Outrage over Northland Tales program hypocritical

Progressive Conservative MLA Wayne Ewasko was suspended from the Manitoba legislature earlier this month for yelling at Premier Wab Kinew: “You’re drunk, you’re drunk. I thought you quit drinking.”

I talked about the racist comment in my weekly Free Press newsletter Biidaajimowin: News from the Centre (check it out at wfp.to/niigaan).

Racism is not an individual problem, it’s a community problem.

A single person doesn’t make racist comments without learning them from someone else.

In the same vein: spreading misinformation, lies, and stereotypes harms a community because it facilitates and emboldens harmful behaviour that promotes division and expedites real-life violence.

In order to stop racism, therefore, everyone must stand up to it.

This means that, any time racist acts are witnessed, they must be identified and addressed in the interests of creating peace and facilitating justice.

Simply put: one doesn’t stop harm by responding with harm.

This is how civil society doesn’t become a place where mud-slinging leads to gun-shooting, tit-for-tat anarchy.

In other words, leaders in any society who claim to be civil must act in the interests of civility.

Ask our colleagues at the CBC and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network if they are learning that lesson now.

Full disclosure: I regularly — and proudly — appear on air for both of these national institutions.

This is why I must say something now.

Recently, the CBC and APTN partnered to co-produce a satirical television show called Northland Tales.

The show is, according to the Indigenous Screen Office, an “unscripted, half-hour comedy series where an Indigenous activist trio uses pranks as a form of social action.”

If you don’t know what this means, think in the style of “gotcha” TV in which comedians such as Sacha Baron Cohen, playing the character of Borat, trick people to enter situations where they say or do things that unveil, often brutally, their political views.

While producing episodes, the Indigenous creators of Northland Tales targeted conservative pundits who deny the atrocities of residential schools and celebrate individuals such as Sir John A. Macdonald. They also targeted former RCMP officers — one of whom is known for saying he is “tired of apologizing” to Indigenous Peoples for Canada’s harms.

The show intended to “flip the script” on the tactics of their subjects — many of whom spread misinformation, stereotypes and try their own “gotcha” moments on social media by targeting Indigenous people such as myself.

The creators of the show told former officers they would be recognized for their service, but they were unexpectedly asked about the history of the RCMP harming Indigenous children during the residential school period.

Predictably, the interviewees of Northland Tales feel duped and are angry.

The National Police Federation attacked the networks that co-produced the show and demanded an inquiry into why the show was funded.

It said their members were “deceived, insulted and publicly shamed at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.”

Federal and provincial Conservative politicians — most of whom have advocated for de-funding of public broadcasting — have condemned the show.

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney called the show “appalling” while British Columbia Conservative MP Aaron Gunn said it was “trying to entrap, trick and deceive some of the individuals who have been very outspoken in defending Canada’s first prime minister.”

In response, administrators at the CBC have stopped production on Northland Tales and the show will likely never be broadcast.

This may be a good thing, but not because of bruised feelings and anti-public broadcasting sentiment.

This is about free speech.

It’s crucial to note that virtually all of the individuals complaining about their time on Northland Tales are self-claimed defenders of “free speech.”

The issue with free speech is those who chant its praises don’t get to cherry-pick when something is said and done that one doesn’t like.

The show might have been in bad taste and demonstrate dubious ethics, but so were the universities, Canadian voters, and police selection boards who hired, trained, and supported pundits and officers who demonstrate bad taste and use dubious ethics.

In other words, it’s perfectly fine to criticize the administrators of CBC and APTN who chose to co-produce a show that sowed division — but they were doing their job.

In fact: most of the individuals who appeared on Northland Tales have appeared on these same networks to proudly spread their equally divisive views (and certainly are getting time on them now).

The problem is that mud-slinging isn’t stopped by slinging more mud.

The concept behind Northland Tales is an attempt to harmfully engage with a set of harmful beliefs and behaviours.

A show such as this, while clickbait worthy and maybe even funny at times, isn’t what a civil society should strive for.

All leaders, whether in government, public broadcasting or when writing a column, should make choices that empower everyone to stand up to racism, misinformation, and violence together.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca