A Poll Based on 'Feelings'

According to a new Ceeb poll, Aboriginals and Muslims face the most "discrimination" in the land. Oh, wait. Make that Canadians think that Aboriginals and Muslims face the most "discrimination"--which is something else entirely (my bolds):

One in three Canadians believe that Aboriginal Peoples and Muslims are the frequent targets of discrimination, a CBC-commissioned poll suggests.

About 28 per cent of the 2,000 surveyed by pollster Environics Research Group in February and March also said Pakistanis/East Indians often suffer from intolerance, while 20 per cent said blacks regularly faced it.

More than a tenth of Canadians surveyed said they thought Jews, Chinese and anglophones inside Quebec suffered from persistent discrimination, while francophones outside Quebec ranked the lowest at nine per cent.

But if many Canadians feel discrimination happens on a regular basis, they may not feel it has a “pervasive, negative effect” on the ethnic groups, according to Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto professor who studies ethnic diversity.

"These groups are minorities and if you asked people, ‘Are blacks experiencing discrimination?’ They might shrug and say, ‘Yeah, probably,’ but you know it's not something that concerns them directly. And so it's treated as somebody else's problem."

Reitz also suggests that our perceptions of racism may be coloured by our pride in multiculturalism, a policy officially declared in 1971.

"Canadians have as part of their self-image the belief in being inclusive, open, multicultural, and Canadians are proud of that,” Reitz said. “It would be inconsistent to then believe that there's pervasive discrimination."

Drop in discrimination

The study also found a substantial drop in Canadian’s perceptions of pervasive discrimination against blacks (12 per cent), and Muslims and Aboriginal Peoples (nine per cent) since a similar survey four years ago...

What a bizarre survey, one based not on actual, tangible incidents of "discrimination", but on feelings, thoughts, perceptions and beliefs about "discrimination". In other words, a hilariously--and quintessentially--Canadian kind of poll, one designed to make us feel bad about our "bigotry" (even though the reality of "bigotry" is not what the poll discloses), and feel good about feeling bad. Good thing we have all those "human rights" bodies to force the "bigotry" out of us, eh?

Update: Salman Hossain, a Muslim who's responsible for actual, tangible "hate speech" against Jews (a crime in Canada, but only if your name is, say, Keegstra or Ahenakew and the speech high-fives Hitler) responds to his Jewish "persecutors".

Suggested question for new Ceeb poll: As a Canadian, how do you "feel" about the de facto double standard whereby authorities hem and haw and generally end up turning a blind eye to the "hate speech" of Muslims?

Update: Let's compare and contrast, shall we? A few years before 9/11, Mark Harding, a small town Ontario Christian pastor, was charged with and convicted of the crime of "hate speech" for saying

that the Qur’an was the work of the devil. In a pamphlet entitled “Are all the Muslims living in Canada today TERRORISTS [sic],” Harding suggested that Muslims “sound peaceful and try to act peaceful, but underneath their false sheep’s clothing are raging wolves, seeking whom they may devour, and Toronto is definitely on their hit list.”

At the time of his sentencing, one of Canada's most vocal pro-censorship proponents applauded Harding's conviction, "reasoning" that such words “could have been a tinderbox. It could lead to violence.”

Of course, they didn't--and of course, they wouldn't.

Now, here's what Salman Hossain, a close personal friend of the Khadr family, has been saying for years--and so far the only authority he's having to answer to is some disciplinary pannel at York University:

"I hope the German brothers were gonna blow up US-German bases in their country. We should do that here in Canada as well. Kill as many western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters," he wrote.

"Any and all Western soldiers getting prepared to enter Muslim nations like Afghanistan or Iraq should be legitimate targets by any and all Islamic militants either in the attacked nations or in the western nations --if there were any planned attacks against Canadian/ American soldiers by 'Muslim militants' in Canadian soil, I'd support it," he added.

"Canadian soldiers in Canadian soil who are training to go to Afghanistan or Iraq are legitimate targets to be killed. … Now it is POSSIBLE AND LEGITIMATE!! ... believe me, if we could have enough of our soldiers killed, then we'd be forced to withdrawn from Afghanistan."

In addition, he singles out Jews, writing: "When do I get to shoot a few Jews down for attempting to blow up dozens of mosques in America right after 9-11 … why f---ing target the Americans when the Jews are better?"

Indeed. And why haul this guy's butt in front of a judge if he's not a "Nazi" or a Christian? Everyone knows that they're the really dangerous ones. (Is it okay for me to say that without, you know, setting off a tinderbox?)