Posted on by Ian Hanchet

Pioneers

Yesterday Sharon and I attended a celebration of life for the father of a friend of ours. The eulogies were lovingly inspirational and painted pictures of a truly remarkable man. Remarkable as a scholar, a professor, author, athlete, progressive thinker and father. 

My friend had prerecorded herself reading the letter her dad had sent to the members of his Jewish family in the 1950’s announcing his intention of marriage to an African American woman and his hope that the family will accept her as readily as anyone else. 

The power of his (and her) “damn the torpedoes” attitude in the age of McCarthyism was brave and admirable and got me to thinking about other marriages of people I know or knew from diverse backgrounds. 

Today is the third anniversary of the death of my father in law. After attending the celebration of life, we went and laid flowers on my father in law’s grave. My father in law was a man whose love for a woman crossed the huge racial divide as well. A Sikh man in love with a white Welsh woman in Birmingham was a radical and sometimes dangerous departure from the norm. 

My thoughts turned next to my late friend, a prominent Jazz musician,  who met his future wife in rural Quebec (also in the 1950’s). Constance was forced to choose between him and her own family. Her heart won out and eventually her family softened and accepted him and the grand children their marriage produced. 

I think of the hundreds of mixed marriages of famous musicians in the fifties and sixties that used to raise eyebrows and controversy and overt racist difficulties. 

Venus and Mars are the usual barriers in marriage, but throwing in the cultural biases and visible otherness required other skills and strengths that I can only imagine. 

Times have changed. Or have they? In my own immediate family my siblings all married people although not visibly different, from outside the expected, My older brother’s father in law had been a doctor in the Luftwaffe. My dad flew for the RCAF. My sister married an American, Catholic divorcée. Three strikes according to my grandfather who declined to attend their wedding. My younger brother married an American as well whose family is Jewish. My first marriage was to someone from the same town, same background, same denomination as mine. Worked for a while and then didn’t. My second marriage is to a woman born in India with mixed Indian and Welsh heritage. Sharon was accepted easily into the fold, as was I into her family.

The mild, insignificant to nonexistent misgivings to each of our unions is in sharp contrast to the obstacles overcome by the pioneers of the fifties. 

The next generation in my extended family have an even more diverse and seemingly normalized differences. I have nephews and nieces from the US, Cuba, Mexico, Rwanda, Brazil. We have gay and trans family members breaking their own barriers bravely. 

Despite the severe downturn in civility and tolerance the world is experiencing at present,  Our families are maintaining a progressive trend. The unions that once would have been considered daring and counter culture are now commonplace and unremarkable. 

We need to maintain vigilance over society’s regression and maintain our own core values (mine are aligned with Dr. King) and wrestle the Shire back from the Orcs.

Sid and Doris, Paul and Jennie, Charlie and Connie I salute you.

Posted on by Ian Hanchet

O Canada

When my grandparents arrived in Canada from Great Britain, they brought with them so many of the customs and values of their thoroughly British upbringing. At the time, the Canada they arrived in was a colony of the British Empire, soon to be renamed the Commonwealth. Granted, their adapting to the new world was less drastic than people who need to learn the language, customs and mores of their adopted country. Another major difference is that my grandparents were not refugees. Their immigrating was voluntary and gentle and direct. My grandfather never gave up his Victorian views despite being here in Canada for over sixty years (all of his adult life except the years spent overseas in the Canadian Army in the First World War). My father was born here and espoused Canadian values with a slight tinge of his British heritage showing through. He never missed the Queen’s Christmas message for example. I am fully Canadian and never have visited England (yet). I am fluently bilingual and considerably less dogmatic than my dad.

One can only imagine the culture shock that someone coming from a non-English or French speaking culture must experience. How about coming from a war-torn nation where ideologies shoot at each other and information is either un-trustworthy or non-existent?  Bewildered and amazed, we ask a lot of these people right off the bat. How can they assimilate quickly? Why should they? It may or may not happen.

Several years ago, just before the 2015 Canadian election while I was out for a stroll, I watched three generations of women walking down the street toward me. Grandmother was wearing traditional garb. Very colourful and head fully covered including a scarf over the face. The next generation wore a Hijab that matched her beige western outfit. The third generation was in slacks and a sweater, dressed like my daughter would. It made me happy. I don’t know their story, it is none of my business, but I knew these three women were safe here. They have the benefits of their own culture while enjoying the freedoms inherent in Canadian society.

 That very morning, I heard people being interviewed on CBC about their political choices. Many mentioned the NDP’s support of people who wear the Burqa as a reason for abandoning the party. It saddened me that fear-mongering and intolerance and misunderstanding on an issue that barely affects them on a day-to-day basis overrides the awful truths of the ugly transformations in Canada (under Harper, a polluting, warring country that the obfuscators in power had bullied through with a majority of seats but merely a third of actual support from voting Canadians.  

The Tories (actually Reform party=Northern Republicans) were poised to do the exact same thing they had done the last time. Split the support between the reasonable people who wish to support and protect our Society (Green, Liberal, NDP, Bloc) so that their votes are squandered and the self-congratulatory xenophobic bigots drive triumphantly around the right flank based on empty boasting about Leadership and supposed Fiscal mastery that are easily disproved.

At the time I wrote “Don’t let the country be hijacked again. Vote strategically so that Canada can get back on track.”

We are headed into another federal election with the landscape altered . After several provincial elections and the fiasco in the States have put arrogant, philistine right wing privilege in power with their bigotry in action and on display makes me fear those muslim women I saw are not as safe as I would like them to be. It is not a direction that makes me proud to be Canadian.

The last election was won by a liberal majority who have outshone their predecessors with several key promises made, but have failed miserably on so many key issues (Parliamentary reform for example). I hope that the election results in 2019 bring us a more balanced minority government that focuses on the environment and core values of health, education and equity for all.

With the cyber vomit that will be coming soon, I suspect the wrong things will be done for the wrong reasons and our jewel of a nation will be tarnished and damaged by the populism and partisan hatred like our neighbours to the south. 

Resist!