In the summer and fall of 1997, the Canadian news media was flooded with alarming reports of bogus "Gypsy" refugee claimants flocking to Canada from the Czech Republic to take advantage of our lax refugee screening process and generous social welfare system. As a direct result of this coverage, hundreds of legitimate refugee claimants were barred from entering Canada, while those fortunate enough to make it here were placed in physical danger. It was a harsh and disturbing demonstration of the power the media wields in shaping public discourse over important issues. It also serves as a useful case study in examining the role of media as a societal institution, how well the role is performed, and what the consequences of the media's role performance can be.

As a cultural institution, the media gathers, writes and distributes the news, offering information and entertainment. It also has the job of telling the truth, ensuring fairness in public debate (Siddiqui, 1996: 116), and reflecting society. But what is more important than discussing the media's intended roles is to discuss the effects of the media in its performance of its roles. Media's cumulative effect is the construction of social reality, through socialization, legitimation and agenda-setting. (Fleras, 1994: 281). Ultimately, it is the media that is centrally involved in shaping and controlling "the scale and form of human association and action." (McLuhan, 1964: 9).

Mass media is a major agent of socialization, transmitting society's cultural standards, myths, roles, norms, beliefs, and images. (Henry, 1995: 231-232). It also gets to decides whose opinions are legitimate and whose opinions are not, favouring those whose interests are of utmost interest to advertisers (i.e. the upper-middle classes) by defining them as "the public," or norm, while marginalizing others. (Condit, 1994: 438). The mass media set the public agenda by shaping public definitions of social problems (Henry: 236) through their control of access to mass audiences and the selection of "experts" whose dictating whose opinions will be aired, as just two examples. (Ibid.: 246). All this combines to bequeth enormous power on Canadian mass media.

A major factor in the setting of the social agenda is the establishment of what language will be used to describe a social problem. Language is never neutral and, when used by the media to convey information, often carries connotations of bias. (Maracle, 1996: 17). Specifically in regards to immigrants and refugees, the Canadian mass media often use value-loaded terms such as "floods of refugees", the need to "stem the tide of illegal aliens", and talk of immigrants and refugees who "wreck" and "gatecrash" the immigration system. (Henry: 242). One is readily able to find an array of such phrases in the coverage of the Roma refugees in the Canadian mass media during the summer and fall of 1997. From August to November of that year, 14 major Canadian media outlets ran no less than 91 stories about the 1,500 Roma (or "Gypsy") refugees who arrived in Canada during this period. Fully 92% of these articles spoke of "an influx of Gypsies;" a "surge of Gypsies;" the "tide of Gypsy refugees;" a "flood of Gypsies;" the Gypsies as a "burden", "straining," "draining," "severely taxing," "swamping," or "taking advantage of" emergency housing, welfare and other social services; or described them as either "criminals" or as "bogus refugees".

This negative portrayal of legitimate refugee claimants in the Canadian media is further enhanced by the near-total absence of stories casting immigrants and refugees in a positive light. While negative portrayals of immigrants in the media have increased over the last decade, positive contributions of immigrants to Canada languished in scholarly journals and government reports. (Soberman, 1993: 256-257). The coverage of the Roma refugee claimants in 1997 exemplifies this, with only two or three of the 91 stories covering the issue between August and November 1997 mentioning anything positive about the Roma refugees, or bothering to interview them.

Where and how the media makes statements about newcomers can be just as important as what it says. A front-page story will reach more readers and signal that the issue it concerns is of more importance than other stories in a newspaper. The coverage of the Roma refugees invariably made the front pages of the daily newspapers, or was one of the first three stories on the nightly newscasts. The motives of the media gatekeepers (particularly the editors who decide on where stories should appear) are placed into question with such decisions, given that the arrival of 1,500 legitimate refugees to Canada over a period of several months is not an unheard-of occurrence.

