Juno News - October 16, 2023


What ＂Decolonization＂ ACTUALLY means


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

161.25279

Word Count

2,171

Sentence Count

102

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

17


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 From the ivory towers of Canada's universities to the halls of provincial
00:00:10.720 parliament and even the House of Commons, we have heard leftist activists
00:00:14.720 frequently invoke the term decolonization to justify outrageous and
00:00:20.560 oftentimes ridiculous policies having to do with indigenous people in Canada.
00:00:24.800 Decolonization has become a catch-all phrase to include actions that involve
00:00:29.000 breaking the law, such as burning down churches, toppling hundred-year-old
00:00:32.680 statues, blocking railway lines, and going on axe attacks at gas pipeline facilities.
00:00:39.160 But decolonization also apparently is any act of pro-indigenous activism at all,
00:00:44.440 including those very important land acknowledgments. To say that the word
00:00:48.280 decolonization has become mainstream in Canadian politics would be an understatement.
00:00:52.680 But in the wake of the terrorist attack against Israel carried out by Hamas militants,
00:00:57.800 leftists at Canadian universities and even at provincial legislatures,
00:01:01.880 such as the Ontario NDP's Sarah Jama, believe that the word decolonization, it turns out,
00:01:08.280 also includes the actions of Hamas on that horrendous day just 10 days ago.
00:01:13.480 The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, women, children, and the elderly.
00:01:18.680 As student unions, professors, and politicians all seek to justify such atrocities in the name of
00:01:24.200 decolonization, as many have argued, and as I will argue today, it's time that we take these
00:01:29.320 lunatics seriously when they use the word decolonization. And it's time that we were all
00:01:34.120 awake to what decolonization in their minds really means. Drop a like in the video, help us out by
00:01:40.360 subscribing to the TrueNearth YouTube channel. And the common question for the episode is this,
00:01:45.400 what does decolonization mean to you? Let me know in the comments and let's get into it.
00:01:50.040 As has been said many times before, it's frankly astonishing that we have so many people who live
00:01:55.160 in this country who think it's appropriate to parade in the streets not even 24 hours
00:02:00.680 after terrorists slaughter thousands of civilians. But let's be honest, the ship has sailed when it
00:02:07.240 comes to not having such people come into the country in the first place, thanks to, of course,
00:02:11.720 reckless immigration policies, and an absolute diehard refusal to cultivate any sort of Canadian
00:02:18.040 identity or culture while importing millions of people into our country. Look, that's an argument
00:02:23.880 that many will have over the coming weeks, and I think it's a worthwhile discussion. But there is
00:02:29.000 something more concerning on the horizon, and it has been pointed out by quite a few commentators already.
00:02:34.200 This is this idea of decolonization that we hear from so many on the left,
00:02:39.240 so many in the universities, and of course, our politicians, that what was carried out by Hamas,
00:02:44.680 those atrocities, were done so in the name of decolonization and fighting back the oppressor.
00:02:50.200 And if people are going to justify those atrocities in another country in the name of decolonization,
00:02:57.480 while at the same time using the same word to justify their actions here in this country,
00:03:03.000 I think, as many have pointed out, it is time we start to pay attention to what these people are
00:03:08.280 saying. Within just days of the Hamas terrorist attack, students at York University who were
00:03:14.040 involved in the Student Union thought it would be wise to publish their statement in solidarity with
00:03:18.840 Palestine. From Turtle Island to Palestine and across all occupied lands, these events serve as a
00:03:26.120 reminder that resistance against colonial violence is justified and necessary. This is decolonization
00:03:34.120 and land back actualized, and we continue to see the Palestinian people stand firm in their resistance
00:03:40.440 against their oppressors. This is decolonization and land back actualized. Really? This is what
00:03:48.360 decolonization looks like? This is what land back looks like? Those are just students. Here's some professors
00:03:55.080 as well. Here's what a University of Toronto professor had to say on decolonization.
00:03:59.160 As Hawaiians wake up to the news of Palestinian anti-colonial resistance in Gaza to Israeli settler
00:04:04.360 colonialism, remember that from Hawaii to Palestine, occupation is a crime. A Lahui that stands for
00:04:11.640 decolonization and de-occupation should also stand behind freedom for Palestine. And just for another
00:04:17.960 example of professors using this language in the justification of what Hamas did to Israeli civilians,
