Most Canadians reckon racial segregation -- at least when it comes to non-aboriginals -- is the stuff of sordid American and South African history, far removed from the relatively enlightened experience of this country. After all, this is the land of the Underground Railway and Alberta's storied black cowboy hero John Ware. In fact, although Canada certainly didn't enforce apartheid or fight a civil war over states' rights and slavery, we too have our skeletons of an institutional nature when it comes to historic racial prejudice. Last week, on the advice of Nova Scotia's NDP government, the province's Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis, who happens to be black, finally officially apologized for the 1946 arrest and conviction of Viola Desmond. Desmond, a Haligonian by birth, had the temerity to sit in a seat in the whites-only main floor of the Roseland Theatre of New Glasgow. That sent the Halifax beauty school owner to jail, exacted a subsequent fine and spawned repeated failures in overturning the decision by higher courts. Eventually, Desmond settled in Montreal and ended her days at 51 in New York City. Sad to say, a contemporary reenactment of unbridled prejudice and harassment seems to be forcing another Nova Scotia family into self-imposed exile. When a Ku Klux Klan-style cross and noose was burned on the lawn of their Poplar Grove, N.S., home in February amid shouted racial epithets, Shayne Howe and Michelle Lyon were touched by a wave of support from neighbours and other well-wishers throughout the province. Two men who have a great-grandparent in common with Lyon, who is white, have been charged. But then last weekend, the bi-racial couple was shocked when a family car was torched, which has left them contemplating a move elsewhere. Not surprisingly, they have expressed anxiety about bringing their five kids up in such an environment. Although Hanks County has been described by some black Nova Scotians as the "Mississippi of the North," it is also the home turf of Liberal MP Scott Brison, proudly gay and the embodiment of social liberalism. It's unreasonable to paint the area as a particular hotbed of hate. On the other hand, surely these crimes against the good name of the province and region must force a degree of community soul-searching, as it would if the incidents happened in rural Alberta, Quebec or Yukon. The hope is that the perpetrators of these offensive acts will be brought to swift justice, and the decent folk of Nova Scotia will convince their wronged neighbours to make a stand in their home place. The agents of intolerance should never be encouraged -- but then, that's easier proclaimed by those of us who have never felt the sting of violent prejudice, so anathema to the Canadian spirit.
Edmonton Journal
