本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Via email:dcousens@markham.ca
Dear Mr Cousens,
We are Chinese families living in the Greater Toronto Area. We are writing to express our deep concern about the words of hatred appearing on some private properties on Bullock Drive, Madsen Court, Karma Road and Raleigh Court of Markham this past Tuesday July 5, 2005. We learned about this on Fairchild Television’s July 8 program, on Zaobao newspaper (at: http://www.zaobao.com/special/realtime/2005/07/050710_12.html), and the website of 51 (at: http://www.51.ca/news/s/2005-07-09/019404.shtml).
Markham is a community where people from divers ethnic and racial backgrounds have been living in harmony and making meaningful contributions to the society in their own ways for many years. Some of us have been considering to move to Markham and settle down there on a long-term basis.
We are shocked by the incidents on July 5. The unsettling news made us worry about whether this community will continue to provide us a safe environment to live and work, and in particular, for our children to grow up without being subject to racial discrimination and harassment.
Racial discriminatory behaviours are fundamentally wrong. This has been made clear by the Parliament through the entrenchment of the equality rights in the Charter. The anti-Chinese incidents on July 5 in Markham should be condemned and rejected by the whole community explicitly and openly. We think that if we remain silent in the face of this kind of hatred-motivated behaviors, our community will lose its peacefulness quickly. In March 2003, there were anti-Jewish graffiti on some properties in Vaughan. The offenders are still at large. Now Chinese community has become the target. Should we continue to remain silent, not only will Chinese community suffer, but other minority groups will likely soon become the next target.
Without denying the merit of the criminal law system, we think that hatred motivated behaviors can be very difficult to correct through punishment alone, because those behaviors are rooted in an individual’s misconception or biased perception about others. Therefore, we suggest that maybe the city of Markham could take some initiatives to promote the mutual understanding and respect among its members, and to prevent incidents like those of July 5 from happening again. This can take the forms of community education and cross-cultural events etc. We will be glad to provide more input in this regard if required.
Thank you for your attention in this matter. We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Dear Mr Cousens,
We are Chinese families living in the Greater Toronto Area. We are writing to express our deep concern about the words of hatred appearing on some private properties on Bullock Drive, Madsen Court, Karma Road and Raleigh Court of Markham this past Tuesday July 5, 2005. We learned about this on Fairchild Television’s July 8 program, on Zaobao newspaper (at: http://www.zaobao.com/special/realtime/2005/07/050710_12.html), and the website of 51 (at: http://www.51.ca/news/s/2005-07-09/019404.shtml).
Markham is a community where people from divers ethnic and racial backgrounds have been living in harmony and making meaningful contributions to the society in their own ways for many years. Some of us have been considering to move to Markham and settle down there on a long-term basis.
We are shocked by the incidents on July 5. The unsettling news made us worry about whether this community will continue to provide us a safe environment to live and work, and in particular, for our children to grow up without being subject to racial discrimination and harassment.
Racial discriminatory behaviours are fundamentally wrong. This has been made clear by the Parliament through the entrenchment of the equality rights in the Charter. The anti-Chinese incidents on July 5 in Markham should be condemned and rejected by the whole community explicitly and openly. We think that if we remain silent in the face of this kind of hatred-motivated behaviors, our community will lose its peacefulness quickly. In March 2003, there were anti-Jewish graffiti on some properties in Vaughan. The offenders are still at large. Now Chinese community has become the target. Should we continue to remain silent, not only will Chinese community suffer, but other minority groups will likely soon become the next target.
Without denying the merit of the criminal law system, we think that hatred motivated behaviors can be very difficult to correct through punishment alone, because those behaviors are rooted in an individual’s misconception or biased perception about others. Therefore, we suggest that maybe the city of Markham could take some initiatives to promote the mutual understanding and respect among its members, and to prevent incidents like those of July 5 from happening again. This can take the forms of community education and cross-cultural events etc. We will be glad to provide more input in this regard if required.
Thank you for your attention in this matter. We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net