The Critical Compass Podcast - April 05, 2025


Will Canada's Refusal to Integrate Immigrants Be Our Downfall？

Mark Carney Liberals, Unhinged Tax & Spend Geopolitics, & the Canadian Immigration Debate 7_11 Daily Summary w⧸Bruce Scholl April 10 25 EP #74

Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

158.13

Word count

3,446

Sentence count

4

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk about assimilation in Canada and the challenges faced by immigrants and their assimilation into Canadian culture. We talk about the history of assimilation and how assimilation has impacted the culture of the past, present, and future.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 it's the amount but it's also the the extent which assimilation happens because we talk about
00:00:10.960 like well melting is like is canada really a melting pot and we look at the history of like
00:00:16.040 well um even in i don't have maybe i won't get the number right in the u.s it's slightly different
00:00:25.840 than canada but canada was even like 85 to 90 percent white even into like the 80s and 90s
00:00:33.340 yeah yeah it was still predominantly like the percentage and it's funny with given that
00:00:41.260 as a starting point and then listening to all these conversations about like white supremacy
00:00:48.060 of like well white people doing better than other minorities in canada like well
00:00:52.900 of course there's going to be a majority representation in a majority country if it
00:01:00.780 if it started with a certain demographic yeah if you have an established you know family that's
00:01:06.760 been here for you know 100 years or whatever of course that's going to be well and so and that's
00:01:12.280 part of it but i guess within that that was european and that was christian but you also had
00:01:19.000 like well you had the catholics and you know the protestants and you didn't always get along
00:01:23.320 you also didn't always get along between depending on what european country this was immigrating like
00:01:30.320 well um the irish had a really rough time in north america and some were indentured servants and
00:01:39.040 like even just because they were just from europe didn't mean there wasn't conflict that's exactly right
00:01:47.700 well and and to that point i'll make two points uh i just recently read a book called the weirdest
00:01:54.680 people in the world and and weird was all capital it was a an acronym for here it is western educated
00:02:00.760 industrialized rich democratic that's what weird stands for western educated industrialized rich
00:02:08.220 democratic uh and he talks about how specifically with the irish immigration into the u.s in the in the
00:02:14.120 early 1900s late 1800s early 1900s
00:02:17.700 um they initially were like very poorly treated they were not well integrated and they were not
00:02:23.700 they didn't have a good time they were they were considered in some areas like they were classified
00:02:28.440 under the same um classification that um they classified black people as like as separate from
00:02:35.020 from from whites like they were they were classified away from whites and it took like significant
00:02:40.920 uh outreach programs by the catholic church in in the eastern united states to like
00:02:46.940 in as many words like civilize the the irish immigrants into the u.s into like a higher
00:02:52.520 standard of living way of life because you know not this isn't a justification of any you know poor
00:02:59.320 treatment of people but like they were it was just objective that the irish immigrants at that time
00:03:04.200 were living a much more like kind of you know culturally uh primitive you know comparatively way of life to the to the naturalized americans at that time and so you know it wasn't considered racist to you know uh integrate these people into a into a different way of living it was necessary to avoid the the type of blowback that they were receiving as a group of people you know sometimes very unjustifiably so
00:03:34.200 uh you look at the difference between like if you maybe wanted to say the the next most um represented group of immigrants in canada i think most people would agree at least in this part of the country where we are in alberta is filipinos
00:03:48.740 lots of filipinos have emigrated to canada in the last 20 30 years but we don't hear the same discourse surrounding filipino canadians as we do with indian canadians because in my opinion and probably the opinion of others the filipinos are a catholic country so they're much they're they're instantly more in line with the traditional western values that have built this part of the world and they integrate a little bit easier they they they are more apt to
00:04:18.720 just kind of be natural into living this this lifestyle that we do in the west than indians are indians are very proud people they have a very distinct culture that grew completely independently from the west for thousands of years so of course there's going to be a difference in how they know how to live their lives in their everyday lives versus the the average canadians and of course because of that there's going to be conflict for better or worse it's not saying like no one is saying that you know you can't maintain
