I realize the Grand Canadian Sorry is not enough, and will never be.
I am truly sorry, but I realize it brings you and your people no solace, no comfort.
This is yet another stunning example of Canada being broken.
I, like most Canadians, grew up believing Canada was a stedafast ally of Israel and and a refuge for the Jewish people. I naively thought that would, could NEVER change.
Well, it sure did. Lucas is correct.
I'm so appalled at the treatment of Jewish Canadians and the equivocating indifference of our elected leaders and much of the commentariet, that I've considered leaving the country of my birth.
For all my fellow Canadians who are inclined to the argument that the antisemites might have a point or two- well, you are effectively antisemitic yourself.
Lucas - I'd like you to stay as a fellow Canadian.
I wouldn't blame you a bit if you turned your back on this country, as they've done to you and your fellow Jewish Canadians, but I would prefer you stayed, and the antisemites left.
Sorry simply isn't enough.
Canadians that vote to reward this LIberal government for their pandering approach to this issue are traitors to what Canada (used to) stand for, and effectively collaborators with the antisemites.
Political progressives' betrayals of Jews--not new, but magnitudes worse since October 7th--are a sickening failure of empathy and a damning refusal of reality. Among the left culturati it is utterly forbidden to mention the atrocities of the Hamas attacks or the hostages (let alone the years of rocket attacks and the suicide bombings before then), because ultra-left ideologues insist that the Palestinian cause is just, no matter how it is deployed, and that all Palestinians--even and perhaps especially terrorists--must only be described as freedom fighters. Only Israel may be criticised--and all Jews, everywhere, are fair game. Anyone who doubts this should maybe stop by my mother-in-law's long term care home, where guards are deployed to protect the elderly, mainly Holocaust survivor residents from threats.
Non-Jewish Canadians wondering how to support our Jewish neighbours might consider doing what the Minister of my mainstream Protestant church did immediately after 7 October: reach out to what he calls our elder siblings in faith. "Am Yisrael Chai," we've learned to say in halting Upper Canadian inflection.
On October 8th I wrote to close Jewish friends of the family. They had almost all their family in Israel. I expressed my utmost hope for the safety of their families and offered my unconditional support for whatever they might need. My daughter, their close friend did the same. We were the only non Jewish people who reached out post October 7. Some friends of theirs wrote nasty goodbyes. They now hide any Jewish symbols in their work and at their house. It is not just the groups mentioned above, it is all Canadians refusing to stand up to these brainless mobs. This is how societies die.
This is horrendous, but all is not lost. Canada has far too many Jew-haters, but we have a great many people who are disgusted by anti-semitism.... but part of the problem is that the latter group is too reticent to call a spade a spade for fear of being seen as "not nice" or "racist" or "anti-Muslim".
Well no more. We need to call a spade a spade. The Palestinians OVERWHELMINGLY support Hamas and believe October 7th was justified. Which is to say they support genocidal racism.
Canadians who want us to back the Palestinian side? They are demanding that Canada support genocidal racism and the extermination of Jews.
There's a word for that... racism.
Any politician thinking we can support that? You can't vote for their party... you might as well vote for the pro-KKK party because they're the same thing.
As a supporter of Canadian Jews, the State of Israel and most certainly the right of Israel to defend itself, I find it very disturbing to see the antisemitism in our midst today.
We, as a collective of caring and fair minded citizens have failed not only our Jewish neighbours but also our youth. To see the ignorance about history of Jews and the struggle to live in peace in the Middle East among those who will become the leaders of our communities is alarming.
A famous song writer once sang about “naive fools”, and today’s schools and universities are churning them out by the score. When graduates of university know little about the Holocaust or think that it’s “overblown” then we all have a problem on our hands and we owe it to Jews everywhere to strive to do better.
I am not a jew, I have no means of gauging the agony, horror or fear being experienced by Jewish Canadians. But I do understand evil and know that there is no forgiveness for evil. There is no cure for evil, evil is part of the human condition. Evil need only be noted, marked and avoided or engaged each and every time you step out of your safe place. Evil comes in many forms. Evil is ignorance, armed and bent on death. Evil is the entitled student screaming in the streets, evil is also the leader reluctant to scream back. Forgiveness is not an effective response to evil, knowing right from wrong and a big stick is the only effective response.
