Andrew Scheer (left) and Maxime Bernier (Right)
August 13, 2018 — Maxime Bernier, a Member of Federal Parliament in Canada (and a senior member of the Conservative Party), caused a stir when he sent off 6 tweets. He questioned to what limits the push for diversity and multiculturalism should go in Canada.
To disclose bias right away: political correctness gets us nowhere. Truth and open discussion are valued over censorship anytime. And Bernier was tweeting what many people believe, specifically that there has to be some limit to the push for ”endless diversity”.
Recent ”diversity” moves include: (a) gender quotas for filling cabinet positions; (b) letting terrorists with dual citizenship keep their Canadian citizenship; (c) marching in gay pride parades while endorsing religions who want to slaughter gays; (d) calling it offensive to label honour killings as ”barbaric”; (e) Motion M-103, the anti-blasphemy legislation; (f) publicly saying that Canada has and should have no core identity; (g) altering the national anthem to make it ”gender neutral”; (h) making it mandatory for MPs to support abortion, but taking no position on sex-selective abortions, which target female babies; (i) comparing ISIS fighter to Italian, Polish and Chinese immigrants; (j) refusing to denounce religious and cultural practices which are incompatible with a free and equal society, and so on…..
In all fairness to Bernier, he never called for anyone to be prohibited from entering the country, to be mistreated, or suggested that people are not equal. He did question: (1) dividing Canadians into ever smaller groups and ”Balkanizing” the country; (2) accepting ideologies which are truly incompatible with Western societies; and (3) obsession with identity politics does nothing to unify a country. All of these things seem very reasonable.
Left leaning Liberals and the NDP had a field day, calling Bernier a bigot and calling for his ouster from the parties. That is no surprise. Virtue signalling is how the left operates these days.
The more right leaning Canadian Nationalist Party enjoyed it as well, albeit for different reasons. Members took it as proof that the Conservatives are too weak to stand up for a strong unified Canada. Here is an article from the Nationalist Party of Canada.
The real surprise (at least to me), was how reluctant fellow Conservatives were to support him. They claim to be against political correctness and the silencing of open discussion, but showed true hypocracy here. The media condemned Bernier here, here, here, and here.
Outside Parliament and the mainstream media however, there has been large public support for Bernier and his having the courage to at least address a difficult topic.
It seems unlikely that Maxime will be kicked out of the party, if for no other reason than it will destroy any claim that Conservatives value free speech. However, the damage seems to be already done.
And another observation: go to almost any ”multi-culture” city and you will find it segregated along cultural and ethnic lines. This is not the government’s doing, but rather people doing it voluntarily.
Final Thoughts: Most don’t have a problem with people of other races, and (for to a degree) cultures living in Canada. Where the line should be drawn is: (i) when the goal seems to actually be to break the country down; (ii) the cultures are truly incompatible; (iii) when asking valid questions becomes hate speech.
People are equal. Ideas are not. Ideas should be openly discussed, including ones that involve the direction the country is going.
Here is Maxime Bernier’s Twitter account, and specifically, here are the INFAMOUS 6, which caused the stir.
Update to the Story
Maxime Bernier left the Conservative Party on August 23. Bernier talked about many policy differences, while Scheer cited some personal differences. Bernier founded the (Communist sounding) People’s Party.