Juno News - December 19, 2023


Do black Canadians support the renaming of Dundas Square？


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

185.02295

Word Count

2,633

Sentence Count

168


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Canadian elites want to rewrite our history and erase any mention of the old history.
00:00:04.900 Now this in theory is a bid to make newcomers and new immigrants feel more welcome and more
00:00:09.480 comfortable. But does it actually do that? Well today I'm joined by writer and scholar
00:00:13.320 Samuel Say to discuss how people really feel about woke cancel culture bids. I'm Candice
00:00:18.220 Malcolm and this is the Candice Malcolm show. Hi everyone thank you so much for tuning into the
00:00:31.700 podcast. Don't forget to like this video. Subscribe to our channel. If you're listening to this podcast
00:00:35.540 and you enjoy it please consider leaving us a five-star review. Don't forget to check out our
00:00:39.220 website tnc.news. Okay so you've definitely heard the news by now on Thursday December 14th. Toronto
00:00:45.580 voted, the socialist mayor and the city council voted unanimously to rename the city's iconic
00:00:51.100 Dundas Square. The new name would become Sankofa Square. Well Andrew Lawton almost immediately
00:00:57.400 broke the story that the name Sankofa comes from a tribe in Africa in Ghana called the Akan tribe
00:01:04.980 and they actually have their own sordid history when it comes to slavery. They were part of the
00:01:10.400 slave trade, part of the transatlantic slave trade. They used their own slaves. So we were told that
00:01:15.180 Henry Dundas had to go because of his alleged connections to slavery. Turns out that Henry
00:01:19.700 Dundas was actually quite an abolitionist who fought against slavery and helped end slavery
00:01:24.620 in the British Empire and yet here we are bringing in a new name that has its own connections. It really
00:01:30.260 makes you shake your head and wonder what's going on in city council in Toronto. Do they do research?
00:01:35.320 Do they even bother googling things before they try to fundamentally change Canada? Well I wanted to
00:01:41.380 bring in a new perspective, a different perspective on this story. So I've asked writer, scholar and
00:01:47.280 occasional True North contributor Samuel Say on the program today to get his perspective. So Samuel
00:01:52.280 welcome to The Candace Malcolm Show. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for having me.
00:01:57.740 Okay Sam, so you saw the story and well first of all I just want to say congratulations on the recent
00:02:03.260 birth of your son. Welcome to the joys of fatherhood and parenthood. It's really wonderful to see you and your
00:02:09.660 wife so happy. And I did want to get your perspective on what is happening in Toronto.
00:02:15.160 So what do you think of all this? Yeah, you know, I'm a Ghanaian. I'm a Ghanaian Canadian.
00:02:21.320 I'm actually part of the Akan tribe. So this, when I read this, I'm like, it's frankly so stupid to me.
00:02:30.020 It's absurd. You mentioned already just how dumb it is because of the fact that if the whole goal is to
00:02:36.100 try to erase the so-called connections to slavery, well, I mean, the Akan tribe, particularly the
00:02:42.460 Ashanti tribe, the biggest tribe within the Akan tribe, were massive slave traders. They were,
00:02:48.640 they didn't just trade with the Europeans. They were the one who actually suggested the slave trade
00:02:54.060 to the Europeans, right? And then it was actually, of course, the Europeans, especially the British,
00:02:58.800 that abolished the slave trade. People like Henry Dundas. Now they say that, you know,
00:03:04.280 he helped delay the slave trade as well too. Well, in a sense, that's true, but they're ignoring a lot
00:03:10.420 of context there. Nevertheless, he was still an abolitionist, at least, even if he's an imperfect
00:03:15.360 abolitionist, he's still an abolitionist. But the Akan tribe, or particularly the Ashanti tribe within
00:03:21.340 the Akan tribe in Ghana, they were not abolitionists. They were forced to end slavery through the British.
00:03:27.680 So it's so bizarre that they would choose this name to, and you know, one of the fascinating things is
