Once again, a woman for president was just too much for Americans to bear. Kamala Harris was soundly beaten by an angry white man. 

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on November 11, 2024.

OTTAWA—After his decisive victory against U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris last week, Donald Trump needs to get some new hats.

The stench of sexism and racism wafted from voting booths as those who wanted to turn back the clock cast their ballots for a convicted sex offender.

Trump’s numbers in most areas exceeded his previous election bids. In his first attempt, Trump made it to the White House with the electoral vote, but not the popular vote. On Nov. 5, he got it all. There is nothing stopping him now.

David Axelrod, a Democratic adviser to multiple presidents, said after the vote that racism and sexism both played a role in Harris’ loss. Given the United States has previously voted for a Black president in Barack Obama, one has to assume that gender was the deciding Harris negative.

An exit poll by Edison Research found that Harris received the majority of her support from women and minorities. As for women, she won 54 per cent of their votes, while Trump secured 44 per cent. However, the white vote generally gave Trump an edge of 12 per cent. As for Latinos, they moved toward Trump in numbers not seen in the 2020 race.

On the race front, post-election numbers show that Harris garnered 80 per cent of the Black vote, but Obama received 93 per cent. Why was there a 13 per cent drop? Was it because some Black men couldn’t vote for a woman?

Women all over the world are mourning the Harris loss because it felt that, once again, a chance to elect a woman president in American was shattered not by a glass ceiling, but a concrete one.

Harris ran a flawless campaign. She was positive, upbeat, and energetic compared to a waddling Trump who bored crowds with his incoherent, droning speeches.

A woman voter dressed as a handmaid at a Pennsylvania voting booth said it all. Without uttering a word, the anonymous woman sent a clear message of what was at stake in the election.

Margaret Atwood, renowned Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale, made her own plea to American voters to support Harris for president.

According to her publisher, Atwood’s novel explores “themes of powerless women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, suppression of women’s reproductive rights, and the various means by which women resist and try to gain individuality and independence.”

That was the narrative for women in this election.

Once again, a woman for president was just too much for Americans to bear. Harris, who took over the Democratic reins from an ailing President Joe Biden 100 days ago, was soundly beaten by an angry white man.

Trump’s multiple character flaws were on painful display in the campaign, including the fact that almost no one who served with him in the White House supported him. His last week of campaigning was a disaster.

The hope that former congresswoman Liz Cheney be put before a firing squad prefaced by a self-inflicted wound at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York. Multiple participants levelled insults at women, Blacks, and Jews.

Harris herself was alleged to be a sex worker working with her pimps. Then came the now infamous insult to Puerto Ricans when a comedian called their home a floating island of garbage.

Harris faced a double whammy. As a racialized woman, she fought prejudice against her gender and her race.

Despite her comfortable majority support with women, the men did her in. The more education they had, the more likely they were to support her. But opposition from young men and those with less than a high school education was ferocious.

Harris cannot be faulted on her campaign. Her message was solid, and she delivered it with an ease of confidence reminiscent of a real leader.

Now Democrats must reboot while MAGA Republicans are already discussing a successor to the aging president-elect. In a media interview, a young Trump voter said he thought the perfect successor was vice-president-elect J.D. Vance.

The man who thinks America is being run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too” is the next great white hope.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Pennsylvania is a pivotal state because of the electoral college system, and the majority of the state’s 580,000 eligible Latino voters are from Puerto Rico. 

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on November 4, 2024.

OTTAWA—Bromance may cost Donald Trump the election.

In a plea to Trump supporters, former Trump opponent Nikki Haley told Fox News that the male-only pitch and the use of the C-word in PAC ads attacking Kamala Harris were hurting the former president’s campaign.

She also underscored a huge mistake in the Trump campaign strategy.

While Haley was the last person standing in the nomination process against Trump, she quickly got on board and offered her help.

She revealed in the media last week that while she has been involved in fundraising mail and calls, she has not been asked to join in a single rally.

