At 12:01 am this morning the newsroom strike at the Chronicle Herald officially entered its 12th week. To celebrate the occasion an anonymous scab reporter at the Herald wrote the craziest fucking thing to come out of the paper since the strike began. The story is absolutely incredible – by which I mean it lacks any credibility at all. But it’s also dangerous and xenophobic and plays into the worst stereotypes about muslims, children of colour and immigrants in general.
Racists will use this as proof that immigrants are some sort of otherworldy demons, children from a war torn region of the world who are trying to fit in in a new country have been slandered by anonymous parents talking to an anonymous hack reporter and the Herald has proven definitively that as long as this strike is ongoing it hasn’t just lost its title as Nova Scotia’s paper of record but that it is barely even a newspaper at all.
It’s hard to explain how fucking crazy it is so I will just show you my favourite quotes:
This here is “Missy.” She is one of the two parents quoted anonymously as the only sources to this story. Weirdly the other parent chose not to go by a pseudonym. But Missy always wanted to be called Missy, I guess. Also strangely the reporter does not appear to have tried to speak to the alleged assailants or their parents to get comment. Having once been a child I know that 100% of the things I told my parents in elementary school were completely and totally accurate and should have been portrayed as such in a major newspaper without any attempt by the reporter to verify or double check my story as told by my loving parents. Yup.
This is the fourth paragraph. A real newspaper actually published this! A REAL FUCKING NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED THIS PARAGRAPH. This is some Breitbart or Infowars shit. How did a reporter and an editor, even a scab reporter and scab editor, read this and decide that you can publish it? They assaulted her TWICE using a chain? On the playground? Two days apart they assaulted another student with a chain and tried to choke her to death?!
Was it the same chain? Was it hidden somewhere on site or did they carry it in their bags? Were they riding some sort of War Rig like in Mad Max: Fury Road? Why didn’t the reporter ask these question? Importantly our intrepid journalist friend did make sure to ask if Missy could confirm the size or exact work load limit of the chain. (I am going to go out on a limb and assume that she can’t do either of those things because it doesn’t fucking exist)
I almost don’t even want to acknowledge the idea that the kids yelled “MUSLIMS RULE THE WORLD!” It’s the most outlandish part of the story and the part that should have made the reporter hang up the phone. First, as the article later mentions, the kids don’t even really speak English. That’s an unlikely first sentence for an immigrant child and is more likely to come from the mind of a racist talking to an incompetent reporter. Second, it’s a pretty unlikely thing to just blurt out in heat of the moment. Don’t believe me? Try yelling “MUSLIMS RULE THE WORLD” out loud. Right now. Do it. And try not to laugh afterwards. Just listen to how fucking insane it sounds.
Yo maybe this one actually happened. Athletes love doing this shit and elementary aged kids love doing dumb shit while playing sports. But the reporter writing that “refugee students” do it is totally fucking irresponsible and tars all these kids with the same brush. That throat slashing motion also isn’t a big deal. Like it’s a thing kids should be told to stop doing because it is rude, but it’s only a big deal if you already assume awful things about the person doing it (or in this case if you already assume awful things about ALL THE REFUGEE CHILDREN AT THE SCHOOL BECAUSE THAT’S WHO THE IRRESPONSIBLE REPORTER IS IMPLICATING IN THIS GARBAGE ARTICLE)
What?! They cancelled all intramural sports because some kids may or may not have made an innocuous but rude hand gesture? That seems crazy! There must be a more reasonable explanation for this!
Oh. Well then. Carry on.
(But seriously, if that’s the explanation then maybe that throat slashing thing either didn’t happen or isn’t a big deal)
Yo, bullying is a real things and kids of any age should not be slapping other kids. Schools need to do something about that. But including this incident and to say that the person who slapped this kid did it because they are a refugee is totally… wait… This anecdote doesn’t say anything about the assailant being a refugee at all. This appears to be a totally unrelated incident that was just dropped in to make this xenophobic piece of garbage writing even more inflammatory. Christ all fucking mighty. What a disaster.
(also: why doesn’t she get a cool pseudonym?)
