Where to find racism in Canada

I'm guessing that if you've got time on your side you'll be able to sniff it out anywhere.

But if you're in a rush and want to find manifestations of nauseatingly crude racism in a hurry, just click onto any major Canadian news site. Find a story about First Nations and then go to the comments.

See what I mean? What'd that take, about 15 seconds?

Canada is of course a bastion of anti-racism. We long ago dispatched the n-word to the dustbin of political incorrectitude. Paki jokes? Not in Canada my friend.

But bring on those Canadian Indians/First Nations/Aboriginals/Native Peoples and it's open season!

The Idle-No-More movement has caused an avalanche of news stories in Canadian media, and hence an even bigger avalanche of racist commentary.

If I had the stomach I'd write a book about it. After all, the mainstream white Canadians who type those comments are doing most of the writing for you. It would be an easy gig...

If you've got the stomach for it.

Which I don't.

I am appalled by the level of sheer ill will that any mention of Native Rights arouses in the Canadian populace. What, hundreds of years of oppression but you're pissed off because you're gonna be a half hour late to the discount mall in Port Huron?

I am further appalled by the ignorance that underlies this kind of commentary. To be sure, there have been missteps aplenty on the First Nations side. There has been corruption and incompetence in Band leadership, just as there is in white communities.

There are people who "work the system," just like in white communities. There are lazy people and drunks and abusers just like in white communities.

But white communities don't have the burden of a five hundred year colonialist legacy to drag them down every day. They don't have the legacy of residential schools. They don't have the legacy of spending all of their history as second class citizens.

Contrary to what Postmedia columnist Michael Den Tandt has said, it's not about eliminating the Indian Act and treating everyone equally.

It's about honoring the agreements that our forbears the white colonists made with their forbears.

As a white from a heritage of colonialism in South Africa, I imagine you would have given some thought to such questions, Mr. Den Tandt.