Next Thursday, Collin May is scheduled to become Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission for a five-year term.
It is incumbent upon Mr. May, however, to do the right thing and resign from the commission before he takes office as its chief.
Nothing good is likely to come from his taking the job – least of all for the United Conservative Party Government that is ultimately responsible for his promotion.
When the appointment of the Calgary lawyer who has been an AHRC tribunal member for the past three years was announced by Tyler Shandro on May 25, the justice minister said he was “thrilled that someone with Collin’s skills and experience will serve our province as the chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission.”
But last Thursday, the Progress Report revealed that in 2009, Mr. May authored an article that can fairly be described as Islamophobic and offensive in a Calgary online publication called C2C Journal, which is affiliated with the former Manning Centre in Calgary.
Mr. May opined in C2C Journal that “Islam is not a peaceful religion misused by radicals” but is “one of the most militaristic religions known to man,” in an enthusiastic review of a then-new book by controversial Israeli academic and polemicist Efraim Karsh.
Professor Karsh may be “one of the best writers on the Middle East,” as Mr. May described him in his 2,700-word review of “Islamic Imperialism: A History.” Or he may be a historian “who follows the fashionable trend of wholesale denigration of Islam and the Arabs, and whose political interests clearly dominate his terminology and historical analysis,” as one scholar put it in a less favourable review.
Be that as it may, Mr. May’s tub-thumping on behalf of the book’s thesis clearly disqualifies him from any role with the Alberta Human Rights Commission now, let alone as the commission’s chief.
And despite the Stampede cone of silence that seems to have descended over the story since it was published by the media project run by Progress Alberta, that needs to be addressed by either Mr. May himself or the Alberta Government this week.
In a statement to the Progress Report, Mr. May said he has changed his views about Islam and Muslims.
“I wish to state clearly that I do not believe or accept the characterization of Islam as a militant religion or movement, especially in light of important recent and diverse scholarship that is working to overcome misconceptions regarding Muslim history and philosophy,” he wrote. “I commit to continuing my personal education about Islam, and all faiths, in my role as Chief.”
Unfortunately, this is not good enough. Mr. May’s ability to lead the commission has been clearly compromised by the 2009 publication in C2C Journal, which should have been discovered during the vetting process before his appointment was announced.
As Faisal Bhabha, professor of law at Osgoode Hall in Toronto who served on the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario between 2008 and 2011, told the Progress Report: “It’s impossible to think that this person could be effective at combating Islamophobia or even interested in understanding Islamophobia.” However, he later told AlbertaPolitics.ca, “if May’s recent statement is sincere and acted upon, it could represent evidence of a person learning to become effective at combating Islamophobia.”
In a report the next day by Calgary City News, the only mainstream media outlet to cover the story, National Council of Canadian Muslims Alberta Advocacy Officer Said Omar called Mr. May’s views “very stereotypical, they are views that Muslims do not hold to, and unfortunately these types of views further contribute to the stigmatization of an entire community.”
A statement from Mr. Shandro’s office to City News indicated the government doesn’t share the views expressed in the book review and that the ministry is aware of the concerns of the Muslim community, but gave no hint of what, if anything, they propose to do about it.
NDP Justice Critic Irfan Sabir was much blunter. “The statements published by Collin May in 2009 are overtly racist and Islamophobic,” he said. “This explicit prejudice is – obviously – completely unacceptable for the chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, whose mandate is to combat exactly these kinds of hateful views.”
“May has not apologized for his published statements or demonstrated that he has any insight into how they contribute to rising hate-motivated violence towards Muslims in Alberta and across Canada,” Mr. Sabir said in a statement sent to media. “He must apologize and step down or be removed from the commission.”
In his statement to Progress Alberta, Mr. May said accurately that in his review he “agreed with elements of the author’s position and rejected others.”
However, it is fair to conclude upon reading the review that it is in substantial agreement with Dr. Karsh’s controversial argument throughout, only taking issue with a minor point briefly made in the book’s epilogue.
It is also important to note that C2C Journal is not a scholarly publication. Its website describes it as platforming “longer form journalism that provides more substance than most mainstream news products and is more engaging than most academic journals,” and says it has an “unabashed bias is in favour of free markets, democratic governance and individual liberty.”
Mr. May’s review would fit most of this description of C2C Journal’s self-described mission. It does not, however, seem like an academic book review to this reader.
C2C Journal also published the controversial 2013 story by former Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper speechwriter Paul Bunner that dismissed the widespread understanding of what happened in Canada’s residential schools as “a bogus genocide.”
Whether or not Mr. May has recanted his past views and repented for them, the damage has been done and cannot be undone.
Mr. May needs to step aside for the good of the commission and the rights of Albertans.
It has to be remembered that if you want the UCP government to appoint you to an office, you have to do something that is egregious to the effectively and ethical functioning of that office.
I mean it’s not like there’s supposed to be competent people in government. Heck, the UCP wants all its appointees to be lazy, corrupt, and be capable of acting with varying degrees of stupidity at all times.
