You're correct. Carney wobbled. But let's be clear....this isn't primarily a political problem. It is an individual Canadian problem. Canadians, in general, accept antisemitism and have done so for decades. In this respect, Canadians are a shameful lot.
I don’t think this is globally true. I know I was vocal repeatedly after Oct 7. To my teens who I wanted to ensure weren’t swept up in antisemitism online, to my friends and family, and also to my Jewish friends who needed to know I supported them. You’re right that individuals need to do that more - but leaders set the tone of what is talked about more broadly. And that is where Carney failed. He failed to set the appropriate tone and open an honest conversation about antisemitism.
Thank you Ariella. This is absolutely bang on. Carney missed the opportunity to effect real change. Change that is sorely and urgently needed. Many of us who are not Jews are appalled by what has been happening in Canada since October 7 and are shocked by the degree of antisemitism in Canada that was apparently latent and has now become overt. We are also disgusted by the cowardice of politicians who fail to rise above vote-getting and show moral leadership.
Yes, he really should call a spade a spade and talk openly without avoiding the touchy parts. Maybe someone else could give that speech instead and set an example for Carney and force him to respond and encourage police to enforce the laws on this topic.
I read this kind of quickly but I didn’t see an incident of antisemitism to which Carney didn’t adequately respond? I’m just not sure about what she’s talking. Obviously it sucks to feel excluded, or even to be losing an argument in general North American public opinion on a topic about which one cares deeply, like, for many people, Israel. But is the antisemitism really is just increasing opposition to Israel, then, well, I’m not sure what else we should have expected over the past few years.
Opposition to the Israeli government is one thing - targeting Canadian Jews is not opposition. There’s examples plenty of harassment and violence under the guise of protest - just pay some attention.
Great article. I'm sure Mr. Carney means well, but he has to stop trying to avoid upsetting the racists on the left who deep down... just hate Jews.
First, there's the basic fact that Canadian Jews are CANADIAN. They're not legitimate stand-ins for Israel. Protestors in predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods insisting they're protesting against Israeli policy are like protesters targeting David Suzuki's grandchildren for protests against Japanese government policy. And I think we'd call people who targeted Canadians of Japanese ethnicity by the tag "racist".
Second, anti-semitism is it's own problem. It's not "anti-semitism and Islamophobia" or on other occasions talking about Islamophobia by itself. Imagine a Canadian political party that condemned anti-Japanese racism without generalizing farther when it came up... but whenever they talked about anti-Indigenous racism or residential schools, they had a habit of generalizing into a wider condemnation of anti-asian bigotry. I don't think that would be well received because of what it would imply about anti-indigenous racism being less of a problem.
And that's before we get into the fact that anti-semitism is targeted **racism** while Islamophobia includes a simple (and legitimate) dislike of the religion known as Islam. There's no "legitimate racism". But there are legitimate, accepted and tolerated dislikes of religion. No one is required to think positively of Christianity. People are allowed to say "Christianity sucks, Jesus was a delusional idiot, it's an evil belief system and the world would be better if everyone quit being Christian". Islam isn't special. Canadians are allowed to say "Islam sucks, Mohammed was a delusional idiot with a penchant for underage girls, it's an evil belief system and the world would be better if everyone just quit being Muslim."
Finally... a word about the target the anti-Israel protestors insist they're upset about... the state of Israel itself. One claim I hear is that the state of Israel is illegitimate because it's an ethno-Jewish state in which Jews have special rights. (It's true, they do). Okay... Is virtually every single Muslim majority state in the world illegitimate? I don't hear that from the same people protesting against Israel which leads me to the unfortunate conclusion is the reason is because they're racists.
This gets into foreign affairs, not the Prime Minister defending Canadians against racist attacks, but our foreign policy and how our Prime Minister speaks about the world shouldn't be grounded in racism. Which means we should be seeing our Prime Minister insisting that Israel has the same right to exist as Canada, Japan, Italy or India and the same right to defend itself against invasion, attack and existential threat.
This article is spot on. It is really amazing how many different ways the Liberals, formerly under Trudeau and now under The Carney, have found and continue to find to inflict bad governance on this country.
He made a speech supposedly about antisemitism without naming the antisemites. Then his "solution" is to form a committee. He placed no one who might be seen as representing Jewish concerns on that committee, but did find room for two antizionists: Omar Alghabra and Avnish Nanda.
His message to the nation is clear: See what a morally pure fellow I am? I claim to care about antisemitism. But what's his message to Jews? That we must know our place: we're moral tokens. While providing Liberals with the opportunity to display their moral purity, we must not complain about trifles such as the mobs of Jew-haters and terrorists wanting to wipe Israel off the map.
To recall Minister Jolie's pathetic rejoinder, have you seen the demographics of his ridings ??