Instead, Trump’s major final event at Madison Square Gardens featured the kind of supporters who would appeal to the angry young men who are already in the former president’s camp.

The event was dominated by former wrestlers, comics, and other supporters, most of whom were unknown to the general public.

Instead of reaching out to women and minorities, the Trump-approved guest list at the New York event may actually cost him the election.

Former Trump supporter and well-known Latino broadcaster Geraldo Rivera called the insulting comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe a “seminal” moment which will cost the Trump team dearly in Puerto Rican support and amongst other Latinos.

Hinchcliffe is now a household name. He may go down in history as the man who took Trump down. During the six-hour long rally, Hinchcliffe got a roar from the audience when he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” and said Latinos “love making babies.”

Another presenter referred to Harris as a prostitute whose pimps are helping in her campaign.

The disastrous comments garnered immediate reaction in the Latino community with famous rapper Bad Bunny endorsing Harris immediately after the Hinchcliffe meltdown. The rapper’s official name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, and he was born in Puerto Rico. He has 45 million followers on Instagram.

His endorsement could go a long way in reversing the hike in Trump support amongst Latinos compared to 2016.

That increase has played very well for Trump in some states where the margin between the two candidates is less than two per cent.

Ricky Martin, another Puerto Rican, immediately sent out this message to his 18 million Instagram followers: “this is what they think of us. Vote for @kamalaharris.”

And the tight race between the two presidential candidates on the eve of the election means that a one- or two-point shift could actually change the election’s outcome.

Pennsylvania is a pivotal state because of the electoral college system, and the majority of the state’s 580,000 eligible Latino voters are from Puerto Rico.

The gaffe opened the door for Harris to remind voters how Trump pitched paper towels and little else in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster to hit Puerto Rico in 2017 when Hurricane Maria claimed 2,975 lives.

It was widely reported that federal funding to states that voted for Trump was quicker and more fulsome than relief received by Puerto Rico.

To make matters worse, Trump staff did not issue an immediate repudiation of the comedian.

Instead of responding to multiple requests for a retraction, Trump doubled down, telling the media “there’s never been an event so beautiful. … The love in that room. It was breathtaking. It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest.”

It took him 48 hours before he appeared on Trump-friendly Fox News to say that Hinchcliffe probably shouldn’t have been at the rally.

But the other question, unanswered by Trump, is why, in the major rally of his campaign, he refused to reach out to known Republicans like Haley in an effort to court the vote of women.

Haley told Fox News that the Trump team’s approach is alienating women voters. “Fifty-three per cent of the electorate are women. Women will vote. They care about how they’re being talked to, and they care about the issues.”

Harris moved quickly to post Haley’s comments on her social media outlets.

Trump’s attempt to “bromance” those whose support he has already solidly secured is a strategy alienating the very women he needs to secure his return to government.

Strategically, even Republican spokespeople have sought to distance themselves from the racist, misogynistic mess left in the wake of the final Trump rally in New York.

If Geraldo is right, and this seminal moment determines the election, it underscores the reality that campaigns count.

And women power is here to stay—even in the White House.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

If history is any indication, Kamala Harris will face an onslaught of attacks about her gender.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on August 26, 2024.

OTTAWA–Former U.S. president Donald Trump was unusually quiet during the rollout of the Democratic National Convention.

He seemed to be heeding the advice of those who have suggested to the former president that he needs to start debating issues, and to stay away from personalities.

That was the public Trump last week. But the private Trump is not so circumspect. According to multiple news reports, he often refers to his opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, as a “bitch.”

Those reports appeared to be confirmed when his former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, appeared at the Democratic convention to denounce her former boss and tell the world how Trump also mocked his own supporters as “basement dwellers”.

Grisham denounced Trump as someone with “no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth.”

She recounted a story when the former president visited a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was upset that cameras were focused on the dying patients, not him.