The mass media can hardly be described as portraying newcomers in a favourable light. The media uses its power to transmit the message that people of colour are criminals who create social problems and jeopardize Canadian society. (Henry, 231). In particular the media depict people of colour as outsiders that cause problems for society as a whole. (Ibid.: 235). This tendency is even more salient in the case of newcomers, and was clearly seen in the case of the Roma, whose criminal "subculture" was closely scrutinized in 25% of the news stories about them between August 13 and November 10, 1997; and who were blamed by 20% of the news stories for a shortage of emergency housing and other social services in the metro Toronto region. While Siddiqui implores journalists not be become "...mere conveyers of unsubstantiated suppositions that immigrants, especially non-whites, are ripping off the welfare system or committing more crimes than others, or that they are a financial burden on society," (116) that is precisely what the media is doing, and not all too reluctantly, either. "As soon as soon as people of colour...are associated with a criminal act, the event becomes newsworthy." (Henry: 239). This is doubly-true if the "criminal" in question is an immigrant or refugee.

Do media portrayals motivate individuals into action? Common sense says that it can, and history cautions that it is prudent to assume such until proven otherwise. AIDS activists have noted that artistic license and freedom of speech can lead to "genocide, murder, prejudice or violence against any community." (Buxton, 1994: 130). Given the media's negative portrayal of visible minorities, immigrants and refugees, we should not be surprised when their portrayals exact precisely this type of response from both the public and the government.

The case of Roma refugees in 1997 provides a clear example of this effect. The story first made national headlines on August 13, 1997. By the next day Canadian officials were denying that they had any intention of re-imposing visa restrictions on Czech citizens, though they had dispatched immigration officials to the Czech Republic to discourage the Roma - legitimate refugees - from making the trip to Canada. (Author Unknown, 1997: E9). Within the first week, ten stories ran, including the first story linking the Roma refugee claimants to crime. (Godfrey, 1997a: 4). On August 16, 1997, immigration officials at Pearson International Airport began attempting to talk Roma refugee claimants out of making a claim, encouraging them to instead return home. (Author Unknown, 1997: 7).

Coverage of Roma refugees the following week began to focus on how they were straining the emergency housing resources of metro Toronto, with eight of the eleven stories appearing between August 20-August 27, 1997 dealing with this aspect of the story. Yet not one article questioned how only 300 Roma refugees could single-handedly overburden the social safety net of the area, or asked if there were perhaps other factors involved. What was significant about these types of stories was their backdrops; two of the stories either showed the motels housing the Roma refugees or described where they were located in Scarborough. Also predominating the media "discussion" during this period was "Gypsy criminality", with seven of the eleven stories focusing on this, including an August 22nd piece in page four of The Toronto Sun that stated that 47% of Roma refugees arriving in Canada have criminal records. Perhaps not coincidentally, Canada Customs officials at Pearson International Airport were given orders to conduct unprecedented criminal background checks on all Roma arriving and not to process them as refugees. Some Roma were subjected to interviews with immigration officials lasting over seven hours. (Godfrey, 1997b: 4).

On August 26, 1997 two dozen neo-Nazis found the Scarborough motels the Roma were supposedly "overcrowding" and held a picket outside one of them, waving signs that read "Honk If You Hate Gypsies" and "Canada Is Not A Trash Can". They gave seig heil salutes, shouted slurs and threats at the Roma hiding behind motel doors and windows, and threatened a group of Roma caught unawares at a bus stop, who had to be escorted home by police and disgusted area residents. When asked why the neo-Nazis were protesting, organizer Walter Froebrich quoted the Toronto Sun article four days previous, stating that "forty-seven percent of the Gypsies coming over here are pickpockets or criminals. We don't want this stuff in Canada.'' (Author Unknown, 1997: A20).

