Jews in Canada

"Brym [Robert Brym, sociologist,University of Toronto] believes that the Israel-Hamas war plays a part -- surveys elsewhere in the world show that Muslims' negative sentiments toward Jews rise whenever war breaks out."

"But he also points to local factors; of Canada's religious groups, Jews are the highest earners and are the least impoverished, while Muslims earn the least and are impoverished the most."

"Nearly two-thirds of Muslims, but less than one-third of Jews, are immigrants. And on average, Canadian Muslims are much younger than Canadian Jews."

Jamie Sarkonak, journalist, National Post

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa, April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

Generally, on the other hand, the vast majority of Muslims have a darkly negative view of Jews, ingrained not only in the culture, but emphasized by hadiths and the Koran, addressing relations with Jews; on the one hand, Islam counts Jews and Christians with a modicum of regard since they are part of the Abrahamic triangle; people of 'the book'. On the other they must be subservient to Islam with the understanding that Islam according to its reckoning, represents God's final presentation to humanity. They are 'kuffar', undeserving of respect for not surrendering their souls to Islam and Allah.

 

Resentment and victimization represent another facet of how Muslims regard Jews; believing all Jews to be wealthy and privileged. The Jewish presence in Canada dates back hundreds of years and while Jews mostly maintained their religious devotion in Judaism, they respect the laws of Canada, consider themselves Canadian, and integrate into the political, justice, and social system, content to be another Canadian. Muslim presence in Canada is of a far more recent vintage. Assimilation into the general culture, adapting the prevailing values, is not favoured by most practising Muslims for whom Sharia, not the law of the land is the final arbiter of justice for them.

 

Muslims typically have large numbers of progeny since Islam promotes childbearing as a moral religious duty, as does Catholicism to a lesser degree and Orthodox Judaism as well. In Canada it can be costly raising a large family, certain to be an economic challenge to many for whom large families is part of their religious devotion. The very fact that there are many more Muslims that are recent immigrants than Jews with lower economic standing, relates to the fact that it takes time to establish a presence in the country, including employment with high remunerative qualities.

Sociologist Robert Brym undertook a study recently, and published the results, looking into Canadian attitudes toward Jews and Israel. Surveys undertaken in early2024 list the most negative attitudes toward Jews spring from the Muslim demographic, alongside Quebecers and non-Jewish university students. The most negative sentiments expressed toward Israel, stem from Muslims and non-Jewish university students, and supporters of the New Democratic Party.

A survey sample of over 300 Muslims indicate unmistakable distrust and negativity toward Jews. Merely five percent of Canadian non-Jews reported their belief that "Jewish people are largely to blame for the negative consequences of globalization", but among Muslims the figure became 48 percent; while 83 percent of non-Jewish Canadians disagreed that Jews have too much power in Canada, 34 percent of Muslims held the same belief.

Unsurprising to a degree then, that Toronto and other Canadian cities have seen frequent well-attended protests proceeding through the streets, aggravating and accusing Canadian Jews of 'genocide' against Palestinians for their support of Israel, shouting 'intifada' in unison, and 'from the river to the sea', common shorthand for the destruction of Israel; Arabic speakers and signs, the Qu'ran in proud prominence and university campuses taken over by the 'pro-Palestinian' protests, targeting Jewish students.

The statement on the survey that "There is no justification for Palestinian suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians", brought 30 percent disagreement from Muslims in comparison to 11 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. And while 54 percent of Muslims express the belief that Israel is an apartheid state, 34 percent of the general population appears to concur, thanks to ingrained antisemitism and successful propaganda. 60 percent of Muslims equate Zionism with racism, while 38 percent of non-Jewish Canadians concur.

As far as 81 percent of Muslims are concerned, the current war in Gaza represents genocide, a belief shared by 49 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. Logically, bringing in new immigrants, refugees and migrants whose culture and religious devotion dictates their values and inculcates prejudices born of historical events and antipathies, more or less guarantees that this level of blame from a victimhood-prone group against an already-existing group would result. 

Victimhood, resentment, anger and hatred coalesce and become a threat by one to the other, and with the help of a powerful propaganda device of victimhood and occupation led by student groups of Palestinian and Arab origin, the slander of a democratic state that is anything but racist and apartheid finds a ready audience among the demographic of non-Jewish, non-Arab Canadians from various backgrounds, origins and cultures, happy to take up a cause that happens to coincide with their own prejudices.

Canada now hosts some 1.8 million Muslims, half of which immigrated from 2011 forward with increasing frequency and numbers. It is now clear that government authorities had no interest in ensuring that those comprising great numbers of an ethnic, social, cultural, religious background that tended not to accept the culture, social justice system, values of a society they gravitated to, might very well present as a future danger to social cohesion and the general social compact in a democratic society.

All of which has led to spectacles of violent demonstrations against a much smaller demographic of about 350,000 Jewish Canadians who view with dismay and disappointment the inaction of their fellow Canadians, much less Canadian governments at every level, failing to react and act to uphold the law and to protect the Canadian Jewish population threatened by increasingly volatile and violent 'protesters' who no longer bother shielding their support of Palestinian terrorists from public view.

Canadian universities for the past few decades have succumbed to leftist progressive divisiveness, promoting the ideology of 'anti-oppression, teaching that colonialism of which they claim Israel is a prime example, is morally indefensible, that people of European ancestry are born exceptionalists, superior and dominating others of 'colour', under Critical Race Theory. Privilege and intersectional 'oppressor' beliefs are reflective of university campuses in this age.

