1992 Legislative Session: 1st Session, 35th Parliament
HANSARD
(Hansard)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1992
Morning Sitting
Volume 6, Number 18
[ Page 4167 ]
The House met at 10:04 a.m.
Prayers.
RESIDENTIAL HOUSING
A. Cowie: Hon. Speaker, this statement is mainly about privately owned homes. The home that most people dream about owning is the traditional single-family detached home with a two-car garage and a spacious and well landscaped lot. In our culture this form of housing symbolizes success and conventional ideas about family values. But the realities of a land shortage, rising building and service costs, transportation pressures and an increasing population have made this dream less accessible to most people.
For most families, economic changes have led to two adults working. People are being forced to move further away from city centres, their places of employment. To complicate this issue further, the family structure is changing, with fewer nuclear families consisting of a husband, wife and one or two children. Today we have more single-parent families, retired couples, extended families and single adults, all with unique housing needs.
The cost of housing has been steadily increasing at a time when the income of most families and single adults is stagnant or showing a decline. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian family's income peaked at $51,000 in 1989. This was accompanied by a loss of upper-income and middle-income jobs, forcing most families to look at less costly housing alternatives.
The traditional guideline to home-ownership has been that a family can afford a home costing approximately three times their annual income. Currently the cost of the average home in the lower mainland is over $200,000, and in my constituency of Vancouver-Quilchena, it's over $450,000. The cost of housing is the major barrier to ownership for most young people and prospective first-time buyers.
The availability of approved land for building on is also a major problem in almost all municipalities. If housing needs are to be met in these changing social and economic times, society must start to look at innovative, non-traditional approaches to housing. While the traditional single-family dream home is no longer an adequate or affordable solution for most people, this does not mean that British Columbians have to do without a comfortable and well-designed home. Achieving this is a challenge for our provincial and municipal politicians, our home-building industry, our planning and design professions and the public.
The provincial government. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Recreation and Housing should develop a strategy of encouraging municipalities and the building industry to create the type of housing that will meet the needs of British Columbians over the next ten years and beyond. The ministry should target those municipalities in the province that have the greatest need and provide financial incentives to encourage municipal councils to rezone land for more intensive residential use. Incentives should include greater assistance in providing sewer, water and other engineering services. Such a policy would help the provincial economy by providing jobs and much-needed housing.
The annual provincial revenue-sharing grant should be allocated on a reward basis for municipalities that meet housing needs rather than on the existing per capita basis, which encourages the status quo and discourages innovation. To ensure adequate residential land supply, particularly for ground-oriented housing, the provincial government should review the existing status of Crown lands and poor-quality agricultural reserve lands adjacent to and within most urban municipal developments. The municipalities should have sound planning policies in place as a requirement for releasing these lands.
Municipal government. The time has come for municipal politicians and land use planners to take a more flexible approach to meeting housing needs. Traditional zoning and rigid restrictions on land use and building will not satisfy present and future needs. The current practice of zoning residential land into separate and often isolated single-family zones and a range of specific multifamily zones is too restrictive and leads to barren stretches of sameness. A more liberal approach will create greater diversity and vitality. Just ask yourselves: would you go out and look at most single-family subdivisions being built today? Would you take that time? I don't want to be disrespectful, but you have to search a long way to find an interesting single-family housing area that is well-designed and has a sense of community.
In multifamily housing, there are an increasing number of attractive and creatively designed projects. Municipalities should award those projects that meet a standard of design excellence. A review earlier this year indicated that some municipalities are starting to take a more flexible approach to rezoning and building regulations by allowing secondary and garden suites in appropriate single-family areas and encouraging duplex, triplex and quadriplex family housing, instead of traditional single-family use. Municipalities using these and other flexible approaches should be given a gold star.
The building industry. In British Columbia the developer generally gets the land use approved and provides the serviced land to builders. This is particularly true in lower-density housing. More often than not, builders use stock plans without the benefit of architects. With the movement to higher-density solutions, developers and builders will become more sophisticated. The more successful projects have already moved to an integrated developer-builder approach. With the use of design guidelines and covenants, the small home builder need not be excluded. Indeed, in older municipalities preservation and reuse of buildings has stimulated work for smaller firms. Individual owners have also been responsible for innovation, particularly in historic structures.
