Canada: Racial and Religious profiling, Harper Conservatives.
Tue Oct 09, 2007 at 11:11:14 AM PDT
Stephen Harper is sending out Holiday Cards! Happy Holidays!
Oh. only to Canadians with a Jewish background....
On the surface you say, oh, he's going after the Jewish Canadian vote. But then you have to ask yourself, (that's if you aren't inclined to open wide and swallow like many Conservatives do) How would he KNOW that someone is from a Jewish Family?
There's the last names, of course. But in this day and age that really doesn't mean much. My last name is now English, but it started out as German. Marriages between faith's etc change names around. I have known many people with English sounding names that are Jewish, and vice versa. I'm sure anyone reading this gets my point.
When Michelle Kofman found a Rosh Hashanah greeting card from Prime Minister Stephen Harper in her mailbox last month, she was left with one puzzling question: How does he know I'm Jewish?
Many Jews unsettled over Harper holiday greetings
You do have to admit, that is very creepy. The government has tons of information on us I know, but when did they start compiling religious affiliations into that?
A marketing manager from the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ms. Kofman is suspicious about how she got on the prime minister's mailing list and found it unsettling that the address line of the card included her middle name.
"The only time I use my full name is for government stuff -- social insurance number, driver's licence, passport," she said.
A Conservative official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the mailing lists the Prime Minister's Office uses are drawn from community directories, free publications available to the general public or word of mouth from friends and relatives, but not government records. Congratulatory messages for religious or cultural holidays are routinely sent out, the official said.
So according to an anonymous source, it isn't government records....
To be clear, this is being paid for by the Conservative party. But it just feels so......intrusive? If they want to spend money like this, thats perfectly up to them.
But it also shows the Conservatives as a party are compiling racial and religious lists?
That Sends a chill up my spine, truly.
I guess part of what's sticking in my craw, are the questions, like Ms. Kofman voiced. How do they know? She stated she's not involved with any Jewish groups, she never uses her middle name for anything non-Governmental. These concerns were shared by another gentleman:
Josh Keshen, who also lives in Thornhill, said he was surprised by the card, addressed to his entire family.
"At first I was a little shocked," said Mr. Keshen, who works in the insurance industry. "It seemed very odd. How did they know my whole family is Jewish?"
He also doesn't think he is listed in any directories. He says he gives money to the United Jewish Appeal and receives the Canadian Jewish News at the same address, but the paper is delivered to his father's name. Politically, he identifies himself as Liberal, but says he is not involved in party politics.
"I think it was mostly to get votes," Mr. Keshen said.
Um. Almost correct, it was ALL to get votes.
The postcard features a colour picture of Mr. Harper, his wife, Laureen, and their two children with a background image of a honey dripper and apples, the traditional symbols of the two-day holiday.
Will Mr Harper and Family allow their images to be fotoshopped into a background of trees and holly for the Holidays so that the Christians who celebrate Christmas will feel welcome? How about Pagans and Samhain and Yule? What about the Muslim Community? Will they receive cards commemorating Ramadan?
As one person says at the end of the Canada.com article,
"I didn't live through the Second World War, but I've read enough and heard enough to know that the thought of a list of Jewish people makes people cringe."
What list are you on? Creepy shit indeed.
Crossposted at A Creative Revolution. Come visit for more Canadian, US, and world politics.
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