Two days after the Iranian election that saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the winner when it was impossible to have counted all the ballots, protests by Iranian expats took place around the world, including a protest in Toronto, the home of a substantial number of Iranian Canadians.
Something was missing after upwards of 1,000 people took part in a gathering to protest the election results in Iran. There were no letters to the editor saying that “those people” had no right to demonstrate. There were no calls to radio stations telling the demonstrators to go back where they came from. In fact there were no complaints about the people who protested what they perceived to be an injustice in the country of their birth. This was in sharp contrast to the reaction to Tamil Canadians who held the city hostage while they demonstrated in favour of the Tamil Tigers, a group that Canada and other countries have defined as a terrorist organization.
What was also missing were the media elites like Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun chastising anyone who dared to criticize the demonstrators as racists. How could this be? Why was there virtually no reaction by racist Torontonians when Iranian Canadians gathered and protested the lack of democracy in Toronto while waving Iranian flags?
Could it possibly be that, contrary to the belief of the elites, most of us that criticized the Tamil protesters aren’t really racists? Perhaps it was the way in which the Tamils conducted their demonstration was open to criticism and not the color of their skin.
The Iranian community in the Greater Toronto Area decided to hold their demonstration in Mel Lastman Square, the 20,000 square foot grounds of the old North York City Hall. The reason Mel Lastman Square was picked, according to one of the organizers was that it was close to the area where a lot of Iranian Canadians live. The Iranian Canadian protesters didn’t decide to “snake” downtown and inconvenience as many people as possible who were doing nothing other than going about their lawful business. They didn’t block streets. They didn’t block any expressways. They didn’t create a lot of noise in an area surrounded by hospitals with those useless signs proclaiming quiet in a hospital zone. And more importantly, they didn’t wave the flags of a terrorist group in the country that they chose to come to.
More importantly, the demonstrators did not make any demands of the Canadian government. The Tamils of course were demanding that the government pressure the government of Sri Lanka to enter a ceasefire. Had the Sri Lankan government agreed to a ceasefire, the Tigers would have used the time to rearm and the conflict that has taken thousands of lives since 1983 would continue indefinitely. But, according to the elites we are not allowed to criticize the way demonstrations are held; if we do, it’s just because we’re a bunch of racists. What a bunch of politically correct gobbledygook.
The Iranian Canadians who demonstrated and no doubt will hold demonstrations in the future have shown that they can demonstrate against injustice without breaking Canadian laws and without inconveniencing their fellow residents. And, they made their point without “snaking” around the city.
The vast majority of Torontonians who criticized the Tamil protesters are not racist. Let’s hope that the accusations that were hurled at them by Goldstein and others will not put a chill on those who speak out against protesters who deliberately interfere with the rights of others.