00:03:33.740 that as an Akan person, as a Ghanaian, the meaning of Sankofa is actually very,
00:03:39.880 very important. It means that we should not erase the past. It means that we should not forget the
00:03:45.160 past. We should remember it, right? And to, you know, to try to live in a better way because we
00:03:52.540 remember the past. Well, this is so bizarre because this is literally trying to ignore the past, right?
00:03:59.740 So it's really weird that they're trying to, they're choosing the name Sankofa by doing the
00:04:04.280 very thing that the meaning of the word suggests you shouldn't do. So it's so bizarre.
00:04:08.760 Wow, Sam. Well, thanks for sharing. I mean, there's so much irony wrapped up in this, right? It's like
00:04:12.620 you're taking away the name of an abolitionist and naming it after a tribe that turns out is sort of
00:04:17.640 infamous or well-known, at least for people who are aware of it, with their ties to slavery. And then,
00:04:22.880 of course, the meaning of that word is to do exactly the opposite of what city council has done.
00:04:28.420 Interesting. I noticed on Twitter, there's a woman named Jennifer Dundas, who she's actually a guest
00:04:32.720 on Harrison Faulkner's Ratio podcast the other day. I definitely recommend you check that out. But
00:04:37.780 she's a descendant of Henry Dundas. She's actually a former CBC journalist as well and a crown prosecutor.
00:04:43.820 She wrote that the name was on a shortlist for 14 months and that there was a lot of debate inside
00:04:49.520 council about this. So you would think, you know, they've been planning to do this for years.
00:04:52.960 This was on the shortlist for 14 months. Why didn't anybody bother to sort of look into this?
00:05:00.100 Do they not think about it? Like, what do you think the mindset is behind this unanimous vote? Like,
00:05:04.800 every single councillor, there wasn't a single one that said, hey, guys, hold on a second. Let's like,
00:05:10.080 maybe think this through a little more. No one, apparently no one in the city council had that
00:05:14.180 insight. Why do you think that is, Sam?
00:05:16.340 Well, we've seen lately in our country, considering what happened with the Nazi that
00:05:21.660 was celebrated by our parliament, when they're thinking of virtue signaling, they're not thinking,
00:05:26.760 they're not really thinking about doing research. They're so focused on getting applause from certain
00:05:31.420 groups of people that they rarely just choose to not care about the history. They don't care to think
00:05:38.160 about whether it was a Nazi looking him up to make sure that he's actually a Nazi and not really this
00:05:42.220 war hero that they're making him up to be. Or, like the word Sankofa, they're not thinking about, huh,
00:05:46.920 what are the ties there? Could there be, could anything go wrong with this? They seem to be so focused
00:05:51.140 with virtue signaling that that's all that matters to them. And look, here's the reality. I'm a young
00:05:56.140 Ghanaian Canadian. Ghanaian Canadians do not care about this. We're not, like, there's no Ghanaian
00:06:01.480 Canadian that I know. And I spoke to many of them who are like, yeah, this is, no, what they care about,
00:06:07.060 right? And look, black, black Canadians tend to be, of course, almost all immigrants, right?
00:06:11.700 First generation immigrants or second generation immigrants. And what they care about most
00:06:15.540 is the economy. They care about fixing the issues that young people, right? Young families are,
00:06:23.880 that Ghanaian Canadians are trying to feed their families right now. They're trying to buy homes.
00:06:27.020 They can't. Nobody cares about changing this. It's not pleasing anybody. But as always, it is just
00:06:33.100 the silly government trying to ignore real issues, issues facing real immigrants. They're trying to
00:06:39.600 ignore that by doing this virtue signaling. And it's not doing anything. Nobody cares.
00:06:44.180 I really, I really do think that a lot of Canadians have just had enough in general. And it's
00:06:47.740 interesting to hear your perspective about immigrant Canadians and black Canadians as well. It seems to me
