compass or honesty with her constituents.
I’ve felt racism from our Interfaith group even. After not being invited to their Holocaust Memorial events for a few years I was invited to speak and share about the project I created which was nominated for an Oscar in 2003, about the Holocaust. I was uninvited a few weeks before and later told it was because a Muslim woman said I had physically struck her daughter which of course was not remotely true, nor was I asked to comment on.
Muslim’s in Cornwall suffer the most when it comes to racism, especially if wearing traditional garb. Our friends in Akwesasne don’t fare much better, but then are almost as racist themselves.
Terms like Paki, rag head, nigger, fag, “don’t jew me down” are not rarity’s in our city. We are after all in Eastern Ontario.
Nobody expects to live in a perfect world and Cornwall isn’t unique. What is a bit unique is the reaction to those that are brave enough to hold people accountable for when they cross the line; which is usually harsh and abusive in nature.
In a sense you can’t blame some when they are condemned for something that comes natural to them that some may actually consider normal behavior.
It’s not an easy situation and may never really change. What ends up happening in that the good people shrink back like sheep and simply wait out the bad guys and gals hoping for a better future.
Solutions? Well if proven true all of the parents that participated in this hockey game need to be banished for at least one full year. Their kids need to understand that what mom and dad did was utterly wrong. It’s ok to have differences. It’s ok to not even like some of them, but it’s not ok to shout out to them like that or to limit their ability to earn a living.
In Cornwall for example it’s annecdotally been stated that visible minority owned convenience stores pull in about half of those with “white” people behind the cash registers.
We can do better, but only if we, the people of Cornwall Ontario wish to.
Do you wish to do better? Do you have a story of racism or bullying in Cornwall? Email yours to info@cornwallfreenews.com if you want it investigated and you can post your comments below.
Another example of something being blown way out of line.Anyone been to a hockey game guess what they call refs sometimes,wheater his skin is black,brown, red,or white or any other colour.Go home Mohammed Whats wrong with that?If he was offended he should of went home then. He didn,t live to far from the areana.
Bunch of crap again from cbc
Hockey always brings out the best in people, whether they are fans or players.
The good ol’ hockey game, it’s the best game you can name….
Jamie I wanted to add one more thing here. This evening was the first time that I saw my husband cry at the kitchen table about mom dying and was almost put in the Glen Stor Dun by my eldest sister and mom refused to be placed and was happy to die. Believe me Jamie I think about the living hell that Diane Shay was and is going through along with the Vincents, Cadieux and some others who tasted Cornwall’s hospitality including yourself. My mom would never put herself in such an institution and died in the hospital and she died about 1/2 hour after I left her. I never saw my husband cry over my mom and he said to my daughter that he remembers the good things that she did for him and that she introduced him to Mr. Nick Kaneb who is a fellow Lebanese and that Mr. Kaneb spoke to him in Arabic and he found Mr. Kaneb to be a very fine gentleman and he said to my daughter that it is the generation that you don’t find today. Today’s people are mighty mixed up and hateful. Gee no wonder that retired teacher was laughing in the park this morning when he saw us since he knows that I am from Cornwall and I always put my head down in shame about Cornwall. This man read the papers and I didn’t see them until this evening. What a mighty shameful thing for the dirty sheeple of Cornwall to go and yell that out in the stands and everyone heard them. Yes there will be in investigation for sure. The RCMP might get involved as well.
Jules….do you seriously think only people from Cornwall yell things from the stands at referees or the other team’s players? And how / why will the RCMP be involved?
And PLEASE make your points shorter. It’s hard reading that many lines to get to a two line statement.
Hugger I said my point and it is long and have some patience with me. I am mad as hell at this racism going on. Canada, the US, Australia and some European countries have literally destroyed Syria and if you haven’t seen the destruction go on youtube.com and type in Syrian refugees and the destruction and all the major cities including the small cities are completely destroyed. There is a disease (flesh eating disease and polio) going around among the people and bodies all over the streets and no garbage pick up because of the war. Hugger take the time with me because I type what I feel and I don’t like it as much as you or anyone but it is the truth. ISIS is way beyond ordinary Islam it is of Saudi Arabia. I have been going on to plenty and will continue to go through a lot more for info.
I don’t like racism either. But I realize it will never go away. Much like bullying racism will always be with us. Those who think racism or bullying can be eliminated are in for a surprise.
Hugger it’s not about eradicating racism. It’s about standing up to it and reinforcing that it’s wrong. Nobody is perfect. It’s not about perfection. It’s about being better and improving and deciding that our community is not about racism or any ism or bullying.
I agree Admin. Getting thoughts across via the keyboard, at times, is not the easiest thing to do.
Geez… enough of the racism nonsense… there are no races, and using the word just furthers the notion that humans are somehow divided into breeds.
There is no taxonomic significance or scientific basis for the concept of race — all humans belong to the same subspecies of Homo sapiens, and that is, Homo sapiens sapiens.
