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I don't want to re-read the entire thread but I agree that torontocheeka is heavily overstating the role of guns in the US. I find it hard to believe that someone with family in the US has "never ever felt safe" in the US. You can usually tell who has spent time in the US and Canada and who is only regurgitating what they see in the media.
I literally go to the US every year. Try again.
Or maybe you, too, can tell me how I'm "not black" but am very wrong to hold my opinion that there is more racism against blacks in the US.
I'm sorry that my having an informed opinion leaves you so incredulous. I guess maybe that's incongruous with your culture to not just feel or sense something, but actually read and see if there is any validity to your perception.
Look MattCassidy, my own mother tries to tell me not to freak out when I go to the States that I'm going to get raped or shot, but I remind her that a Canadian was just seeing a movie in a darkened theatre (in a very white state, Colorado) when she got shot dead. It can happen at any time.
My own cousin who lives near Flatbush in Brooklyn had warned me that I can't dress a certain way walking down the street because it would be taken as an invitation for male attention and if I didn't reciprocate properly or act flattered enough, I could be killed. So yeah, when your own family member living there tells you that, and then 4 months later it makes the news that that actually happened to a black woman there recently, it makes you feel a little scared for your life. It is what it is.
Sorry but are you being facetious here? In order to get a Muslim mayor there the place had to first become a Muslim-majority city? You use this as an example right after I said, "Can you see a Muslim being elected mayor without Muslims being the demographic majority?"
..... thanks for the lulz?
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Did you read the first article or any of the others?
Neither Dearborn nor Hamtramck have Muslim mayors, but other cities and towns do, where there are hardly Muslim majority populations. One of the articles does point out, however, that Hamtramck has a Muslim-majority population, as does Dearborn, and it's had the Muslim call to prayer 5 times per day for years. There are Muslim elected officials throughout the country. New York Public Schools now recognizes a couple of Muslim holidays. In the Metro Detroit suburbs where I used to live, Jewish holidays were official school holidays as well, and had been for years. Etc, etc, etc.
Where does any of this occur in Canada? I am Canadian, as well as American, btw, and a child of immigrants, so I, too, am quite aware of the differences between the two countries. Canadians are not less "racist" than Americans in any way, shape, or form.
Have you ever lived outside of the GTA? Even in another city in Ontario?
Did you read the first article or any of the others?
Neither Dearborn nor Hamtramck have Muslim mayors, but other cities and towns do, where there are hardly Muslim majority populations. One of the articles does point out, however, that Hamtramck has a Muslim-majority population, as does Dearborn, and it's had the Muslim call to prayer 5 times per day for years. There are Muslim elected officials throughout the country. New York Public Schools now recognizes a couple of Muslim holidays. In the Metro Detroit suburbs where I used to live, Jewish holidays were official school holidays as well, and had been for years. Etc, etc, etc.
Where does any of this occur in Canada? I am Canadian, as well as American, btw, and a child of immigrants, so I, too, am quite aware of the differences between the two countries. Canadians are not less "racist" than Americans in any way, shape, or form.
Have you ever lived outside of the GTA? Even in another city in Ontario?
I have lived outside of Toronto. I have family from my paternal side (who I don't talk to anymore) that live in Montreal. I have read about how St. John's is the "Mississippi of the North."
Again, I never said Canada was perfect.
I asked very pointedly how joining America and importing in their problems (which I definitely do believe are worse there for minorities, but it depends on what matters to you, if it's social acceptance, personal safety, or money-making potential) would help improve our own situation. What would we get out of it? No one has been able to answer that question.
Really? Why not just ask me what is the relationship between a deadly weapon that can kill only one person at a time vs. a deadly weapon that can kill dozens at a time? I have seen no evidence that Canadians stab people at lower rates than Americans do, only that we have a lower number of firearm homicides per capita... which makes sense, since there are fewer people with guns. A lower number of firearm homicides = a lower number of overall homicides per capita. Because no one has ever heard of one person committing a "mass stabbing."
Japan effectively eliminated firearm deaths from the country, which effectively lowered the homicide rate to almost nothing. It's a lot easier to control the influx of guns when you're on an island though.
In Canada you can legally own exactly the same type of guns you can own in the US...no more no less, including AR-15s...you have to go through more hoops but nothing prevents John Doe from Vancouver or Calgary to own a semi automatic rifle...and to go nuts if a wire trips in his brain....
