The Consequences of Choosing Politics over Policy

There is a sickness spreading across our land.

If ever there were a time when sensible voices needed to stand up against the disturbing and increasingly divisive xenophobic undertones littering our nation’s politics, it is now.

We desperately need to come together, to challenge the politicians of various stripes who are willingly propagating fears and consciously pushing forward legislation that is serving only to further alienate and divide Canadians.

University of Bristol political science professor Tariq Modood once warned that we need to constantly review the kind of society we are becoming to ensure that we do not, through unthinking prejudice, confine minorities to the margins.

This is one of those moments.

Right now, in Canada, we are slipping into dangerous cultural, religious and racial conversations aimed at highlighting our differences, as opposed to coming together to find real solutions.

Although legislative proposals being advanced here in Canada are gaining political traction across several provincial jurisdictions (especially in Quebec), I argue that it is fueling a toxic and hyper-political environment.

These are not the conditions where issues of national importance are resolved.

The serious challenge of national security and combatting extremism anywhere and everywhere is a discussion we need to have. But, we find ourselves debating these issues using false binaries being promoted by political parties who are trying to remain relevant and in the lead up to a federal election.

These serious concerns, shared by Canadians from coast-to-coast, deserve the appropriate climate to find fact-based, legal and rights-abiding solutions. Instead, what we have is a collection of elected individuals wanting to be seen as fixing the problem, but in reality, they are just alleviating the symptoms.

This is not the way to lead, and it is certainly not the way to govern.

At what other point in our history has a Prime Minister publicly defended the restricting of one religious group’s attempts at building a place of worship?

Since when has a woman’s wardrobe been the defining factor for Canadian citizenship?

Why is it that our lawmakers believe that the answer to helping disenfranchised youth is to pass proposals that virtually every legal expert is disputing?

And how did we get to a place in our country where the negative use of one person’s religion in a political attack ad seems justified?

It is no accident that all of these issues are being pushed onto the national agenda at the same time.

Let us not fool ourselves. These decisions, proposals and debates are about flawed ideology, rather than sustainable and sound social policy.

Good policy involves the integration of ideas from experts. Good policy is founded on facts, research and tangible outcomes.

Right now, we’re debating and passing laws that are half-measured, incomplete and counter to the rights of citizens in our country.

A good start would be increasing resources and funding for Muslim integration initiatives; a vigorous defence of Muslim women; better access to education and voting; and supporting voices that promote a more balanced version of Islam.

The real threat to our democracy is not Islamic extremists or mosques or a woman covering her hair.

The real threat is when we, collectively, become unmoved when a segment of our citizenry is being cast consistently and overtly as “the other” in which we must fear — a dangerous process and an unsettling reality that is now well underway.