This silly notion of race keeps getting promoted instead of identifying the bullying jerks as bigots… Bigot: Person with an irrational, or unfair intolerance of ideas, opinions, ethnicities, or beliefs that differ from their own, and intolerance of the people holding them.
These morons need to held accountable for their individual arseholity, and not lumped together with their mates as though it is an ideology. And how the H did these hockey parent idiots not get told to shut up and get their rear-ends chased out of the arena.
And if the term bigot just doesn’t carry the weight of racist, maybe the toe of a boot would make the point.
Hugger when I look at Donald Trump it makes me literally sick in the way that he behaves. Yes there are problems with Islam but so is with our own Christianity and other faiths because people take everything out of context and so much in the religious books is made up by man and interepreted from one language to another and so much confusion. Some people are out to do bad things and others to do good things. This ISIS thing is something out of Saudi Arabia and something that was man made and not in the Quran. I thank God for our Canada and my husband says the same all the time. The Syrians coming on the flights which will be here tonight said that Canada was a country of peace. One good thing for them so far – no snow or ice and nice enough weather. These people have suffered a great deal and they have gone through something that would have made me gone completely insane. If you see any refugees in Cornwall help them out by being courteous – they are just like the rest of us and with a mighty different culture and language and way of life. My husband said to me today in Wal Mart’s parking lot that we do have the best country in the world and he has been to a lot of countries on visit and no place like our Canada.
Jamie and folks I was just on the Ottawa Citizen paper and came across this article about the survivors of the Jewish Holocaust that took place and comparing it to the Syrian refugees of today and here it is for all to see.
Holocaust stories echo perils of currant refugee crisis
ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/holocaust-survivors-share-story-with-students
I remember Jamie writing some sort of article describing a similar situation to the Jews and the nice lady that he got to speak at CCVS to students and staff.
Jules….we agree. Heaven help us. Donald Trump is like a bad rash, he just won’t go away. If people think the U.S. is in trouble now if this clown gets elected as President they’ll be in a lot more trouble. Donald Trump has no filter on his mouth. He may be saying what a lot of people are thinking. But in this day and age of being PC that is not acceptable.
Hugger, Trump is playing up to the same crowd that Stephen Harper played up to. Thankfully, the seriously bigoted and xenophobic percentage of the population is relatively small. Too bad that well-meaning conservatives in the US and Canada have been high jacked by these low-life jerks.
Hugger, Furtz and folks did you know that Margaret Trudeau is not only Scottish but she had an Indonesian grandmother. Only the most ignorant people throw abuse at other people and the most uneducated on the planet. Here in Ottawa we see people from every corner of the world and every faith. There is a Buddhist Temple not far from me. There is an ESL school for the immigrants to learn English and French. There is a great deal that Cornwall lacks and is the many hundreds of years behind other people. The refugees will prosper and their children will become doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, etc. and I am a witness to the accomplishments of many of the children of immigrants and they are very highly intelligent people. My landlord’s children are in university and becoming one a neurosurgeon, the other is becoming a cardiologist and the other becoming a lawyer and in his family they have all succeeded in those areas and one became a chartered accountant. Robert (our friend) couldn’t read nor write and could hardly speak English and worked hard on taxi and purchased a home here next door to a woman who is a professor at Carleton University and his daughters are all graduates of university. Leila (Robert’s wife) has two sons by a previous marriage and are all high tech engineers. The list goes on and on of the people we know who succeeded and are highly intelligent people. The Lebanese, Syrians, Jewish, etc. etc. etc. along with the Chinese, etc. made Canada what it is.
Cornwall doesn’t have as much as Ottawa because it is smaller. Smaller cities, towns never have as much as larger cities. It has nothing to do with lacking things or being behind others. Some of us prefer a simpler way of life, we don’t like the faster pace of cities like Toronto or Ottawa. LOL ROFL
If Harpoon Harpo belongs to the racist camp of “The Donald” Trump I sure don’t want any part of it at all. I think that I will change parties to the Liberal/Fiberal camp instead. I am no racist at all and hate anybody who is like that. I wouldn’t have anything to do with such people.
I would personally say it’s about making people aware that we are all equal. You are right there’s a lot of racism, a lot of it comes from social conditioning. The world is changing, information is at everyone’s fingertips that has a internet connection. In today’s world there should be no reason to be racist. People are actually thought and brought up that they are superior in some way? It’s insane how people can value other humans lives; when in fact we are the same internally. We are made of up of the same cells and atoms at the scientific level. We need to shed light on the positives and show how mix cultures and mix skin colours can easily get along. I’m 25 and I definitely don’t see it as much as we’ll say a 50 or 60 year old man talk about it.
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I just read about 15 or so minutes ago in the Ottawa Sun paper that Caroline Mulroney daughter of Mulroney/Baloney might be elected to represent the Conservatives. Caroline Mulroney is highly educated and fluently bilingual and is married and has 4 kids. Go and check out the article.
It won’t happen Jules. Doug Ford, with the help of his brother Rob, is the ONLY one who can lead the Cons out of the wilderness and back to power.
