April 13, 2011 June 8, 2015 Armine Yalnizyan9 Comments
Armine Yalnizyan
Wanted: "Ethnic Costumes" and the Immigrant Vote
Tomorrow evening at 6:30 Stephen Harper is holding an event at 655 Dixon Road in Toronto. The event planners are looking for "representation from the Arab community" in "ethnic costume" to sit in the front row – "great photo op".
The invitation was passed along to members of the Colour of Poverty community network this morning. Ironically it was received by an Arab organization that was defunded by the Harper Conservatives. Now they'd like them to dress up for the leader.
(The Colour of Poverty network is behind the video released yesterday, and decry how immigrants have been turned into "ethnics" and "very ethnics". They rightly view themselves as Canadians, more than a vote or a photo-op, and with pressing concerns that need substantive response.)
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:26:47 -0400
Subject: Opportunity – Thursday night with the Prime Minister
On Thursday night, the Prime Minister will be in Etobicoke for a big rally.
Here is the link for the event
http://www.conservativeevent.ca/toronto
We, at the Etobicoke Centre riding, are trying to create a photo-op about all the multicultural groups that support Ted Opitz our local Conservative candidate and the Prime Minister. The opportunity is to have up to 20 people in national folklore costumes which represent their ethnic backgrounds. These people will sit in front row behind the PM – great TV photo op.
We are seeking representation from the Arab community. Do you have any cultural groups that would like to participate by having someone at the event in an ethnic costume? We are seeking one or two people from your community. Please let me know by Wednesday afternoon – 5:00 pm at the latest.
I apologize for the short notice.
Zeljko 'Zed' Zidaric
Ted Opitz Campaign Team
CATEGORIES: Democracy, Federal Election, Human Rights, Media
• Fun "Ethnic Vote" Video – Eat it!
• Silencing Dissent: The Harper Record
Erin Rutherford says:
I'm a Canadian living in Saudi Arabia. I can't vote in either Canadian or Saudi elections (for different reasons).
Really, how likely is it that someone who is the official working on behalf of a candidate for a Member of Parliament would be A) allowed to send a message on behalf of his candidate and the Prime Minister that contained grammatical errors and B) would send an 'official' email from a gmail account? It takes a matter of minutes to set up a new email account under an official domain name, and I have to imagine that anyone who was authorized to send out communications on behalf of a candidate would have some degree of media or communications training. This seems like a scam to me. Can you back up this 'email' with some research to prove it is authentic?
Kerri-Anne Finn says:
We're not making this stuff up: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/974251–conservative-candidate-asks-for-ethnic-costumes-for-harper-photo-op?bn=1
Armine Yalnizyan says:
Standard response when caught red-handed: It wasn't me, it's someone else's fault, it was a mistake.
Humble pie in public. Ruthless behind the scenes.
Pingback: Go "Ethnics" Go!?! « Brain.Guts.Hands.
current transformer says:
Thanks for posting this article. I am definitely tired of struggling to find relevant and intelligent commentary on this subject. Everyone nowadays goes to the very far extremes to either drive home their viewpoint of that everybody else in the globe is wrong. Thanks for your consise and relevant insight.
Donna Meness says:
Differnce in what is said & what is done!!…lol
Photographs of Mr. Harper in various poses, at various sites, are hung throughout the private and cosy government lobby of the House of Commons.
Ms. May and Ms. O'Malley were surprised and a bit speechless when they saw the exhibit recently as guest Commons Speakers during a youth Parliament.
"When you walk in the door, all you see are pictures of Stephen Harper," said Ms. May
"I'd say between every window, in every available space of the wall, at eye level, every available space has a photo of Stephen Harper."
"You've got photos of Stephen Harper, but not of previous prime ministers," she added. "Photos of Stephen Harper in different costumes, in different settings, dressed as a fireman, in Hudson Bay looking for polar bears, meeting the Dalai Lama, even the portrait of the Queen had to have Stephen Harper, but in a candid, behind her."
A press aide to Mr. Harper said he would get back with an explanation, but didn't.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=9c6b53f6-f0a2-4eca-93bb-559023144731
http://activehistory.ca/2010/07/the-queen-among-the-mohawks/
"The next night Prime Minister Harper retreated to even safer ground when (following a black-out due to decaying infrastructure in downtown Toronto), he feted the Queen to a state dinner before an almost entirely caucasian crowd in a ballroom at the Royal York Hotel. (A casual observer would have thought that even the government of Canada would be savvy enough to know that the crowd assembled in no way visibly represented the population of a multicultural Toronto, but whatever…)"
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Pretty much black & white ooopppppsssss I meant to say :
RED & WHITE…chortle..grin
Thsi blogger is RIGHT ON! RIGHT ON! RIGHT ON!
Emily Dee
* Gender: Female
* Occupation: Grandmother
HER New Years Top Ten List of Conservative Misdeeds
These aren't the obvious things, like 130 million for self promo television ads, 45 million for signs or 100 million for opinion polls, and then ignoring our opinions completely.
These took a lot more work. A lot more cunning. And a lot more deceit. And several of them you may not have even been aware of until now.
http://pushedleft.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-new-years-top-ten-list-of.html
See @ bottom of the page if you can see stomach it..ugh
More Lists:
1. My Next Top Ten List of Conservative Misdeeds
2. Another List of Conservative Misdeeds
3. Today's Top Ten Conservative Misdeeds
4. Ten More Conservative Misdeeds for TGIF
5. My Next Ten Reasons to Throw the Bums Out
reviewupon says:
Why is this only for the arab community ? I'm not sure what is the exact purpose of having it this way
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