Oh I see. After Missy and the reporter accuse these refugee children of being monsters who choke innocent Canadian girls with chains of unknown strength and imply that they’re little ISIS executioners in training our anonymous journalist and pseudonymous mom think this is just a linguistic misunderstanding. Gotcha. Too bad there aren’t some sort of experts the scab reporter could call up and talk to about the challenges facing refugee children and the institutions that need to try to help them. That might provide some context and reality to this nightmare of an article and we wouldn’t want that.
I don’t want to link to an article at a struck newspaper so full text after the jump:
The Rebel guys sent a reporter to Halifax to talk to victims. She found and interviewed some. They were afraid to talk to the media, because of pushback from people like you. The original story is substantiated.
http://www.therebel.media/faith_goldy_april_14_2016
And this is what happens. Every single time you censor or shut down discussion out of outrage you put the ball in the opponents’ court. And neither side fixes problems they just use it for political points in a perpetual game of ideological ‘gotcha’. It’s fucking tiresome. Are there ANY adults left in this world that actually want to help these kids? Grow up.
“Are there ANY adults left in this world that actually want to help these kids?”
Yes. A first step though is being willing to state without fear or shame that there is a problem. Then one can talk about its nature and possible solutions.
I’m sure you love seeing the world through rose coloured glasses but THIS happened. So maybe the paper didn’t write the article well but that doesn’t change the fact that THIS happened to CHILDREN. You need to do much better than this. For years the schools in Halifax have been hiding instances of bullying. For years they have been excusing violence and intimidation of Canadian girls in our schools because of cultural differenences and this is not ok. Open your eyes and stop assuming that our girls are safe in our schools. They are not. They have to put up with this behaviour starting in the early grades and it only gets worse as they get older. The schools do nothing. The school board does nothing. But we are creating a generation of girls who believe it is not ok to be outraged if a boy from another country hits them, insults them or threatens them. I was not at all surprised that there were issues with some of the refugee students because this has been an issue in our schools for several years.
We need to do better than this. And you need to do better than this article.
Rose, these refugees just got here. They haven’t been “an issue in our schools for several years”.
And what are you talking about, “this happened”? Would you share with us the evidence proving it as a “fact” as you call it? Please note that three anonymous relatives of little kids who went home and told a story – but didn’t report it to their teachers, the school admin, or the police – is not evidence for anyone except those seeking to confirm their prejudices.
And I hope to God you’re not going to start invoking Rehtaeh. Just don’t.
While the Herald article might have been news for most incidents were already being talked about on instagram. And it has become genrally accepted by the girls in our city that there is nothing you can do about intimidation from Middle Eastern boys. I can’t say they are all Muslim because they could be from any religion. My daughter and her friends say they would never date a boy named Mohammed so I guess that would be name-ism.
I just think we all need to realize that schools have been sweeping similar issues under the rug for many years. This is fine if yoi think girls should have to wear hijabs and long skirts to school to avoid intimidation. Or that girls should nit try to excel in class or in sports for fear of placing ahead of a boy named Mohammed. I don’t. This has been very harmful to our girls and I don’t think there is any benefit to the boys in question either
And…Rehteah Parsons was a friend of somebody close to us. She moved away from there two years before she died.
It’s way way way too soon to make jokes about Rehteah Parsons.
Rose, if you can substantiate such stories, get in touch with Faith Goldy @ Rebel Media.
What a bunch of wusses!!! Not 48 hrs after printing the news story “Chebucto Heights bullying worries parents” the ENTIRE article is deleted; no doubt due to “bullies”. Given the feedback generated by the original article, it would appear there is merit to the story. Except now those voices may not be heard……… AT ALL. Don’t know how CH can consider yourselves “journalists”.
Which voices are being silenced? The batshit crazy xenophobic “Jihad Watch” voices who hate Muslims and desperately want this story to be true?
I suppose, racists have a right to not have their ignorance disturbed by the truth. And the truth is, there is NO evidence that anything happened at that school. Wishing otherwise won’t make it so.
i like how you think it’s ridiculous that a kid yelled ‘Muslims rule the world’ – egging us on to yell it out loud, see how silly it sounds, etc. Implying that no human in their right mind would say such a thing. THEY’RE GRADE 5 KIDS. OF COURSE THEY SAID IT. EVERYTHING KIDS SAY AT THAT AGE TO EACH OTHER IS STUPID. DUH.