Furtz you are a riot and no wonder I love you. LOL LOL. ROLF! You have to be as wacky as I am. I wouldn’t vote for Mulroney/Baloney’s daughter at all whatsoever and would rather have Rob Ford of all people lthan this woman. OMG we had more than enough of Mulroney. If push came to shove I would be voting for Justine Trudope – God help me – did I say that? Things are getting worse than I thought. I need psychiatric help – I need to head to a good hospital. LOL LOL. ROLF! No kidding I would not vote for another Mulroney ever – the damage has already been done.
There will likely always be a few individuals who have no qualms with making inappropriate or hurtful remarks. The less attention given to those remarks the less the impact. Wide media coverage only gives those individuals a platform and a greater audience and potentially fans the fire rather than smothering it by letting it die out quickly on its own.
Racism, bigotry, intolerance and bullying should be called out and put down whenever it rears its ugly head. It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from a rabid sports fan, a religious fanatic or a politician, there is no way that vile behavior should be ignored or tolerated.
I am in basic agreement Furtz with your stand. My concern remains with an over zealous media thirsting for survival which deliberately through error or omission exacerbates situations creating unnecessary drama. The hell with simpletons that subscribe to avoidance or political correctness. The individuals present should have shamed those responsible for the thoughtless remarks right out of the arena. Did no one have their cell phone handy to post a video?
Calling people names like “Go home Mohammed” is racist and yes the RCMP does come into this when things like this happen. In Alberta some Muslims were at their mosque and someone on a bike sprayed mace at them and whoever it was was charged. {MODERATED} was ashamed and apologized.
There is a Muslim man here in Ottawa that my husband knows and we met his brother and the Muslim man that I am referring to is an RCMP officer and can you imagine if someone called him names what he would do. Yes you can be charged for racism and this is not something that I made up. Not all Muslims are ISIS and not all ISIS are Muslims. Racism is a cancer and alive and well in Cornwall.
We experienced racism in Cornwall and I told all of you about that. One man that we used to walk in the park sometimes with and he did a few chores for us would yell out in Lamoureux Park “Paki” at my husband and for us we knew this man but it was embarrassing when people were around and it is racist. My husband is Lebanese and a Christian and not all Muslims are bad and this is hateful.
It is the uneducated low lifes who come out and yell racist comments just like at the hockey game. Cornwall is well known for racism and we have experienced it many times and I said to my husband that is it we are leaving and we left. Cornwall will never be anything more than what you see it now – it is literally finished and I am mighty ashamed of it.
If anyone thinks that Cornwall has the market cornered on racism it’s time to wake up. Racism exists everywhere. Things like the shouting at the hockey game happens everywhere. But rarely reported. There was a study once that said less than 10% of crimes are reported. Extending that I guess we can say that could be the case for anything that happens in life.
Hugger the only thing that we seem to have a market on in Cornwall is not holding people accountable for racism or any other ism or bad deed.
That’s actually worse in some cases than the offenses they are covering up for. It means the culturally the community is lacking a moral and integral compass.
I agree Admin. It is very hard to hold people accountable when the community as a whole doesn’t want it done.
And hugger in my opinion those that try and white wash the ills are worse than those that may over state them like our friend jules.
During 911 we went through hell with my husband being called a “sky jacker” by the stupid super in Cornwall along with so many names and we were the most quiet of all tenants and even the super’s daughter in law said the same. The worst place that we ever lived in was Cornwall and that is the truth and never ever again would we make such a horrible mistake.
There you go again Jamie making me out of something that over emphasizes things and I can tell you that I do not overemphasize and one day I even got on the Cornwall cops and I yelled and complained at whoever answered the phone and they have no rules in town on racism but here in Ottawa there are plenty of rules – what a difference living here in a more civilized city with laws.
Wild horses couldn’t ever drag me back down to Cornwall not even in my death that is how much I hate the place. Jamie you saw what went on with the swastikas well if you were hurt with horrible words that you didn’t deserve then you would know how we feel. Those swastikas along with those who went along with that would have been plastered all over Ottawa’s papers and beyond because it is illegal
Got to agree with you Admin. We certainly live in a strange little city. It makes some soap operas seem tame by comparison.
Yeap, I guess we have no laws down here or so it seems.
Yes, look at this gem someone sent me today. I’ve x’d out a few letters of the message. The issue isn’t the pathetic coward that sent it, but that the values and integrity of the community in not condemning the person who wrote those words which have now been sent to the police.
“You are a fat XXnt. Cornwall and myself hope you XXXking neck yourself”
Jamie you posted that you had a hateful message from someone and that you sent it over to the cops. Now are you feeling the hate that some others have towards you and for no reason. The last apt. building that we lived in Cornwall we had trouble with a few neighbors but one of them attacked a woman and we didn’t see it – we were gone and the owner wanted us to testify in court but we refused.
Do you want to laugh about something Jamie. I told my husband and my kids that if I died and they buried me in Cornwall I would rise up out of my grave and I would take my casket down the 417 all the way to Ottawa and that I would haunt them all for the rest of their lives and I mean that 100% and more. No way would I put up with any of that nonsense ever again.