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This story will not make very many people happy. If you happen to believe in left-wing media bias and that Israel is an undeserving oppressed nation (and other farcical notions), please stop reading now. Things will only get worse for you the farther you read into the article.
The story of the Canadian NGO Rights and Democracy has recently received media attention for the firing of three new appointees to the board of directors. As the CBC says:
“Three senior managers at the federal government’s human rights agency who were suspended for publicly declaring their lack of confidence in three Conservative appointees to their organization’s board of directors earlier this year have been fired.”
To understand the how and why this is so particularly egregious requires a fair amount of back story.
“Rights & Democracy, created under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government to encourage democracy and monitor human rights around the world, has been in turmoil since the Harper government appointed new board members [the ones mentioned in the first quote] last year.
The new members challenged grants being made to three human rights organizations known to be critical of Israel’s human rights record.”
One of things that you do NOT do is criticize Israel (despite the country’s atrocious human rights record), especially if you are in a government funded organization. It appears that these firings stem from this defacto political axiom. Furthermore, if you do have the temerity to question Israeli policy you may be hounded into an early grave:
“Federal opposition politicians and the family of former president Rémy Beauregard, who died in January, are calling for an independent inquiry into the organization. […] Beauregard bore the brunt of the new board members’ outrage over the grants. He died of a heart attack after a stormy board meeting.”
From the CBC:
“Emergency crews have found a second body in the wreckage where a small plane smashed into an Austin, Texas, office building that houses a U.S. Internal Revenue Service office.”
Okay, flying a plane into a building. We’ve seen that before. But what is different this time? It seems that it is taking awhile to classify the act itself. Would there be as much confusion if the pilot was of Arabic descent or had a Arabic surname? That is the question ‘Big man” poses at the blog ‘Stuff White People do“.
Big Man says:
“I’m watching the coverage of this plane crash in Austin. The one where a dude flew a plane into the IRS building after burning his house.
And everybody is falling all over themselves not to call this cat a “terrorist.”
It’s “possible terrorist-related activity” but it’s not terrorism and he’s not a terrorist. What the hell?
How can you fly a plane into a building out of spite, and have folks call it “suicide by plane?” That’s like calling it “suicide by portable chest bomb.”
We often think of racism is a in your face type of action. Overt discrimination, the name calling, the hiring practices but here we have a possible example of the more subtle systematic nature of racism and what that entails. Patriarchy sneaks up on one like this as well.
I tend to agree with BigMan that the story would have been framed quite differently if the pilot was not Caucasian.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
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