Rally held to protest Conservative “ethnic costume” email
Posted April 14, 2011 8:47 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, On. – About 50 protesters took place in a peaceful rally full of colourful costumes at the DoubleTree Hotel Thursday evening, in response to an email sent to the Canadian Arab Federation by the campaign team of an Etobicoke Conservative candidate.
The email asked members of the Arab community and other multicultural groups to attend a campaign event in the Dixon Road and 401 area with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper dressed in “ethnic costumes,” on Thursday.
Protesters at the event left before the Prime Minister arrived, but throughout the dinner hour, they held signs with messages such as “ethnic prop” and “is this ethnic enough for ya?”, while dressed in saris or traditional Afghan clothing. The men and women represented the Tamil, Chinese, Arab and even alien communities, while one person dressed as a native of Pandora, a fictional land made famous by Avatar.
“If people want to dress up in their cultural clothing, then that’s fine. But you, manipulating the media, you manipulating public opinion to suit your political advantages, that’s wrong. That’s dishonest, that’s not Canadian,” said one man.
Meanwhile, Canadian-born LeAnne also decided to join the protesters, dressing in “my plaid shirt and my straw hat ’cause I come from potato farmers, so I thought I’d represent that today here as my ethnic costume”.
Although the protest showed a sense of humour, the message was serious, as demonstrators said the email was not only insulting and patronizing, but showed an ignorance of canada’s cultural makeup.
“We are just as Canadian as anyone else. We will pick our candidates based on the policies and their platforms,” said one man, dressed in his grandfather’s traditional Afghan clothing.
Earlier Thursday, Canadian Arab Federation President Khaled Mouammar agreed.
“This reminds me of when we had colonizers in Africa – you bring the Chief of the tribes and you take a picture with them, but you are colonizing their country at the same time. It’s really shameful,” he said.
The email was sent out by the office of Etobicoke Centre candidate Ted Opitz.
Opitz told 680News that the e-mail was sent out by a campaign staffer without his knowledge, and he does not support it.
A representative for the National Harper campaign says the email was obviously a mistake and that the National campaign does not endorse the email and feels it is completely inappropriate.
The staffer has since been removed from his position and kicked off the campaign.
Meanwhile, Harper reacted to the story at a campaign stop in Quebec Thursday morning.
“The story is absolutely bizarre, we have never done that, you’ve been to our rallies we have great representation we’re getting better support than ever across all cultural communities in this country,” Harper said.
At a campaign stop in Gatineau, Quebec, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said the Tories actions are insulting to ethnic groups.
“When I have meetings I don’t arrange people in ethnic costumes behind it, as Mr. Harper is doing today, these are not costumes for heaven’s sake, this isn’t Disney Land, Canada isn’t Disney Land,” Ignatieff said.
Organizers of the protest, who posted the event on Facebook, said the Stephen Harper’s ‘Ethnic Costume’ Party & Rally is “In response to this patronizing and offensive event” and asked people to come “dressed in your traditional “ethnic costume” – whether you’re Chinese, Arab, Portuguese, Italian, South Asian, Irish, Vulcan, Klingon, Zombie, or Ewok.”
The group said they wanted to show the Conservatives that “ethnic voters” are not props for photo-ops.