The Democratic gathering was rife with speakers who opined on why Trump was unsuitable as a commander-in-chief. But some also warned that the love-in people felt at the Chicago, Ill., gathering would quickly turn sour in the uphill battle leading to election day.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama suggested that Harris, the Democratic candidate, would face “ugly, misogynistic, racist lies” in the next 75 days. If history is any indication, she will face an onslaught of attacks. Chances are her gender will be a more popular line of attack than her race.

Trump has already put his foot in his mouth by falsely claiming that Harris is not Black. Trump made the statement in a speech to the National Association of Black Journalists when he drew a shocked reaction after stating, “I’ve known her for long time… and she was always of Indian heritage… I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now, she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

Trump shut down that line of attack after criticism from Democrats and Republicans.

Harris’ father is Jamaican, and she has consistently embraced her racial identity since joining a historically Black sorority at a historically Black university.

Attacks on her Blackness have been silenced, but we can expect gender name-calling to continue right up to election day on Nov. 5.

It seems that racial epithets are a lot more politically risky than gender slurs.

Just last week, the CBC published a story outlining the shocking level of misogyny facing female politicians on social media. The British-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate published a report stating that Instagram ignored 926 of 1,000 reported abusive comments targeting American female politicians on the app.

The not-for profit monitoring centre focused on comments left on the accounts of 10 politicians, including Harris.

Most were not removed after complaints, including comments like “make rape legal”, “death to her,” and “we don’t want blacks around us.”

Instagram owner Meta has guidelines which allow “stronger conversation” when it involves people like politicians and other public figures who are often in the news.

The Instagram exposé did not surprise those of us who have faced misogyny during and after a life in politics.

On a fairly regular basis, I am insulted when I post or repost items on X. As well as getting death threats and being told to die, I have been attacked as an over-the-hill alcoholic, “Tequila Sheila” hag. The Tequila Sheila name-calling actually came from a moniker given to me by a former Conservative minister.

Former Liberal cabinet minister Catherine McKenna left politics in part because she was tired of the attacks and stalking that she faced as a woman politician. Her office was spray-painted with unprintable insults, and her opponents in the Conservative Party labelled her “climate Barbie” because of her interest in fighting climate change.

Harris has been in politics for a long time, and no doubt will not be cowed by the attacks she will face because of her gender and race.

Obama levelled her own personal attacks during a fiery convention speech, saying Trump may be told “that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’” to a roar of crowd approval.

Trump must be seething over how his presidential trajectory has been reversed since Republicans celebrated his escape from an assassin’s bullet literally days before their convention last month.

Expect Trump supporters to respond with more misogyny on social media.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

No one prime minister can overturn more than a century of governance mistakes, but the legacy Justin Trudeau is building will make sure that Canadians are invested in the changes that need to happen for true reconciliation.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 8, 2024.

OTTAWA—The beginning of the new year also ushered in the second annual National Ribbon Skirt Day.

The first Ribbon Skirt Day was recognized by Parliament last year to honour Indigenous regalia, including the ribbon dress.

National attention was drawn to the importance of the ribbon dress after Saskatchewan schoolgirl Isabella Kulak was derided for wearing hers to a formal school event in 2020. According to media reports, a staff member told the 10-year-old that what she was wearing was not formal enough for “formal day” at the school in Kamsack.

The school district subsequently issued an apology. To mark the new year, in 2021, Isabella and a group of friends marched into their classrooms wearing ribbon dresses and shirts on the first day of school.

Kulak’s humiliation sparked an outcry and prompted Parliament to recognize National Ribbon Skirt Day on Jan. 4. Some may think this designation is frivolous, but in reality, it underscores the journey taken by Indigenous People over the past decade.

Whatever happens to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the future, he will definitely go down in history as the prime minister who devoted the most political—and financial—capital to reconciliation. I underscore financial because Trudeau is not the first leader to speak out about the challenges facing Indigenous Peoples, whether in urban, rural, or northern areas, but he is certainly the first to invest major cash in the solutions.

We won’t likely see the benefit of his government’s investments immediately. One of the first and little-noticed decisions was the move to increase education funding on reserve so that it matched what was happening in other parts of the country.

