Let’s Be Frank About Rights: Checking Your Privilege, Fear & Insecurity

Yesterday, I found myself in a heated debate with someone. He was having a side conversation with my fiance Petar, saying how in his home country, women wearing niqabs or burkas are required by law to show their faces. They went on to discuss how these head and face coverings are rooted in patriarchal oppression from Islamic extremists, how no woman would ever choose to wear one (eerily sounding like a certain Canadian Prime Minister).

At that point, he turned to me as if I would agree. Of course, I didn’t.

I found myself in almost an hour long, exhausting battle back and forth about women’s rights, freedom of expression, security, and everything in between. Afterwards, Petar told me that he thought at one point we would never speak to each other again.

The problem was not that he had this opinion. He is entitled to the fundamental freedom of “thought, belief, opinion and expression” (Charter of Rights and Freedoms). In fact, public opinion in Canada last year when Harper’s niqab debate rose up was strongly in favour of banning the niqab from citizenship ceremonies (side note: as the article suggests, it shouldn’t be about public opinion, it should be about individual rights and the rule of law).

It was the fact that his opinion was rooted in more troubling indicators that I couldn’t help but try to bring to his attention – with little to no success:

Being Canadian: What Does That Mean?

I was on the phone with a customer service representative this morning. Right before I hung up, he told me, “Happy Fourth of July.” What was strange about that exchange was that he didn’t know I was a Canadian customer, and he still celebrated his country’s day of independence with a stranger on the other side of his headset.

Every time I’ve been to the States, especially small towns, most houses have American flags above their doorsteps. While watching Macy’s fireworks last year in New York, I saw a sea of stars and stripes, whether they were blazoned on t-shirts, tattooed on faces, or printed on themed paraphernalia.

We were also watching a few Euro 2016 games this weekend, and the countries who played in the particular matches have their sections of the stands where their fans congregate. We were watching the Germany vs. Italy nail-biting game, and my Italian friend wore his signature blue “Italia” shirt, shouting at the screen “Come on!” every time his team missed. The hypnotic sounds of the Icelandic cheer, speeding up in tempo as the fans grew excited, dominated the stands in the France vs. Iceland match. This display was even more surprising given the small population on that island (about 323,000).

What does patriotism and loyalty to a country mean? What does it mean to be a part of a nation? How do we define who we are based on our nationality/nationalities?

---

Looking back on the Canada Day long weekend, I don’t think many others around the world know what July 1st means to Canadians. What I also find funny is that Canadians can’t often explain what Canada Day means to them as well.