Will This Be Jason Kenney's MS St. Louis?

According to the Canada Border Services Agency, Hungarians — the bulk of whom are said to be Roma — are the top users of the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Pilot Program which kicked off in the Greater Toronto Area on June 29.

 

 

But Roma Community Centre executive director Gina Csanyi-Robah likened the program to a “bribe” and said many people are “misinformed” about it, as information doesn’t seem to be available in Hungarian.

 

 

I really, really hope I'm wrong about this.  I hope that somewhere, ten years down the road, somebody will poke me in the ribs and say "remember when you were fretting about ethnic persecution in Hungary turning into a repeat of genocide?  Boy, did you screw that up!"

 

 

"We need to roll back these hundreds of thousands of Roma outlaws. We must show zero tolerance towards Roma crime and parasitism," Jobbik chairman Gabor Vona told a rally of several hundred people in Heroes' Square in central Budapest.

 

 

The evidence, however, suggests otherwise.  Democracy in Hungary isn't what it once was.  The EU has made some critical noise, but there aren't any teeth behind the criticism.  As Hungarians grapple with the same economic same challenges being faced across Europe, there's an increased focus on placing the blame on minority groups like Jews and Sinti-Roma.  It all sounds familiar.  At Why Should I Care last night, Barbara Falk (a professor at DND) talked about how the Raoul Wallenberg monument had been desicrated with pig's blood.  During a recent trip to Budapest, she wondered if that was what Berlin felt like in 1933.  She's not the only one thinking that.

Here's another repeat of history; using all kinds of excuses about cutting costs and focusing on legitimate refugee claims, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is finding ways to send Sinti-Roma in Canada back to Hungary.  His messaging on this file sounds eerily familiar to that of a predecessor of his, Frederick Charles Blair.  Blair is remembered by history not for filtering out fake refugees or for saving Canada money, but for shutting out Jews trying to flee the Holocaust. 

 

 

It's all well and good for Kenney to make positive noise about funding and support and doing what's best for Canada, now, but history will judge him on the consequences of his actions.  How is this program being communicated to all, but especially to Hungarian refugee claimants?  Are we living up to our end of the bargain?  What is Canada doing to closely monitor what's happening in politics and on the ground in Hungary?  Have we learned anything from past mistakes?

 

 

Again - I really hope I'm wrong.  I fear that I'm not.  It would be better for everyone if Jason Kenney comes to his senses and we never have to find out.

The Politics of Fear Leads To Violence

 

“The English are waking up, the English are waking up ... It's payback ... Yeah, yeah, that’s enough,” the man muttered as police officers led him away in handcuffs. The suspect, a heavyset, bespectacled man, wore a balaclava, shorts and what appeared to be a bathrobe.

 

"I've travelled across this country and what I've seen more than anything is anger. We have angry people."

 

 

You can ignore the source of any frustration for a while, but there comes a point where the penalities of doing nothing outweigh the costs of action.  Walking away - flight - is one such option.  When you remove avoidance from the table, though, there's really just one choice left - fight.

 

 

That's the emerging theme in Canadian politics from the federal level down to the municipal level.  All Parties and operators are pushing the fear and anger buttons.  The choice is no longer between opposing views of policy; it's a choice between one side or "those who would destroy our community/our future/our traditional values/our language/our culture/our education/our healthcare."  It takes strong emotions to shake the electorate from their restful complacency, after all and fear is easier to build and sustain than is hope.

 

 

The same thing is happening around the world, leading to a rise in regional friction and ethnic tensions.  In some places, violence is already the norm.  Where social strife is less prevalent, it's the already emotionally frayed that serve as canaries in the coal mine.  In somnambulant Canada, the people are stewing.  We're a pot slow to boil, but when that happens, people will get scalded.

 

 

"It gets worse before it gets better" is a truism - possibly because we need to be reminded just how bad it can get when we stand against before we remember why we started working together in the first place.

The Return of Ethnic Violence to Europe: The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled...

Sova’s promotion “raises questions” in light of his past statements, Vainer said. “It is hard to accept that a young, educated man would claim the Holocaust never happened in Romania,” Vainer, himself a Romanian lawmaker, added.

Vainer also said Sova’s promotion “did not send the correct message to young people.”

It's a funny thing, what a little time does to public memory.  A generation that is born without significant poverty, warfare or real-time experience of the consequences of ethnic hatred are wont to ignore the lessons history has to teach us on that score.  Which is why we are doomed to repeat it.

It's not too late, but time is running out.

                I shouted out,
                Who killed the Kennedys?
                When after all
                It was you and me