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Were Raids About Race?

Are Indo-Canadians unfairly targeted by the 'Legi-Gate' investigation? A Sikh temple president says yes - but race and politics can be a complex mix in B.C.

By Barbara McLintock, 20 Jan 2004, TheTyee.ca

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The president of Victoria's Sikh Temple let the elephant out of the basement yesterday.

Just about everyone who's had any involvement in the story of  "Legi-gate," or whatever it's eventually it's going to get dubbed, has known about the elephant in the basement. They've known about it from the first day it was made known that the offices which were targetted by the RCMP search warrants were those of David Basi and Bobby Virk.

But like well brought up Canadians, we have all let the elephant stomp around in the basement while we strolled around upstairs, pretending no elephant was hiding there.

Until Temple president Sam Nagra unbolted the door and let the elephant upstairs.

The elephant, of course, is the whole question of how race interacts with politics in British Columbia.

It became an issue in "Legi-gate" because Basi and Virk are both Indo-Canadians, well-known in Victoria's relatively small Sikh community.  Basi, in particular, has been well-known also as a political activist in the Liberal party both provincially and federally, and an organizer for the Paul Martin campaign.

But it has been an "elephant in the basement" issue for years now in B.C. politics. Whispering campaigns have suggested that such-and-such a candidate received a nomination because of block voting and/or block membership sign-ups by groups from visible minority cultures.

And let's be clear: the whispering isn't confined to the Liberal party. When Ujjal Dosanjh won the leadership of the New Democratic Party in 2001, similar rumours abounded. They are unpleasant, such whispering campaigns, and most right-thinking observers of the political scene brushed them off.

There is, however, no question that the elephant has been rumbling more loudly in the basement ever since the raid on the legislature on Dec. 28 and subsequent disclosures that other places searched by the police were the offices of others closely involved with the Martin campaign in B.C. Thus it was that when Nagra and Jag Dhanowa, the multi-cultural chair for the federal Liberal party in B.C., decided they wanted to talk to the media, there was much hope that issues would be clarified.

Unfortunately it wasn't to happen.

Martin Luther King invoked

Nagra and Dhanowa have, in their own minds, a very clear picture of what they see happening. They see it as a blatant case of racism, with the media and other disgruntled Liberal party members using Basi's and Virk's involvement (whatever it may in the end turn out to be) to cast aspersions on the whole Indo-Canadian community and in particular on Indo-Canadians' involvement in the political processes of their new country.

"I think you guys (the media) are doing it because he (Basi) is Indo-Canadian," Nagra said quite openly. He complained of media reports that had looked into the family ties of Basi, Virk, and suspended Victoria Police Const. Rob Dosanjh, and into their land holdings. He was quite convinced it wouldn't be happening if the three were Caucasian.

Dhanowa complained that other Liberal nomination-seekers who have sought to distance themselves from the entire scandal are motivated deep down by the fact that their "definition of a decent Liberal doesn't include anyone with a brown face."

Nagra linked their news conference with the fact it was Martin Luther King Day, inquiring rhetorically: "Do you think for one minute the black community in the United States would tolerate the kind of crap that has been going on here?" The dubious link angered the only black reporter in the room who later pointed out that the circumstances couldn't be more different.

Quite aside from the political wisdom of branding an entire group of 25 or more reporters as racists, it was clear that Nagra and Dhanowa were speaking from their hearts and were totally sincere in their beliefs. Those beliefs are understandable, given the history of prejudice against Sikhs, not only in Canada but also from the Hindu majority in India.

Perhaps some of the comments made in recent weeks have fueled the fire of those beliefs. Both men spoke of hearing people say that sign-ups of Indo-Canadian members had "ghettoized" the federal Liberal party - a remark which should be considered unconscionable in today's society and the speakers should be held accountable.

But the belief that everything is a result of racism is also regrettable because it closes the door on the opportunity for real and meaningful dialogue in which bridges could be built between the political communities involved.

'Basi's boys' said to be a fiction

Nagra made great efforts to distance the Sikh community from the allegations of phony memberships and meeting stacking that have arisen in the past two weeks. He said that Basi had no particular power in the Indo-Canadian community, that he could not "deliver" large blocks of votes to any particular candidate, and that he had not been involved in mass membership sign-ups in the Victoria-area ridings of Saanich and the Islands, and Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. He insisted that there was no group of "Basi's Boys" who worked under Basi's leadership on such nomination, membership and party leadership campaign.

