Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I think I find myself agreeing with Margaret Wente

As Canada's very own no-fly list goes into effect, I'm glad my name isn't Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad. For that matter, I'm also glad my name isn't Patrick Martin. That's my boss's name. Even before this latest list, he sometimes got hauled aside and had to prove his innocence. That's because there is, or was, another suspicious character named Patrick Martin. There also are, or were, suspicious Kennedys, Thompsons and Williamses.


I have six to eight doppelnamers in Canada that I know of (two of them may be duplicates). Those of you who know my real name are probably going "Is that all?" and in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the number is 2-3 times that many. So before I even get to thinking of civil liberties and national security and its appropriateness in society as a whole, my first thought is whether I'll get hauled away and deported to Syria for torture because of something one of my many doppelnamers did. (No, I'm not Syrian, but my Canadian citizenship is exactly equal to Maher Arar's).

Then I find myself wondering about the ethics of the point Ms. Wente is making here. On one hand, I do find it somewhat distasteful to be all "OMG it affects white people to so therefore it's important!" On the other hand, I have noticed a tendency among people with whose skin is just as pale and whose names are just as WASPy as my own to assume that this stuff doesn't apply to them. "Of course you won't get deported and tortured," they attempt to reassure me, "you were born here!" Maybe if more people could immediately identify with the risk of being disappeared, they'd be more willing to question stuff rather than blindly accept it?

1 comment:

laura k said...

""Of course you won't get deported and tortured," they attempt to reassure me, "you were born here!" "

I hear this - or words that actually mean this - too. It makes me sick on so many levels.