By the way, Canada has a fairly high gun ownership rate (#12 in the world)...and Switzerland?? #4.....how many mass shooting the poor Swiss have every year??
It's cultural my dear....
Before you say it...are you one of these people that believe you can buy an "assault rifle" in the US?? Let's clarify, no you cannot buy an assault rifle in America...fully automatic weapons were already restricted since 1934 and effectively banned by 1968...you can only own (with a special permit) fully automatic weapons produced before that date and they are all squirreled away in wealthy collector safes and are worth their weight in gold...nobody use them in crimes.
What about these cute Remington 742 that millions of granpas in Canada and the US used for decades to hunt deer in the wooden areas of the continent...they definitely look less "scary" than the black evil AR don't they??...too bad they are much more deadly....firing a cartridge about 3 times as powerful as an AR at the same rate of fire....should we ban these too??
Last edited by saturno_v; 02-04-2016 at 10:38 PM..
In Canada you can legally own exactly the same type of guns you can own in the US...no more no less, including AR-15s...you have to go through more hoops but nobody prevent John Doe from Vancouver or Calgary to own a semi automatic rifle...and to go nuts if a wire trips in his brain....
By the way, Canada has a fairly high gun ownership rate (#12 in the world)...and Switzerland?? #4.....how many mass shooting the poor Swiss have every year??
It's cultural my dear....
Before you say it...are you one of these people that believe you can by an "assault rifle" in the US?? Let's clarify, no you cannot buy an assault rifle in America...fully automatic weapons were already restricted since 1934 and effectively banned by 1968...you can only own (with a special permit) fully automatic weapons produced before that date and they are all squirreled away in wealthy collector safes and are worth their weight in gold...nobody use them in crimes.
What about these cute Remington 742 that millions of granpas in Canada and the US used for decades to hunt deer in the wooden areas of the continent...they definitely look less "scary" than the black evil AR don't they??...too bad they are much more deadly....firing a cartridge about 3 times as powerful as an AR at the same rate of fire....should we ban these too??
Could you please provide data to back up your assertions? Church attendance, the most blatant indicator that exists for a given populace's religiosity, shows that Canadians as a whole don't go to church anywhere near as much as Americans do. Could you provide data that shows otherwise?
I'll wait.
So? So what? Are people hurting anyone by attending church (which I do not do)?
Tell me: do you use the same measuring stick to "prove" the lack of sophistication of Muslims, Sihks and Orthodox Jews? Do you sneer at THEIR religiosity? Will you consider Syrian refugees somehow less intelligent and more intolerant because they adhere to their religious principles and -- gasp! -- worship at the mosque (and stop to pray 5 times per day)?
My own cousin who lives near Flatbush in Brooklyn had warned me that I can't dress a certain way walking down the street because it would be taken as an invitation for male attention and if I didn't reciprocate properly or act flattered enough, I could be killed. So yeah, when your own family member living there tells you that, and then 4 months later it makes the news that that actually happened to a black woman there recently, it makes you feel a little scared for your life. It is what it is.
Sorry but I have to ask you...what kind of neighborhoods you hang around when in the US??
I walk comfortably at night in what is considered the worst area in Seattle...
So? So what? Are people hurting anyone by attending church (which I do not do)?
Tell me: do you use the same measuring stick to "prove" the lack of sophistication of Muslims, Sihks and Orthodox Jews? Do you sneer at THEIR religiosity? Will you consider Syrian refugees somehow less intelligent and more intolerant because they adhere to their religious principles and -- gasp! -- worship at the mosque (and stop to pray 5 times per day)?
No, I didnt think so. Of course not.
Wow, oversensitive much? Did I SAY you're hurting anyone? The man said that we're just as religious as Americans are, and I said that is not true. If you want to take offense to that, that is your own problem. I can say that I have a right to like that I live in a largely secular province. I have a right to like that my peers are largely secular and non-practising members of whatever religion they were indoctrinated into. Also, what do Syrian refugees have to do with this conversation? Emotionally manipulative much?
Honestly, you're being a baby. My only point is that cultures - even neighbouring cultures - can be different. Why do you think countries should not have the right to national sovereignty? Do you realize that in making this argument you inadvertently make a strong case for disallowing ALL mass immigration by being rather creepy about it yourself?
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