In July 2024, Dominic Cardy, a career politician was arrested in Toronto and charged with disturbing the peace for attending a pro-Pal rally and shouting "Free Gaza from Hamas." The rally included lots of anti-Jew racist slogans and actions.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. He, and every Jew in Canada, deserves and apology for the way these protests have been allowed to take place.
I am a Voltaire freedom of speech guy. What the problem is with this, is the authorities allow these people to hide their identities. I believe that if you want to be a racist thug, go ahead but you cannot hide your face, so you can be named, shamed, fired, and boycotted by those who disagree with you.
> so you can be named, shamed, fired, and boycotted.
So... you're absolutely NOT in favour of free speech, you just prefer to outsource the punishment for bad speech from the government to the private sector.
Seriously.
That's not a commitment to free speech. It's a commitment to outsourcing. The keywords you put in there were FIRED and BOYCOTTED. If you want a commitment to free speech you can still speak out against horrendous ideas. Changing *who* PUNISHES them though.. that's not free speech at all.
You are allowed to say what you wish but I am allowed to agree or disagree with your position. If I agree I can assert my agreement vociferously and praise you to the sky and support you; similarly, if I disagree I can state that clearly, call you down and stay away from your place of business.
THAT is free speech. Free speech is allowing you to show what you believe and me to demonstrably agree or disagree. All without the state getting involved.
On the other hand, the state MUST get involved where there is violence or the threat of violence. Where matters are clearly peaceful, even if distasteful, the state need not get involved.
However, I don't think it is complimentary to you, your children, friends and relatives to point out that being absolutely oblivious to blatant public acts of anti-Semitism determines reality and so those who point it are actually 'overblowing' the issue because you think it is. That speaks more to your state of mind and belief than it does reality for many.
Maybe you were 'away' during the Toronto 'protest' at Mount Sinai hospital (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T587pqfsMas), the multiple shootings and arson at Jewish schools, the ongoing graffiti or the mere 670% rise in hate crimes in Canada against Jews since 7/10/23? Nice for you.
I guess you weren't in Australia lately where two Australian nurses were caught on camera saying they wouldn’t treat Israeli patients and instead would kill them. Maybe just a minor misunderstanding. And I suppose there's very little reason to have much if any concern that 50 of Australia’s Muslim community groups have rushed to the nurses’ defense. Why wouldn't they when such acts are just overblown by those who describe it accurately as anti-Semitic. I guess you just somehow know this same ant-Semitism isn't the case in Canada when all the evidence outside of your beliefs supports the claim that it is?
I would suggest you’re highly likely then. Not everywhere has had Jewish schools shot at or required police presence, but I’m not Jewish and I have seen the hate directed towards Jewish friends clearly. I’ve seen them grapple with feeling politically homeless when they realize their so-called political allies hate them, and seen them feel they have no support. I’ve reached out to them so they know they have my support. That’s great if you aren’t feeling anything. But I would suggest you not take it for granted because this is the type of thing that doesn’t affect you until it does.
Hi Sheri: I'm Jewish, live in Vancouver and have seen/experienced anti-semitism regularly. On the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, a (now-former) Langara College instructor praised Hamas, Oct. 7 and burned the Canadian and Israeli flags, inciting the Pro-Pal crowd around her. One of our synagogues was fire-bombed, with people inside, in recent months. When we attended the Invictus Games last week to cheer on all the competitors, I was draped in an Israeli flag to go to the team's wheelchair basketball game and I was confronted by a group of young men (thugs?) shouting and telling me I "had a piece of toilet paper around (my) neck." I could go on and on. It is everywhere and while I'm glad you and your family feel safe...it is surprising.
Many of my Jewish friends and relatives support and have for years supported the rights of Palestianians and demonstrate for them here in Winnipeg.
Do you consider them anti-semitic?
FYI
The synagogue wasn't firebombed. Please stop exaggerating.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver had initially said an “incendiary device” was thrown at the synagogue at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, but an update later Friday said someone poured fuel on the front doors and set them on fire.