Published

2024-04-09

"Most Canadian Jews feel unsafe and victimized. They perceive a rise in negative attitudes toward Jews in recent months and years. Most doubt the situation will improve. The main reason they feel this way is that extreme anti-Israel statements and actions have proliferated in recent months. Because support for the existence of a Jewish state in Israel is a central component of their identity, most Jews regard extreme anti-Israel statements and actions as a threat to their existence as Jews."

"Most non-Jewish Canadians do not have negative toward Jews. However, non-Jewish university students, Quebecois, and especially Muslim Canadians tend to have significantly more negative attitudes towards Jews than does the non-Jewish population as a whole."

Abstract: Jews and Israel 2024: A Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Jewish Perceptions : Robert Brym

The Friend of My Enemy is My Enemy

"[Russia is] an adversary for Israel -- it supports the radical axis that is fighting against us."

"[Moscow's role will grow in importance in the face the intensification of Israel's conflict with Iran and its proxy terrorist groups in the region."

Shay Har-Zvi, former acting director general, Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Israel

"Russia and Iran are closer than ever thanks to the war in Ukraine."

"The Russians could now supply them [Islamic Republic of Iran] with some very important technology that would represent a dramatic upgrade of Iranian capabilities."

Major General (Reserve) Amos Gilead, former top Israeli Defense Ministry official

Kremlin/AP

 

Prior to the October 7 atrocities committed in southern Israel by Gaza terrorist groups alongside Hamas and enthusiastically joined by ordinary Palestinian civilians that wreaked destructive havoc in Israeli border farming communities, leaving 1,200 Israelis butchered, women mass raped and mutilated, families burned to death in their homes, Israel and Russia enjoyed fairly amicable relations, if occasionally tension arose over nighttime aerial bombings of weapons depots in Syria.

That was when good personal relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin reigned, and Russia's muted approval of destroying Iranian weapons transferred through Syria to Lebanon for Hezbollah, one of Iran's acolyte death-cult militias allowed Israel to act without intervention by Russia protecting its relations with Syrian Present Bashar al-Assad, much less interfering with the presence of Russian warplanes busily aiding the Syrian regime in bombing Syrian Sunni dissidents.

 

Those close Israeli-Russian ties of convenience and good fellowship came to an abrupt halt with the Israel Defense Forces' invasion of Gaza to rout Hamas in a bid to destroy the Hamas infrastructure, the tunnel system, the weapons depots, the rocket launchers, all of which have been installed adjacent to or under hospitals, schools, mosques and civilian infrastructure. Israel no longer routinely alerts Moscow to its intentions to bomb areas of Syria, reflecting their frozen accord.

 

Iran's axis now includes Russia which of necessity precludes the continuation of relations with Israel. Russia is expanding its "mutually beneficial" military cooperation with Iran, a reality that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated when meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Reza Ashtiano in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana on Friday. 

 

The comfortable weapons exchanges between the two now reflects the distance that Moscow has placed between its interests and its interest in Israel. Where given the Russian invasion of Ukraine and altered allegiances, Israel's continued relations with Moscow were placed under great strain to begin with. Iran now produces a reliable source of deadly drones that Moscow uses in its attacks on Ukraine. The Moscow-Tehran defence accord comes at a time when Israel-Iran tensions have accelerated.

In exchange, Russia is providing sophisticated air defence systems and fighter jets to Iran. Courtesy of Moscow, Tehran is to be supplied with Sukhoi Su-35 fighter planes, set to bring Iran's decades-aged air force to a more technically advanced stage, as well as obtaining the S-400 sophisticated air defence system. Moscow is sharing its cyber warfare expertise and intelligence, as well as helping the Islamic Republic launch spy satellites.

Israel fired supersonic air-to-surface missiles damaging a Russian-made S-300 battery in an airbase near Isfahan, managing to defy Iran's air defences on April 19; a limited response to Tehran's massive missile and drone barrage that was meant to deluge Israeli airspace a week earlier. Following the Iranian April 13 missile strikes on Israel, its foreign ministry describing the attack as "self-defence", when after deadly airstrikes on Iran's Damascus diplomatic compound, Russia backed Tehran. 

The first delivery of Yak-130 combat trainer aircraft was received by Iran in September from Russia. Used to train pilots for the Su-35, the deputy Iranian defence minister revealed that arrangements for delivery of the fighter planes were finalized to replace Iran's outdated current warplanes fleet.

 

Maxim Shemetov/AP/File

Mr. Putin (right) greets Sara Netanyahu (left) as her husband, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looks on in the Kremlin, Jan. 30, 2020

"Relations with Israel have deteriorated, though both sides retain contact."

"[Ideally], Russia wants to maintain ties with Israel, while strengthening its strategic partnership with Tehran. A war between Israel and Iran would not be beneficial to Moscow."

"But Russia’s ability to influence events is quite limited. ... If it were to be drawn into such a conflict, it would divert significant resources from its operations in Ukraine."

Vladimir Sotnikov, IMEMO Center for International Security, Moscow

Enemy Archives -- Rewriting History the Ukrainian Nationalist Method

"It is very disappointing to see that some are willing to use this moment of great public support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression as an opportunity to rewrite Ukrainian history, and specifically to whitewash the involvement of Ukrainian nationals in the commission of genocide against Ukrainian Jewry."

"This book got a platform it never deserved given the outright misinformation it contains, and we are glad to see this problem being rectified as institutions take a closer look at the book and its dangerous and outrageous claims."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director, policy and advocacy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"The excerpt [published on February 9, 2023 from Enemy Archives] included a paragraph disputing the view that the Second World War era Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were Nazi collaborators."

"However, we recognize that this collaboration has been established by prior scholarship."

