Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi takes on Tory agenda of fear: Steward

No one on the campaign trail has so far challenged Harper on his scapegoating of Muslims in order to garner votes as passionately and eloquently as Nenshi, the first Muslim mayor of a large Canadian city.

Where others repeatedly talk about the “politics of division” Nenshi calls out Harper for deliberately creating fear of Muslims and then positioning the Conservatives as the only party capable of taking on the threat.

“I am deeply troubled by the language of divisiveness we hear in Ottawa these days. That label of terrorist is thrown around with disturbing regularity. It’s not done carelessly or haphazardly. It’s targeted. It’s targeted language that nearly always describes an act of violence by someone who shares my faith,” Nenshi said during a speech at a symposium led by former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and author John Ralston Saul in Stratford recently.

But Nenshi didn’t stop there. He went on to specifically blame Harper for stirring up resentment and fear.

“According to the prime minister, in every speech he makes, one of the greatest threats is jihadi terrorism. This is very specific, very deliberate language. It ties violent action to a religious group. Most of them are Canadian citizens,” he said.

Later that week Nenshi described the Conservative government’s push to bar Muslim women wearing the face-covering niqab from citizenship ceremonies as “unbelievably dangerous stuff,” and praised NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau for opposing the move.

It was not the first time during this election campaign that Nenshi has lambasted the Conservatives.

He called it a “disgrace” that the federal government was not responding to the refugee crisis by admitting more Syrians. He then openly encouraged municipal officials, social agencies and individuals to do what they can to welcome as many people as possible.

He has pointed out that the Conservative legislation that creates two classes of Canadian citizens means that he could be stripped of his citizenship even though he was born in downtown Toronto because his parents immigrated here from Tanzania.

“Either you believe in the rule of law or you don’t,” he said.

Harper has never personally responded to any of Nenshi’s criticisms. Instead he has sent his main attack dog, defence minister Jason Kenney into the fray.

Kenney is mostly dismissive of Nenshi, treating him like some minor satrap rather than a popular second-term mayor in the city which is home base for both Harper and Kenney.

When Nenshi called out the Conservatives for their relentless hounding of the few women who wear the niqab, Kenney dismissed the remarks by saying that Nenshi “and people like him” are guilty of politicizing an issue that is beyond “contention.”

“If anything is dangerous it would be legitimizing a medieval tribal custom that treats women as property rather than people,” retorted Kenney who introduced the niqab ban when he was citizenship and immigration minister.

I don’t know about Nenshi, but I never thought of the Harper Conservatives as staunch defenders of women’s rights. This is the same government after all that has turned a cold shoulder to the idea of a national inquiry into the hundreds of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

Rather, it is the mayor who seems to grasp what is really at issue here.

“I don’t much like the niqab and I wish people wouldn’t wear it,” he told The Calgary Herald. “But what I like even less is telling people what to do. If we are hearing that it is a symbol of oppression and we shouldn’t let their husbands or their brothers tell them what to wear, how is that any different from Jason Kenney telling them what to wear?”

Nenshi’s challenge to Harper’s anti-Muslim agenda deserves a national platform. He seems to understand what it means to be Canadian, to do what you can to create an inclusive and diverse community rather than a community huddled in fear and loathing.

No question, it would be a riveting debate.