I lived/worked in the middle east for over a decade. I’ve seen personally seen what it is like to live under a monarch, torture, domestic abuse, bigotry, racism, misogyny, polygyny, modern day concentration camps, child slavery, human trafficking, harems prostitution, blatant anti-semitism, regime change.. there is a very big difference in culture and society our mentality and notions are not the same.
That said I don’t care if these children were refugees/arabs/muslims/whatever. if it is true, the background is irrelevant children need to be punished. if any kid hit my child with a chain I would wring my hands around the kid and watch the life leave their eyes.
but thats a big IF this really happened.
“…our mentality and notions are not the same.” followed by “If any kid hit my child with a chain I would wring my hands around the kid and watch the life leave their eyes.”
Really, bragging about murdering a child. That sounds like a very similar mentality to the ones you criticize in your post. Pot, kettle.
According to the latest note by the paper, they have -four- sources for bullying events by refugee kids. That probability-of-truthfulness is climbing.
Hey folks who are commenting: if you leave a real name that I can verify with a wordpress account, facebook account, etc. I will post your mildly racist opinions.
If it isn’t attached to a real, verifiable name (or is some of that next level bigotry I am also getting) then I am not approving your comment.
Er, what if one is not “mildly racist”, merely disagrees with you?
Since when did Islam become a “race?”
The race card is old and played out…just like the general public’s concern for “refugees.” Your dripping sanctimony for these “newcomers” while simultaneously utterly dismissing (and condemning) the allegations of their possible victims makes you no better than the original article’s writers.
You’re right Bill, there is no such thing as racism because humans are all from one race. What there IS, is bigotry and there’s LOTS of that to go around.
“humans are all from one race”
You’re redefining the term “race” when you know perfectly well what it means. Stop doing that.
And I seem to be seeing it from Chris 902, Mike. He is totally committed to these aliens while at the same time condemning and dismissing the concerns of Canadians.
What in any of these replies indicates the colour of the poster’s skin or their religion, or even their country of origin? Seems like you are the bigot here because you are the one formulating opinions based on stereotypes.
When I read this article I didn’t know what to believe, I felt fearful for the community and angry at the same time, I had associated credibility with this newspaper, which is now completely tarnished in my perspective.
I was blinded by this garbage and as a refugee supporter, I can say there WAS a moment when I second guessed if any of it was a good idea, and I can’t believe it, I feel duped, it’s propaganda, the dangerous kind.
I have no idea what would make you think that everything would be so easy. It is hard on everyone including the refugees. We are very lucky that we aren’t in the same position as the European countries. We get to set limits and we get to pick and choose who is allowed to come here.
But we also need to take care of the kids who are already here and we won’t be going down the same road as Sweden or Germany. People have a choice of whether they will come to Canada. But refugee children need to be disciplined the same as any other and they will just face a tougher time if they aren’t.
And ALL children need to be supported when they report incidents of intimidation. And you support them by first believing them. It is probable that the incidents did happen and nothing was done. Or otherwise they would not have continued. I’m not sure we would have heard about incidents where refugees were the victims either since the schools want to pretend that bullying doesn’t happen in Halifax.
The reporting however sensationalized, draws attention to a problem that could be happening under peoples’ noses, in this case, a failing or non-existent integration strategy for Syrian Refugees of such a young age. In a democracy this is how you get attention and funding and resources for issues – by raising a clamor about it, so MPs and the media and the public at large take it seriously. Sticking your head in the sand, censoring the article and silencing the debate does nothing to help either the refugees or the kids they are alleged to be bullying. Using neutrally toned and sensitive language is equally hamstringing for such causes, which probably explains our blogger’s polemical tone.
If there is bullying and intimidation along cultural lines, this needs to be addressed, simply leaving the refugee students to fall through the cracks and simply applying the same standard to them as you would naturalized Canadian students without investigating any aggravating factors of the circumstance can cause them to fail to integrate fully. The tensions and repercussions of this can be carried on for the rest of the refugees schooling and entire lives.It goes without saying that this would negatively impact the naturalized students and their perception of the refugees as well.