00:04:47.540 your certain you're certain you know the the cultural features of your homeland that make you feel comfortable and and you know loved in your communities but in the by the same token no what no canadian that i know anyway would dream of moving to india and forcing indians to live in a in a western canadian way of life like it just it never seems to work the other way you know yeah it's it's assuming a lot that like well this place that is
00:05:16.540 is not my home has to conform to me as an outsider you wouldn't see it in japan like you wouldn't go to japan and like you wouldn't claim discrimination if like well they didn't hire me like well how's your japanese like well i know like 40 phrases and my japanese is kind of broken like well you would obviously yeah you'd see some advantages to
00:05:44.540 well better better like better resonating with either the culture of where you're moving to the language or some of these other values so yeah the filipino with them being catholic that is obviously
00:05:59.020 a it makes that so much easier and i feel like such a smoother transition when people adopt
00:06:06.820 the values of the values of a place and that is has established values i feel like people are a lot more
00:06:15.820 welcoming and you can see this japan's a perfect example of the people who live there and they learn
00:06:23.340 the language and the customs and they resonate with culture like people are quite friendly to them like they love
00:06:31.280 that they're yeah they're they're happy that like go ahead yeah they're they're happy that you put in the
00:06:37.860 effort to adopt these cultures and their principles yes yeah well i was gonna say they like it's only like
00:06:46.660 you know north americans that say it's like cultural appropriation to wear a kimono or whatever if you're 0.96
00:06:52.280 like into japanese culture they love that shit they like they love the you know oh you want to partake in 0.97
00:06:57.840 our culture like that's like what an honor to you know they they feel um a scent because they have 0.99
00:07:03.800 such a a a firm cultural identity that they're proud of that they feel honored when other people
00:07:11.260 take the time to to learn about it and partake in it which is i feel like how it should be you know
00:07:15.740 like daryl cooper who we're both fans of um martyr made podcast was recently on joe rogan and he was
00:07:22.740 saying he was talking about actually ireland as well i think you probably watched it where he said you know
00:07:26.460 ireland's on track to be like like white people are are like irish people are expected to be a 0.96
00:07:33.380 minority by 2070 yeah in ireland and the funny thing is these those kind of statements they're
00:07:40.000 celebrated yeah yeah and but apply that to any other country um if you said in japan like they are
00:07:49.620 destined to be a minority in their own country they'd be like well well that's not good like what's 0.93
00:07:54.440 going to happen they would never allow it what's going to happen to the japanese culture in that
00:07:59.140 case yeah yeah um and that well and that's and that's what he said he's like you know he he's like
00:08:04.000 i i believe that true diversity would would mean you know china is for chinese people and india is for
00:08:11.700 indian people and ireland is for irish people like that like when you're traveling the world you don't 1.00
00:08:17.620 want to have it be that anywhere you go is just this like identical cultural mishmash of like 0.99
00:08:24.020 like nondescript you know global citizenry like no you want you want to go to ireland because
00:08:30.860 you you want to go to an irish pub and interact with irish people like you you want that to be the
00:08:35.700 case you want to go to if you if you want to visit india or you want to visit tanzania or you want
00:08:41.660 to visit you know japan like you want those cultures to be like true diversity is when you
00:08:47.940 can experience all those cultures in their true forms and not have them be a melting pot quote
00:08:53.500 unquote of no of some post-national identity like that's it's such that isn't what i what diversity is
00:08:59.880 and further why is it that only the traditionally the very small part of the globe that is traditionally
00:09:08.440 known as white nations white western nations why are they the only ones that need to become
00:09:14.360 multicultural who's fighting to make saudi arabia multicultural or to make bangalore multicultural
00:09:22.100 bangladesh multicultural you know what i mean it's because if a predominantly white country doesn't say
00:09:28.420 predominantly white they're going to turn into a a nazi state that's the fear it's it comes down to
00:09:36.200 national the post-war consensus right the yeah like you you got to have diversity because
00:09:40.880 unified strong unified national identities are ultimately dangerous um under that under that idea
00:09:50.440 so and then and there's more examples of you know general general ignorance by the average you know
00:09:56.280 canadian or american or westerner in general because the west does not have a monopoly on fascist or