Rob Roberts, editor-in-chief, National Post 

"[Enemy Archives was rigorously examined before being released]. The path of Ukrainian nationalism and its intersections with Jewish history over the past century is often challenging and difficult to reconcile, with significant impacts on current political events in the region."

"There are inherent yet necessary risks in this area of study, and to participating in the contentious academic and public debates about how to tell these histories to advance understanding of both the past and present."

Lisa Quinn, executive director, McGill Queen's University Press

A monument to Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera, hailed as a national hero of Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine. Credit: Shutterstock.

 

The American Library Association, the largest library association in the world, in late January awarded a book, Enemy Archives, edited by Royal Military College professor Lubomyr Luciuk and Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, honours placing it on its list of the best historical materials for the years 2022 and 2023. It has now rescinded that award following criticism by Holocaust scholars who expressed grave concerns over the book's whitewashing of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during the Second World War.

"We apologize for the harm caused by the work's initial inclusion on the list. The committee will be reviewing the award manual and procedures", stated Jean Hodges, director of communications for the library association. For his part, Professor Luciuk responded to the pulling of the award by the library association as a "perplexing" decision; that the book should be read by those doubting its veracity to avoid "misrepresenting" its contents.

The book in question, Enemy Archives: Soviet Counterinsurgency Operations and the Ukrainian Nationalist Movement -- Selections from the Secret Police Archives, includes and discusses the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, along with addressing issues related to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army which many Ukrainians view with pride, believing those who were part of these organizations were heroes, fighting against the Soviets. 

 

Who were, at that period of history, part of the Allied Forces fighting Nazi Germany.

These are the same 'heroes' whom Holocaust scholars, Jewish groups and the government of Poland label Nazi collaborators, involved in the mass slaughter of up to 100,000 Poles and Jews during the Second World War. The Jewish News Syndicate news agency and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre took notice when an excerpt from Enemy Archives was published in the widely-read national newspaper, the National Post.

The book was published by McGill-Queen's University Press. "I am frankly surprised McGill Queen's Press [would] lend itself to this form of memory activism", commented Per Anders Rudling, professor at Sweden's Lund University in a statement he issued regarding the book. Professor Rudling has extensively studied the issue of Nazi collaborators.

Those who support the contents and assertions contained in the book focus attention and anger on  Lev Golinkin, a writer of Ukrainian Jewish heritage, blaming his intervention and influence for the decision the American Library Association reached to withdraw the award they honoured the book with. An April 10 article published in the U.S. publication, The Nation, saw Mr. Golinkin argue that the book whitewashed Nazi collaborators. 

 

Which led the Council of the Ukrainian Library Association to launch an appeal of the decision made by the American Library Association, claiming that Golinkin is simply backing pro-Russian propaganda. Golinkin, who has invested time and energy in anti-Russian protests.

A social media response to the situation where a Ukrainian commentator pointed out that Golinkin is a Jew and a parasite was re-posted by the book's co-author Volodymyr Viatrovych. Adolf Hitler was given to referring to Jews as parasites, justifying their annihilation by his state-inspired industrialization of genocide. 

 

Coincidentally that same social media account accused another Ukrainian Jew with a history of speaking out about the history of Nazi collaborators, of being a parasite as well. 

Get the picture?

Nazi Minister of the Interior Heinrich Himmler inspects the Ukrainian volunteer Galicia Division of the SS in May 1944. (Via the Polish National Digital Archives)

Final Show-Down Between Israel and Hezbollah?

"Hezbollah’s continued threats to target all of Israel with missiles show how egregiously the Iranian-backed terrorist group exploits Lebanon as a base for its illegal rocket arsenal."

"Hezbollah has stockpiled masses of rockets, armed drones, anti-tank missiles, and precision-guided munitions in recent years."

"Hezbollah has fired more than 2,000 rockets at Israel since it chose to back Hamas’s brutal attack in October."

"Hezbollah’s continued threats show that it is not deterred and is willing to risk catastrophic escalation in the region."

"The terrorist group must be deterred, and Israel should be supported in operations against Hezbollah."

Seth Franzman, ME Analyst, Journalist, Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies 

Screenshot of Hezbullah military exercise in southern Lebanon  (RT Arabic)

Cross border fire between Israeli forces and the Iranian proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon in almost daily exchanges dating from Israel's campaign against Hamas in October, have reached a pitch and plans are underway that this escalation of conflict will inevitably led to full-scale war between the two forces. Preparations on Israel's side include additional military exercises for ground, naval and aerial forces in the country's north, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

 

The IDF stated that area leaders with the IDF have been briefed "on the processes to accelerate readiness for continued fighting", while storage facilities are installed for the purpose of a quick and broad mobilization of IDF troops to the front lines.  About 40 targets linked to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon were struck by Israel this week, representing an escalation of hostilities following Hezbollah's deepest attack within Israel, the day before.

Active and frequent clashes have led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Lebanese border. Hezbollah is considered to be the most dangerous militia in the Middle East, in possession of 150,000 missiles and rockets, among them those with a long enough range to reach virtually anywhere in Israel. About 17,000 rockets, missiles and artillery shells have targeted Israel since October 7; that fateful day of the terrorist invasion of southern Israel with its savage outcome in the massive death count, mutilation, rape and hostage-taking of Israeli civilians.

 

Photo: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

 

Israel estimates a baseline scenario, should a fully fledged war erupt, of up to 5,000 missiles daily entering Israel from Lebanon, over and above several hundred fired by other Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The very volume of which could potentially test Israel's air defence systems to a breaking point, resulting in increased numbers of casualties. It is anticipated that Hezbollah would attempt to hit infrastructure facilities such as power plants and water pipes; sea ports airports and communication sites.

