BFC defends Chinese community from ‘soft racism’ as a result of News Leader story
Burnaby, B.C. – November 3, 2014
Due to irresponsible reporting, which they must know to be untrue, the Internet is once again fanning the flames of racism in the comments section of every website which has carried this story. The BFC, which is proud of its diversity and believes in the equality of all people, strongly condemns these drive-by smear tactics because they don’t advance dialogue on important municipal issues; they discourage public participation in the democratic process by reinforcing the negative stereotype of false equivalence (all politicians are slimy/evil/lying); and they’re hurting Burnaby in general by fomenting racism against a visible minority group.
The facts about this issue are as follows:
· Wanda is misrepresenting a genuine publication put out by the Vancouver School Board called “The Gender Spectrum: What Educators Need to Know.” We’re not investigative reporters, but we discovered that relatively easily.
· She raised the spectre of someone associated with the BFC of being involved. This conveniently skirts the twin issues of burden of proof and fear of libel, by not having to produce a source (name).
· She came up with a sensational headline which heretofore only a National Enquirer or The Onion-type tabloid would print, in order to generate interest.
· She/they obviously have no source and therefore resort to yellow journalistic questions such as “any truth to the rumour that...” Essentially the political hack-job equivalent of “have you stopped beating your wife yet?”
· This has resulted in the worst kind of soft racism, with online comments left such as “Chinese people, intellectually small, culturally as dumb as a bag of hammers.”
This statement is a measured response to such an outlandish story that it truly shouldn’t be dignified with rebuttal. But it’s not the BFC’s reputation we’re concerned with – we know from knocking on thousands of doors that Burnaby residents are sick of this present government and know what the BFC stands for – it’s the reputation of the Chinese community in Burnaby that we’re concerned about. Using a visible minority group as a pawn in wedge politics is the manifestation of the worst kind of crass political opportunism. It demonstrates a complete disregard for collateral damage to Burnaby following this election campaign by sowing seeds of discord amongst the citizenry.
We, the Burnaby First Coalition, call on the BCA and Burnaby News Leader to condemn this style of reporting and to apologize to the citizens of Burnaby, especially the Chinese community, for fomenting racism by publishing an obviously false story with no actual source.