As long as French Quebec is a part of Canada or at least involved in the running of Canada antisemitism will remain entrenched. 250 years of subjection to the Catholic Church and isolation from the rest of the world (which kept the spirit of the Inquisition alive long after it died in Europe) resulted in antisemitism being bred in the bone of French Quebeckers and tolerated in Canada - the land of “None is too many”. (A still relevant 1983 book by Canadian historians Harold Troper and Irving Abella)
Oh boy. I guess hope springs eternal. But some of the comments here aren't flying and I don't have the time to moderate them closely. Locked.
Do better, people.
Lucas - what can we say?
I realize the Grand Canadian Sorry is not enough, and will never be.
I am truly sorry, but I realize it brings you and your people no solace, no comfort.
This is yet another stunning example of Canada being broken.
I, like most Canadians, grew up believing Canada was a stedafast ally of Israel and and a refuge for the Jewish people. I naively thought that would, could NEVER change.
Well, it sure did. Lucas is correct.
I'm so appalled at the treatment of Jewish Canadians and the equivocating indifference of our elected leaders and much of the commentariet, that I've considered leaving the country of my birth.
For all my fellow Canadians who are inclined to the argument that the antisemites might have a point or two- well, you are effectively antisemitic yourself.
Lucas - I'd like you to stay as a fellow Canadian.
I wouldn't blame you a bit if you turned your back on this country, as they've done to you and your fellow Jewish Canadians, but I would prefer you stayed, and the antisemites left.
Sorry simply isn't enough.
Canadians that vote to reward this LIberal government for their pandering approach to this issue are traitors to what Canada (used to) stand for, and effectively collaborators with the antisemites.
Political progressives' betrayals of Jews--not new, but magnitudes worse since October 7th--are a sickening failure of empathy and a damning refusal of reality. Among the left culturati it is utterly forbidden to mention the atrocities of the Hamas attacks or the hostages (let alone the years of rocket attacks and the suicide bombings before then), because ultra-left ideologues insist that the Palestinian cause is just, no matter how it is deployed, and that all Palestinians--even and perhaps especially terrorists--must only be described as freedom fighters. Only Israel may be criticised--and all Jews, everywhere, are fair game. Anyone who doubts this should maybe stop by my mother-in-law's long term care home, where guards are deployed to protect the elderly, mainly Holocaust survivor residents from threats.
Non-Jewish Canadians wondering how to support our Jewish neighbours might consider doing what the Minister of my mainstream Protestant church did immediately after 7 October: reach out to what he calls our elder siblings in faith. "Am Yisrael Chai," we've learned to say in halting Upper Canadian inflection.
On October 8th I wrote to close Jewish friends of the family. They had almost all their family in Israel. I expressed my utmost hope for the safety of their families and offered my unconditional support for whatever they might need. My daughter, their close friend did the same. We were the only non Jewish people who reached out post October 7. Some friends of theirs wrote nasty goodbyes. They now hide any Jewish symbols in their work and at their house. It is not just the groups mentioned above, it is all Canadians refusing to stand up to these brainless mobs. This is how societies die.
This is horrendous, but all is not lost. Canada has far too many Jew-haters, but we have a great many people who are disgusted by anti-semitism.... but part of the problem is that the latter group is too reticent to call a spade a spade for fear of being seen as "not nice" or "racist" or "anti-Muslim".
Well no more. We need to call a spade a spade. The Palestinians OVERWHELMINGLY support Hamas and believe October 7th was justified. Which is to say they support genocidal racism.
Canadians who want us to back the Palestinian side? They are demanding that Canada support genocidal racism and the extermination of Jews.
There's a word for that... racism.
Any politician thinking we can support that? You can't vote for their party... you might as well vote for the pro-KKK party because they're the same thing.
As a supporter of Canadian Jews, the State of Israel and most certainly the right of Israel to defend itself, I find it very disturbing to see the antisemitism in our midst today.
We, as a collective of caring and fair minded citizens have failed not only our Jewish neighbours but also our youth. To see the ignorance about history of Jews and the struggle to live in peace in the Middle East among those who will become the leaders of our communities is alarming.
A famous song writer once sang about “naive fools”, and today’s schools and universities are churning them out by the score. When graduates of university know little about the Holocaust or think that it’s “overblown” then we all have a problem on our hands and we owe it to Jews everywhere to strive to do better.