All this goes against many of the statements and interviews that have been emerging in the past two weeks from those involved in Liberal politics, both Indo-Canadian and Caucasian. When one reporter pointed out that several members of a party executive had themselves said they had run as a slate under Basi's direction and leadership, Nagra said they were all lying.

It is worth noting, perhaps, that both Nagra and Dhanowa pointed out that the candidates who are now distancing themselves from the scandal had previously met with Basi and asked for his support of their nomination campaign. It does make you wonder why they'd bother, if Basi had no influence within the party.

'Might run someone in every riding'

More troubling, however, were Nagra's clear implications that if Basi couldn't deliver blocks of votes, somebody in the Indo-Canadian community most certainly could. When a reporter asked him about the history of discrimination against Sikhs in B.C., Nagra replied "that was why we took over the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding." He explained that one Indo-Canadian member had originally been elected to the riding's executive, but had found himself faced with subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle racism when he attempted to put his point across. That, said Nagra, was when "it was directed that we were going to sign up members … that's the reason why we took over the riding." He never did explain just whom that "direction" might have come from.

Later Nagra also mused aloud that if the "smear campaign" against Indo-Canadians continued, "we might just have to run somebody in every riding" (on Southern Vancouver Island). Dhanowa himself is considering seeking the nomination in Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Nagra makes the very valid point that Indo-Canadians were originally attracted to the federal Liberal party because of the inclusive policies of Pierre Eliott Trudeau which appealed to many new immigrants. Politics is a way for immigrants to become involved in their new home country - and indeed surely that is what Canada has always said it wanted, for new immigrants to become an integral part of the country, not just people who remain on the outside looking in. For the same reason, Nagra said, the community encourages its young people to get involved in politics and perhaps obtain political staff jobs at either the provincial or federal level.

All of those are good things, and most Canadians would support them. What Nagra and Dhanowa need to realize, however, is that in most cases, it is not racism that motivates questions about the methods used to achieve those goals. And they need to realize that the media would indeed be following the same sort of trails, had the aides whose offices were searched been Caucasian.

It is the hunt for information about how our democratic process is working that motivates those question, not the hunt about what racial groups are involved in that process. Similar questions would also be asked if any one-issue group appeared to be trying to take over a riding association, whether it be advocates for abolishing the gun registry or changing the country's abortion laws. Politics is played on a wide spectrum in Canada, and the public is suspicious of any group that is apparently seeking to narrow that spectrum.

But meanwhile, the elephant is out of the basement, and it seems doubtful it will willingly return there, not at least until the whole "legi-gate" mess is sorted out.

Barbara McLintock is a contributing editor to The Tyee. [Tyee]

Barbara McLintock, a regular contributor to The Tyee, is a freelance writer and consultant based in Victoria and author of Anorexia’s Fallen Angel.

10 Comments:

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  • Jerry (not verified)

    8 years ago

    Beware the charge of racism. It can reveal, but it can also seek to hide a lot. Racism is everywhere, in a variety of forms and degrees of subtlety, and racial-ethnic groups. Though to be clear, Sikhs are not a "racial" but a "religious" group, that is part of a larger "East Indian" ethnicity. Which is, of course,in turn, a "variant element" of the greater "Caucasian Race", which includes us "white folks" as another "variant element". There is much confusion around these issues of "race" and "ethnicity", and it needs to be clarified, if they are to be correctly understood and dealt with. There are but three races in fact, into which the various ethnicities fall, which, at this point in history, there is very much genetic line crossing and almost zero purity; the Negroid Race, the Mongoloid Race, and the Caucasian Race. By and large, East Indians and Euro-North Americans both fall into the Caucasia Race-, with much "inter-mixing" with the other Negroid and Mongoloid Races. Race and national-cultural ethnicities are quite separate and distinct elements in the greater Human Family, wherein there has been much "doing what comes naturally."