Before Trudeau, Indigenous education spending was only about 60 per cent of what was spent on average schooling in Canada. By insisting on parity, Trudeau prompted an increase in the quality of education in territories that will probably not yield results for at least a decade.

The same holds true for boil-water advisories. Previous governments—including my own—worked on a piecemeal basis to solve water issues, but there was never a published target or a focus on a complete end to advisories until Trudeau took office in 2015.

One of the key ways in which Trudeau managed to improve the water situation was his decision to break up the former Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and split it into two different ministries. One ministry is specifically focused on service delivery, while another is working to conclude governance agreements that solidify Crown-Indigenous relations.

By creating two departments and resourcing them, Trudeau has made sure that focus of work does not get stalled on one while officials work on the other.

Adequate running water and properly funded education will not make up for the years of damage done by separating families and underfunding communities. The residential school trauma has been multi-generational, and most Canadians didn’t even know it existed until recently.

The National Ribbon Skirt Day is more than a recognition of one girl’s courage. It is a celebration of culture and heritage that should instill a sense of pride and belonging in Indigenous children who have often been made to feel like second-class citizens in their own country.

No one really knows what kind of policies a Conservative prime minister would introduce to continue the work to overturn deeply rooted and racist governance, but in Pierre Poilievre’s round-the-clock social media postings, you don’t hear much about Indigenous People.

No one prime minister can overturn more than a century of governance mistakes, but the legacy Trudeau is building will make sure that Canadians are invested in the changes that need to happen for true reconciliation.

Most people vote on what is good for them, not necessarily what is good for their fellow citizens. So the work done on reconciliation will not likely yield too much support in the ballot box for the Liberals. But when the history books are written, Trudeau will definitely go down as the prime minister who made the greatest strides in overcoming colonialization and truly delivering on reconciliation.

Kulak—and every other Indigenous student—has reason to be proud of her regalia and her history. It is one of survival. resilience and celebration. In 2024, let’s hope governments continue the journey of reconciliation, in words and deeds.

Indigenous children in schools across the country should never be mocked because of what they are wearing or where they come from.

Instead, they should be celebrated every day.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on October 4, 2021.

Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation posed more questions than answers.

A court-upheld Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision to compensate Indigenous children taken into care was the subject of much reflection.

The decision puts the government on the hook to compensate Indigenous children living on “reserves” who were taken into care for the last 15 years.

During the election, the Liberals appealed the decision and at press time, it was unclear whether that might happen again.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said the government was reviewing the judgment before deciding on whether another appeal would be launched.

But to those Canadians who embrace the need for reconciliation, including leaders in the Indigenous community, a possible appeal soured the significance of the day of Truth and Reconciliation.

As children’s shoes were strewn across the lawn of Parliament, the reflection of little feet stood in stark contrast to jackboots of oppression that those children have felt over the centuries.

The more we learn about the horrendous deculturalization of residential schools, the more that Canadians would like to be able to make amends for a horrible historical legacy.

But the racism and discrimination identified by the Canadian Human Rights Commission did not end last week.

The first-year anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s death coincided with a call to recognize racism in public sector services in Quebec. The mother of seven, while on her deathbed in a Joliette hospital, was called stupid, and the author of her own problems, by staff caught on a recording.

One employee was ultimately fired but Quebec’s premier Francois Legault continues to deny the existence of systemic racism in his province even though a provincial commission report has already found it “impossible to deny …systemic discrimination” when it comes to Indigenous people.

One day of the year will not change the systemic discrimination that has existed since the beginning of Canada.

But it is fair to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first leader who has actually engaged in a real reconciliation conversation.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

The first time I visited an Indigenous community was the Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada’s most populous First Nation, just 30 kilometres south of the place where I was born.

My parents took me for a visit when I was about eight or nine years old. We attended a community celebration.

To this day, I vividly remembering watching the drummers and the dancers in a cultural celebration that was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Over the years, we visited again, and I was always struck with how different this world was, and how little we even knew about it.