[ Page 4168 ]
The design profession -- which I used to belong to. Less than 5 percent of single-family homes are designed by professional architects. Since urban growth sprawl....
The Speaker: I regret, hon. member, that your time has expired.
A. Cowie: Perhaps I'll have the pleasure to respond in my sum-up.
F. Randall: I thank the member for raising this very important matter of housing. Many of us feel that housing is a right, as health care is, and I think the matter is currently being reviewed by the provincial government. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Recreation and Housing has the Provincial Commission on Housing Options currently underway, and they are reviewing market and non-market rental housing and also first-time-homeowner options. They have certainly received lots of briefs and presentations, and there's an effort being made to do overall planning for the province, and not do little bits and pieces. It's my understanding that the government is prepared to look at various types of partnerships with people who provide housing in the province and who are working in that particular industry.
One of the comments made by the member was that housing costs are continuing to soar and income is certainly remaining stagnant, if not declining. That creates a larger gap, so there's all the more pressure to try to provide housing at reasonable cost. That certainly will take some innovative ideas.
I also agree that the government should look at Crown lands. I think it's a good suggestion, and I'm sure that will be done. There are a lot of other kinds of ideas and options -- looking at smaller lots and smaller houses. For example, I raised a family in 1,100 square feet, and they're building houses across the street from me that are over 4,000 square feet. If there were new homes at 1,400 or 1,500 square feet on smaller lots and 95 percent financing, with the government guaranteeing the mortgage.... Allowing people to get into new homes for 5 percent down would certainly be a help.
There's the matter of illegal suites to be addressed. They provide housing, and many municipalities have thousands of suites that are called illegal. I think it's an area that will provide low-cost accommodation, particularly for a lot of students and those on very low incomes. Granny flats have been talked about a lot, and I think it's another area that should be looked at.
[10:15]
On the matter of other initiatives, I know that the ministry has been involved in various pilot projects on housing: the seniors one that was announced in September and another one that was announced in October. So there are ongoing programs on providing housing. I think it's certainly very timely that the member raised this particular matter, and I agree with 98 percent of his comments on this. The government is certainly moving in the very directions that he has raised.
In closing, I would like to say thank you to the member for Vancouver-Quilchena for raising this matter at this time.
A. Cowie: I'd like to thank the member for Burnaby-Edmonds in return for his comments. I'm sure we can work together. I know he's had a lot of experience on municipal council in Burnaby, and we've talked about that. I think he has a very realistic approach. I also agree with his comments -- for the record. I also think it was important that the member recognized the suite situation. Whether they're illegal or legal, we have to make sure they're habitable and well-designed. That's where, as we get into higher-density forms of housing, the design profession will be able to help, and I hope the provincial government encourages designers to get involved. That's a non-union sector of our society.
I would like to close, however, by dealing very briefly with the public, because that's a very important part of this process of providing housing. As I have about a minute left, I would simply like to say that most municipal councils, developers and builders dread the current public participation process through the hearing mechanisms that we have. We've simply got to find a better way, and I'm sure the Minister of Municipal Affairs is working hard every day on trying to find that better way. In my opinion, the best housing solutions evolve when citizens can be involved and can participate with a sense of civic right, tempered with an awareness of civic responsibility. The last little bit often gets ignored. The public self-interest is secure when the community feels secure. That's important.
The provincial and municipal governments must strive to renew faith in the public process. This could include a legislated process -- a new one -- combined with an appeal mechanism at the regional or provincial level.
AIDS AWARENESS
E. Barnes: I would like to begin by saying that I hope all members will renew their resolve to do their best in assisting to defeat AIDS. Unfortunately, as we all know, the issue is one that is shrouded in politics, misinformation, subterfuge, dishonesty, indifference and a whole variety of attitudes that make it very difficult for those of us who realize the sinister and very serious nature of this threat to each of us to really get down and do something about it. So I hope my remarks will at least indicate the things that can take place if we work together.