00:10:03.640 uh communist government for certainly yeah the well and then you run into cases of like you apply any of
00:10:13.300 these principles to somewhere else and it suddenly it becomes hateful um there's a certain court on the
00:10:22.120 internet that is jokingly like they have these like fake advertising complaints of like well we need more
00:10:30.760 immigration and more diversity in israel and they are not happy about it like well and they treat that
00:10:37.380 as well no that's that's genocidal because that's yeah you're trying to erase you're trying to erase
00:10:44.200 our people by doing that yeah and you're like well if that's the admission why isn't that true for ireland
00:10:52.500 well isn't that true for the scots not deserve a country did the angles not deserve a country 1.00
00:10:56.880 did the poles not deserve a country yeah and and even in canada i guess you can we're trying to like 0.99
00:11:05.860 define what a canadian is and we look at you you can look at a first generation um you look at somebody
00:11:16.100 who's born in canada it doesn't matter their skin color you can tell the canadianness through just
00:11:22.420 their vibes instantly instantly and and the even that difference between somebody who's born in
00:11:31.220 canada went through the canadian school system and then grew up with all the cultural aspects
00:11:36.380 versus somebody who speaks english really well and adopts it later on we can tell the difference
00:11:43.740 totally totally can it's and not to say that the latter is is bad like if that's somebody who's
00:11:50.620 adopted are like canadian values great but it is funny you can tell you can tell the difference
00:11:57.720 and or people are warmer to somebody who grew up from birth just because these things resonate a little
00:12:05.880 bit more yeah well and there's there's a certain like um i i can see a certain you know evolutionary
00:12:13.520 utility behind that because it you know it makes sense like it you know you're the we in the west
00:12:19.920 we we have the i think unique advantage of living in a high trust society because that's just sort of
00:12:25.480 that's just sort of a um a side effect of of western cultures that find their roots in christianity like
00:12:33.720 that that's just that's just something sort of unique to the to the christian world the the christian
00:12:39.900 western world that the rest of the world didn't get because that's you know whatever your opinion
00:12:46.000 on christianity is that's just sort of an effect of it you it leads you have open arms in a way they're
00:12:52.900 like well christ loves everybody like well yeah so yeah there is a baked in anti-racist component
00:13:01.920 to christianity that not all other religions have that in them well that's exactly right and and also
00:13:09.080 in that book i just mentioned that the weirdest people in the world they he talks to about how
00:13:13.020 excuse me in the um i believe in it was in the like late thousands or 1100s something around there
00:13:22.440 you know to the to the 1200s um are you familiar have you heard of the mfp like the catholic church's
00:13:28.660 mfp have you heard that acronym before i'm not sure it stands for the the marriage and family
00:13:33.940 program that's what the so the the catholic church in the in the you know early 11th 12th century
00:13:40.440 they restricted essentially what they did was they restricted cousin marriage it was very con it was
00:13:48.380 very common in most i mean it is still very common today in a lot of uh middle eastern and and uh you
00:13:53.560 know the subcontinent uh cousin marriage is very common uh you know societies are very low trust
00:14:00.040 societies have high rates of cousin marriage because they're naturally just distrustful of
00:14:07.380 people outside of their their community clan and so for various reasons you know it's there's a whole
00:14:12.980 book about it but for various reasons the the catholic church instituted the marriage and family
00:14:17.000 program which restricted cousin marriage to i believe it was the sixth sixth uh uh
00:14:23.560 step you know like you couldn't marry your you had to go six uh steps away from your family
00:14:29.880 and what that had the effect of doing was you know if you were in a if you lived in a small town in
00:14:34.760 like the roman empire like there's a very high chance that like no one in your community was
00:14:40.960 further away from you than two or three steps so if you couldn't legally get married to any of those
00:14:45.800 people you had to expand your circle you had to move about the country you had to go to go to
00:14:50.940 different lands and meet new people like that is a direct we can see how that would create a much
00:14:56.620 more open society because people were forced to to meld and integrate and become more worldly people
00:15:02.700 and expand their circles and so you know there's obviously you know more knock-on effects from that
00:15:06.940 but in creating an open society like that and and having those values come you know passed down to us