A situation that during wartime, would fully justify Israel striking deep enough into Lebanon to  hit major cities and their critical civil infrastructure; Beirut included. Israel developed a National Emergency Authority to coordinate its various agencies in government in preparation for a surprise attack; the blueprint known as "the compass", a classified document laying out Hezbollah's capabilities and the maximum harm that could result from an all-out war with Hezbollah.

 

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since 7 October [Getty]

Corrupting the Function of Unions

"I put up my hand, and I said I would like to speak to the fact that what you're wearing is a political statement, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable."

"And then, before I really could get any [more] words out, she mutes me."

Unidentified union member, fearful of repercussions

"Part of Israel's military occupation, apartheid and genocide ...is the erasing of cultural symbols such as the keffiyeh."

"Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism ... we do not tolerate racism in union meetings."

"Without resistance there is no union. A union is about caring for each other and struggling together for better. When you stand up to injustice I want to be there with you, because together we have the courage to never back down. I hope to serve as your Member At Large. And, let's never forget -- free Palestine!"

"Yes, I believe that Palestinians should be free from occupation, free from living under apartheid, and free from genocide and I will always stand for that. Being a union leader, when you are seeing people being massacred, that is a time when you need to open up your mouth and speak and say that is wrong -- just like I stand with the rights of workers -- I will always stand by the rights of oppressed people."

Canadian Union of Public Employees Toronto chapter union 905 president Katherine Grzejszczak

 

"Our union president speaks of inclusive spaces, but without Jewish perspectives."

"When the person who was supposed to represent us all wears clothing that has roots linked with terrorism, we do not feel safe or represented."

"Her personal views should not represent our union views."

Unidentified Union member, fearful of repercussions

In this screenshot from a video meeting, Katherine Grzejszczak’s laptop can be seen adorned with a large Palestinian flag sticker.

Toronto area CUPE 905 representing 6,000 municipal government and library workers across York Region held a video conference on remote-work policies on April 17. They were greeted with an unusual sight. Union president Katherine Grzejszczak's laptop facing the audience had a large Palestinian flag sticker facing the audience. One member responded by altering their own display picture with an Israeli flag. In the video Grzejszczak is first seen wearing a black T-shirt, then changing to a flowing red keffiyeh.

Upon which when one union member protested the sight of the union president swaddled in the keffiyeh, she responded: "We're not allowed to talk about anything political." The protester responded: "By you putting on that scarf, you're making it political". The response from the union president was to mute the protester. "We're all very afraid of the repercussions", one union member confessed in a journal interview.

Later at a follow-up meeting Grzejszczak brought forward a motion to fund her candidacy for another position with the union. Her campaign emphasized the concept of "resistance". CUPE 905 members who wee taken aback by the situation said that after the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas they are still awaiting any reference by her to the hostages taken by Hamas, on the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, much less steadily rising antisemitism in Canada. "I don't feel it's a safe place for Jewish people", a source stated.

 

A woman wears a keffiyeh during a rally in support of Palestinians. The scarf's ubiquity in anti-Israel protests since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has made it a divisive symbol for many of Israel’s supporters. Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images

A female participant at the meeting who was herself wearing a black keffiyeh pledged her support for the president's candidacy, elaborating at some length on the importance of Free Palestine and the history of the conflict, as she saw it. "I was silenced for this topic. She is being political. Why is she not being muted?" asked the union member who had protested and had been muted as a result. She was thereupon once again muted. 

Additional members of the union expressed their own feelings of frustration over a labour forum purportedly dedicated to public-sector workers in York Region being diverted by its president for personal political reasons, to focus on a conflict occurring thousands of miles distance from Canada. "It's so bad that  you can't even concentrate on labour because this is ongoing, all the time", another union member reported.

 

Grzejszczak’s pitch to members centres on the concept of “resistance.”

 

"What we did in the Ontario legislature was make sure that our Jewish members and our Jewish constituents feel safe and able to debate with merit rather than props [when the Speaker of the Legislature banned the keffiyeh's presence in the chamber]."

"I would suggest that, given the class action lawsuits that I've seen crop up against the province as a result of antisemitism in some of the unions, union leaders should be more cognizant of the harm that they may be doing to people's mental health."

Ontario MPP Lisa McLeod

Atrocity Alert: Sudan's Darfur Attacks Redux

"All under the false pretext of targeting rebels [government forces and Janjaweed militias began attacking non-Arab villages, burning entire villages, engaging in systematic killings, extensive rape and sexual violence]."

"These attacks were also designed to destroy these groups' [Ethnic Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities] means of survival and essential infrastructure."

"[The 153 states that have signed the Geneva Convention must] take immediate action to end any complicity in the form of support for the RSF [Rapid Support Forces] and use all means reasonable available to prevent and halt the genocide."

Report, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

Families escaping Ardamata in West Darfur cross into Adre, Chad, after a wave of ethnic violence, November 7, 2023. Survivors recounted executions and looting in Ardamata, which they said were carried out by RSF and allied Arab militias. 2023 REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

In Darfur, Sudan, 80 different tribes and ethnic groups live traditional lives as farmers and pastoralists. In the last number of decades, tensions have strained the non-Arab farming communities' relations between Arab herders. Land is at a premium, leaving the farmers and the herders at odds between grazing cattle and farming the land. Government bodies appointed by the Sudanese government in the mid-1980s favoured the rights of the Arab communities, leading to mass violence, when Arab herders attacked non-Arab, Black farming communities.