  • Earnest Canuck (not verified)

    8 years ago

    Liberal membership race-mongering among new Canadians has been an open secret for years; the only surprise is that it took so long for this corrupt practice to boil over (as it were). Let's be honest here, 'cos we all know how this works. The Liberals maintain the Western world's most wide-open immigration policy at least in part because it helps keep them in power. Whatever the merits of the policy, it's going to continue, because when you step off a plane from the subcontinent you are essentially handed a Liberal membership along with your citizenship papers. Now, I highly doubt such a large and diverse community as BC Subcontinental-Canucks are really *all* politically-passionate, ideologically-driven federal Liberals in their thinking (as you would expect from genuine members of a genuine political party). Obviously there is something else going on here, especially when you consider that *tens of thousands* of Indo-Canadians signed up for the Paul Martin membership drives. That just ain't a coincidence, friends, especially when the press has shown that many of these new members don't seem to speak much English; that many are clearly politically indifferent; and that not a few don't seem to actually exist at all. I don't know specifically what kinds of inducements and pressures Liberal organizers (of every hue)use when staging membership drives among the Indo-Canadian community. I would suspect there's at least a strong undercurrent along the lines of "you should be *very, very* grateful to the party whose policies not only allowed you to settle here, but to bring in granny from New Delhi, etc..." There's a whiff of strong-arming about this, if not also a scent of exploitation of people who likely aren't too familiar with how politics is done here. (Or how it's *supposed* to be done, I guess I should say.) There's real corruption in the process, and one good thing about the brewing scandal here is that it bids fair to blow it all wide open. Then maybe some serious reforms can be made to the laws governing party politics in this country, to the eventual benefit of us all, old-stock Canadians and new immigrants alike. What a revolting picture it must present for someone who's just settling here, though, eh? As though modest, sober Canada's underlying politics are really about as stable and transparent as a bought-and-paid-for Congress (I) vote in Uttar Pradesh... Incidentally, Ms McLintock, you seem very tip-toey in dealing with Messrs. Nagra and and Dhanowa's comical accusations. Don't be. I mean, those guys are racemongers *par excellence;* to accuse you (and probably me, and lots of others)of racism is their job. I wouldn't take it too seriously. --30--

  • Jay Currie (not verified)

    8 years ago

    Back in the day, a chap arrived in the august headquarters of Vancouver Quadra and pretty much guaranteed to deliver 3000 Greeks to a particular candidate. Yeah, so? At some point ethnicity becomes less of an issue. I would be amazed, twenty years on, if someone could deliver 200 Greek votes in Quadra. The criminal investigation is not, directly, about Liberal memberships. What it is about will have to await charges being brought. For the moment it is largely idel speculation.

  • Burgess (not verified)

    8 years ago

    The self-serving rant of the two Island politcos is just that self-serving. The use of the race card by these two men is the worst kind of political mischief. It does nothing to help except bring discredit to their party, themselves and their 'community.' It seems that some of our politicians and 'wannabees' that can't get a nomination with hard work and merit the use of 'gutter politics' is the answer. Shame on them.

  • William (not verified)

    8 years ago

    I am old enough to remember a Indo-Canadian years ago give a tv commentary on racism, with a twist. He was insenced, and rightly so, with his fellow Indo-Canadians, stating they were the most pedjustice race on the face of the Earth. He pointed out it is his race who opererates under a caste system. I thought this man brave as well as honest. This race card is more a two-edged sword, it cuts both ways. Ethnic slurrs are not the sole province of the Occidental community. I agree with Burgess on thepoints he presented

  • Len (not verified)

    8 years ago

    Come on! There's a lot of sleeze and attempted cover-up here. I suspect a deflection attempt is being made by bringing up this race issue. Unfortunatly, this is often trumpted up by certain people to stop a drive for equality.

  • Fritzraven Sky (not verified)