As each member realizes, about four years ago the World Health Organization designated December 1 as World AIDS Day, and I am pleased to advise the members that this government has also proclaimed December 1 world AIDS Day in British Columbia. The theme this year will be "A Community Commitment." Communities have a crucial role to play in the eradication of AIDS, not only in the care and support of people with HIV-AIDS but also in preventing the spread of HIV infection.
[ Page 4169 ]
Individuals can and must become motivated to learn safer sexual behaviour. Experience shows, however, that this process is greatly aided if lifestyle changes are backed up by a community's commitment to safer sex and other protective values programs. Disdain for community commitment is particularly relevant to this government's strategy for combatting this dreaded disease.
A disease does not limit its effects to any single segment of the population or to those living in a particular area of British Columbia. More and more we see AIDS as a disease with no regard for whom it strikes: men, women and children of all races, creeds and colours, IV users, homosexuals, heterosexuals, lesbians, hemophiliacs, native peoples, those who live in cities and those in the country.
The days of passing the buck are gone if we are to win the fight against AIDS. No longer can we afford to leave it up to others. We will not fully succeed in this fight until each and every one of us realizes our own personal responsibility to become factually informed and commit ourselves to do our part.
This means strong support by such organizations as AIDS Vancouver and AIDS Vancouver Island, organizations for persons with AIDS, and AIDS networks throughout the province. It means strong leadership and commitment on the part of all levels of government. In the spirit of cooperation and consultation, this government has, in its 1992-93 budget, begun to take some constructive action with respect to HIV and AIDS prevention and control, which is increased by 250 percent, providing $2.5 million more beyond the $1 million already existing.
It has committed $400,000 to urban aboriginal AIDS initiatives. It has provided over $500,000 to maintenance and expansion of the Vancouver needle exchange, and $265,000 for street outreach programs in four communities -- Kelowna, Nanaimo, Surrey and Victoria -- making needle exchanges, HIV testing, education, counselling and condoms available. More communities are likely to receive similar funding. The B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities receives funds for AIDS programs. Funding for AIDS in the workplace is also in place. In addition to HIV prevention, initiatives have been proceeding in other areas. The Health ministry has provided 60 long-term rent supplement units to assist people affected with housing needs.
There is an education project for teenagers that uses computers and video technology to present realistic situations about AIDS and talk to them in plain language about risk behaviour. The Ministry of Health is ensuring the availability of community-based services that it knows PWAs require, especially those living in remote rural areas. The B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS is working along these lines by developing community-based programs that include the selection and distribution of AIDS-related drugs, training, education and preparation of guidelines for AIDS treatment, so that physicians and caregivers can follow the most up-to-date procedures while treating patients in their respective communities.
The objective is to provide service where needed, whether in Trail, Chetwynd or Vancouver. I also remind members that the original version of the previously banned video for youth on AIDS was shown last summer to over 300,000 young people in theatres throughout British Columbia. On an interministerial basis the province is working with B.C.'s AIDS communities towards establishing new long-term consultative structures for advising on HIV/AIDS, structures aimed at involving those directly affected.
Hon. Speaker, I have talked in rather sombre terms about this matter, and I'm sure that most members know how I present my speeches. I usually just have a couple of notes in my hand and I like to talk. But I want to say that this is an issue that requires sombre thinking. It requires serious thinking. In fact, we all, including myself, need a shock treatment when it comes to this issue.
My time is up, but I will continue these remarks after one of the other members has commented on my statement.
D. Symons: The member for Vancouver-Burrard has stated most eloquently, I think, the case for AIDS awareness, and there's very little I could add to what he has said. The public awareness in this province has changed a great deal since the -- I guess we can call it -- scourge of AIDS became known to people more than a decade ago. At that time it seemed that people categorized it as being only drug users or possibly people of a certain sexual persuasion who were in danger of catching AIDS, and therefore it was of no concern to them. Those days have gone by. People now realize that, indeed, society as a whole is threatened by it, that the cost to society in dollars and human resources and people's lives is great and that something has to be done.
