Black and white international

Being a true blooded Canadian that I am all for equality in race, colour, creed and gender. What is good for the goose is always good for the gander and vice versa in all aspects of life. Women with 1 year maternity leave should mean that men get 1 year paternity leave as well; women's pay should be equal to men's pay if the job description is the same (equal pay for equal work); women should not have to wait for a man to ask her out but should be able to ask a man out or even propose to him without fear of social stigma; no one should be excluded from anything because of gender or race. I also believe in the equality in that criteria should not be reduced based on your gender. There shouldnt be a male/female entrance fitness test to be firefighters or police, but instead make one test that encompasses all people.



However, one thing that Canadians should understand is that our thoughts of equality in Canada is not shared by the world. Just because we have these politicians making laws to make sure that all are treated equally and no one gets their toes stepped on or feelings hurt that does not mean that the world has to obey or have our same ideals. We say 'no knives in school' but we grant sihks the right to carry a knife because it is their religious practice; we say 'no scarves or ties on the soccer field' but then it goes to court when girls are held off from playing because of the hijab; we have rules and laws saying that homosexuals can not be discriminated against in any aspect of law and should have rights and freedoms equal to all other citizens, and yet we hum and haw and flip a coin on the same sex marriage debate to the point that it is almost like the marijuana debate where I have to wake up every morning and ask a lawyer "so, is pot legal or illegal today? what about same sex marriage? is my homosexual friend still married to his partner or has their marriage been dissolved?"



That being said, I wish that the female ski jumpers would stop this fight. While I am all for fighting in Canada for your rights and freedoms, the thing that they are fighting is an international thing. You might as well try to get the Vatican to elect a gay pope, or Singapore to disband the death penalty than get the world to agree that gender equality should exist. The two points that are reported constantly are the same. The Canadian Olympic Committee is saying "In Canada, we have gender equality so there should be female ski jumping in the Olympics because it is in Canada and it is a discrimination issue" whereas the International Olympic Committee is saying that "the female ski jumping has not held the required events to meet the criteria to be considered an event". Now, the only way I can see this from being resolved is that the female ski jumping find out the criteria, meet the criteria to a T and then apply for the event. Just because it is being held in Canada does not make it open to Canadian laws and I say this because I really really would not want the hosting country's laws to rule the event of the international event. Can you imagine what would happen if the Olympics were held in a country that had a law saying that homosexuals were to be canned or executed and it was discovered that the entire male gymnastics participants were gay? or if atheltes were canned for having steroids in their system? the entire Olympic games would turn into one great big canning event.



So while I admire the fighting spirit of the female ski jumpers, I have to say to back off and accept that while Canada is an equality based society to the point of confusion and contradiction, the world is not as grey as Canada and sometimes the world is simply black and white.