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Sorry To Say, But The Apology-Seeking Industry Is Thriving

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  • Sorry To Say, But The Apology-Seeking Industry Is Thriving

    SORRY TO SAY, BUT THE APOLOGY-SEEKING INDUSTRY IS THRIVING
    By Jeffrey Simpson, [email protected]

    The Globe and Mail
    May 20, 2008 Tuesday
    Canada

    We were told 20 years ago, in 1988, that the apology would be the
    last because the injustice was the worst.

    So declared then-prime minister Brian Mulroney in offering an apology,
    payments and a community fund for Japanese-Canadians interned during
    the Second World War. This was a terrible abuse, the prime minister
    said. It was a unique case. There would be no more.

    Prime minister Pierre Trudeau, when previously pressed to do likewise,
    had resisted, arguing that we can only be just in our time and that
    once an apology (and more) was given for this or that historical event,
    there would be no end of demands for others.

    How prescient was Mr. Trudeau. Mr. Mulroney's prediction, by contrast,
    was wrong. A mini-industry of apology-seekers developed and politicians
    have lined up to appease them.

    The latest, but by no means the last, apology-seekers appeared
    gratified last week. Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for
    Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity (part-time Foreign Affairs
    Minister and leading ministerial ethnic vote-chaser), said the Harper
    government was working on an apology for the Komagata Maru incident
    of 1914. Commemorative grants of $2.5-million will also be announced.

    The Komagata Maru was a ship that left Hong Kong in 1914 with 376
    passengers, many of them Sikhs, most of whom were refused entry into
    Canada, because such were the immigration laws of the day.

    The money will presumably flow from something called the Community
    Historical Recognition Program that invites aggrieved "ethno-cultural
    groups" to apply for money if their ancestors experienced "immigration
    restrictions" or were "affected by wartime measures."

    We can be sure that this offer will be taken up by other groups,
    if the past is any guide.

    After Mr. Mulroney declared the Japanese-Canadian settlement to be
    the only and last one, other groups stepped up their lobbying. The
    Chretien government, taking the Trudeau line, was not sympathetic,
    but the gates opened with prime minister Paul Martin.

    He set up an office with a $50-million budget for groups to seek
    federal money, and by the time of his defeat seven had already formed
    a queue. Chinese-, Ukrainian-, Italian-Canadians got different forms
    of redress, or recognition, and others were lining up for theirs.

    The Liberals had always been the past masters of ethnic politics, but
    even they got tripped up by the victimization industry. Just before the
    2005 election, the government announced $2.5-million for commemorating
    the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants from 1885 to 1923.

    That didn't go far enough for some Chinese-Canadians, so in the heat
    of the campaign Mr. Martin offered what his government had previously
    denied, an apology. And a campaigning opposition leader, Stephen
    Harper, Enhanced Coverage LinkingStephen Harper, -Search using:
    Biographies Plus News News, Most Recent 60 Days under pressure
    from his candidates in the B.C. Lower Mainland, changed position
    to embrace an apology. In power, the Conservatives went further,
    handing out $20,000 ex gratia payments.

    Even when Canadians have never been involved in tragedies, ethnic
    groups here still want recognition for their suffering, and these
    demands are apparently hard to resist. For example, the Harper
    government recognized the Armenian "genocide" in the Ottoman Empire
    during the First World War, an episode that never touched Canada.

    Of course, the apology/victimization momentum is best seen in
    aboriginal matters, especially in the sad history of residential
    schools.

    In 1998, the Liberal government thought it had dealt with the matter by
    offering an apology and establishing a $350-million healing fund. The
    Globe and Mail editorial board intoned: "The horror of the residential
    school system for native children is finally being brought to a close."

    Nice try. All sorts of lawsuits were launched by residential school
    attendees. Alternative dispute measures failed, so more than $1-billion
    was set aside for restitution. But even these measures fell short.

    A truth and reconciliation commission has just been established to
    elucidate further the residential school story. The commission will
    work for five years, according to its work schedule. So after a formal
    apology, a healing fund and a large cash settlement comes a five-year
    commission and on June 11, Mr. Harper will make yet another apology.

    While the commission carries on, other groups will follow in the wake
    of the people who argued successfully for the Komagata Maru apology,
    because two decades after Mr. Mulroney's assurance, the apology-seeking
    industry is alive, well and prospering.
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