Primary groups targeted by the current situation, with the rebirth of mass killings, displacement, rape and land grabs are the Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa, Bargo, Tunjor and other non-Arab tribes in the West, South, North East, and Central Darfur States. Eventually non-Arab groups -- Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa -- responded by forming their own militias, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, both labelled rebels by the government of Sudan. 

In the late 1980s and beyond fighting between the Arab and non-Arab communities intensified. Chaos reigned when President Omar al-Bashi aligned the country's military with the Janjaweed militia (Arab horsemen) who persecuted and conducted murderous raids on Darfur's farming communities. Between 2003 and 2005, 300,000 people were murdered and countless others were made homeless."Counter-insurgency" campaigns resulted between 2015 and 2016. By 2019 President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown after having been indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

The feared and hated Janjaweed since transformed into the Rapid Support Forces, now in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces in a power struggle. The conflict, seemingly ignored by a world bored with constant African Continent strife has caused 17.7 million people to face food insecurity, while another 25 million are left in need of humanitarian assistance. In a city in West Darfur, El Geneina, the RSF rounded up Masalit men for execution, where they were held in detention without food or water.

According to the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on the Sudan, between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in that attack. The Darfur Bar Association described the situation in El Geneina as a "full-scale genocide". The Raoul Wallenberg Centre report cited genocidal and dehumanizing language: Arab militiamen killing boys as young as six months, claiming "the boys will grow up and they will kill us. ... so we must destroy them now".

 

Bodies are strewn near houses in the West Darfur capital El Geneina, June 16, 2023. Up to 15,000 people were killed in the city last year in ethnic violence, according to a United Nations report seen by Reuters

Never Put Off Until Today What You Should have Said Yesterday

"There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful intimidation."

"It is unconscionable to glorify the antisemitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th."

"This rhetoric has no place in Canada. This is not who were are."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa on April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

A message of condemnation. From the Prime Minister of Canada. After months of often more muted messages of hate, threats, viral antisemitism. At no time did this man who for too long has been the executive leader of Canada see fit to condemn antisemitism without linking it to his cautions against 'Islamophobia'. Puzzling, given that Muslims in Canada face very few obstacles to living an inclusive, normal life of acceptance and equality. While at the same time Palestinian agitators have sought every opportunity to slander Israel, deny that Hamas is a terrorist entity, and harass Jewish-Canadians.

And nor is he the sole politician in Canada to look the other way and murmur approval of Canada's laws justifying free speech, even though there are other laws that condemn and criminalize the deliberate spread of racism, hate expressed against an identifiable group as an indictable offence. The steady growth of a Muslim demographic in Canada make them an impressive voting bloc, one recognized all too readily by politicians more concerned over their re-election than representing basic security issues.

This past Saturday downtown Ottawa saw swarms of masked anti-Israel protesters marching, waving banners, and flags, chanting directly before Parliament Hill to support the terrorist attacks in southern Israel that took place on October 7, 2023, killing over a thousand innocent civilian Israelis, mass-raping girls and women, mutilating their tortured bodies and slaughtering them, then taking hundreds of children, women and the elderly as hostages back with them to Gaza where it became a celebratory event.

 

Ottawa police’s hate crime unit is investigating allegations of hate speech at a pro-Palestinian rally on Parliament Hill over the weekend, where some participants were heard chanting in support of the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

 

"Our resistance and attacks are proof that we are almost free. October 7 is proof that we're almost free. Long live October 7. Long live the intifada. Long live every form of resistance", shouted one of the speakers. So, after all, this is Canada. The Canada that we never realized existed. But it does. And Jews in Canada are being hounded, harassed, threatened while their places of worship are vandalized, Jewish children entering their parochial school are cursed and shouted at, Jewish university students ostracized.

There was a time, early on, long before that fateful October 7, when a strong leader would have expressed his condemnation of rising antisemitism and acknowledged its source, and taken steps to criminalize the burgeoning racism splitting Canadian society. Having done nothing of the kind, even when Palestinian 'students' in Canada began organizing 'pro-Palestinian' marches celebrating the savagery visited on Israelis by Palestinian terrorist groups starting the very day following the carnage in southern Israel, the haters took it as tacit approval.

The prime minister who cannot condemn the scourge of rising and rampant antisemitism emanating from within the Canadian-Muslim demographic, without also parenthetically mentioning 'Islamophobia' has, in very fact, supported the antisemitism he has done nothing to tame, to adequately censure, to reassure Canadian Jews that their place in Canada is assured, safe and secure because Canadians care and Canadian politicians are determined to ensure that Canada remains a nation where justice and equality are not just words but conditions applicable to all its citizens.

To them a badge of dishonour by their lack of concern, by their lack of remedial action, by their lack of assurances to Canadian Jewry that Canada is their home, a place of origin where they are appreciated, where they are safe and free from threats and violence.

Police are investigating allegations of hate speech used at a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown Ottawa on Saturday. (Radio-Canada/Maxim Saavedra-Ducharmes)

Jews Under Violent Duress

"There is widespread bipartisan support for aid to Israel in the House of Representatives, yet this legislative branch is being held hostage from within, undermining both American and Israeli national security."

"Our members are compelled by their faith to act on this issue, and at we shall."

Sandra Parker, chairwoman, Christians United for Israel

"I chose to speak from my heart and from my experience as an immigrant whose family escaped from the most brutal, radical Islamofascist regime in the world: the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran."

"We came to Canada because we wanted to live a better life."

"We embrace Canadian values."

Ontario MPP Goldie Ghamari

Palestinian supporters hold a rally in downtown Toronto on Oct. 9, 2023. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Canadians in general have seen their society upended in disagreements and they have witnessed the strange phenomenon of their government hesitating in its support for a Democratic state that has always had the support of democracies throughout the world, including Canada, in recognition of the legitimacy and the need for the existence of a Jewish State, to preserve and protect embattled Jews from the Middle East to North Africa, after the near-destruction of the world's Jewish population in Europe.

