Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Case of Nerene Virgin

We were sent a message concerning the case of Nerene Virgin, a former CBC journalist and candidate in Hamilton for the Liberal Party of Ontario. Since our lead writer has very fond memories of Ms. Virgin from her time on, "Today's Special" we were very interested in what she has been happening in her life:

Nerene Virgin ran for the Ontario Provincial Liberals in the 2007 election.  Her main reason for doing so was to provide a positive role model for her race and thus undermine some of the racist attitudes that still exist in our country and particularly in Ontario.  She comes from a family who have been fighting for civil rights for over a century.  Her father has both the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada for his efforts.  

Unfortunately, when Nerene ran for public office in 2007 she was attacked by the local media in Hamilton not on policy but because of the colour of her skin.  Se was called a "Tar Baby" twice in an article and it was stated that the Liberals were running her only because they didn't want to run a "bland, white male"!  Naturally, she had no choice but to take legal action when a belated apology basically stated that unintended ignorance of the author led to this hate speech.  When the case goes to court I am confident that malice will be proven.

Nerene has stood alone since these racist attacks.  The Liberal Party has shunned her.  As they stated, "We need the paper on our side!"  The governing Liberal Party, who are the gate keepers of Human Rights in this province, would rather allow hate than stand by an African Canadian.

Currently her case should be coming before mandatory mediation.  The Metroland lawyers, from my point of view, appear to be in a stall tactic.  Metroland finds it difficult to agree on a mediator so this should last a while.  Eventually, I believe that Nerene will win her case.  That being said, there is still the question of what is the long term result.  You can see the overall representation of Blacks on City Councils and as Members of both Provincial and Federal Parliaments. Some people wonder why this lack of representation exists but from my point of view it could very well be regarded as a type of "Political Apartheid".  It is systemic racism at its worst.

Nerene was a journalist with CBC for over a decade so she was well versed on what is legal and what isn't when reporting.  She knew her case was nothing short of outrageous from the onset.  Yet the Liberals disappeared like rats from a sinking ship after the first day she objected to the attack.  Pressure from the paper could be a likely culprit.


We managed to find a copy of the article that the above commentor is referring to:



While the newspaper did apologize, it seems that the damage had been done.


We focus mainly on the thugs on the streets who promote racism as well as their, "suit and tie" enablers like Paul Fromm, however we should be reminded that the struggle for equality still needs to be fought for at much higher levels as well.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Top level Ontario Liberals have just affirmed their endorsement of racism. They have hand-picked as their candidate the managing editor of the very newspapers that racially slurred and sabotaged Nerene - maligned her week after week, printed known lies, and distortions. Worse, this Metroland editor replaces Nerene in her riding. This while the Liberals have absolutely ostracized her. The victim is further punished and look who is rewarded!
Dalton McGuinty has known of the racist slur from the outset. I guess he is not a fan of "Today's Special" or people "like" Nerene.

Anonymous said...

fyi- there are some b&h posters up around forest lawn again.

Anonymous said...

Speaking about the posters in calgary. There are also a bunch of Blood and "honour" fliers up in the Lessard and Collingwood area of Edmonton. Every where you turn you find a flier, I tore down lots of them but its too much effort for all. There's also a swastika sprayed on 2 separate bus shelters too...

Anonymous said...

I also see they have added fliers to the blood and honour site. Is this the boneheads putting them up or just some other dumb fuck?

the Nazi Killer of 124 said...

A close friend says he saw a group of 6-8 "Nazis" while in line at the bottle depot in Callingwood, walking down the street towards W.E. Village from 178, yelling "Sieg Heil!". Description was young to mid 20s shaved heads, skinny, and obviously white, males. Carrying a side-bag and one with a backpack, also one of the taller ones was wearing a camoflage style jacket. Would have been on Sat july 23 around 1-4pm. I also took my son to the park just west of there probably 6mo. ago and I saw swastikas sprayed in black on two public buildings...