The Mean Streets

I grow weary of the atmosphere of hate that has descended on Toronto and Canada.

Now magazine’s current issue looks back on the decade.

On Rob Ford: “blundering incompetent.” “A pretty awful person.” “Whiny, occasionally racist.”

Ford, of course, was elected mayor of Toronto. A majority of Torontonians must have basically agreed with his approach on the issues. Yet no attempt is made to argue these claims: they are just asserted. No civil dialogue is contemplated.

It then baldly asserts Jian Ghomeshi’s guilt, even though the charges against him were dismissed in court. His acquittal made sexual assault victims, Now explains, “realize that they can’t count on the courts to make their abusers accountable.”

Again, no explanation of why the court was supposedly so wrong—his guilt is merely asserted. We are all to hate Jian Ghomeshi.

Maxime Bernier and the PPC are referred to as “wacko,” again without explanation. Bernier is, of course, a former Foreign Minister, and came within a whisker of being the leader of Canada’s official opposition. No explanation; we are to hate Bernier and all those who support him.

A demonstration held to protest Motion 103 is declared, without evidence, to really be an expression of “anti-Muslim” sentiments. The “Proud Boys” are described as “anti-Muslim”; never mind that their web page prominently welcomes “All Races. All Religions.” “Never Again Canada,” is accused of holding protests “under the guise of” opposing immigration. This seems odd, since there is nothing on their web page opposing immigration. There is, on the other hand, a long statement denouncing anti-Muslim sentiments, and calling for “the concern and participation of all Canadians, regardless of ethnicity, religion, and politics.”

Their stated purpose is to combat antisemitism. Their real intent, of which the author apparent has some secret knowledge, is apparently something deeply nefarious. Perhaps they plan to poison the wells.

You can see how this stirring up of contempt for some identifiable group could lead to violence—against, for example, Jews, or members of “Never Again Canada.”

The magazine detects another sinister conspiracy on campuses: “hate has spread to university campuses under the guise of free speech.” No evidence is presented that those calling for free speech really want “hate.”

Faith Goldy is declared “dangerous” and also accused of “propagating hate.” Again, no evidence is offered. She probably is, as the paper asserts, a “white nationalist.” But so what? They have no problem with “black nationalists” like “Black Lives Matter,” who get to write their own account of the decade as part of the article. To object only to whites being nationalists is, surely, to promote hatred towards whites.

In that “Black Lives Matter” insertion, Toronto police are accused of “police brutality” against blacks, and of a “long and sordid history of discrimination and harassment.” The local schools are accused of “anti-Black racism.” Toronto in general is accused of “the violence of anti-Black racism.” The Toronto Pride movement is accused of “anti-Blackness.” Mass culture is accused of “anti-Black racism.” “White folks” are declared to be “privileged.”

Now magazine then celebrates an anticipated future “not full of plays by dead white males.”

Toronto is declared a “hotbed” of “Islamophobia.” The temporary shutdown of Soufi’s restaurant is ascribed to “racism and xenophobia”--no reference to the fact that a member of the family was seen on video berating a little old lady as a racist and blocking her from attending a candidates' meeting. Seems to me that might have had something to do with it

Incels—involuntarily celibate men—are offered no sympathy. They are accused of a “sense of entitlement.”

That might be so, but then why not the same charge against the gay community, or the trans community, who also consider themselves entitled to have sex? Yet incels are openly despised.

It is a meaner, uglier Toronto than it used to be.