A lot has been done, and I'm pleased that people like AIDS Vancouver and the member himself have spoken out so eloquently in this way and raised awareness. The rate of increase in the disease has been reduced and a lot of it is simply because people are now aware of the dangers and the insidious nature of this particular disease and what it can cause. The problem, I suppose, is that we must not let up this pressure on keeping awareness in front of the public, because if we do allow ourselves to get complacent that now we have things under control, it will take very little for the disease to rise again and be a much greater threat than it is today. All I can say is that I heartily endorse what the member opposite has said, and I'm sure that every member in this House is appreciative of his words on this subject.
E. Barnes: I thank the hon. member for his comments.
You know, hon. members, it may not seem like a very large number, when you look at the 5 billion or so people in the world, but think about it: there are ten to 12 million people affected with this disease worldwide. They estimate that there will be something like 30 million by the year 2000. You know, it's creeping up on us. I agree that the numbers may be diminishing. The interesting thing is that the numbers are diminishing among homosexuals, not heterosexuals. It's the opposite situation. Heterosexuals once thought that they
[ Page 4170 ]
were free and clear and didn't have to be concerned, but they haven't educated themselves. There's an incubation period of about ten years for this disease. You can go around thinking you're safe, you're feeling fine, you're competing in sports and having a great time, but you could be infecting people every day, every time, if you don't understand this disease. We can't afford to have our heads in the sand. We can't afford to be ignorant and uninformed. Smugness, misinformation, prejudice, bad attitudes -- these are the kinds of things we must become aware of, because this is something that affects all of us whether we realize it or not.
There are a few people who deserve to be mentioned, at least as far as I'm concerned, because I was really about as ignorant and uninformed and indifferent as anybody. In the early 1980s, when I first heard about this disease, there was a man by the name of Kevin Brown in my constituency. He was one of the first ones, even before Dr. Peter, who talked to me about AZT. I said: "What's that?" He said: "It's something we can't afford and can't get because it costs too much, and the governments don't realize it's the only thing that will give us a few more days of life." That was Kevin Brown. He was followed by a guy by the name of David Lewis, who only wanted to die in dignity. He said he knew he was going. I met David one week when he was as healthy as you and me. Over the next two or three weeks I saw him, and he was walking on a cane. Then Alex Kowalski, another one, who was very much like Kevin Brown in his desire to try and educate the public, to bring about awareness. All of these people were troupers, forerunners to Dr. Peter, who began to put a face on the statistics. He said: "Hey, look, these people are you and me." Don't kid yourselves. There are people who are out in the hinterlands. Those people out there don't believe that they're going to get involved, because they don't live in the city and they don't use drugs, but they don't understand how this disease is communicated.
Hon. Speaker, we have a lot of work to do. All I really want to say in closing is: let's make ourselves participants in the eradication of this disease. They say big battles are won by small skirmishes. That skirmish is personal for you and me. If we do our best as individuals, if we ensure that we are informed and enlightened, we can make a difference. So I would like to say: let's get behind World AIDS Day on December 1. Do your bit to help everybody. Help yourselves. Let's not allow this thing to destroy our future generations, which is what it's certainly going to do unless we get on the ball.
[10:30]
A. Cowie: I rise to seek permission to make a very short introduction.
Leave granted.
A. Cowie: We have the honour today to have the grade 5 class of St. George's in the gallery. I would ask that you welcome them and their teacher.
VIOLENCE IN COMMUNITIES
J. Weisgerber: Violent crime in British Columbia and Canada is increasing at what I consider to be an alarming rate. As I prepared this statement, I thought about 1986 when Expo was hosted in Vancouver. I recall taking a great deal of pride talking to visitors, particularly from the United States, about how safe British Columbia and Vancouver were and encouraging them to get out and walk the streets in the evening and not feel threatened by the possibility of being attacked, mugged or beaten up. I would be reluctant to give that same advice today. I think it's alarming that in a period of five or six years, we've seen such a change in our communities. Indeed, people are now scared in their communities. People in British Columbia -- not only in Vancouver -- are reluctant to be on the streets in the evening. We have to come to grips with this; we've got to deal with it.
