Finally, a clear statement
from the BCCLA’s Harsha Walia

Except that she quickly claimed it meant something
other than what it meant. She lost her job anyway

July 17, 2021

Harsha Walia tweets while churches burn

Had it been directed at synagogues, Harsha Walia’s
“burn it all down” exhortation would have boosted her
prospects in a different regime. Understandably perhaps,
she misjudged the statement’s utility to a BCCLA career.

 

Offensive as it was, Harsha Walia’s “burn it all down” attack on Christian churches was a surprisingly clear statement for any leader of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. So it’s not surprising that she tried to weasel out of it.

Prior to her resignation she tried to claim that her call to burn down churches wasn’t a call to burn down churches. The BCCLA largely backed her, implying that only bigots would criticize her bigotry. But one indication that they pissed off the wrong people came from Solicitor General Mike Farnworth. Not normally much for candour himself, he was moved to call Walia’s statement “disgusting and reprehensible,” and “vile beyond belief.”

Farnworth has always been tight with social justice phonies, so his unprecedented criticism of a BCCLA executive director showed the displeasure of the organization’s paymasters.

More typical than Walia’s clear statement about church arson is her vague rhetoric that says nothing specific. That’s been her approach to police accountability, to the benefit of cops as well as the legal and political establishment that supports B.C.’s corrupt Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

Walia’s wokery sounded fashionable to B.C.’s radical chic, including the media. But, in true BCCLA style, her vagueness actually served entrenched power. She evaded clear criticism of the status quo that blocks police accountability but furthers BCCLA careers. 

In keeping with ideological fashion, the BCCLA probably wants a native or some semblance to replace her. The successful candidate, maybe a pretendian or 1/128th, will have to be acceptable to B.C.’s largely white police, legal and political establishment. One test would be whether the newcomer is willing to speak out against a system that allows the Vancouver police/OPCC cover-up of gratuitous police brutality against a low-income, disabled native woman.

No one on the BCCLA has ever done that. And, as long as the organization’s selection process remains consistent, no one on the BCCLA ever will.

Read more about the B.C. Civil Liberties Association
Read about B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Go to News and Comment page