- “Great news more Indian people, they replecate by thousends (sic) every millisecond” – itoldyouso_50

- “that’s not a Canadian baby” – byronmack22

- “they’re multiplying like a disease” – spinge.binge

These are just a couple samples of the several dozen negative comments that were left on a “613trending” Instagram post about the first baby born in Ottawa in 2026, who just happened to have parents of East Indian descent.

Dixabahen and Mehulkumar Patel wel-comed their baby boy 23 minutes after midnight at the Montfort Hospital.

News of the birth didn’t hit the Internet until 12 hours later. It took less than a nanosecond for the scumbags to come out of the woodwork and start spewing their ridiculous comments.

Most accused the baby of not being Canadian, because how could he be if his parents are of East Indian descent? Well, number one, they are assuming the parents aren’t already Canadian or naturalized citizens. And number two, the last time I checked, if you are born in Canada to parents who live this country you are born Canadian.

Several of the posts referred to the new-born as an “anchor baby”.

This is a new one for me. I had never heard of that term before, so I decided to search the term on Google and two references popped up – one Canadian and one American.

The Canadian reference described “anchor” as an eligible Canadian citizen or permanent resident who agrees to support a relative’s immigration application and help them settle in Canada. The anchor provides financial support for basic needs like housing and food for a specific period (e.g., one year) and assists with integration into Canadian society.

The American reference was much more onerous. It defined “anchor baby” as a derogatory and offensive term for a child born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. Because of birthright citizenship under the 14h Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the child is automatically a U.S. citizen. The term implies that the parents had the child specifically to create an “anchor” that could eventually help the family gain legal residency or citizenship.

All of which made me pause for thought. Perhaps some of the racist comments that appeared on the post did not originate in Canada. Perhaps they came from south of the border from people who had confused Ottawa, Canada, with Ottawa, Illinois, or Ottawa, Kansas. After all, the far right in the United States aren’t exactly known for being the sharpest tools in the shed.

But then I realized it only explains a small portion of the comments. The fact of the matter is that racism is alive and festering in Canada and the racists comments left on the post proves just that. And here I thought I was going to write a whimsical column about the futility of making New Year’s resolutions.

Most Canadians don’t see this country as being overtly racist and for the most part we aren’t, at least not on the scale of our neighbours to the south.

And to be clear, the post did register over 2,500 likes and the vast majority of the 418 comments were congratulatory.

But there are racists among us and prob-ably more than you think – much more.

There are the racists out there who feel emboldened by the anti-immigration rhetoric in the U.S. and across the pond in Europe. And then there are the closet racist who begin every discussion about immigration with the words “I’m not racist, but...”

These are the people who think Canada is being overrun by immigrants even though only 1,347,715 respondents to the 2021 Census identified their country of origin as India which makes up less than four per cent of the population. 65,555 respondents identified their country of origin as Somalia, or 0.6 per cent of the population. 1,775,715 respondents identified themselves as being Muslim, or 4.9 per cent of the population and 1,600,000 identified themselves of either being Hindu or Sikh, or 4.4 per cent of the population.

Not exactly overwhelming numbers. But try to explain that to your average racist who thinks Canada is being overwhelmed by immigrants.

The fact of the matter is you can’t and never will. You can’t convert a racist any more than you can convert a staunch homophobe. All you can do is call them out when you see their racist comments and relegate them to the fringe of society where they belong.

(If you wish to comment on this or any other View Point column please write to Fred Sherwin at fsherwin@orleansstar.ca)