I'm also concerned that the media attention this issue is getting as often as not is contributing to the problem rather than dealing with a solution. Many of the reports that we see sensationalize crime. Almost every day now we see clips of violent crime in the newspapers and on TV. As we watch the evening news, we've come to expect a section that will deal with gang activities, rapes or murders. It has become almost a daily diet.
On the other hand, our TV programs and tabloid newspapers desensitize us, particularly young people. I don't think kids can start watching shows about super-gang guys or karate types who go around breaking legs, bleeding and all those kinds of things, from the age of two or three, and still be sensitive to the real pain that there is in that kind of activity. I think that we have to be concerned about this.
If there's anyone who doubts that this is the case, the statistics certainly confirm what we see every day. Last year in British Columbia we had 126 murders, 116 attempted murders, 44,000 violent assaults and over 4,000 robberies involving violence. In British Columbia we have the highest homicide rate in the country: 17 percent of all homicides in Canada occur in British Columbia, where we have 12 percent of the population. We have a problem here.
I am concerned that in many ways the greater Vancouver area has become the L.A. of the north in more ways than we would like to think about. We've taken pride in our province and cities, as we should, but we also have to respect that things are changing in a way that none of us like. There are more than 25,000 automobile thefts or thefts from automobiles every year in British Columbia. I'm concerned that the violence we used to associate with major cities in the United States is now becoming commonplace in Canada.
We have to look at some of these issues, particularly gang violence. I think it's terribly disturbing to see gang violence, which is something that we did not associate with Canada in the past, becoming a way of life and part of everyday activities in British Columbia. There is a temptation to accept this as inevitable, as the kind of thing that happens as we grow and become larger. I don't think that's necessary. I don't think we should abandon ourselves to accepting that we have to live
[ Page 4171 ]
with this kind of fear, that we're simply going to have to lock ourselves in our houses, put bars on the windows and three bolts on the door and hope nobody gets in. That's the kind of thing that we've seen in other parts of North America, and we simply shouldn't accept it in Canada.
I don't want to take the time -- and I probably don't have the time -- to list the kinds of things we've seen over the last few years, but when two young people can be convinced by another to go out and kill that young person's mother and grandmother in the hope of getting some money, it seems to me to be part of this desensitization. We heard the other day that two young people stabbed a cab driver for pizza money. We just have to come to grips with this problem. We've got to deal with it. We've also got to recognize that this is not a Vancouver problem. Indeed, there are examples in Courtenay and Nelson and Dawson Creek -- in any part of this province. This thing is spreading across the province and the country, and we must come to grips with it.
I believe that much of this crime is drug-related. We have to take steps to deal with that particular issue. I'm frustrated, and I'm sure the police are frustrated, that drug dealers are known in our communities. The police know who they are. They know the houses that they operate from, but our laws are structured in such a way as to make it difficult to get convictions. There is so much protection for the offender built into the system that the victims truly become the victims in this process. We've got to rationalize this balance between protecting the rights of the accused and protecting the rights of the victims of this kind of activity.
As we get into the second portion, I hope to deal in more depth with some of the things we might be able to do, but I see that my time has expired.
J. Pullinger: I rise today to respond to the leader of the third party's statement. Before I do, I'd like to congratulate him for his subject. It's fair to say that everyone in this House -- and probably most, if not all, people in our society -- share the sentiments that you have put forward today.
Violence is increasing. We're seeing violence in all parts of our society in a way that we haven't seen before: violence against visible minorities, native peoples, people with disabilities and the elderly. There's an article in the Vancouver Sun today that says that our young people are now more likely than adults to be charged with a violent offence. That ought to be a great concern to all of us, and I'm sure it is.
One overarching kind of violence that this government is dealing with -- and one which I think and hope everyone in this House supports us on -- is violence against women, which is disproportionate in every one of those categories that I have mentioned. For those women who suffer from double oppression -- native women, women from visible minorities, women with disabilities -- the statistics are staggering. Something like 80 percent in some of those categories suffer abuse and violence. It's a subject that we are all extremely concerned about and one that we want to deal with.