Worse, a government that no longer appears to feel there is any need to support its own Criminal Code laws against promoting hate and violence against an identifiable group, as week after week Muslim-Canadians who have immigrated to Canada, along with refugees and migrants fleeing Sectarian and tribal violence in their countries of origin march through the streets of Canadian cities celebrating the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group's incursion from Gaza into Israel to commit horrendous acts of savagery on Jews.

The explosion of antisemitism and the growing violence against Canada's Jewish community inexplicably has drawn no level of government to declare the hate-filled marches advocating for the destruction of Israel and a 'final solution' for Jews intolerable, prepared to instruct police to apprehend those involved and outlaw such displays of sheer, unadulterated celebration of vicious atrocities committed against southern Israel's farming communities where 1,200 Israeli civilians were slaughtered.

When Jewish lives were in peril during the Second World War, the Catholic Church among others did nothing to admonish the leaders of the Third Reich that their increasing acrimony, threats and final solution to rid the continent of the presence of Jews represented a wholesale atrocity of genocidal proportions. The Protestant Branch of the Church did no better. Now, it is the evangelical Christians that have committed to supporting the Jewish State, at a time once again when Jews are threatened.

If it is true as many would like to believe that not all Muslims subscribe to the hate manifested by those who mask themselves with keffiyehs, claiming Israel to be committing genocide against Palestinians by responding to the mass rapes, murders, mutilations and hostage taking by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Organization and ordinary civilian Palestinians on October 7, and that the majority are peace-supporting and hate no one, there is no evidence of it. That there is an absence of Muslim-Canadian voices protesting the violence on the streets, the criminal acts perpetrated against Jewish parochial schools, synagogues, social centres, and businesses is the reality.

We see and hear only those Muslim-Canadians who bear signage accusing Israel and Jews of genocide for fighting back against terrorism, advocating for the destruction of the Jewish homeland, persecuting Jews on the street, at universities and blocking access to areas where Jews tend to live in groups. Nowhere do we see protesting Muslim-Canadians who accept Jewish-Canadians as equals, entitled to live in peace and security among the steadily growing demographic of Muslims in Canada. Why is that?

Member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario Goldie Ghamari and other expatriate Iranians who fled the Republic for a life of freedom, finding it in Canada, openly support their Jewish counterparts. Theirs is a rare commitment among the Muslims who have settled in Canada for a better life, yet are adamant in denying that life of security, social comfort and prosperity to their Jewish neighbours. Jews, under duress by fellow Canadians whose antisemitism is audible and terrifying to the Jewish-Canadian population never resort to vilifying Muslims for being Muslims, threaten them, bomb their mosques.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is prepared to invite Palestinian Gazans to find refuge in Canada, adding to the already large contingent of Palestinians living in the country who foment hate and violence against Jews. Justin Trudeau cannot find it in himself to condemn the rampant antisemitism and criminal acts committed against Jewish houses of worship without linking antisemitism as a proscribed and hateful symbol of discord, to 'Islamophobia'. The infinitely larger number of Muslims now living in Canada as opposed to a relatively small Jewish population mitigates against this man of authority's responsibility to protect Jews in the greater need to placate the larger voting bloc.

Holding US and Israeli flags, a crowd of largely Evangelical Christians pray during the Christians United For Israel (CUFI) 'Night to Honor Israel' during the CUFI Summit 2023, in Arlington, Virginia, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, July 17, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP

"Neither side is ready to jump over the brink."

"Probably we're going to go back to the proxy war. [But now it's a proxy war with the risk of] that sudden eruption of state-to-state war."

"Which we didn't have to worry about before."

Alex Vatanka, director, Iran program, Middle East Institute Research Centre, Washington

"The explosion this morning in the sky of Isfahan was related to the shooting of air defence systems at a suspicious object that did not cause any damage."

"[Air defence batteries fired over reports of airborne drones, crews targeting several flying objects]."

Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi

 

"[Israel appears to have carried out the attack to] check off a box [by sending a message to Iran without doing anything too provocative that might upset the U.S. urging restraint or to spark any further retaliation from Iran]." 

"It seems very limited, to send a message that 'we can strike you inside of Iran'."

Yoel Guzansky, senior researcher, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv

An anti-Israel parade in Tehran on Friday  The New York Times

 

Neither the sender of the message nor the message target appeared inclined to linger on what appeared to be a restrained Israeli rebuke referencing the 300 drones and Ballistic Missiles that Tehran sprinkled toward Israeli airspace a week earlier. Message delivered. Message received. A signal for Middle East political experts analyzing the interplay as both enemies preparing to prevent the latest violent eruption from ballooning into a full blown regional war.

"It appears we're closer than ever to a broad regional war, despite the fact that the international community will most likely make a great effort to de-escalate tensions", commented Amos Harel, military-affairs commentator at the daily Haaretz in Israel. The Islamic Republic of Iran has never made any secret of its willingness to one day destroy Israel. Its furtive but obvious nuclear program and focus on ballistic missile upgrades testament to that oft-stated ambition.

 

The speech notes of Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., during a Security Council meeting.  Charly Tribbaleau / AFP via Getty Images

Nor is it unknown that Iran is a major sponsor of proxy terrorist groups in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria all of whom have become involved in attacking Israel from its borders following the Israel Defense Forces' incursion into Gaza with the express and well-expressed purpose of destroying Hamas's operations and extinguishing as many of its operatives as possible, to defang one of the deadly serpents spawned from the Republic's IRGC al-Quds division.