However incredible “Missy’s” story may be, keep in mind she’s learning and discerning it from her ADD kid. Of course this doesn’t absolve her of her “sins” – to be honest, nobody knows what happened but the kids themselves, even Chris’s assertions of improbability of and impossibility of how children of different cultures are likely to behave after coming out of warzones, are as likely as based in reality as Missy’s assertions, both carry heavy western bias of differing ideological strain…
The Herald have since withdrawn the article and right now this site, ironically, is the only source for the full text. However the cause needs to be investigated, and the debate needs to continue, luckily the Herald withdrawing the article has created a Streisand effect wherein people are discussing the topic.
I agreed with a lot of your points. The best way to integrate kids isn’t always to throw them into a classroom together. With the huge influx of kids from Central America into the US over the past two years many schools in the US are having problems and some cities are looking at creating transitional programs. And this is in cities where we wouldn’t expect vast cultural differences including Miami.
Unfortunately in the current culture, such criticisms and solutions could be regarded as racist – mainly by people who have no experiences with these issues, and don’t actually have to deal with such problems should they arise.
The article aside, I think people should really be asking, what if anything is going on at that school. A poorly written and insensitive article does not mean no underlying problem exists. Taking kids from a different culture out of a war zone who may or may not speak the language, and plopping them into the public school system is a short-sighted and naive strategy for integration. Shutting down discussion of the issue due to said article could only exacerbate the problem.
The “reporter” should be made to show where he got his information. It certainly appears to have inconsistencies that make it appear to be fabricated. “Missy” should be made to show the marks on the children which would be obvious if they were choked with a chain. In fact injuries of that nature would be somewhat severe, and a responsible parent would have brought the child to the IWK. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out if an “abused” child was treated for a choking injury. Perhaps “Missy” is attempting to create an alibi for child abuse.
chris902 you seem to also be carrying a torch here…so what makes your post the truth over the one you reference, or maybe it’s the other way round and this is bull. It sounds like this is a sale..
At least the title of your blog is fitting.
When I read this article I actually originally was MAD at myself for thinking I probably just had “rose coloured glasses on” because I am such a supporter of the refugee intake. I am SO glad that I am not the only one who thought this article was a completely fabricated crock of shit.
How pathetic.
“because I am such a supporter of the refugee intake. I am SO glad that I am not the only one who thought this article was a completely fabricated crock of shit”
Confirmation bias is a very powerful thing. You desperately want to believe the story is false. Others are ready to believe the original published story.
I hope the CH publishes a meta-article about the story – how it was published, what evidence there was. Name names. And if it was a false story, own up to it. And if it was a true story, well, tough to be you.
I agree with Frank.
But because the school can choose not to call any incident bullying the reports remain in the confidential files of the students, where they are called a conflict between two students. They don’t need to be reported to the school board so the school doesn’t risk a make on its record. This is how most instances of bullying are treated in Halifax schools and why things can’t improve. Unless you call it bullying there are no additional resources brought into the mix including counselling for the bullied child.
Confirmation would be nice but you will never get it for this instance. The story has been corroborated since but it still can’t be called bullying. So according to the school board it officially never happened.
I believe every word , because my classmates did verbally abuse me and some days they would physically hurt me for 6 years at that school and nothing was done except they’d be given a piece of paper to have signed
I am sorry that you experienced that. As a society we do a very poor job of supporting survivors of abuse and that’s not okay. However, I do not think that is all that is going on in this particular case and if the heart of these allegations are true the reporting by the Herald is still irresponsible and likely to lead to more hurt than anything else.
I think you completely missed the entire point of this article. Yes, bullying happens and yes, at this school, for sure, (and i agree they haven’t dealt with it in the right way in the past at all, which is why I didn’t want my son to go there), but when you went through it, there was no huge influx of refugee children. I’m assuming your bullying was by local children, yes? The original article was a made up story perpetuating racism by publicizing events that never happened or didn’t happen in the way they were reported. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. It’s been pretty much proven that it was made up just to cause problems. Believe in proven facts. To say you ‘believe every word’ of a made up story is just plain scary. Or do you agree with the original post?
I believe you. My daughter didn’t go to that school but she had friends who did and some were bullied. If it’s any consolation it happens in all Halifax schools. And all Halifax schools refuse to address the underlying problems especially when there are culturaL differences involved.
If they pretend it didn’t happen the problem will just go away..because one way or another all students will eventually move on to another school.
Muslims – bad people
Muslims – great people
Christians – great people
Jews – great people
Hindis – great people
Most everyone else – great people
Dumbasses like Jess Wilson – Still probably not bad people, just willing to believe anything that makes them feel better about their own crappy lives.