I wondered why the history books in my school in Hamilton made no mention of the people who had populated our lands long before the arrival of the first Europeans.

We knew a little bit about Pauline Johnson, because of her poetry and Tom Longboat because of his athletic achievements, but for the most part, our understanding of Indigenous peoples was net zero.

How many Canadians know that the people of Six Nations helped us when the Americans were trying to take the country over. Every child was educated about the battle of Stoney Creek, a turning point in the battle for Upper Canada.

But not a single history book explored the Haldimand Proclamation, a 1784 decree that promised a tract of 950,000 acres in recognition of Six Nations loyalty and assistance to the British during the American Revolution. Only half that land was ever awarded.

In modern times, disputes arising from this agreement are covered as Indigenous protests. In reality they are only seeking what was promised in multiple settler agreements.

So many promises have been broken, it is understandable that Indigenous leaders view the current government plans with skepticism.

It is also true that while reconciliation preoccupies many Canadians, it was certainly not the top-of-mind subject in the last federal election.

Last week’s national day gives all of us a chance to engage in a deeper reflection.

From the sixties scoops to the shame of residential schools, to the appropriation of Indigenous lands by developers and governments, Canada has a sorry history to atone for.

When pundits reflect on Justin Trudeau’s potential legacy, they don’t need to look far.

Without Trudeau, this journey toward Truth and Reconciliation would never have begun.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

The American claim to ‘exceptionalism’ and its history of support for democracy around the world has been delivered a severe blow.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on January 11, 2021.

OTTAWA—Whether or not Donald Trump remains in office for the next two weeks is hardly the point.

His ugly legacy has unleashed a venom in America that will be very difficult to suppress.

The world has watched in horror as domestic terrorists stormed the capital, wreaking havoc and death on the ultimate symbols of American democracy.

We have witnessed extremists becoming so mainstream that one of them, Georgian Marjorie Taylor Greene, is now sitting in the House of Representatives.

The American claim to “exceptionalism” and its history of support for democracy around the world has been delivered a severe blow.

Lindsey Graham’s ridiculous response to the Washington attack was to claim equivalency between the attackers and Black Lives Matter activists who took to the streets to protest the death of multiple Black citizens at the hands of the police.

Does anyone truly believe that if the same group of Washington attackers had been racial minorities, there would have been so few arrests?

Graham’s claim that Democrats needed to call out protesters of police brutality at the same time as he was criticizing the terrorists simply reinforced the fact that the day Donald Trump leaves office will not be the end of this reckoning in America.

The CBC revisited footage from the summer protest at the Lincoln Memorial, where row upon row of riot police were lined up to truncheon protesters. That footage was compared to the police treatment of emboldened white supremacists and conspiracy theorists who considered the attack a victory for their cause.

Some television outlets carried footage of those storming the capital taking selfies with police guarding the gates. And the Confederate flag was carried into the Senate by those who paraded their hatred right onto the floor of the Senate.

At the same time as the anarchists were outside of the Senate, chief representatives inside were speaking about the “incredible” four years of Trump rule and some of them were still trying as of last week to claim the election was stolen.

The attack on the Senate was greeted with glee by the president, who tweeted his love for the protesters.

At the same time as the state of Georgia elected its first Black Senator and its first Jewish Senator, most people are not talking about how those elections made history.

Instead, we are witnessing a country that is still deeply divided on racial grounds, and whose leadership actually promotes the supremacy of one race over another.

Trump illustrated his true colours more than three years ago, when white supremacists stormed Charlottesville and killed an innocent bystander while shouting slurs against Jews and minorities.

Trump was the first to lay out this false equivalency when he tried to claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the Charlottesville protest.

And multiple members of the Senate still cling to the view that there is validity in the absurdly false claims of election interference.

Notwithstanding these shocking perspectives, even in the consequential Georgia Senate runoffs, the state was almost evenly split on those who supported Trump’s choice and those who opposed.