Rising tensions in the wake of the October 7 flood of terrorists representing Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PLO backed by Iran that saw their operatives, along with ordinary Palestinian civilians attack Israeli border farming communities where their sadistic savagery gave vent to the hatred for Jews consuming their venom-patterned minds by committing unspeakable atrocities against Israeli civilians in an organized, well-rehearsed orgy of rape, mutilation and mass murder.

When Israel mounted its offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah saw it as an opportunity to strike Israeli targets opening a second front in the north of Israel, necessitating the evacuation of Israeli villages around the Golan Heights. Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen fired missiles and drones throughout the conflict in lethal, distracting moves obviously meant to exhaust Israel's military reserves.

For its part, Israel has, over time, conducted airborne raids by its fighter jets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq to destroy arms shipments from Iran to its proxies, focusing mostly on Syria in an effort to dislodge Iran from a planned permanent presence on Israel's border. On April1st an airstrike killed two Iranian generals in the Syrian capital Damascus at an Iranian diplomatic compound for which Iran named Israel as being responsible -- vowing a response.

On the 13th of April Iran calculated a first-time direct attack and launched a rain of missiles and attack drones toward Israel, virtually all of which were intercepted by an international coalition of preventive partnership that included fighter planes and missile interception by the United States, France, United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, working in tandem with the IDF, resulting in one human casualty in Israel and a minimally affected Israeli airbase.

Israel's response to Iran's attack arrived a week later with Iranian authorities claiming their air defences fired at a major airbase near Isfahan, home to Iran's F-14 Tomcats, an ageing fleet of American jets predating the Islamic Revolution. Sites associated with Iran's nuclear program are also established in the Isfahan area, including the underground Natanz enrichment site, featuring in previous Israeli sabotage attacks. That response by the IDF coincided with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 85th birthday.

Both the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian State television declared all Iranian atomic sites in the areas in question to be "fully safe"; "no damage" resulted. On the other hand, it would seem that satellite imagery later revealed evidence of probable damage at the Iranian air base following the Israeli strike. BBC Verify analyzed two images that showed part of an air-defence system at an airfield in Isfahan had been damaged.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford: Out of Order!

"It's extremely politically sensitive, obviously, but procedurally I believe I made the right decision in the sense of past rulings of speakers and precedents and traditions."

"In my opinion, having done the research, it appeared to me that the keffiyeh is being worn to make a political statement."

Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Ted Arnott

 

"I think [Speaker Arnott's ruling] is the correct decision, in the same way we can't use other kinds of political clothing."

"We can't wear T-shirts that say 'Free the hostages', or wrap ourselves in a flag or whatever."

"We have to follow the rules of the legislature. Otherwise, we politicize the entire debate inside the legislature and that's not what it's about ... we use our words to persuade, not our items of clothing".

Progressive Conservative backbencher Robin Martin

 

"It really comes down to uniting Ontarians and communities."

"We see the division right now that's going on. It's not healthy, and this will just divide the community even more."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Keffiyehs remain banned in the Ontario Legislature after a motion to overrule House Speaker Ted Arnott’s prohibition failed to pass at Queen’s Park on Thursday. CBC

One would think and hope that someone of the political stature and influence of the premier of Canada's most populous province would be more aware and sensitive to the implications of permitting an iconic symbol of Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupation' of Gaza and the West Bank by the State of Israel would be recognized as throwing political weight in the Palestinian-occupied wing of slanderous propaganda. Worse, that seeing that symbol worn in the provincial parliament, the impression that the provincial government agrees that Palestinians and their terrorist hordes have the right to raid Israeli territory to threaten, to rape, to torture, and to murder Jews in Israel.

 

The Speaker of the Ontario legislature appears to be courageously standing on principle alongside the legislature's own rules when he defied the popular (unanimous) decision of the Members of Provincial Parliament when they opted to allow keffiyeh-clad individuals to display their obvious rancor against Israel, bringing the conflict that rages in the Middle East into Canada and its levels of government as an entitlement to slander the Jewish State and propagate for its destruction as a 'final solution' to their struggle to destroy the ancestral Jewish presence in the Middle East. 

The keffiyeh is emblematic of Palestinian rejection of sharing the geography that the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 partitioned, offering Jews one portion of their traditional geography upon which to declare a modern state, and the other to the Palestinians who claim the entire territory as uniquely and solely theirs, rejecting the reality of history that reflects a Judaean presence from antiquity to the present; in fact the original 'Palestinians' as named by the Roman occupiers of the Middle East during that era.

There is a long-standing rule in the legislature that members may not make use of props, signage or accessories with the intention of expressing a political statement, and it is that rule that the Speaker of the Legislature relied upon to refuse to permit that resonating political symbol to make its appearance in the Legislature of Ontario. Having established the facts through his own "extensive research", the Speaker was confident in the applicability of his ruling.

 

The unanimous consent of the legislature is sought by members of provincial parliament when they wish to express solidarity with a specific theme or event. Provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles had moved a unanimous consent motion days earlier claiming the keffiyeh to be a culturally significant item of clothing in Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities and as such should be given permission to be worn in Parliament. Some of those present in the Legislature demurred, the loudest "no" emanating from another Progressive Conservative MPP.

"Speaker Arnott is the longest serving MPP in the legislature and has spent three decades upholding the rules and procedures of the House."

"As the longest serving woman at Queen’s Park I support his ruling because it keeps with tradition and reminds members to keep our debates focused on words rather than on political props."

"Arnott chose parliamentary convention over political weather [vanes]."

