On Canada: The Story of Us's explanation of the Winnipeg General Strike
It's a little frustrating the way that the Canadian left papers over the rougher edges of its past and present (though the left certainly isn't alone here).
In the CBC's most recent attempt to retell the story of the Winnipeg general strike of 1919, what I can only assume to be a careless editor throws up a stock photo of Norman Penner's famous "Deport the Undesirable Immigrant" signs, which show beyond any doubt that the left labour movement which took over the city was staunchly nativist, xenophobic, and more than a little bit racist and antisemitic. While this photo is showing, the soundtrack plays a tape of Mark Kingswell saying that most of Canada viewed the strike as cosmopolitan and European to a fault. maybe both are right: every single political position in Canada at the time was against immigration.
And yet, the construction is undeniable: the strikers are portrayed as inclusive and open minded, the government as closed minded and provincial. The truth is that the labour left was actively hurting the lives of immigrants (as well as indigenous people, though that's a story which Maria Campbell tells better than I ever could), which turned both groups against the CCF and NDP for generations. The NDP's current unclear stance on TFW visas indicates that it is still trying to build a big tent to house both racist anti-immigrant groups as well as immigrants themselves.
So Canada goes on to paint itself as the most inclusive multicultural immigrant society in the world, while also threatening everyone unfortunate enough to live within its borders with deportation, regardless of whether they have any connections anywhere else.
In the CBC's most recent attempt to retell the story of the Winnipeg general strike of 1919, what I can only assume to be a careless editor throws up a stock photo of Norman Penner's famous "Deport the Undesirable Immigrant" signs, which show beyond any doubt that the left labour movement which took over the city was staunchly nativist, xenophobic, and more than a little bit racist and antisemitic. While this photo is showing, the soundtrack plays a tape of Mark Kingswell saying that most of Canada viewed the strike as cosmopolitan and European to a fault. maybe both are right: every single political position in Canada at the time was against immigration.
And yet, the construction is undeniable: the strikers are portrayed as inclusive and open minded, the government as closed minded and provincial. The truth is that the labour left was actively hurting the lives of immigrants (as well as indigenous people, though that's a story which Maria Campbell tells better than I ever could), which turned both groups against the CCF and NDP for generations. The NDP's current unclear stance on TFW visas indicates that it is still trying to build a big tent to house both racist anti-immigrant groups as well as immigrants themselves.
So Canada goes on to paint itself as the most inclusive multicultural immigrant society in the world, while also threatening everyone unfortunate enough to live within its borders with deportation, regardless of whether they have any connections anywhere else.
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