00:06:52.020 really, Sam, that multiculturalism is failing before our eyes. I'll give you a few examples of just what
00:06:56.960 we've seen in the past, I don't know, 72 hours here in Toronto. It seems that all the, all the bad stuff
00:07:01.860 is happening in Toronto. So first up at Yorkdale Mall, just north of Toronto, the northern part of the city,
00:07:06.580 we saw families being harassed and intimidated by Hamas supporters at Yorkdale Mall. They're
00:07:11.860 visiting Santa Claus, okay, they're with their kids trying to sit on Santa's knee. And you can hear
00:07:16.200 the jeers and shouting of the crowd. Let's play that quick clip.
00:07:46.200 Next, down at Eaton Centre, which is just across the street from Dundas Square, we saw more Hamas
00:07:57.580 supporters, this time swearing at Christmas shoppers, and even threatening police officers. Looks like a
00:08:02.760 pretty scary, intimidating crowd. Here's a quick glimpse of what that looked like.
00:08:06.580 And then finally, Sam, we saw the news of this gigantic 55 foot religious statue being erected
00:08:25.140 in Brampton, Ontario. There was a tremendous backlash and opposition to this large statue,
00:08:32.280 of course, against the backdrop that Canadian statues get torn down with some frequency. And
00:08:37.560 as we're talking about today, names get removed from our history. And so it's a little strange to
00:08:42.600 see other cultures getting celebrated in this way. What is happening in Toronto? What's happening in
00:08:47.780 Canada? And what can we do about all this? Honestly, it is a symptom of what's happened to
00:08:53.040 our country with multiculturalism. Look, I'm an immigrant. I love my Ghanaian culture. But I also
00:08:59.380 know that I'm in Canada. And that Canada, we do have a culture. It's unfortunate that we're trying
00:09:04.560 to push this multiculturalism thing. There is a Canadian history and a Canadian culture. And people
00:09:09.260 are trying to abandon that. These are, of course, the woke leftists. But the reason why I mentioned
00:09:13.540 that is because, look, when I emigrated to the country 26 years ago, I knew that I had to assimilate.
00:09:20.760 I knew that there was a dominant culture that I had to respect. And I love the culture that I've
00:09:25.880 came to in all respect. But the issue now is this. When you push multiculturalism, what you're doing
00:09:31.360 is you're teaching people, you're teaching new immigrants, new citizens, not to respect the
00:09:37.120 culture that Canada has. Therefore, and look, when you have multiculturalism, you're going to have
00:09:41.680 competing cultures. So what happens is when people have competing cultures, there will eventually be
00:09:47.700 a struggle for a dominant culture. And you're seeing that right now. There's some people who want
00:09:52.680 their culture to dominate other Canadians. And that's what you're seeing already with some of
00:09:57.500 these, some of these, what happened at Yorkdale Mall, or what we've seen already with a lot of
00:10:01.160 the protests, the anti-Semitic protests you've been seeing as well, too. There are people who are
00:10:06.220 trying to establish their own dominant culture, because they know that, unfortunately, so many
00:10:10.100 Canadians or so many politicians want to do away with the Canadian culture. Now, when it comes to
00:10:14.980 that statue, it's, it's, it's work. I'm from Brampton, and I know that's in Brampton.
00:10:19.860 And that, to me, is absurd as well, too, because the reality is this, is that I, you know, believe
00:10:25.720 in religious freedom, right? I want anybody who, you know, I don't want Hindus to be, of
00:10:31.620 course, kept from coming to the country, necessarily. That's not the case at all. However, the reality
00:10:36.220 is, now, if you are somebody in Brampton, you have this massive statue that you almost can't
00:10:42.160 avoid is, you know, 55 foot tall. It's, there is this, it's basically Brampton saying, the, the, the God we
00:10:50.160 worship here is a Hindu God. I can't imagine that if some other religious group wanted to establish
00:10:55.640 that, that would be okay. I can't imagine that that would be tolerated. But because it seems like