Great article. Carney is so fond of saying “Fortune favours the bold.” But he acts like the coward he is.
You're correct. Carney wobbled. But let's be clear....this isn't primarily a political problem. It is an individual Canadian problem. Canadians, in general, accept antisemitism and have done so for decades. In this respect, Canadians are a shameful lot.
I don’t think this is globally true. I know I was vocal repeatedly after Oct 7. To my teens who I wanted to ensure weren’t swept up in antisemitism online, to my friends and family, and also to my Jewish friends who needed to know I supported them. You’re right that individuals need to do that more - but leaders set the tone of what is talked about more broadly. And that is where Carney failed. He failed to set the appropriate tone and open an honest conversation about antisemitism.
Thank you Ariella. This is absolutely bang on. Carney missed the opportunity to effect real change. Change that is sorely and urgently needed. Many of us who are not Jews are appalled by what has been happening in Canada since October 7 and are shocked by the degree of antisemitism in Canada that was apparently latent and has now become overt. We are also disgusted by the cowardice of politicians who fail to rise above vote-getting and show moral leadership.
Yes, he really should call a spade a spade and talk openly without avoiding the touchy parts. Maybe someone else could give that speech instead and set an example for Carney and force him to respond and encourage police to enforce the laws on this topic.
I read this kind of quickly but I didn’t see an incident of antisemitism to which Carney didn’t adequately respond? I’m just not sure about what she’s talking. Obviously it sucks to feel excluded, or even to be losing an argument in general North American public opinion on a topic about which one cares deeply, like, for many people, Israel. But is the antisemitism really is just increasing opposition to Israel, then, well, I’m not sure what else we should have expected over the past few years.
Maybe you should go back and read it properly.
Opposition to the Israeli government is one thing - targeting Canadian Jews is not opposition. There’s examples plenty of harassment and violence under the guise of protest - just pay some attention.
Great article. I'm sure Mr. Carney means well, but he has to stop trying to avoid upsetting the racists on the left who deep down... just hate Jews.
First, there's the basic fact that Canadian Jews are CANADIAN. They're not legitimate stand-ins for Israel. Protestors in predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods insisting they're protesting against Israeli policy are like protesters targeting David Suzuki's grandchildren for protests against Japanese government policy. And I think we'd call people who targeted Canadians of Japanese ethnicity by the tag "racist".
Second, anti-semitism is it's own problem. It's not "anti-semitism and Islamophobia" or on other occasions talking about Islamophobia by itself. Imagine a Canadian political party that condemned anti-Japanese racism without generalizing farther when it came up... but whenever they talked about anti-Indigenous racism or residential schools, they had a habit of generalizing into a wider condemnation of anti-asian bigotry. I don't think that would be well received because of what it would imply about anti-indigenous racism being less of a problem.
And that's before we get into the fact that anti-semitism is targeted **racism** while Islamophobia includes a simple (and legitimate) dislike of the religion known as Islam. There's no "legitimate racism". But there are legitimate, accepted and tolerated dislikes of religion. No one is required to think positively of Christianity. People are allowed to say "Christianity sucks, Jesus was a delusional idiot, it's an evil belief system and the world would be better if everyone quit being Christian". Islam isn't special. Canadians are allowed to say "Islam sucks, Mohammed was a delusional idiot with a penchant for underage girls, it's an evil belief system and the world would be better if everyone just quit being Muslim."
Finally... a word about the target the anti-Israel protestors insist they're upset about... the state of Israel itself. One claim I hear is that the state of Israel is illegitimate because it's an ethno-Jewish state in which Jews have special rights. (It's true, they do). Okay... Is virtually every single Muslim majority state in the world illegitimate? I don't hear that from the same people protesting against Israel which leads me to the unfortunate conclusion is the reason is because they're racists.
This gets into foreign affairs, not the Prime Minister defending Canadians against racist attacks, but our foreign policy and how our Prime Minister speaks about the world shouldn't be grounded in racism. Which means we should be seeing our Prime Minister insisting that Israel has the same right to exist as Canada, Japan, Italy or India and the same right to defend itself against invasion, attack and existential threat.
This article is spot on. It is really amazing how many different ways the Liberals, formerly under Trudeau and now under The Carney, have found and continue to find to inflict bad governance on this country.
Carney is trolling the Jewish community.
He made a speech supposedly about antisemitism without naming the antisemites. Then his "solution" is to form a committee. He placed no one who might be seen as representing Jewish concerns on that committee, but did find room for two antizionists: Omar Alghabra and Avnish Nanda.
His message to the nation is clear: See what a morally pure fellow I am? I claim to care about antisemitism. But what's his message to Jews? That we must know our place: we're moral tokens. While providing Liberals with the opportunity to display their moral purity, we must not complain about trifles such as the mobs of Jew-haters and terrorists wanting to wipe Israel off the map.