POLITICAL CORRECTNES 1
Taking
political correctness to a Christmas extreme
National
Post
Mon 18 Dec 2006
Page: A15
Section: Issues & Ideas
Of course Marion Cohen is wrong. And Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, is absolutely right when he says that Judge Cohen's decision to order the Christmas tree in the lobby of the Ontario Court of Justice hidden from view is "so stupid" that he is "at a loss for words."
Mr. Fatah might even have added that Judge Cohen's order was so arrogant that it almost defied description, too.
Imagine, one woman, so full of her own sense of power and discernment, that one day she decided she knew better than anyone else how the Christmas tree might be interpreted by non-Christians, and ordered it moved from the front counter to behind a smoked-glass petition in the back of the offices.
Apparently, before the all knowing judge came along, no one else had had the wisdom and insight to see the affront the tree was giving non-Christians, not even non-Christians themselves. Court officers had received few complaints about the tree over the last several years, and most of those had come from secularists and atheists rather than outraged Muslims, Jews or Zoroastrians.
In her letter to courthouse staff, outlining the reasons for her removal order, Judge Cohen wrote, "I am aware the Christmas tree has been placed in the front lobby at Christmastime for many years." However, "I do not think it appropriate that when the clients of our court enter our courthouse, the first thing they see is a Christian symbol.
"The message to the many non- Christians, who attend our court and are confronted with this symbol, is that they are not part of this institution. It does not belong to them. They are different."
Oh, please. This is taking political correctness to an absurd new extreme.
Can non-Christians go to the Ontario Court of Justice and receive a fair trial? Are Christians afforded special treatment? Are there different laws, line-ups or courtrooms for Christians and non-Christians? Yes. No. And, of course not.
If it were truly the case that the court did not belong equally to non-Christians, then it would be because the laws were being applied unevenly and those who came before the bench were being treated inequitably based on their creed. That would be the true mark that the courts were biased. And if any of those meaningful affronts and offences were occurring, they would be the fault of the court's judges, rather than the maintenance workers and civil servants who annually erect the allegedly outrageous tree.
Even Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty had a better grasp of the true nature of pluralism than did Judge Cohen. Speaking to reporters at Ontario's legislature, Mr. McGuinty said, "We''e not asking any one of the … communities that make up our province to somehow abandon their traditions.
"It doesn't offend anyone when we celebrate Diwali at Queen's Park or celebrate Hanukkah at Queen's Park or celebrate Eid at Queen's Park. That's part and parcel of who we are."
Indeed, the best way to promote understanding and acceptance among cultures, traditions and faiths is to permit the display in public of each of their symbols at the appropriate times of the year rather than banning Christian symbols in a misguided attempt to show how sensitive we Canadians have become.
Robert Frost once said a liberal is a man so broadminded he cannot take his own side in a quarrel. While he said that nearly 70 years ago, he must have seen the tyranny of political correctness coming.
Far too many Western opinion- makers are so obsessed with demonstrating their tolerance of others' beliefs that they are no longer ever prepared to defend the intellectual and spiritual traditions that made the Western world the tolerant place it is.
And don't think that the members of other faiths and cultures can't see the threat to their own beliefs inherent in Judge Cohen's feckless ban of a Christian symbol. They know that if the majority won't respect its own traditions, we cannot be trusted to respect theirs for very long either.
The elite determination to secularize our Judeo-Christian traditions -- which gave us the rule of law and respect for individual rights -- will one day be turned on the minority faith traditions it currently finds so fashionable to preserve.
In the end, the enemy of political correctness is faith in anything other than the omniscience of secular governments, including the courts.