Opinions

 

 

Anti-Americanism is Un-Canadian

By Karen Rusk

i hae teaches us a lot of
things: not only about our destinations,
but about our points of origin as
well. In my travels, one of the most
enduring lessons I have discovered
about Canadians is that we are painfully
annoying. But not just annoying— we
are self-righteous, smug, and snide.
Nothing demonstrates this better than
our anti-Americanism.

While politeness is supposed to be
one of our better traits, our inferiority
complex takes over and causes some
of us to be louder, more arrogant, and
more mean-spirited than most of them.
I am definitely a proud Canadian. But
it’s hard to be proud when I hear other
Canadians criticizing George Bush and
American policy to Americans who
didn’t vote for him—and most of them
didn’t, remember?

Let’s not forget that the US is
home to a vast diversity of opinions,
which should sound familiar to any

Canadian. Their country is very divided,

in most aspects. How many of us
would like to be judged by Stephen
Harper? (I know —I didn’t vote for
him, either. Just don’t let it happen
again, ok?) Talking with mixed groups
of Canadians and Americans, I heard
it time and time again, “Well, we
don’t dislike Americans, but [insert

statement implying that we do hate
Americans].” No, prefacing one’s rude
and presumptuous statements with a
completely insincere assertion does
not make them polite. These comments
were usually followed by “In Canada,
we [insert something we should do, but
in actuality don’t].”

Countless Canadians idealize our
country in rather exaggerated and
outdated ways, comparing our country
to the US, because this is apparently
the only measuring stick we are capable
of using. We still
view ourselves
as Tommy
Douglas, Pierre
Trudeau, and
Lester Pearson.
Great guys—and
exemplars of true Canadian values:
the strength of community, the
responsibility of a humane government
to its people, the multicultural ideal,
diplomacy, and generally keeping the
peace. But all of those guys are dead,
and their coattails don’t stretch that
far. If we remain focused on trying to
show up the states, we will not only
fail (seriously, how do you beat the US
at showiness?) but we will also lose
ourselves. If we think our country is so
great (and it is), maybe we should be a
little less vocal about 1812, and a little

“maybe we should be a little
less vocal about 1812, and a uly for cold

more reflective about our present.

Yes, we come from one of the best
places to live in the world. Of course I
believe that. I do not, however, believe
everyone around me needs to know that
I think that, or that everyone around
me should agree. And fair enough—an
important aspect of diplomacy is the
ability to recognize, respect, and allow
for differing worldviews.

Why are we so desperate to prove
ourselves? I guess the US is sucha
prominent spectre internationally that
we are tired of
being recognized

weather and

little more reflective about ourraising a few
present.”

vowels here and
there. And we
are certainly tired of being mistaken
for Americans when we travel abroad.
The stereotypes surrounding travelling
Americans are not kind, to be sure (nor
are they very accurate), but there are
places in the world whose opinions of
Canadians have soured as well. Why?
Because, in our attempt to show how
wonderful Canadians are, we blew the
American stereotype out of the water.
“Look at how loud I can be! Look at
how drunk I can get! Look at how much
I don’t care what anyone thinks of me!!
Canada— WOOOO!!!!”) Whenever I

 

see losers like this, I want to tear the
huge, boastful maple leaf off of their
backpacks. God.

Please, if you love your country,
don’t make it seem like a place full of
condescending little twits.

 

Banning “Loaded Words” From Sexual
Assault Trial Inhibits Justice

By Megan Cleaveley, The Gateway (University of Alberta)

EDMONTON (CUP) — When the
city of New York banned the use of
the word “nigger” it was a ridiculous,
but harmless, symbolic gesture. The
ban won’t be enforced and prominent
African Americans such as Jamie Foxx
admit they’ll still use the word. Being
a symbolic act, the ban doesn’t really
trample on the rights

6 e . 2
of citizens. While this ‘the jury will continue

rape or sexual assault, they’re making a
legal conclusion rather than letting the
jury fulfill its duty.

Rape is a traumatic experience
many women have difficulty admitting.
This is a leading reason why it goes
unreported. For a woman to have to
describe rape as sex is shocking and
degrading.

And it doesn’t help

doesn’t make it any to be left in the dark gq that the jury wasn’t

more rational, it’s
relatively harmless.

informed of the word

long as certain words ban cither. There have

But when a ban on are forbidden from the been two mistrials as

words compromises
rights, we’ve got a
problem. A recent
case in Nebraska saw a judge bar the
use of certain words from a criminal
trial. This is a common practice in the
state, as judges will often ban words
like “victim” that imply a crime was
committed.

In the Pamir Safi trial, where he has
been accused of raping Tory Bowen,
the judge agreed with the defence that
the words “rape,” “sexual assault,”
“victim,” and “assailant” be barred. The
rationale is that when a witness says

6

courtroom.”

a result of hung juries
already, and while a
third trial looms, the
jury will continue to be left in the dark
so long as certain words are forbidden
from the courtroom.

In the second trial, Bowen was
on the witness stand for 13 hours,
admitting the ban affected her testimony
because she had to choose her words
carefully. Perhaps it’s no surprise
Bowen is suing the judge and refuses to
adhere to the ban, saying she’d rather
go to jail than commit what she sees as

perjury.

If this were a
different case where
Safi was accused of
robbing Bowen, none
of the words associated
with that would be
banned. There would
never be a ban on the
word “robbery,” which
makes me wonder why
it has been deemed
acceptable in the Safi
trial to prohibit words
associated with rape.
Doing so reinforces the
idea that we live ina
culture where rape is
just a common thing,
trivialized in the media
and popular culture.

Considering the
difficulty of rape trials
to begin with, including
frequent victim-
blaming insinuations
like “she was asking for it,” many
women forego pressing charges at all.

So, as long as rape occurs in our
society, the courts should allow the use

 

of the appropriate words to explicitly
describe such acts in trials, allowing
for more faith in the justice system for
those who wish to report it.