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6/ Cultural balkanisation brings distrust, social conflict, and potentially violence, as we are seeing everywhere. It’s time we reverse this trend before the situation gets worse. More diversity will not be our strength, it will destroy what has made us such a great country. — Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) August 13, 2018

Short of being called a racist, the political establishment across the board sent murmurs of disapproval, that were shared by some in his own caucus.

His crime was that he was speaking the truth as he saw it, just as Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland did in a tweet targeting the horrific human rights record of Saudi Arabia.

In a way, what Bernier said was illustrated in the repercussions to Freeland’s courageous stand. Among the ‘tribes’ the Quebec MP mentioned were the many Saudi-influenced Muslim organisations and politicians across the country.

I did not come across a single one of them coming out in solidarity with Canada and its foreign minister in the dispute with Saudi Arabia. I asked most of the Islamic groups who claim to speak for Canadian Muslims if they had issued any statement on the dispute, but did not receive a response nor saw any statement on their websites.

And when the Government of Pakistan slammed Canada for “interfering in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia,” one Pakistani-Canadian municipal politician when asked for a reaction said, “…I am not denouncing Pakistan or the Pakistani government.” After 45 years in Canada, his tribe was more important to him than his country.

As for Pakistani-born Liberal MPs Iqra Khalid and Salma Zahid and Conservative Senator Salma Ataullahjan, there was not a word from them that I could find that was critical of either Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.

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This was exactly the malady in our political fabric that Conservative MP Maxime Bernier was talking about. The Quebec MP lamented in conclusion: “Having people live among us who reject basic Western values such as freedom, equality, tolerance and openness doesn’t make us strong. People who refuse to integrate into our society and want to live apart in their ghetto don’t make our society strong.”