The member mentioned the issue of laws and police. Yes, we absolutely have to have appropriate laws and effective policing. But we have always had police in this province, and we've always had laws, and it's not stopping the increase in violence. It seems to me that while we have to deal with that side, we really have to focus on prevention. We have to deal with things like poverty, particularly child poverty. We have a generation of people who are growing up in desperation, quite frankly. We need to deal with the poverty and the hopelessness and the alienation. We need to deal with drugs -- absolutely. But I would argue that they are probably a symptom rather than a root problem, and we need to deal with the things behind them.
I think one of the things we need to deal with in particular is social conditioning. A marvellous report entitled Is Anyone Listening?, was recently put out by the B.C. Task Force on Family Violence. It makes the point very clearly -- and I think it's well known -- that most violence is perpetrated by somebody you know. This is especially true about violence against women, but I think that half of the men who experience violence also experience it from someone they know.
So we need to deal with that whole issue of the home and the family and violence, and we need to deal with it effectively. I would argue that we need to do things like look at television violence. Happily, that's becoming an issue. As one who has dealt extensively with young people, I have seen young people who have watched a lot of TV since they were very tiny, and others who haven't, and there is definitely an immunization that happens, if you like, where they become absolutely blasé about violence on television and violence on the street. They just don't see it. That needs to be changed, and I certainly hope the debate that's starting to arise will go a long way.
Above all, I think we need to look at attitudes. We need to look at the conditioning of our children, especially of young men and boys. The kind of attitudes that say that little boys can't cry, little boys can't hurt and little boys can't feel are extremely damaging. Sadly, the overwhelming majority of violence is done by men, and I think that men and women are starting to say that that's unacceptable. Let's get at the root of the problem and start with the attitudinal changes and the changes in conditioning. I think all of us have a very important role to play in that.
[10:45]
J. Weisgerber: Indeed I think there are some specific things that we can do and should do. I think we have to give our police forces in British Columbia the support they require. I think that has to be, and should be, financial support: the support for services and the support for additional members. We started some of that in 1991. Unfortunately, some of the cutbacks that we've seen have nullified some of those effects.
But we also have to give police the moral support that they need. Police need to have laws that are enforceable. We need to shape our laws in a way that allows police to deal with the problems that they know about and with the people whom they know and identify.
[ Page 4172 ]
And we've got to focus on this issue of youth gangs; we've got to face that issue. We've got to recognize that it is an issue that crosses all economic spheres. Indeed, to say that gang violence is a result of poverty is, at the very best, to close one eye. If we look at the reports coming in now in Vancouver, there are gangs in East Vancouver and on the North Shore that are middle-and upper-middle-class youths, who are organizing themselves into gangs, who are dealing in such a way....
Interjection.
J. Weisgerber: The member asks why. Clearly it's not poverty. It's frustration; it's a series of social problems. These are white, middle-class, Anglo Saxon young men who are involved in one side of these gangs at least. We can't simply say this is an issue of poverty. It's an issue of the society that we're allowing to grow. And we've got to deal toughly with that. There's no sense fooling ourselves into thinking people can be mollycoddled into solving this problem. We've tried that for too long, and we've got to deal with this thing in a way that's effective. That means giving police the powers that they need; it means establishing immigration laws that are effective; and it means establishing deportation regulations that work.
We have gangs that are made up primarily of young male immigrants to this country, and they organize themselves in gangs on ethnic lines.
The Speaker: I regret, hon. member, that your time has expired.
RACIST VIOLENCE
U. Dosanjh: Hon. Speaker, it's very timely, after the last few remarks of the leader of the third party, that I address this issue.
I was moved, in fact, by remarks made by the member for Vancouver-Burrard, who indicated that it's essentially prejudice, ignorance and violence destroying our society and preventing us from dealing with AIDS effectively.