00:04:25.400 here is an associate professor from McMaster, likely a member of QP 3906, who put out a statement
00:04:33.720 the day after the Hamas attack saying, long live the resistance. Here is what Emil J. Joseph, he,
00:04:41.000 him, had to write about decolonization. Post-colonial, anti-colonial, and decolonial are not just words you
00:04:47.320 heard in your EDI workshop. Oh then, if they're not words in an EDI workshop, Emil J. Joseph, he,
00:04:53.800 him, what are they exactly? If they're not just the words that you use in the EDI workshops that you
00:04:59.960 likely run, if they're not just words that are spoken in our legislatures and parliament,
00:05:04.440 then what do they mean? It sounds like, according to this professor, that decolonization is what Hamas
00:05:10.360 has done to Israeli civilians. Don't worry, by the way, they've got the exact same problem in the
00:05:14.440 United States and, of course, in the UK. If the mass protests celebrating the Hamas terrorist attack
00:05:20.280 over the weekend weren't enough to convince you, here's what Columbia University professor,
00:05:25.160 Walla Axia, had to say about decolonization. Academics like to decolonize through discourse
00:05:31.800 and land acknowledgements. Time to understand that decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization
00:05:38.040 means resistance of the oppressed and that includes armed struggle to literally get our lands and lives
00:05:44.360 back. And the protesters at these Palestine rallies, if anyone was mistaken, think the exact same thing.
00:05:50.680 They do believe that what happened to Israeli civilians was an act of decolonization. Here's a
00:05:56.520 picture of a protester at a rally in Canada for Palestine. Notice the Carleton University jacket this
00:06:02.920 woman is wearing and, of course, the mask. Decolonization is not just a theory. And at this protest in
00:06:09.480 Britain, conveniently placed right beside the posters with socialist worker action on them, you have this
00:06:16.200 woman holding up a sign which says decolonization is not just a metaphor. Most notably, I would say,
00:06:23.080 is a statement from NDP provincial parliamentarian Sarah Jamma from Hamilton. Three days after Israel
00:06:30.200 was attacked and after they declared war on Hamas, Sarah Jamma, from her provincial parliamentarian seat
00:06:37.480 in Hamilton, decided that she had the authority to call for a ceasefire over a war on the other side of
00:06:43.240 the world. Sarah Jamma released a statement on October 10th saying that she's reflecting on her
00:06:48.680 role as a politician in the settler colonial system of Canada. For 75 years, violence and retaliation
00:06:57.640 rooted in settler colonialism have taken the lives of far too many innocent people. And by the way,
00:07:03.480 in case anyone wasn't exactly sure who exactly are the colonizers and settlers on this country in which
00:07:10.520 these leftists so frequently invoke the term decolonization, not just when it comes to Palestine,
00:07:16.200 but into Canada's context, those settlers and colonizers, that would be you and me watching this
00:07:22.200 show. Anyone who does not conform to their ideology, anyone who does not believe that this country is a
00:07:29.480 racist country, the people in power are oppressing minority groups. If you don't believe that,
00:07:36.920 you are a settler and you are carrying out so-called settler colonial violence on everybody else.
00:07:43.720 That's the ideology here when people talk about decolonization. And if we're really getting down
00:07:48.760 to it, when they say decolonize, they want white Canadians out of positions of power. That's who they
00:07:56.360 believe are the settler oppressors in this country. Just as they believe that Jews in Israel are the
00:08:03.480 oppressors in that country of Palestinians. Are we to believe that the same people who use the word
00:08:08.600 decolonization have a different definition for when they use the word in Canada versus when they
00:08:13.480 use the word in Israel? I think if we believe that we're being completely naive. I want to highlight this
00:08:18.680 article written in the national post by someone who I would consider to be not a conservative at all,
00:08:23.640 really, but someone who nonetheless has taken issue with the word decolonization and has raised alarm
00:08:30.360 bells about it. This is written by Tasha Kiridan in the national post.
00:08:33.480 Jemma's statement illustrates the absurd lengths to which the decolonization movement has been taken.
00:08:39.320 Today, the word decolonization has lost all meaning. It has become a trope for overthrowing
00:08:43.800 whatever order someone finds offensive. Decolonize Palestine of Jews. Decolonize Canada of white people.
00:08:50.600 Decolonize language of words that might cause offense. Decolonize the math curriculum of Eurocentric
00:08:56.280 quote, ways of knowing. Never mind that much of modern mathematics was developed by Arabic
