Yesterday’s Editorial Page had an op-ed by Mr. Mohamad Fakih. Mr. Fakih is the well known business person (founder and CEO of Paramount Find Foods) and philanthropist. He came to Canada back in 1996 and opened his first restaurant in 2006. From there, he grew his business into a 85 restaurant empire – worth close to an estimated $100 Million. This is nothing but a great success story. He opens his column by remembering the tragic murder of Mohamad-Aslim Zafia back on 16 September 2020. He tells us that in the brutal attack: “The motivation was clear. The prejudice was clear. The hatred was clear.” But is it “clear”? In everything I’ve read about Zafia’s alleged killer, Guilherme “William” Von Neutegem, nothing has directly connected him to any white supremacist group. Although some internet posts suggest he follows some groups like this, he also followed a Black, socialist, separatist group in the U.S. on Twitter. I’m sure that if Von Neutegem was following some radical group, everyone would have heard about it by now. Mr. Fakih then tells us that: “We live in a worrying and increasingly dangerous time.” Fakih does not explain what is increasing or how he measures this danger. He doesn’t tell us if “increasingly dangerous” is based on fact or if this is just his opinion. However, StatsCan lets us know that the homicide rate in Canada has continued to fall year after year since the recent high in 1991. It would continue to fall except for the fact that “1 in 4 homicides in 2018 were gang related.” StatsCan also says that 80% of all murder victims knew their killer. This suggests that the random attack of Zafia is extremely rare and to suggest an this is an “increasingly dangerous time” is not justified. ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stats-can-homicide-rate-1.4914646 ) In the next sentence, Fakih then goes off the deep end by saying: “Some feel emboldened by the President of the United States, who in front of tens of millions of people this week refused to condemn white supremacy.” He’s speaking I assume about the Presidential debate held last Tuesday. If he is, then Fakih is flat out wrong in saying this. From the transcript of the debate:
WALLACE: “Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups…”
TRUMP: “Sure…”
WALLACE: “And to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha, and as we’ve seen in Portland”
TRUMP: “Sure, I’m prepared to do it, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left-wing not from the right-wing. I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace…”
So, I’m not sure what Mr. Fakih is referring to, but it is rather clear and unambiguous about what Trump said at the debate. He then offers three suggestions to combat this “hate”. He wants to use the Criminal Code to ban white supremacist militias. But as he indicates, groups like this have already been banned. He without offering a single shred evidence that “there are hundreds more across the country spewing hatred.” A couple of examples would have strengthened his comment but none was offered. His second suggestion is that “our leaders can move forward with legislation that monitors and punishes online hate.” Huh??? This type of language is already in the Criminal Code so I’m not sure what he is talking about. As for personal attacks, didn’t he successfully sue someone in court for harassing him and his family? Just what laws does he want our leaders to enact? His third suggestion is that “our leaders need to ensure that Canada’s national security agencies do more to take seriously the threat of white supremacist violence.” I’m not sure why he single out “white supremacist violence” when as mentioned before, 1 in 4 murders in Canada in 2018 (and beyond) are “gang related”. And these gangs are all white??? Well, so much this op-ed…
Oh, and by the way, when I was researching some of the stats for this comment, I came across this video. It’s a video by James Klüg, compiling 17 times Trump has publicly denounced white supremacy and white nationalism over the years: https://twitter.com/i/status/1311460837379502081 But I guess if your main source of news is TorStar controlled papers, then this info will be shockingly brand new to you. Maybe Mr. Fakih should take notice…
On page A4 today we have an interesting headline: “Video of Black teen being arrested by police sparks outrage”. Ummm…. just what does the race of the this young thug wannabe have to do with his arrest? Is TheRecord now referring to the race of everyone in the headline of all articles? Let’s just see how this works out. “White singer Eddie Van Halen dies at age 65”. Nice… “White Adult Scott Hamilton wins Cambridge council seat”. Oh, way better… “Asian Medical officer urges public to limit close contract”. That’s perfect!!! “We need more people like White John”. Excellent!!!