Yeah not a good look for the ucp or Albertans. Either they are not competent to vet their candidate, and Albertans elected incompetents, or they thought it was okay, in which case Albertans elected racists. Or Albertans elected incompetent racists. No reason it can’t be both I guess.
And boy did we get them
Why are the darkest hearts with the worst motives first in line to don a thin glossy veneer of civility and decency to lead the people?
Oh right .
Human base programing.
Selfish , self centered and greedy with no limits.
Not all religious people are evil, but ALL religions are a source of violence and persecution, and to silence discussion on it is nonsense.
If that was the position being taken we could have a reasonable conversation about that. Unfortunately, only one religion has been singled out for criticism in this case.
You’re thinking of markets friend.
Once again a perfect example of a Reformer saying or doing what ever it takes to get elected. Would you trust him to tell the truth? I am reminded about Danielle Smith’s lame attempt at fooling Albertans when trying to become premier. One day she didn’t believe in Global Warming, and saw nothing wrong with what our air pollution was doing to us, while oilmen were saying it was. She didn’t believe in same sex marriages, and wanted to see the privatization of our health care, and education systems. Yet when she started to realize what it was doing to her chances of getting elected all of a sudden she changed her mind. She didn’t believe in any of it anymore. Thankfully Albertans weren’t dumb enough to believe her lies. To quote the former MLAs I knew “Don’t ever trust a Reformer. Destroying jobs and spreading lies is what they do best, while they help the rich steal the peoples tax and oil wealth, in an effort to buy votes.”
Now after Jason Kenney created a nightmare for our doctors and nurses driving some of them out of the system he is once again bashing Trudeau for not providing the provinces with a lot more money to try to replace the ones he drove out. How stupid does he think we are?
Yet his pal Pierre Poilievre brought his lies to the Calgary Stampede and 1,400 were there believing every lie he fed them. In true Wild West fashion he told Trudeau that Canadians need their handguns. Of course he likely couldn’t explain why. Of course the re-neck hillbillies, as friends call them, thought that it was a wonderful idea. You would think Albertans would be smart enough to see through this brand of stupidity, after what Ralph Klein did to us, but many aren’t.
“Onward Christian soldier”, right?
Such hypocrites.
The history of most religions is the history of violence in the name of a supposedly all-loving and all-caring god.
Christianity, you’re thinking of Christianity.
An Alberta conservative with integrity? BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It would sure be nice to know if Mr. May revised his beliefs as part of his own personal growth, or if he waited until it was in his best interest to change his beliefs.
I would suggest the latter is more than likely. Claim to be reformed only after you are outed.
I wonder whether it was sloppy vetting by Shandro, or they were aware of it and just didn’t think it was a big deal. I suspect that is just as likely. I suppose sloppy either way.
Maybe this sort of thing wouldn’t matter as much if the guy was being appointed to the Cattle Commission or something like that, but it seems like he may not be the right person for the Human Rights Commission.
However, I suspect the UCP will probably go ahead with this and dismiss concerns as they usually do. If so, unfortunately people will then wonder if they will get a fair hearing at the Human Rights Commission, but perhaps that is another goal of the UCP, to diminish or destroy its credibility. Their lackadaisical approach to governing sometimes just seems careless, but I think that may be a cover for their ideological agenda.
This is a matter of trust and the questions are: can Mr May be trusted to meet not only the impartiality required of the human rights commission, but to understand fully the issues involved with human rights offences such as Islamophobia? These issues have, more recently than May’s 2009 endorsement of a highly bigoted prejudice of Islam, manifest in the assaults and killings of Canadian citizens of Islamic faith. It’s simply not academic.
Second: can anyone trust May’s motivation for disclaiming his damning comments? Without providing further detail to his blithe statement that he’s ‘changed,’ how can anyone not suspect that keeping his cushy appointment isn’t his primary motivation?
The second matter of trust might not be as damning as the first, but it does tip the scale against investment of public trust in this disqualifiable officer.
With publicity brought to bear on this appointee through invaluable sources like this one —all the more so because of the dearth of coverage by other news media, particularly mainstream—it seems likely that Mr May will become persona non grata among UCP candidates looking with trepidation at the fast approaching leadership, and steadily-nearing general elections with increasing sensitivity to the neo-right’s perennial bugbears of bozo-eruptions which have skewered them many times before, each one, now, a reference to the present question. It will be easier to get rid of him—nay, it will probably be an accolade for whomever demands it— than to defend the indefensible.
If he was honourable, he would have resigned already. But, either way, its never too late.
Thnx, DJC
The phrase “Islamophobia” really steams my cheese. When people discriminate against black or indigenous or Jewish people, we don’t say that are afraid of those peoples, we (correctly) call them racists. “Islamaphobes” are not “afraid of Islam,” they “discriminate against Islamic people. ” It is just another form of racism, but society gives them a fig leaf to hide behind, because society doesn’t want to acknowledge its own racism. Again.
