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Religious & other intolerance:
In Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
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Quotations about a recent school conflict in Surrey:
 | "The family is one of the most fundamental expressions of our
humanity, and families in all their myriad forms are entitled to
constitutional protection. Children with lesbian or gay family-members are
harmed by the deliberate exclusion of their families from the curriculum
at a time when all their other classmates are learning about their
families." Susan Ursel, lawyer for "Families in Partnership" before
the Canadian Supreme Court. 1 |
| "This [book banning] is not about intolerance....parents have a right to
teach their own moral code....The intention of the books is proselytizing. I'm not suggesting recruitment, but putting forward a worldview of the
morality of this kind of relationship that is inconsistent with many
people's moral perspective." John Dives, lawyer for the Surrey School
Board. 1 |
| "If any family form of which any religious group disapproves can be
excluded from the curriculum, the list of approved families may be quite
short." Canadian Civil Liberties Association. 1 |
Surrey is "a sprawling, rapidly growing city of 350,000 southeast of
Vancouver. Approximately one-half of [its]... residents are members of a
racial or ethnic minority." 2 It is close to the
Northwest border of Washington State.
British Columbia is known for its generous government programs, diverse
and tolerant society, beautiful scenery, religious diversity, and for many
other spectacular features. However, Surrey BC appears to have an enormous
concentration of incidences involving religious and/or racial intolerance:
| 1991: "...a number of human rights complaints were filed
with the Canadian Human Rights Commission" concerning a Surrey-based Canadian Liberty
Net (CLN) hot line. "Callers to the phone system were offered a
menu of telephone hate messages against Jewish and non-white people. As a
result of the complaints, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered that
CLN cease and desist from communicating any hate messages." 12
Tony McAleer of CLN allegedly went on German television to challenge the
history of the Holocaust, was arrested and deported. 11 |
| 1996: Trinity Western University, a private conservative Christian liberal arts
university in nearby Langley, BC, has a behavior code that requires its students to refrain from "premarital
sex, adultery or homosexual behavior." The university's
homophobic code of behavior appears to be motivated by their religious
beliefs about sexual orientation. The B.C. College of Teachers
found the reference to homosexuality to be "discriminating" and
"intolerant." The College rejected an application by the
University to offer its students the final year of teacher education.
5 |
| 1997: In January, a debate over the use of tables and chairs in the Guru Nanak Gurdwara (a Sikh temple) in Surrey erupted into violence and bloodshed.
3 The author of this essay cannot recall any other fight
involving serious injuries within a religious building in Canada in recent
decades. |
| 1997: A famous racist rock band, Odin’s Law, was based
in Surrey. They held a concert in a local community hall in 1997-DEC. "...attendees
came from as far away as California and New York state." 11 |
| 1997 to 2002:
In 2002-DEC-20, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on
a Surrey civil rights case. The case involved a conflict between:
 | A minority of teachers, parents, and others in Surrey, BC, who wanted
positive images of same-sex committed relationships and parenting to be
taught to kindergarten children in the public schools, and |
| A large majority of Surrey parents and others who, largely for
religious reasons, wanted the children in the local public school to
isolated from discussion of same-sex family structures in the public
schools. |
In 1997, teacher James Chamberlain wanted to use three books as
resources in his Kindergarten and Grade One class: "Asha's Mums,"
6 "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads"
7 and
"Belinda's Bouquet." 8 In a
public opinion poll conducted by Campbell Goodell Traynor Consultants
Ltd. on behalf of school board lawyers, 61% of area adults were found to
agree that the "three proposed books dealing with same- sex couples
should not be used in kindergarten and grade 1 classrooms under any
circumstances." 9 The school board banned the
books. After a three year court battle, the Supreme Court ruled, 7 to 2, that the need for tolerance and an understanding of diversity
outweighed the desires of the parents and school board trustees. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote, in part: "Parental
views, however important, cannot override the imperative placed upon the
British Columbia public schools to mirror the diversity of the community and
teach tolerance and understanding of difference." 1
|
| 1998: Five males, aged 17 to 25, known as the 'Surrey Skinheads' were
found guilty of a 1998-JAN-4 religiously/racially motivated murder of a
Sikh Cleric, Nirmal Singh Gill. 4 |
| 2003: Riasat Ali Kahn, 69, a resident of Surrey and a prominent
member of the local Muslim community was murdered in his driveway on
Sunday, January 5. Five bullets were pumped into his body by an unknown
assailant. This was perhaps an indication that the act was motivated out of
extreme hatred. Kahn came to Canada more than 40 years ago from Pakistan,
and had dedicated his life to "bring Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities
together and build bridges between all races." 10 The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP) have no suspect or motive as of JAN-8. It is
possible that Kahn's assassination was religiously motivated. |
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What is going on?
About 1% of the Canadian population lives in Surrey BC. Yet the
city seems to have an unusually high level of religiously and racially
motivated criminal acts and instances of serious discrimination.
We don't know why such a large concentration exists in Surrey. If
anyone can shed light on this puzzle, please
contact us. In the meantime, we would urge civic minded
individuals to consider organizing a group in the city which is
dedicated to racial and religious tolerance.
References used:
- "Chamberlain v. Surrey School District No. 36," Text of the
Supreme Court decision, 2002-DEC-20, at:
http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/
- Peter Caulfield, "B.C.
community condemns murder of Sikh," The Canadian Jewish News,
1998-APR-30, at:
http://www.cjnews.com/
- Nrinder Nindy Kaur Nann, "A community divided?," The Peak,
1997-JAN-27, at:
http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/
- "Denial of Parole to 'Surrey Skinheads' responsible for the murder
of a Sikh Cleric: Nirmal Singh Gill," at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Gill/
- Noel Wright, "Battling the tyrants of the mind" online at:
Committee for the Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), a Holocaust denial
group, at:
http://www.codoh.com/newrevoices/
- Rosamund Elwin & Michele Paulse, "Asha's Mums," Women's Press,
(2000).
Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
- Johnny Valentine, "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads,"
Alyson Publications (1994).
Read reviews or order this book
- Leslea Newman, "Belinda's Bouquet," Alyson Publications,
(1991).
Read reviews or try to obtain this out of print book. Another, more
popular, book by Newman is in print and is readily available: "Heather
Has Two Mommies," Alyson Publications, (10th anniversary edition,
2000-JUN).
Read reviews or order this book
- Debra Fieguth , "Surrey school board taken to court over
gay-parent books. Five- and six-year-olds don’t need to hear about
same-sex parenting in classrooms, board argues." Christian Week, at:
http://www.christianweek.org/
- "Killing mystifies Muslim leader's friends," Canadian Press. Published
in the Toronto Star, 2003-JAN-8, Page A20.
- "FAQ's," AntiRacist.com, at:
http://mpd.selkirk.bc.ca/webdev/
- John L. Finlay & Brian Smith, "The Canadian Liberty Net Litigation:
A Prototype for the Regulation of Hate Speech on the Internet?," Media
Awareness Network at:
http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/
Additional references:
Copyright © 2002 & 2003 by the Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2003-JAN-8
Compiler: B.A. Robinson
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