Foreign reflections

Reflect. This word means, among other things, “meditate on, consider, remind oneself.”

During my recent travels through Toronto, Montreal and Miami, I found good cause to reflect on our revolving-door politics, the up-and-down tensions, the ethnic taunts and the undercover preparations for the 2020 elections. Unlike Anthony Boudain’s travels to “Places Unknown,” I travelled to places well-known, partly to rest and reflect.

From marijuana, “Canadian values” tests for immigrants, a power struggle between a province and a city council to the Bill Cosby trial and the US Senate hearings of Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Yes, these are foreign news but in one way or another, each one resonates with what is now happening in TT.

Ontario’s main city, Toronto, fell under the heavy hand of Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, as he moved to cut down the number of Toronto City Council seats from 47 to 25 in the coming October 22 elections. It became a power struggle over how much power the Ontario Premier has over the Toronto City Council. In the face of a series of publicised constitutional arguments for and against, the Ontario Appeal Court supported Ford much to the grief of local government advocates. How much power should a central authority have over a locally elected council?

Then there is marijuana. A full-page advertisement in the broadsheet Toronto Star was not easy to overlook. With a big marijuana leaf, the ad’s sponsor invited people curious about cannabis to visit its website TheGrowthOpcom. There are also town meetings, new marijuana cafes, etc, welcoming government’s decriminalisation. But, like in Miami, not without some objections on medical and addictive grounds. The government is setting up a monitoring unit to assess the consequences.

I visited University of Toronto – my alma mater. Some of Toronto’s faculty were celebrating its very high rankings in Shanghai University’s world ratings. They were not celebrating the imminent increase in university fees, especially for foreign students. No GATE there.

I was surprised at the resurrected controversy over immigration, moreso in French-dominated Quebec. One of the movement’s star is MP Maxime Bernier who formed his own break-away party to temper “extreme multiculturalism.” Quebec’s politicians are also now arguing over what status should be given to the English language. Sensing the electoral backlash, Bernier quickly explained: “When I talk about diversity, I talk about diversity of opinion, of values.”

His illustration puzzled. He said: “I will give you an example, if you have two people coming to Canada and one of them wants to kill Jews and the other doesn’t, are we better to have two people who believe in different things or two people coming to Canada who don’t want to kill Jewish people?” (National Post, Sept 14, 2018.) This is the kind of gibberish politicians apply when trying to backtrack. And all this when one of Canada’s three major national political parties, the National Democratic Party has as its leader, the finely-turbanned Sikh, Jagmeet Singh – a visible evidence of Canada’s embedded liberal spirit.

By the time I reached Miami, the trial of 81-year old comedian, Bill Cosby, for sexual assault was over – three to 10 years in prison. The judge remarked: “It is time for justice, Mr Cosby, this has circled back to you. The time has come.” Not so fast said Cosby’s publicist, Andrew Wyatt. He declared: "This was the most racist and sexist trial in the history of the United States.” It wasn’t the best time for Cosby’s trial – with the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so graphically published across the US.

Now, almost as a rule, when our citizens land in a foreign country, they keep reflecting on “back home,” making quick comparisons – the reflection syndrome. For example, how the streets in Toronto so clean, such good telephone manners, how safe walking through Montreal, how transportation services so punctual and well regulated in San Francisco, how Miami public workers so punctual and dutiful, etc, – all compared to Trinidad. All that true, but the human imagination could be quite selective, even too rose-tinted. Several times, I had to remind my Trini comparison-driven fellow-travellers of that. Maintain perspective. Reflect, improve your country, appreciate what you have. Or until your dissatisfaction propels you into the contentious political space.