Fwiw to the best of my knowledge all western intelligence agencies agree that the greatest terrorist threat is from white male Christian evangelicals, and has been for years.
Neil: It’s awkward, I agree, but widely accepted – as is Russophobia and, soon, I imagine, Sinophobia, to describe hatred, rather than fear. The term’s greatest sin, in my opinion, is not that it’s a new usage, but that it’s ambiguous. Nevertheless, we all know what is meant. Calling Islmophobes racists is also ambiguous, since while almost all Islamophobes are racist and motivated by racism, not all Muslims are members of one race, any more than are all Christians. Finally, and importantly, the term is acceptable to the Muslim community. Accordingly, I can live with it. DJC
I wasn’t calling you out, hope it didn’t come across that way. If I want to communicate with people I should choose words based on what my audience will understand. This is just a rant I go off about periodically.
Neil: I didn’t think you were calling me out. It’s an interesting question, and when I first became aware of the term, my reaction was similar to yours for the same reason. I thought it would be interesting to put down my logic for embracing the term. DJC
It’s a bit like using the term “anti-Semitism” to describe hatred against adherents of the Jewish faith. “Semites”, or “Semitic-speaking peoples”, are terms used by archaeological & linguists for linguistic-cultural groups of people in the ancient Near East, among whom were speakers of Aramaic & Hebrew.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Semitic-speaking_peoples
While Judaism as a religion arose in that region of the world, and its first adherents were indeed among the Semitic peoples, it has long since evolved to include a wide variety of ethnicities among its faithful. “Anti-Judaism” would be a more accurate formulation, but that’s not the word we use.
I should also note that the Venn diagram of Islamophobes & Anti-Semites has a huge overlap of people who hate both groups in roughly equal measure.
DJC, This is an interesting observation. I wonder when the “phobe” suffix started to be put on to describe something someone dislikes vs is afraid of. Any idea? Was Islamophobia the first iteration? As you suggest Mr. May’s view should probably be called anti-Islam or maybe something more specific. Yes we get the idea, but isn’t that the problem – we accept things that aren’t correct? I think that was one of Neil’s points.
Take Indonesia for example, something like 90% of Indonesians are Muslims but amongst them there are very many races. I can be a bit pedantic but “Islamophobia” certainly is ambiguous and not accurate.
Mickey: On its face, Islamophobia means fear of Islam. Practically speaking, especially in Canada, Islamophobia is usually an expression of racism, even though many Muslims are white. As for the phobia suffix as a way to describe and define various forms of bigotry, the first usage I can recall was homophobia. Interestingly, that term retains its currency and acceptability even as the awkward LGBTQ2S+ and variants have have become more acceptable. DJC
Y’all know they appointed him on purpose. Cmon, it’s not an accident; the UCP unaware of something he wrote for the Manning Centre !? They vetted him for* his hatred of Muslims from where I’m sitting
I’m with you Bird. No mistake, they knew it and wanted it. It remains to be seen what the impact will be…
It’s going to get harder and harder to try and defend the UCP, but people still will do it. Hopefully, in 2023, or 2024, the UCP will not be in power anymore.
Of course they know that spewing hatred normalizes it. When a government encourages this sort of thing, it legitimizes it.
The UCP government has shown Albertans who they are. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
And if there wasn’t a need for another distraction, there’s another distraction…
September 1st been proclaimed Alberta Day. Realizing that his legacy is virtually non-existent, let only anything to be proud of, Occasional-Premier Kenney’s announcement left him proud and his chest full. However this important day, honouring the mere existence of something called Alberta, will not be a stat holiday. It will be a holiday, like National Wear Your Pants Backwards Day, of no consequence and barely observed. I suppose they will be a bunch of Convoy LARPERs out there, who will consider it a day to yell, “FreeDUMB!” at the tops of their lungs. But other than that, a day of extraordinary meaninglessness.
In the same timeframe, he published a separate article where he argued that “various government programs and movements that seek to render society increasingly inclusive” are farcical “liberal pretensions”. Weird and troubling to put him in charge of the government organization most centrally responsible for promoting EDI.
Well, his appointment makes perfect sense in a mad-UCP world.
They appointed someone who will defend rich white anglo Protestant men from imaginary discrimination.
A human rights commission to protect white men. This is perfectly on brand for Alberta. Everyday gets harder to admit I live in this province.
I have been a Notley supporter for years but this May issue is making me reconsider the people I should be aligning my vote with. Suppose I (male, white skin, generally Christian beliefs) write a book that is highly critical of Catholicism and makes explicit linkages between the nefarious ambitions of the religion and past conflicts. Another individual then writes a book report and largely agrees with my conclusions. Does that make them an overt white-bashing racist, not worthy of public office? Does that render them unable to represent or consider the view points of Catholics, or even unable to separate the individual from the individual’s religion? I think not. But I don’t expect to get any agreement here.
Bad faith politics hurts everybody, especially those who inculcate it.
https://c2cjournal.ca/2022/07/rush-to-outrage-the-case-of-collin-may/