Mississauga Cookesville MP seeks a language called ‘Indian’, apologizes for faux pas
Friday January 20 2012 Staff Report The MP for the ethnically diversity-rich riding of Cooksville, bang in the centre of Mississauga, has reportedly asked his constituents whether ‘Indian’ is the primary language spoken in their homes.

Wags are now asking the MP in turn: Which ‘Indian’ does he mean? Cree, Sioux, or Anishnabe?

They point out if what was meant was a South Asian ‘Indian’ language, there is no such thing!

The riding is home to a wide diversity of visible minority immigrants, including from South Asia. Indian languages spoken here include (in no particular order) Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil and Marathi, among others.

But there is no overarching language called ‘Indian’.

The faux pas, by Poland-born Mississauga East – Cookesville MP Wladyslaw Lizon has at least one MP seeing red.

Liberal Multiculturalism critic Jim Karygiannis has charged Lizon with insulting Indo-Canadians with the “Conservative MP’s taxpayer-funded survey”.

Karygiannis has further demanded Lizon apologize and reimburse taxpayers, after mailing out the ill-informed survey.

Asked about the issue, Lizon eventually issued an apology, while admitting it was an error on his office's part.

"My office made an error in getting some letters out quickly," Lizon said in a statement. "It should have said 'an Indian language' with a space for the recipient to write the specific language. It should not have said 'Indian'. I apologize for this error."

Lizon's statement also in turn demanded an apology from Karygiannis.

"Karygiannis... recently insulted my Macedonian constituents by calling them a racist term, apologize for those hurtful comments," the statement said.

What Karygiannis had been referring to was a publicly-funded “ten percenter” mailing that was landing in Mississauga East-Cooksville mailboxes, in which Lizon surveys constituents on the primary language spoken in their home and which included 'Indian' as a possible language response.

Karygiannis noted there are 22 recognized regional languages in India, none of which is called 'Indian'. He predictably went to town.

“It is amazing to me that an MP representing such an ethnically-diverse riding would be so ill-informed. This is like asking someone if they speak ‘Canadian’ or ‘Mexican’,” said Karygiannis.

“As an immigrant himself, one would have thought Lizon would take the time to learn about the diverse backgrounds of his constituents and acquaint himself with at least the most basic facts about their countries of origin.”

Karygiannis further charged that the survey was doubly insulting since it was printed and mailed out using the tax dollars of Lizon's own constituents. He called on Lizon to apologize to those he had offended and reimburse Canadians for the cost of the mailing.

Imran Mian, president of the Mississauga East - Cooksville Liberal Association, added his own comments:

"As a former co-chair of the South Asian Advisory Council with the United Way of Peel, I would like to inform Lizon that there is no such language as ‘Indian’. India is a big country and it has many languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil and Gujarati. If you are going to survey your constituents so that you can best represent them as you claim in your mailout, please first take the time to educate yourself about them."

Karygiannis noted this insensitive survey seems to be a return to the early days of the new Conservative Party, recalling an incident in 2004 when Stephen Harper sent a letter wishing a happy India Republic Day to the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres — an aboriginal organization.

“Lizon can’t even claim he was trying to find out how many of his constituents speak aboriginal languages — since they don’t speak ‘Indian’ either,” concluded Karygiannis, noting that there are at least 65 distinct aboriginal languages and dialects spoken in Canada.

Lifting the veil

Interestingly also, it was Lizon who had been instrumental in the implementation of a recent government directive that said Muslim women who wear the niqab and other face-covering garments will now have to lift or remove their veils while they take the oath of Canadian citizenship in front of a room full of people.

Media reports said the issue began with four women in Mississauga.

It was Lizon who called up Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to tell him that he had just left a citizenship ceremony in his riding.

Kenney at the time told reporters Lizon had informed him about four women who had taken the oath wearing full burkas and veils.

“He raised this with the citizenship judge beforehand to say, ‘Is this illicit?’ And the citizenship judge said, ‘My hands are tied. The rule is that we have to permit them to take the oath,” Kenney added.

Lizon had subsequently confirmed the gist of the story. And there was more.

“(Lizon) later noted as he was leaving the ceremony that these four people and a man who was accompanying them got into a car with New York state licence plates to drive away,” said Kenney, who added that he later asked about it at a meeting of citizenship judges in Ottawa and those from large urban areas told him it happens every week.

The upshot has been that anyone wishing to become a Canadian citizen now has to show their faces at public ceremonies as they swear the oath of citizenship — which means Muslim women wearing a niqab or burka must remove them, or else remain permanent residents.

The issue has, predictably, divided South Asian communities, with some criticizing the new ruling, with others seeing nothing wrong with the requirement — and still others urging even more stringent action against newcomer visible minorities as "dem dam' furriners!".

— With Torstar inputs

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