I’ve been following the debate regarding the proposed Gurdwara to be built on Clair Road.
What’s clear is that there’s some virulent opposition to this development; what’s troubling about it is the unapologetic racist tone of some of the opponents.
To label all of the opposition as racist would be wrong, and I’m not trying to do that, but to read some of the posts on the Mercury’s blogs, the Ward 2 blog or the
‘stop-the-temple’ website, the sentiment is palpable.If the residents of Westminster Woods have legitimate planning issues with the development, that’s fine. They should network, come up with a list of grievances
and procede.Guelph has seen it’s share of debates on proposed developments, which is simply a sign of a healthy democracy. Some of these debates have led to the
creation of citizen groups to campaign against a proposal, which have led in turn to activities in the community, both ‘legal’ (Walmart) and ‘illegal’ (HCBP).Failure by any legitimate opposition to get in front of the issue and address the racist message of a great bulk of the Gurdwara opposition will add ‘immoral’ to this list. JM