00:15:13.520 here you know a thousand years later you know we have a very unique we're in a very unique spot now
00:15:18.900 compared to the rest of the world that i think people both take for granted and opens them up to
00:15:25.460 being taken advantage of because because of the natural inclination that we have here to be welcoming
00:15:31.800 perhaps at our own detriment of various other cultures that don't share those values yeah i think that's a
00:15:38.960 feature of christianity as well as liberalism that it it can be there can be too much of a good thing in
00:15:49.940 those kind of cases and it's also you get into cases where like even the idea of diversity gets like
00:15:58.240 well what does that actually mean you go to europe and they're like well that european is not just
00:16:05.820 like you you go to england and like genetically there is a lot of variety between the nordic and
00:16:15.420 slavic and you go to turkey and you have a whole other mix of people there and you go back to spain and
00:16:23.180 it is not a ethnically homogenized place but in our in how we view the west and how we view
00:16:33.500 our dei framework white is an ever expanding category and it it's actually reducing diversity
00:16:45.420 like white white's just not brown but even like i guess then you're like well what happens when you're
00:16:57.520 a quarter black and what happens when you're like you run into these logical questions where
00:17:02.620 it's useful like if you can claim it then it's useful then you can just play the game and so
00:17:11.340 i i i'm glad we circled back and like talked about kind of the like foundations of canada because
00:17:19.560 that gets woven into well what's our national identity and i am aware that there are some more
00:17:30.700 nationalistic types that are now saying like well my is like i'm seventh generation canadians and i i
00:17:41.420 have a like my great great great grandfather was sailed down the saint lawrence and did this and that
00:17:49.180 and for them they they feel like that gives them more of a claim to what canada like the canadian
00:17:55.820 identity is because of that yeah and i feel like we're into a losing battle at that point because
00:18:03.580 um these then it's a no true scotsman situation literally like at that point and some of them are
00:18:11.580 scottish and some of them are not true scottish so um those are the new fees right but uh what i wanted to
00:18:21.420 touch on is that the rise in kind of anger orientated unity it's the lowest resolution
00:18:35.260 way to unify people and that exists when people are marginalized and i don't i don't like i don't
00:18:42.460 love using that word but i mean like when people are gaslit into not being allowed an identity
00:18:48.700 yeah or not being allowed to be either like if you're not pro if you can't be proud to be european
00:18:56.940 or you can't be proud to be um like if there's a certain range of origins that people can't be proud
00:19:06.220 of then that's going to push people into like well they feel that hate and then that pushes them into a
00:19:13.820 corner and then that's the unifying principle around them and i feel like all of this anti-european
00:19:22.860 sentiment anti-christian that's going to create the enemy that they're so that they're so fearful
00:19:30.860 in the first place and it doesn't exist when these rules are applied equally to everybody
00:19:36.940 yes yes that's for sure and it's um yeah maybe that's a good place to to kind of wrap her up for
00:19:46.460 for right now because this could be a whole nother hour but you could yeah you could dive into that
00:19:51.100 for a whole whole hour to unpack that yeah but but yeah you know to to kind of wrap her up i think that 1.00
00:19:57.200 that's it's it's it's sort of a uh it's sort of a maybe part of the human condition to like
00:20:06.720 the thing that you fear the most maybe you you just end up behaving in a way that brings that into your
00:20:16.600 life you know what i mean like if you're if you're so fearful of of you know an ideology coming for you
00:20:24.520 and that's all you can can think about and that's all you can see it soon consumes your life to the point
00:20:30.500 where it's it may as well be true to you even if it isn't objectively true you know what i mean so
00:20:36.920 there's um yeah this is getting very esoteric and maybe maybe very very high level right now but uh yeah
00:20:44.860 i i guess you know at the end of the day we have to i think we have to not be afraid
00:20:50.160 like the the canadian way is to be very you know we're very meek we're very we like to think we're
00:20:58.840 very kind and we're very welcoming and we're very accepting but you can't i think gad sad would call
00:21:06.860 that suicidal empathy and you can't be so in the same way that you know this the saying goes like
00:21:14.400 you can't be so open-minded that your brains fall out the same way you can't you can't be so welcoming
00:21:19.780 and and and accepting of uh diversity that you allow that diversity to to kill the spirit that
00:21:26.120 allowed it to be accepted in the first place
00:21:27.940 and and and and and and and and and and and and so and and and and and and Hike said
00:21:46.460 you