Largely due to the incredible organizational work of Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight Action to oppose voter suppression, the Democrats were able to pull off razor-thin victories in both instances, thus securing the balance of power in the Senate. That vote paves the way forward for president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris to receive support in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

But they still have to face the job of uniting a country where almost half of the population oppose their vision.

All those who chose Trump were not voting based on his racial record. But the fact that they could overlook it and cast their ballot for him in such large numbers, is truly frightening.

From misogyny to racism, from his affinity for dictators versus democrats, the president still managed to garner the support of almost 75 million voting Americans, the largest number in the history of the country to vote for a Republican candidate.

Even when the president vacates the office, whether of his own accord or not, his leadership scars will endure long past his departure.

The suspension of Trump’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts are not enough to stem the flood of hatred that has been unleashed during his presidency.

Pre-Trump, racists were largely in the shadows. But his sick vision for America has enlisted millions of followers.

This past week has only emboldened them.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

The only way that the United States can take back its streets and its dignity is by making sure that Donald Trump is thrashed in the November presidential election. Even then, the damage done to America may be irreparable.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 8, 2020.

OTTAWA—Stockwell Day made a costly mistake last week. On a television panel he denied that systemic racism exists in Canada.

Day was quickly the subject of a social media groundswell that ended up costing him a board position at Telus and his strategic counsel job at McMillan LLP.

Day paid dearly for his mistake. But there are many Canadians who believe what he said. “Canada is not a racist country and most Canadians are not racist and our system, which always needs to be improved, is not systemically racist.”

I daresay millions share the viewpoint expressed by Day.

Most of them are not in the public domain so we don’t hear their perspectives. Even when the evidence is irrefutable, they simply don’t want to stare truth in the face.

I have known Stockwell Day for years, and he is basically a decent, fair-minded individual. However, by making the statement he did on television, he unwittingly aligned himself with those who are currently using race as a wedge issue in the next American election.

The facts on systemic racism in Canada are clear.

The last census demonstrated a clear and present racial difference in how employees are paid.

On average, second-generation Black Canadians were paid 28 per cent less than their white counterparts. The average pay of racialized and Indigenous workers was 30 per cent less than the earnings of their white colleagues.

On a personal level, that meant an average loss of income of $14,000 compared to Caucasian Canadians of the same age and education background.

We see the same wage discrimination against women.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2018, women aged 25 to 54 earned an average of 13.3 per cent less than their male colleagues for doing equivalent work.

Looking at what is going on south of the border, it is easy to see why Canadians could believe that our situation is not as grim.

But to completely ignore the reality of pay rates, disproportionate incarceration rates and all the other evidence in Canada is to turn your back on the truth.

But Canada is not facing the horrendous situation of a national leader who is doing his best to stoke the flames of racism for personal base electoral ends.

Trump is banking on the fact that the silent majority in the United States actually supports his view. There are millions who back his inflammatory approach, although it appears as though the combination of COVID-19, unemployment, and civil unrest are taking their toll.

Recent polling shows that Trump has the support of only one-third of Americans for his bellicose response to the death of George Floyd.

Cracks are also appearing in his Republican wall of support, with Senator Lisa Murkowski saying she may not support him as the party standard bearer. Murkowski, the second most senior Republican woman in the Senate, spoke out in support of the comments of former defence secretary Jim Mattis criticizing Trump’s “false conflict” between the Armed Forces and ordinary citizens.

Murkowski echoed Mattis’ viewpoint, saying, “I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.”

Former U.S. president George W. Bush called on his countrymen to “examine our tragic failures.”

But the current president seems oblivious to all critics, doubling down on his view that multiple peaceful protests across the country were organized by thugs.

In Canada, Day immediately recognized his error and tweeted that “I ask forgiveness for wrongly equating my experiences to theirs. I commit to them my unending efforts to fight racism in all its forms.”

That statement was quite an about turn from his refusal to recognize systemic racism only a few short hours earlier.

Systemic racism is alive and well in Canada and, unfortunately, supported by millions of Canadians who blindly believe there is no problem.

By recognizing his mistake, Day has a chance to do something about it.