00:09:01.000 mathematicians. History doesn't matter, only dogma does. And this was written in the hub by Howard
00:09:06.680 Anglin. There is a smaller group for whom the idea of decolonization has a harder edge. They welcome
00:09:13.320 it as a chance to turn the tables on our country's historically dominant European majority, not by
00:09:18.760 supplementing our traditional symbols with new ones, but by disparaging them as shameful and
00:09:22.840 displacing them. These are the people who saw the burning of churches two summers ago and took pains
00:09:27.960 to explain why the often indigenous congregations had it coming. They are motivated by a retributive
00:09:33.800 impulse that is often indistinguishable from revenge, or in the case of the white progressives
00:09:38.440 who make up much of this class, masochistic self-flagellation. Unfortunately, this group is the
00:09:44.360 movement's avant-garde. Their energy and ideas drive and direct the policies and practice, while the
00:09:49.880 well-meaning are carried along because they don't have the words or courage to distinguish their
00:09:53.800 good intentions from this destructive agenda. There is buried within this last group a hardcore
00:09:59.160 faction that would go even further. When they talk about decolonization, they mean it literally,
00:10:04.200 with all its blood-soaked consequences. Symbolic change won't cut it for them, they want action.
00:10:10.280 As JJ McCullough pointed out on Twitter over the past few days about the decolonization movement,
00:10:15.880 I am a little bit troubled by the fact that decolonization, a very mainstream concept in
00:10:21.400 modern Canadian political discourse, is understood by at least some factions of Canadians to mean
00:10:27.080 indiscriminate extrajudicial killing. Just a little troubled by that. And this is not to say that everyone
00:10:32.760 who uses the word actually wants to exact bloodthirsty revenge on Canadians, on people who they believe to
00:10:38.680 be oppressing them. But it is to say that those who do believe that have succeeded mightily in getting
00:10:43.800 their words, their terminology, used and spoken inside the House of Commons. We've had many
00:10:50.280 conversations around dismantling white supremacy and decolonizing our spaces, including this one,
00:10:55.560 right here in the House of Commons. To bring justice, to bring healing, to bring peace,
00:11:01.320 we have to decolonize in the fullest sense of the term. That is where the gaping wound begins.
00:11:07.240 Decolonizing can be a scary word for some, but what's really scary, Madam Speaker, is the reality that
00:11:12.600 Indigenous women in Canada have to wonder if they're next.
00:11:16.200 From ending poverty to housing, action rooted in the absolute need for decolonization.
00:11:22.120 I believe, in fact, that there's a lot of work to do to decolonize our systems,
00:11:27.000 to address key issues like systemic racism, ableism, white privilege, and how these institutions
00:11:32.520 continuously without workers, the poor, persons with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ2 plus communities,
00:11:38.920 and people from the BIPOC, black, indigenous, and people of color communities.
00:11:43.080 Let us build strong equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization strategies in the Canadian public
00:11:49.720 service. The people who talk about decolonization have a desire to destroy the country in which they
00:11:56.040 are living in. They believe the people in charge are colonizing them, so they are actively trying to
00:12:00.920 destroy Canada. People who use that language, decolonization. And we've seen it. Again,
00:12:07.800 the signs at the protests which say decolonization is not just a metaphor. It's not just something you
00:12:13.000 read in your DEI workshops. Well, that's true because we've seen what decolonization looks like.
00:12:18.680 It involves burning down churches across the country. It involves vandalizing and toppling
00:12:25.160 hundred-year-old statues of the people that have helped Indigenous lives in this country, namely
00:12:30.440 that of Egerton Ryerson. A man whose true legacy is unimpeachable, even by today's standards. An honest
00:12:37.240 person could never accuse someone like Egerton Ryerson of being some sort of colonizer to the
00:12:42.280 Indigenous people, but that didn't matter because it's not about that. It's about destruction of
00:12:47.240 the country in which they live in. Want another example of what decolonization in Canada looks like?
00:12:52.280 What about the axe attack on the coastal gas link pipeline project, which because it happened during
00:12:57.720 the Freedom Convoy received basically no news at all? As many have said, I think it's time that we
00:13:02.200 start to take it seriously when people in positions of authority start using the word decolonization
00:13:08.120 in this country. Alright everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you so
00:13:11.880 much for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner and this is Ratio.