Monday, February 20, 2017

Globe and Mail tries to promote a Canada vs refugees ideology

An Angus-Reed poll finds this :
In a poll released Monday, 47 per cent of respondents said Canada is taking in the right number of refugees, while 41 per cent said the number is already too high. Only 11 per cent of the 1,508 adults surveyed said the country should increase the number of refugees coming to Canada.
Now, there are a number of ways that statistics like this can be reported on.
In the case of the Globe and Mail, instead of saying that 58 per cent of Canadians are glad to see refugees here, and that one out of five of these Canadians want us to accept more, the Globe thinks the significant part of the survey is what it describes as the sizable minority -- 41 per cent -- who don't want more refugees coming in.
Why does this emphasis bother me? Because this is the type of news story that was framed according to someone's stereotype -- lets find some anti-refugee Canadians, there must be lots out there! -- while also pandering to a big-C Conservative view -- that Canada already accepts "too many" refugees.  Lets everyone fight!
Never forget, it was the Harper Conservatives who tried to destroy Canadian compassion by cutting off medical care for refugees, by talking about "barbaric cultural practices" during the election, by inflating controversies about hijab-wearing Muslim women, etc.
Harper is gone but his Conservative allies -- big C and small c -- are still with us, still fomenting divisiveness and suspicion between Canadians.

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