What prompted me to make this statement wasn't really anything that happened on Canadian soil. What prompted me to make this statement initially was what's happening across Europe -- in Germany, in Italy -- and the demonstrations, desecrations of synagogues and the violence that has been perpetrated upon refugees and immigrants, people of colour and others. That prompted me to look at what's happening in Canada and wonder whether we as political leaders of this province and this country are up to the task, whether we are taking that task seriously and addressing that issue seriously -- because it is a worldwide issue.
I'm not going to really make a speech. What I did was get some clippings from the newspapers, and I'm going to just read you the clippings for the last five or six years. Firstly are the clippings from the U.S. and the rest of the world, and then I will come to the clippings from Canada, so that we can see the kinds of things that are happening outside and the kinds of things that are happening in British Columbia.
Let me say at the outset that this is a great place to be in at the end of the twentieth century. This is a beautiful place in which to live and bring up your children. Canada does not have the kinds of problems that the rest of the world is experiencing. Nonetheless, we as a society have a responsibility to be leaders in the global village and also to look at our own issues within Canada.
Financial Post, December 29, 1986, "No Sign Year Ahead Will Be Different. Racial Violence Still a Problem in South Africa"; "The United States -- New Alarm Over Rising Racial Violence," Macleans, February, 1987; "South African Speaker Predicts More Racial Violence," the Sun, August 8, 1988; "Australian Report Documents Racial Violence by Police," the Globe and Mail, April 18, 1991; "Foreign Overdose: The 'Threshold of Tolerance' Towards Immigrants is Crossed, Provoking an Eruption of Racial Violence," Time, July 15, 1991, referring to the situation in France; "When Neo-Nazis Run Free: In Eastern Germany, a New Wave of Racial Violence," Newsweek, July 29, 1991; "Living in Different Worlds on the Same Streets: Tension Between New York Blacks and Jews Burst into Violence. Both Sides Claim to be Victims," August 31, 1991; Vancouver Sun. "Stop the Violence, Germans Demand," and that refers to a November 1991 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press; "Bigotry Begins to Fester in Italy," Globe and Mail, November 11, 1991; "The Right Rises in Europe," Utne Reader, March-April 1992; "Europe's New Right," Newsweek, April 27, 1992; "How Europe's Hostility to Immigrants Hurts Its Drive For Unity and Greater Economic Power," Fortune, July 13, 1992; "Anarchists Mar Anti-Nazi Demo," Vancouver Sun, November 9, 1992.
Now let's come to British Columbia, Canada. "Fanatical Few Fan Fires -- Racist Violence Rocks Northwest." There is a mention of individuals in British Columbia in that story, which dates back to Sunday, January 30, 1985. "Not a Happy Clambake -- Racial Violence Mars B.C.'s Shellfish Industry," Western Report, November 16, 1987.
"'White Bias' or 'Black Crime'? Toronto's Race Crisis," February 1991, Chatelaine; "Racial Violence Flares Again in Halifax," Globe and Mail, July 20, 1991; "Blacks, Whites Fight in Halifax," Sun, July 23, 1991; "Nova Scotia Blacks Demand Solutions to Discrimination. Racial Tensions -- Recent Violence in Halifax Has Focused Attention on a Community Issue That Has Long Been Ignored" -- July 1991, Globe and Mail; "Hate Violence Reaches Crisis," Winnipeg Free Press, October 3, 1991; "Quebec Anti-racist Groups Warn Violence Could Escalate," Globe and Mail, April 21, 1992; "Rage -- Similar Violence Could Erupt in Montreal If Things Go On the Way They Are, Blacks Warn," Montreal Gazette, Saturday, May 2, 1992; "Dark Clouds of Racism Over Canada -- 'The Fact There is Violence Should Surprise Nobody'," Financial Post, May 11, 1992; "Black and Angry," Maclean's, May 18, 1992; "Racism and Violence," Winnipeg Free Press, May 2, 1992.
These are just some of the clippings that I picked to highlight an issue that exists worldwide and that also has been reflected in our lives in British Columbia. We
[ Page 4173 ]
as leaders of this province and country have to understand that if....
Hon. Speaker, I know my time is up. I'll continue my remarks later.