Ontario Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod

Queen's Park, Toronto   Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press

"Anti-Palestinian Racism" at York University, Hotbed of Anti-Israel Racism

"[York University pledges to take] proactive steps to fight racial inequity [which cannot be done unless administrators actively commit to isolate and destroy the Zionist] settler colonial project."

"The struggle for Palestinian self-determination will support the liberation of all humans and non-humans [sic] from colonial oppression." 

"It is the systematic and structural denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination and national liberation, and the collective existence of the Palestinian people, while upholding Zionism."

"Zionism is a settler colonial project and ethno-religious ideology in service of a system of Western imperialism that upholds global white supremacy."

"Academic freedom allows us to comment and critique on historically and philosophically relevant topics in context and allows for the pursuit of truth and fulfillment of university objectives."

"We propose that the department advocate for a more transparent and effective University process for handling complaints and violations of the code of conduct, including reparatory justice and/or grounds for suspension or removal for individuals who violate the code of conduct and community safety standards."

Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee document

Students at York University drop a banner calling for a walk out in solidarity with Gazans. Credit: Palestine Solidarity Collective/Instagram

"[York University is becoming a landscape of] surveillance, fear, intimidation and repression [for anyone advocating] Palestinian liberation. [Faculty members] should not be pressured to condemn Hamas."

"More students have expressed or reported feeling that the university has become an unsafe environment."

"[Any defence of Israel must be viewed as] anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab."

York University faculty committee, Department of Politics

York University in Toronto has devoted itself to the loving care of the sensibilities and sensitivities of their Palestinian students, amidst a larger concern at the university over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who have attempted mightily over the last 70 years and more to  uproot the presence of Jews and the State of Israel, labelling them as 'occupiers' on their own historical, well- documented ancestral land which the Arab migrants from Syria, Jordan and Egypt, purloining the ancient Roman-occupation-era designation of 'Palestine' -- as a province of Jews for administrative purposes -- for their very own, extend that 'ownership' to the land Israel sits on, as well.

These are the Palestinians who declare themselves descendant of history's Philistines and in the sense that the word is used today philosophically , they certainly are, in character if not in historical context. The fairly recent trend in immigration, refugee acceptance and illegal migration that has gifted Canada with a large Arab/Muslim population has resulted in the Palestinian propaganda machine working diligently to defame Israel and frame Canadian Jews as undesirables. And whereas Jews in Canada have never undertaken a campaign to discredit and isolate that Arab/Muslim population, the latter has been labouring overtime to succeed in doing just that to the much smaller Jewish-Canadian population.

Antisemitism and the pejoratives usually applied to Jews anywhere are not new, but the rigour with which this campaign of several years' standing -- accelerated after the Hamas terrorist incursion into Israel with its horrendous savagery imposed upon civilians and still-ongoing retention as hostages of Israeli children, women and the elderly -- speaks volumes of the group-characteristics of a violent people who cloak themselves in the guise of victims of Israeli/Jewish 'genocide'.

The large and growing presence of this discordant blight upon Canada's traditional intake of immigrants from around the world has drawn out the latent antisemitism in Canadian society to a formidable degree causing Canadian Jews to feel uprooted psychologically yet again by the preponderance of prejudice and racial/religious/ethnic/cultural winds of suspicion and hate they see being played out in street demonstrations, extolling the 'human rights' of Palestinian terrorists to 'resist' an 'occupation' that resulted from Palestinian violence against Jews.

Verbal contortions and the invention of 'truths' that re-write history and reality are grasped gratefully by those comfortable with their own brand of antisemitism, layered over with the sanctimony of a sudden love affair for Palestinians, felt to be justified by their aggressive historical and cultural inaccuracies from a hymnal not that different from the one conventional/traditional antisemites sing from. The convenience of citing Critical Race Theory, and the comfort of snuggling into Diversity, Equality and Inclusion gives additional impetus to the smug who declare themselves defenders of human rights while denying Israel's right of existence.

A "recommendations report" dated April 5 from the political committee devoted to the defense of Palestinians, within the Department of Politics at York University proposed Israel cannot be defended since its very existence is "anti-Palestinian", "Islamophobic" and "anti-Arab". Henceforth they declared, any acknowledgement of the very existence of Israel represents evidence of "anti-Palestinian racism". It is not, needless to say, racist to declare the existence of Israel forbidden.The Department of Politics Palestine Solidarity Committee issued its 9-page document with great self-congratulation.

While it is the beleaguered Jewish students suffering isolation, threats and fear of violence, this committee engages in the kind of contorted hyperbole that conflates fear and  isolation not to the threatened Jewish students but to the Palestinian students who are the source of the threats against their Jewish student counterparts. The committee approved a faculty mandate a month following the Hamas assault on southern Israel to draft "a departmental definition of anti-Palestinian racism". 

As to the sacred principles of academic freedom and free speech, it is made abundantly clear that anyone supporting Israel, working with Israeli academics or having any connection however slight to Israel, is not similarly entitled to free speech. The purpose of the document is to advocate "severing ties with Zionist departments and institutions", and to impose a complete commercial boycott on anything that can be construed as having a link to Israel. Even recommending the boycott of Aroma and Starbucks coffee companies, both headquartered in the US, with no Israeli ownership or management.

The document makes it clear to the Department of Politics at York University that York's crisis of "anti-Palestinian racism" cannot be fought without the issuance of a departmental statement endorsing a boycott of Israel in support of "the struggle for Palestinian liberation".

 

The document by a York University Department of Politics committee makes it clear that the principles of “academic freedom” and “free speech” should not apply to anybody supportive of Israel or having any peripheral connection to Israel whatsoever. Photo by Tyler Anderson/National Post