00:11:00.580 we are okay respecting any other religion, except for the traditional Christian religion in Canada,
00:11:06.300 then that, that's okay. And again, it's, this stuff is going to keep happening if Canada continues to
00:11:11.320 reject its own cultural heritage. No, that's a really good point. Like, I, I completely agree
00:11:16.320 with the religious freedom aspect of it. I think that Hindus should be able to pray however they
00:11:20.500 want. I'm glad that they have that freedom in Canada. I'm very happy that they come in so many
00:11:24.280 ways. Hindus are model citizens. But there is something political, like a statement being made by
00:11:29.140 erecting a statue of that size happening. It's like a mis, misreading of the tone of the country,
00:11:33.960 like everyone else's statues are getting torn and you're erecting this, this large statue. You can,
00:11:38.560 you can draw some like historical parallels to that. But if anything, it's just a little bit
00:11:42.520 like distasteful or disrespectful in, in Canada. But you know, I, I think you're right. I think that,
00:11:48.660 that newcomers have sort of lost the, the respect and Canadians it's, it's our, it's our fault. We
00:11:53.760 haven't, especially our elites and those in charge haven't demanded that newcomers respect Canada and,
00:11:59.460 and come to terms with the fact that there is a dominant culture. I thought it was interesting,
00:12:03.520 Samuel, you might not have heard this, but there was a proposal to make December Christian Heritage
00:12:08.580 Month in Canada so that Canadians can learn about Christianity and the traditions that actually
00:12:13.300 helped find this, found this country, like a country was based on Christian morals and values
00:12:18.760 and it was rejected. And if you look at the list of all of the other heritage months that we
00:12:23.960 celebrate in Canada, you know, November is actually Hindu Heritage Month and like every other culture
00:12:28.440 and every other country and other other religion gets a month or at least a week or a day to
00:12:32.760 celebrate their heritage. And when it comes to the founding religion of this country,
00:12:36.720 yeah, no, you can't, you can't have that.
00:12:39.000 Yeah. And you know, you know, our very, of the official model of Canada is explicitly Christian,
00:12:44.820 right? It has come from Psalm 72, right? From dominion to dominion. That's referring to Christ,
00:12:49.980 lordship and kingship over Canada. And yet here we are rejecting this and we rather have,
00:12:54.720 and you know, speaking of doing away with Henry Dundas because he supposedly was a, you know,
00:13:00.060 wasn't a real abolitionist. Well, here's the issue. I mean, let's face it. There have been a lot of
00:13:05.220 atrocities that has happened under a lot of Hindu pagan worship. And here we are though, choosing
00:13:10.840 a pagan god to, you know, to be erected in Brampton while, as you said, in terms of, you know,
00:13:17.180 while we're, you know, doing away with some historical figures that mean a lot to Canada,
00:13:21.140 we're saying that, well, they should be canceled, but we should celebrate Hindu gods that again,
00:13:26.400 in the name of worshiping them. So many atrocities have happened under these gods as well. It's
00:13:31.860 absolutely absurd. But again, while we continue to reject the Christian traditional history that
00:13:38.340 has made Canada what it is, we are going to have a very different Canada. And we're seeing that.
00:13:43.320 It's so true how they sort of whitewash the crimes and the real dark parts of history from other
00:13:49.880 cultures and only focus on the dark moments in Canadian history, which really aren't that dark
00:13:55.920 compared to some of the histories of the rest of the world. Well, Samuel, I always really
00:13:59.640 appreciate talking to you. I love your perspective. I love hearing from you. So
00:14:02.400 thank you so much. And I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your new and growing family. God
00:14:07.220 bless you. And thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. All right, thanks for tuning in. I'm
00:14:12.100 Candice Malcolm. And this is the Candice Malcolm Show.