Be accurate: Straw men are not needed

Today Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister came under fire for comments that are being described as racist. I'm not looking to comment on what was said, whether it is racist or not, etc. but rather how discourse is conducted in our society.

Here is what the Premier said:

"Young Indigenous men — a preponderance of them are offenders, with criminal records — are going off shooting guns in the middle of the night. It doesn't make sense,"

Here is how Nahanni Fontaine, NDP MLA for Winnipeg's St. Johns area described his comments:

"To be able to blanket all young Indigenous men as criminals, as gun-toting, shooting thugs, is no different than what Donald Trump did throughout his campaign. It is one and the same: racialized, disgusting narrative."

Did you notice the switch?

Pallister said "preponderance", Fontaine says that Pallister said "all."

Now preponderance means "the quality or fact of being greater in number, quantity, or importance." Notice that it does not mean "all," but rather a majority.

There is no need for Fontaine to change what Pallister said, but she chooses to do so, so that she can claim that the Premier is racist rather than having the harder discourse on the state of native males in the province of Manitoba.

Is it true that a majority of native males in Manitoba have criminal records? If yes, then there is a discussion that can be had about why that may be. If no, then there is a conversation that can be had concerning the Premier's need to effectively and accurately communicate to the citizens of his province.

Fontaine's mis-characterization of what was said, though creates a straw man that is then lambasted with accusations of racism, which makes effective and perhaps necessary conversations virtually impossible.

It seems that this politicians need to virtue signal, to grandstand for her electorate is of far more importance to her than than the facts concerning the situation of native males in her province.