    8 years ago

    There is one Race - it's called HUMAN, or genetically speaking HUMANOID, or molecular-genetically-anthropologically speaking, according to the latest molecular research into the origins of the HUMANOIDS, actually it's called: WOMAN. How's that for hard to swallow? Is there some question that the country called CANADA was built on the GENOCIDE - that is its true and only name - the GENOCIDE of its NATIVES, the INDIGENOUS AMERINDIAN ORIGINAL INHABITANTS, ECOLOGISTS AND FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THIS CONTINENT? Or, to flaunt my political incorrectness, Indian People... Indian Nations... and even, yes, Indians...(not 'our native people' -who's WE, anyway?) When Indian People decide it's not a good name, that's when I will follow suit. Has anyone noticed that it has not stopped, it continues on a daily basis, just look around you at the Carnage and at the BIG MEDICINE which faces it down every day, every minute of every day. The buffalo soldiers do the same, and it's no one's business to speak for the black experience, but black people. Is it news to anyone that BC is home to the Klan and a variety of other slime suckers; read Warren Kinsella's book: Web of Hate, wherein he calls (and documents) the part of the country from Revelstoke to Salmon Arm (home of the Presslers' hate 'publication' council)a corridor of white supremacy. The question is not, were the raids motivated by racial sickness, they don't need to be. They were undoubtedly motivated by the desire of the Big Pimps who we won't be seeing down at the local cafe, or in any phone book, or job search, to hide their illegal (for starters) activities in order that they may continue to profit from the misery that will continue to grow in the United Snakes of Martinadia until such time as we, Canadians, original and otherwise, make that scam too difficult and TOO EXPENSIVE to continue with impunity. We could start (it would be a modest start) with NATIVE LAND CLAIMS and continue from there to full reparations in the matter of the accomplished and the continuing genocide. We could start by providing food to ANYONE WHO IS HUNGRY. We could start by NOT allowing people to go cold and hungry in the streets, because it is convenient for Gordo and the rest of the thugs. We could start by SAYING NO MORE, NOT HERE IN OUR COUNTRY. WE COULD TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK... or in the words of a great songwriter (no, I will not speak into the microphone, please) : NATION AWAKEN. Perhaps we could call Canadian all those willing to live peaceably, free and equal under the laws of this country as enunciated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. There is no doubt about the sickness called racism... it exists in this province, in this country and in every other country. It is a foil, a means of thought control and pollution, a way to divert attention to a face, a black face, a red face, a brown face, or a polka-dottetd one away from the real CORPORATE CRIMINALS who are actively engaged in biocidal, genocidal campaigns all over this beautiful planet. You know their names, so say them out loud right into the microphone of the Privacy Commissioner: Monsanto, ITT, (Canada Steamship Lines?)... Do they carry on unimpeded because they hate life and a variety of its representatives... no, they hate life alright but are barely conscious enough to dig that; they continue in order TO MAKE A PROFIT, HOWEVER OBSCENE, AT ALL COSTS and will go to any lengths to grow exponentially fatter and greasier. The racism card just creates a busy background which serves to make outsiders (to the club) regardless of 'colour' more insecure (hence more likely to bond with their own 'kind', whatever that is) and to provide an easy out through the fiction called REVERSE DISCRIMINATION. Time to put the real criminals on trial and return to building self-respecting human communities that don't 'need' to hate anyone at all, much less life in general. Do "we all work for ESSO?". Not unless we all say so. So let's say in the words (scripted, but hey greatness comes in all kinds of packages) of a great woman, to those criminals: SUCK MY STICK. Let it be.

  • Dan (not verified)

    8 years ago

    From what I've been reading, this is not about racism and all about corruption and nepotism. IIRC, the investigation was not started because these people were indo-canadian; it just lead there. And there seems to be an awful lot of close relatives loosely associated with this investigation, and go figgure, the cousin of an indo-canadian tends to be indo-canadian. It isn't racism if the police investigate a black/white/indian/latino/whatever gang; so why is this any different? This is called equal treatment under the law.

  • Mary (not verified)

    8 years ago

    First, Barbara, thank you for some wonderful commentaries on this extremely troubling issue of a police raid upon a legislature and the ongoing silence. I don't think people realize how serious Sgt John Ward's warning is. But even with a federal election soon, the public is left to wonder if Organized Crime has "crept like a cancer" right into government. Will British Columbia wake up one morning to discover that -- like post-Gorbachev Russia -- Organized Crime has taken over the province, dismantled the economy, sold off the good bits (very cheaply) to their cronies, and it's game over. I simply cannot see how Premier Campbell and Prime Minister Martin can say "We know nothing!" and think it exonerates them. It's as if they're saying "Don't look at us! We're not in charge!" So ... who is??

  • Sophie (not verified)

    8 years ago

    If it's not about race, then why have we heard so much less about Eric Bornman (whose offices were also raided) than we have about Basi and Virk? Could it be because he is white? Just asking.

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