A. Warnke: I did not know I was going to speak on this subject, but as soon as I heard about it, and especially as it was raised by my friend the member for Vancouver-Kensington, I certainly am pleased to respond.
The member quite rightly points out that despite the fact that there has been an increase in violence in Germany, there is a tendency, especially among those in North America, to say: "Well, that's the old country, that's Europe, that's Germany. That just goes to show you what the Germans are like." And so forth. But the fact is that there is a lesson here, and the lesson is this. Twice in this century, Germany has established a very distinctive democratic system of government. Maybe there is something interesting about the German people that motivates them in certain ways to initiate racial violence and so forth. But surely the lesson for us is that democracies are vulnerable, because people are divided. We can't just ignore some of the problems that occur in Europe, Africa, Asia and elsewhere and say: "It's simply over there and is typical of those kinds of regimes establishing democracies." Racial violence can occur anywhere, and racial violence has the potential to undermine any democratic system, including ours. This is the reason I quite agree with some of the opening remarks by the member for Vancouver-Kensington.
It's interesting as well that this subject and the previous one, that of violence in our communities, have come together. We as governments have to concern ourselves with and recognize that there are going to be divisions among people. Divisions concern democracy. Even when widespread and unorganized, intolerance is a factor in shaping public opinion. When it is institutionalized, intolerance is a force for action. One moves from ostracism to outright violence, terror and physical intimidation. What follows -- and this is what concerns us -- is that individuals are dominated first by the group, then by society as a whole, and finally it's institutionalized in the requirements of an oppressive government -- politics based on militancy and authoritarianism. For that reason we in this chamber and in similar chambers across North America and the rest of the world, we who have established democratic regimes, must be sensitive to the question of racially motivated violence.
We are divided into many different communities. Therefore our government has to come to terms with a racially mixed community. Democracies can do much in the way of education, not only in terms of the three R's or something like that but by conveying to the people and impressing upon succeeding generations what it means to be a citizen dedicated to a democratic system of government that will finally resolve the tensions and the problems that exist in our society. There is a reasonable way to go about this: we use the ballot instead of the bullet.
Take a look at some of the reactions to a statement made by one journalist here on Kristallnacht. We have to be constantly aware. There are those in our community whom we have to be vigilant against in order to protect our democratic institutions of government and our individual rights and freedoms. So I applaud those people, including my friend the member for Vancouver-Kensington -- this will be the last time I really make a pitch for him -- who are vigilant and sensitive and concerned. We must remain dedicated against those who would use the divisions that are bound to occur in our communities in order to divide us and somehow subvert our democratic system to another form.
[11:00]
U. Dosanjh: Raul Hilberg, who is an intellectual and a scholar, when speaking about Kristallnacht, "the night of broken glass," in the Germany of many decades ago, said that the difference between Kristallnacht and the present violence in Germany is that Kristallnacht taught the Nazis that open violence against the Jews needed to be bureaucratized so as not to attract the world's condemnation. That's exactly the reason that I was prompted to make this statement today.
To be honest, I have not really heard the President of the United States or leaders across the world stand up to what's happening in Germany and Italy. There is a young Mussolini in Italian parliament who has been elected under the auspices of a new fascist party, and nobody across the world of any stature has stood up and taken notice of these kinds of developments.
If we don't take notice of developments happening across the borders, I am sure we cannot really pay very much attention to what happens within our borders. This is a global village, and we are connected to each other inextricably. We have to pay attention to what goes on across the seas so that we can be wiser and so that history doesn't repeat itself, either here in Canada or across the oceans.
Thank you for the remarks of my friend, the member for Richmond. I appreciate his remarks always, and we always support each other, of course, in times like this.
The Speaker: I would like to thank all hon. members who participated in private members' statements this morning.
Hon. G. Clark: I wish everybody a restful weekend. We'll be back to work on Monday at 2 o'clock.
Hon. G. Clark moved adjournment of the House.
Motion approved.
The House adjourned at 11:03 a.m.
[ Return to Legislative Assembly Home Page ]
Copyright © 1992, 2001: Queen's Printer, Victoria, B.C., Canada