In the case of the Trumpian racism of the American president, the whole country is undermined by his deliberate attempt to stoke the flames of racial hatred.

The only way that the United States can take back its streets and its dignity is by making sure that Trump is thrashed in the November presidential election.

Even then, the damage done to America may be irreparable.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

By Sheila Copps

First published in The Hill Times on August 13, 2018.

OTTAWA—You cannot learn from history by hiding it.

The decision by Victoria City Council to get rid of a statue of our first prime minister does nothing for truth and reconciliation.

It repeats the same errors made by past generations, who believed the best way to deal with a difficult issue was to hide from it.

Teen pregnancy? Send the offending young mother away and do not allow her to hold her baby in case they bond in the first few moments of life.

Spousal abuse? Suck it up buttercup, your marital vows included good and bad, and after all, how bad can it be?

Non-heterosexual relationships? Hide them in the closet for fear their sexual orientation will contaminate the rest of us.

Racism? Simply the state of things between dominant whites and everyone else.

Mentally handicapped? Stamp it out through sterilization.

Deculturalization? It is the white man’s way or the door way.

One does not have to reach too far into the past to find blatant examples of discrimination that would not be tolerated today.

Back in the eighties, there was a move afoot to modernize the Indian Act, and abolish sexual discrimination enshrined in the legislation.

At that time, an aboriginal woman who married a white man lost her status. The same punishment did not apply for an aboriginal man who married a white woman.

Pure, unadulterated gender bias.

The biggest opponents to ending the discrimination were neither the bureaucrats nor the politicians but rather the aboriginal chiefs who refused to extend band rights to women who married outside their race.

Just this spring, the courts overturned a local Mohawk band decision in Kahnawake that required First Nations people who married whites to get off tribal land. The “Marry Out, Get Out” law prohibits people who marry non-natives from living in the community. The Mohawk Council says the move to expel mixed-marriage families safeguards Mohawk land and culture.

But Justice Thomas Davis ruled otherwise, saying the policy violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ban on family discrimination. Mohawk council spokesperson Joe Delaronde insisted the community’s membership laws are an internal community matter. “Our position has been that these types of matters are not to be decided by outside courts,” Delaronde said in response to the decision. “We’re very independent here and we say it’s our law and our business.”

He framed the membership law as part of the Mohawk struggle against assimilation.

“When a place like Kahnawake stands up for itself we seem like radical bad guys when really, all we’re doing is trying to protect what little we have,” he said. “It’s a survival mechanism.”

The same argument was used by racists to defend segregation and oppose interracial dating, which they claimed would dilute the white race.

Today, no one would tolerate racism but some have no problem explaining away the obvious discrimination in Kahnawake.

The search and destroy mission targeting Sir John A. Macdonald does nothing to redress past wrongs. Instead, it stokes the flames of division by refusing to embrace the true meaning of reconciliation.

Nelson Mandela, a stirring example of real reconciliation, invited his own prison guard to the inauguration of his presidency.

Our first prime minister was not perfect. By many accounts, he was an alcoholic who suffered from racist tendencies that translated themselves into horrible public policy. That was part of his legacy.

Macdonald also had the vision to link a new nation from Atlantic to Pacific, making an indelible mark on our collective identity and creating a country which is the envy of the world.

The answer should be to educate everyone on the positive and negative aspects of his political leadership without obliterating the significant accomplishment of creating Canada.

Last summer, some were mourning Canada’s 150th birthday, focussing on imperfections that have beleaguered our past. Our collective treatment of indigenous peoples was disgraceful.

So is our continuing sexism, where women in the paid work force are still paid only seventy-four per cent of what men receive.

All discrimination should end, and that is the job of current and future leaders.

But each change happens by moving in a positive direction.

Removing traces of our history, however chequered, does not change them.

Much has changed since Macdonald railed on in Parliament against Indigenous peoples.

It would be a mistake to define his place in history only by mistakes. Our first prime minister did some things worth remembering.

The colonial construct called Canada is one of them.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.