We hoped things would miraculously improve after a deadly attack that claimed six lives in Quebec City on January 29, 2017.
Instead, we lost more lives to hatred. Overall police-reported hate crimes have soared to new heights across Canada.
The root cause of the issue is not the perpetrators of these crimes. The root cause is our ignorance about the perceived “other.”
Other myths and misunderstandings compound our ignorance, leading to our worst nightmares and beyond.
Despicable crimes committed by some individuals don’t make all Muslims, Christians, and Jews guilty or their religion or any other identity responsible for their heinous acts by default.
Whatever our differences in identity, we have in common our status as sentient human beings: living, breathing, feeling human beings who can experience pain and suffering and humiliation and deserve to have their dignity as human beings equally respected.
We must go beyond soundbites and sensationalism that divide us to counter our ignorance. We need to learn and teach our young kindness and compassion.
We need to learn to treat each other not based on what we are as a result of our genes or the circumstances but kindly and compassionately based on what we do and, above all, on the decency or not with which we behave toward our fellow human beings.
