KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Last night hundreds of people gathered downtown to send the message that Halifax is a city that doesn’t stand for fascism and white supremacy or any other nonsense. People in Halifax don’t want another Charlottesville, something by the way that city council should amplify by ordering the removal of the Cornwallis statue.
These are dark days, fascists are getting bolder and and we are just beginning to understand how to fight back.
I once asked my mother whether it was a difficult decision to join the dutch resistance and put her life at risk every day. “I don’t remember, it just happened,” she said. “I don’t think I ever thought about it.”
Based on last night’s rally I believe something along those lines is “just happening” again.
Rebecca Moore: We have been trying to tell the city how dangerous it is to have a statue like this, because hate just gravitates to it. People thought we were overreacting, but the hate is at such a historic deep level. The rising of these white supremacists is really concerning. I really wish, especially with what happened over the weekend in Charlottesville, that the city would act on removing this statue. What more proof do we need?
Chief Grizzly mamma: Sometimes when I talk about genocide it burns me up. I didn’t raise my daughters to get murdered on the highway of tears. I didn’t ask to be suicidal for fifty years of my life. I didn’t ask for my great grand children to be suicidal too, after I raised them right.
El Jones
I’m not like those Nazis, they don’t represent me
Why don’t you get over it, it was so last century
I’m not a racist, I have a black friend
It’s just a statue, why are you getting so offended
I’m so tired of this culture of political correctness
If you weren’t trying to take it down they wouldn’t have had to show up to defend it
The system’s not broken for us so why should we mend it?
I don’t see any racism because I’m not affected
Why are you complaining about street checks? I feel protected
Cooler heads will prevail, it’s just a couple of hotheads
This is a democracy you know you have to respect the process
That’s not real racism, it’s not like anyone’s burning crosses
There’s two sides to history, nobody’s flawless
But they don’t represent me, isn’t that obvious?
I don’t wear swastikas, I’m not like those Nazis
Judy Haiven: As Jews, the horrors of the last few days in Charlottesville do not escape our attention. The protest centred around taking down an offensive statue, just as we were here a month ago to support the taking down of this statue of Edward Cornwallis.
I am shocked at how hesitant the mainstream jewish community in Canada has been about expressing concern about Charlottesville. That is why Independent Jewish Voices is necessary and stands alone for Jews in Canada. We want to unite all those targeted by the neo Nazis, the KKKers and the alt-right to fight the racism, the intolerance and the hatred which is also surfacing in our country.
Ifo Ikede: We’re looking to bring back love. And we’re talking about real love. we’re talking about revolutionary love. We’re not talking about Hollywood love. We’re talking about motherhood, we’re taking about mother earth, we’re talking about loving each other and caring for each other like brothers and sisters.
And if we truly care for each other we have to be willing to fight for each other. If someone says they love you, and they know you’re family is being destroyed, but they say, well it’s inconvenient right now, Game of Thrones is on, than that person doesn’t love you.
So we would like to believe that white people love us, but so far it seems like a dysfunctional family. We would like that to change. White people must remember who they are. They stole your identity. Whiteness was invented in the Viriginias in the 1700s. Before that you were Irish, Polish, whatever. You don’t know who you are, and that way they are using you to continue this genocide.
Rana Zaman: It is very empowering that we can do this together, even at such short notice, when we believe in something. We are still reeling as a Muslim community from the Quebec shooting. Rather than improving and it being a wake up call, what happened? The attacks increased. They took it as a go ahead to abuse the immigrants, the Muslims, even more, because, hey it’s ok to do it. It is ok to go to a place of worship, while people are on their hands and knees, and go behind them and shoot them while they are praying.
Like Ifo said,look at the outpouring when the geese died in Dartmouth. We didn’t see that outpouring when human lives were taken away. Ask yourself, why is that? Were the human lives not as valuable because of their skin colour? Were they not as valuable because you believe and pray to a different God, while in reality it was the same one? Why wasn’t it more frightening and more heartbreaking that this is happening now in our Canada?
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