SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Combatting Hate

Honourable senators, a few weeks ago, my colleague who generally sits right in front of me, Nova Scotia Senator Tony Ince, pinned a Black History Month pin on me. The same day, the screen of my phone was assaulted by the American President’s social media account. It displayed a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama portrayed as apes.

When confronting this kind of political pornography, I choose not to hate the dehumanizer; I choose to love the dehumanized. I choose to love Senator Ince and Senator Burey in our Canadian Senators Group, as well as Senator Gerba in the Progressive Senate Group, who I’m honoured to sit with on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Refusing to hate the dehumanizer and instead loving the dehumanized is not something I do for altruistic reasons; I do it for my own sake. My neighbours know that I’m a child of Holocaust survivors, and they have heard me, from time to time, say that while I’ve never been in Auschwitz, Auschwitz has always been in me. Long before my grandparents boarded that cattle car to hell, Nazi propaganda films — Nazi pornography — portrayed Jews as vermin. Dehumanizing Jews made it easier to develop an enthusiasm for extinguishing them.

When I was on national talk radio in the United States, a man named Joshua from Georgia called in to tell me that Black Americans could never be real Americans. I asked him whether he loved me, and he said, “Yes, I listen every day, all three hours. I love you, Chuck.” I said:

I love you too. Thank you for your loyalty. I love you so much that I want to tell you that every time you listen to me on the radio from now on, I want you to think of me as a Black man. Please think of me as a Black man, Joshua.

Years later, in Canada, I would say to my national audience that if they hated Black people, they should think of me as Black, and if they hated Indigenous Peoples, they should think of me as Indigenous. I told them the same with respect to gay people, Palestinian people, Jewish people, Muslim people, Sikh people and Hindu people. I told them that if they hated women, they should think of me as a woman.

A Jewish woman was suffering from massive chest pains 22 years ago, and the surgeon assigned to her file was a Muslim. The woman’s best friend said, “You cannot put your heart in the hands of a Muslim.” The Jewish woman responded the same way Barack Obama would have, saying, “Yes, I can.” That Jewish woman was my mother. Dr. Mohamed saved her life. I think of my gratitude to him every day that I get to spend committee time with Dr. Mohamed Ravalia — Senator Ravalia.

Three days ago, in Chicago, was the funeral for Jesse Jackson, best known for the words, “I am somebody. I may be poor, but I am somebody.” He was speaking to me when he said those words four decades ago — and four days ago. I am somebody. I’m not vermin, my neighbours are not monkeys and I cannot love Canada without loving every Canadian, represented by everyone here in this house that, thank God, cares deeply about equality and human dignity. Thank you. Meegwetch.