I get it, Jess, people fear things they don’t understand. So go to a mosque. Talk with the people there. Get a different perspective. My guess, though, is that you won’t. Not because you’re too busy, or because there isn’t a mosque near you, but because it’s easier to just sit and wallow in your misguided beliefs. It’s less effort to let your ignorance be your guiding light.
The real “bad people” – as you so eloquently put it – aren’t the muslims or refugees here. They’re the callous and unprofessional ‘reporters’ and ‘editors’ who use the newspaper strike as a way to push their own xenophobic, racist, fear-mongering agendas.
Muslims…. blech! They make me puke… look what they are doing to NS schools… they dont know any better…..primative people!
Hi Jess – I decided to publish your comment despite it being hateful garbage because I think it shows why it is important for the Herald to publish facts instead of sensationalized trash that just re-enforces people’s existing bigotry.
Wow. The reporter really believed whatever Missy told her. Should go back with Missy and try to find that chain.
It would seem, in a school yard, that the chain would most likely be the kind you wear around your neck…if there was a chain at all.
The Chebucto Heights article breaks my heart in many ways. The fact that the trauma that these kids who are refugees have faced wasn’t mentioned once. The lack of additional supports to integrate them into a school. The reported cancelling of soccer inter murals for all kids due to the violence. The kids who were already students at Chebucto Heights being exposed to day to day violence when intense trauma work should have been done with these kids to be able to integrate when they are able to do so.
Can you imagine growing up in a war zone, and then being expected to function “normally” in a school in a new continent that speaks a different language with no to minimal added supports ? How can we expect already overwhelmed teachers there to take on multiple high needs kids with trauma histories most of us can’t imagine and make it just work out?
Also this isn’t a “disciplinary” problem. This is a childhood trauma problem.
Remember diversity is the mix, inclusion is having the right supports to get the mix to work well together!
-Claire Lederman
Yes, refugee children have certainly experienced trauma, and special counselling services should be available.
But — soccer intra murals were not cancelled “due to violence” (the term contract of teacher who supervised has ended, another teacher is scheduled to start.) There is no actual evidence of “day to day violence” in that school, just dubious allegations and hearsay from a parent who insists on remaining anonymous. Neither parents or school staff witnessed the alleged events. There was no mention of discipline or integration problems with the refugee kids.
Perhaps you just assumed that the refugee kids would be disruptive and violent.
I agree with David on this. I see no reason to take as your starting point a belief that the Herald article is factually accurate.
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Sharing this on Facebook and Twitter. Excellent critique of truly irresponsible and dangerous “reporting”.
Why does reporting a true event cause so much ire? If you were not there to refute it, you cannot censor it when it is reported.. These people are damaged, the federal govt. dumped them in communities and they do not know how to behave because they have not been oriented to assimilate. They will be the future criminals if this is swept under the rug and the truth is censored. Shame on anyone who does not think the truth should be reported.
Tell us, Jane, when did you first discover your fear for brown people with different names?
You miss the point of the article. Yes report the truth. But nothing in the original piece was corroborated. We don’t know theory were true events. It was shoddy journalism.
I read the article in its entirety. I understand that bullying events seem to have increased. Two incidents involving 2 children from the same family was reported to involve immigrant children. It wasn’t said who was involved in the other incident. It is clear that any bullying needs to be addressed but why all the hysteria over the article? Why is this being called anti-Muslim? Are we that insecure that we no longer can report things that may actually happen for fear of someone’s feelings being hurt. I am certain if the situation talked about the inverse, people would not have the same reaction at all.
“But nothing in the original piece was corroborated.”
Hm, somewhere I seem to recall that one should automatically believe claims of abuse.
Ok, Frank Eigler, good point. So who was abused, and what did that abuse consist of? When did it happen, and what were the circumstances?
As a fair-minded man, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to rely on third-hand accounts.
“So who was abused …?”
Oh, nobody important, just some vulnerable people in a setting where they are not able to defend themselves, surrounded by people in power who control their environment, with a history of minimizing victimization by eschewing punishments for offenders, where the victims can be punished for speaking out against the system. So for the moment they are anonymous.
But surely that does nothing to hurt their credibility.