Are white men silenced out of fear of offending? Former B.C. premier explains his piece
Posted Jan 10, 2016 8:23 am.
Last Updated Jan 10, 2016 2:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – Former BC Premier Ujjal Dosanjh raised a few eyebrows with an op-ed this past week, suggesting the beliefs of many white men in Canada are silenced out of a fear of being labelled racist.
Dosanjh explains it like this.
“Most political public men, most of them happen to be white anyway, are afraid to have an honest debate on issues. Whenever issues arise, they go silent or they bend over backwards to ensure that they say nothing that might be disagreeable for some people.”
UBC’s Handel Wright disagrees.
“It’s simply inaccurate to say that white men have been silent. I don’t think there is any louder or any more pervasive voice in Canada than the white man’s voice.”
He calls our multiculturalism one of Canada’s biggest assets.
Dosanjh says white men in the public eye are too timid to speak their minds on certain issues. “When you have that fear, you can’t have an honest debate. I am not saying that white guys are oppressed. They have all of the power in Canada, but in terms of race, religion, culture, language, values the debate has become sterile because they don’t speak their minds for fear of being ridiculed.”
Wright isn’t so sure. “The piece seems to assume that all white men have the same politics, have things to say that are inflammatory or possibly racist or controversial and that simply isn’t true.”
