Monday, August 11, 2008

Canarda

Riots in Canada?

Oh, dear. Who is going to break the news to my co-workers. Who insist there is no crime, no violence, and no racism in Canada -- always in contrast to the horrible U.S.A. It's an idealized anti-America of the mind that I privately call Canarda. But of course they've lived there (in some cases while dodging the draft here back in the Vietnam Era) and I've only visited, so of course they know more about it than I do.

Here's the AP's description of things:

Montreal's mayor on Monday promised a swift inquiry into the shooting death of a Honduran teenager by police after the incident prompted violent clashes between angry youth and authorities in a heavily Haitian neighborhood.

A police officer was shot in the leg late Sunday, cars were set ablaze, stores were looted and firefighters were pelted with beer bottles in Montreal North, a multiethnic area referred to by local police as the Bronx of Montreal for its poverty and crime.

Several hundred officers in riot gear fanned out in the area, searching for a group of youths suspected of torching eight cars parked outside a fire station. Six people were arrested.

Crime, violence, and racism. Sounds a little less like perfection and a little more like everywhere else.