This was a significant event. It was the first time in Canada that neo-Nazis targeted Roma. Several of the participants were members of Toronto neo-Nazi gangs, and violent convicted felons. The average age of the neo-Nazis was 20. What led 25 young, violent neo-Nazis to the door of Roma refugees for the first time in Canadian history? It seems obvious that two weeks of media coverage, painting the Roma as criminals who were straining our social safety net, and either showing where they could be found or providing an approximate address, was all that was needed. That Walter Froebrich would choose the 47% statistic to quote to the media clearly demonstrates that he had been reading about the Roma in The Toronto Sun, the only media outlet to report that particular figure and also provide the address of the motels that housed the refugees. The media, in effect, organized a lynch mob, provided the rope and gasoline, then sat back and reported on it when they arrived. One wonders what would have transpired had the police not placed themselves between the Roma and the 25 neo-Nazis, incited to action by two weeks of non-stop anti-Roma media bias. As a result of this action, some Roma refugees chose to go to Montréal instead of Toronto, in the hopes of avoiding the very kind of racist violence and intimidation they were fleeing. (Peritz, 1997: B1).

Finally, on October 8, 1997, after several articles and editorials calling for such, Immigration Canada went back on its statement of August 20th and reinstated visa requirements for all visitors from the Czech Republic. Because of the Czech government's denial of citizenship to Roma, this virtually guaranteed that none would be able to make it to Canada to apply for refugee status. Of the 1,500-person "flood" of Roma that the visa restrictions were designed to halt, 600 have since returned home. 96% of those whose refugee claims have been reviewed have been accepted as legitimate refugees by the Immigration Review Board. (Godfrey, 1998: 4).

Canadians love to pat themselves on their backs for their humanitarianism, and the Canadian mass media does its part in maintaining this shared self-image. When events, such as the discrimination and barring of a legitimate refugee group from entering Canada, challenge this self-image, the media operate as to counter this challenge - in this case by using their power to "clobber" the Roma. (McLuhan: 21).

Author Unknown, "Trying to stem the Gypsy flood news: Canadian embassy flooded with calls after Czech TV show praising life here", The Hamilton Spectator, August 14, 1997, p. E9.

Author Unknown, "Gypsies urged to go home, says immigration lawyer ," The Halifax Daily News, August 19, 1997, p. 7.

Author Unknown, "Skinheads taunt Gypsies at motel ", The Vancouver Province, August 27, 1997, p. A20.  

Buxton, Rodney, "After It Happened...: The Battle To Present AIDS in Television Drama", fr. Newcomb, Horace (ed.), Television: The Critical View (New York: Oxford University Press), 1994, pp. 117-134.

Condit, Celeste Michelle, "The Rhetorical Limits of Polysemy", fr. Newcomb, Horace (ed.), Television: The Critical View (New York: Oxford University Press), 1994, pp. 426-447.

Fleras, Augie, "Media and Minorities in a Post-Multicultural Society", fr. Berry & LaPonce (Eds.), Ethnicity and Culture in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1994.

Godfrey, Tom, "CRIMINAL GYPSIES SLIPPING IN ", The Toronto Sun, August 19, 1997a, p. 4.

Godfrey, Tom, "GYPSY TALES DOUBLE CZECHED; IMMIGRATION WILL SCREEN REFUGEE CLAIMS ", The Toronto Sun, August 22, 1997b, p. 4.

Godfrey, Tom, "GYPSIES GRANTED ASYLUM ", The Toronto Sun, April 14, 1998, p. 4.

Henry, F., et al. "Racism in the Media", fr. The Colour of Democracy (Toronto: Harcourt Brace), 1995.

Maracle, B., "One More Whining Indian Tilting At Windmills", fr. Littleton, J. (Ed.), Clash of Identities, (Toronto: Prentice Hall), 1996.

McLuhan, Marshall, Understanding Media, (New York: McGraw Hill), 1964.

Peritz, Ingrid, "Plight of the Gypsies: Racist comments trail refugee claimants like an ill wind from home," The Montréal Gazette, October 18, 1997, p. B1.

Siddiqui, H., "Multiculturalism and the Media", fr. fr. Littleton, J. (Ed.), Clash of Identities, (Toronto: Prentice Hall), 1996.

Soberman, L., "Immigration and The Canadian Federal Election of 1993: The Press As A Political Educator", Fr. Troper, H. and M. Weinfeld (Eds.), Ethnicity, Politics and Public Policy.

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