[Sent to the Globe and Mail but, as usual, not published]
The letter on Syrian refugees by Sarah Johnson represents a shockingly strong stain of racism in Canada. No longer able to nudge-nudge wink-wink about aboriginals, Chinese, Jews or Italians, it is acceptable to assume that all Syrian refugees are ne-er-do-wells, lazy bums, or terrorists. From where does this idea come, when history shows that immigrants usually work hard, strive to educate their children, if not themselves, and quickly become important members of our society? Why can we imply this about muslims and not others? Who will be next?
Even if these people were right, that all refugees will end up in slums in Europe, would it be fair to dump this problem on Europe? Furthermore, now that we can strip citizenship from these second-class citizens (like myself) racists should applaud the options we don’t have with native born children who go off the rails.
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