I am not a jew, I have no means of gauging the agony, horror or fear being experienced by Jewish Canadians. But I do understand evil and know that there is no forgiveness for evil. There is no cure for evil, evil is part of the human condition. Evil need only be noted, marked and avoided or engaged each and every time you step out of your safe place. Evil comes in many forms. Evil is ignorance, armed and bent on death. Evil is the entitled student screaming in the streets, evil is also the leader reluctant to scream back. Forgiveness is not an effective response to evil, knowing right from wrong and a big stick is the only effective response.
In July 2024, Dominic Cardy, a career politician was arrested in Toronto and charged with disturbing the peace for attending a pro-Pal rally and shouting "Free Gaza from Hamas." The rally included lots of anti-Jew racist slogans and actions.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. He, and every Jew in Canada, deserves and apology for the way these protests have been allowed to take place.
I am a Voltaire freedom of speech guy. What the problem is with this, is the authorities allow these people to hide their identities. I believe that if you want to be a racist thug, go ahead but you cannot hide your face, so you can be named, shamed, fired, and boycotted by those who disagree with you.
> so you can be named, shamed, fired, and boycotted.
So... you're absolutely NOT in favour of free speech, you just prefer to outsource the punishment for bad speech from the government to the private sector.
Seriously.
That's not a commitment to free speech. It's a commitment to outsourcing. The keywords you put in there were FIRED and BOYCOTTED. If you want a commitment to free speech you can still speak out against horrendous ideas. Changing *who* PUNISHES them though.. that's not free speech at all.
No Sir!
I absolutely disagree!
You are allowed to say what you wish but I am allowed to agree or disagree with your position. If I agree I can assert my agreement vociferously and praise you to the sky and support you; similarly, if I disagree I can state that clearly, call you down and stay away from your place of business.
THAT is free speech. Free speech is allowing you to show what you believe and me to demonstrably agree or disagree. All without the state getting involved.
On the other hand, the state MUST get involved where there is violence or the threat of violence. Where matters are clearly peaceful, even if distasteful, the state need not get involved.
Agreed. But I’d still like to know them for when I meet them on the street.
Maybe just maybe as Canadians have to come together and fight for our country they will understand your love for Israel. Here’s hoping.
I'm Jewish.
I do not feel antisemitism at all.
Neither do my children, friends relatives..
This is overblown.
I want to live in your world.
However, I don't think it is complimentary to you, your children, friends and relatives to point out that being absolutely oblivious to blatant public acts of anti-Semitism determines reality and so those who point it are actually 'overblowing' the issue because you think it is. That speaks more to your state of mind and belief than it does reality for many.
Maybe you were 'away' during the Toronto 'protest' at Mount Sinai hospital (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T587pqfsMas), the multiple shootings and arson at Jewish schools, the ongoing graffiti or the mere 670% rise in hate crimes in Canada against Jews since 7/10/23? Nice for you.
I guess you weren't in Australia lately where two Australian nurses were caught on camera saying they wouldn’t treat Israeli patients and instead would kill them. Maybe just a minor misunderstanding. And I suppose there's very little reason to have much if any concern that 50 of Australia’s Muslim community groups have rushed to the nurses’ defense. Why wouldn't they when such acts are just overblown by those who describe it accurately as anti-Semitic. I guess you just somehow know this same ant-Semitism isn't the case in Canada when all the evidence outside of your beliefs supports the claim that it is?
I would suggest you’re highly likely then. Not everywhere has had Jewish schools shot at or required police presence, but I’m not Jewish and I have seen the hate directed towards Jewish friends clearly. I’ve seen them grapple with feeling politically homeless when they realize their so-called political allies hate them, and seen them feel they have no support. I’ve reached out to them so they know they have my support. That’s great if you aren’t feeling anything. But I would suggest you not take it for granted because this is the type of thing that doesn’t affect you until it does.
Perhaps you are just lucky. I am not Jewish, but I see acts of antisemitism almost daily.
What do you include in your daily witness of act of antisemitism..
Tell me from the last week let's say Feb 12th, in your own neighbourhood and social sphère.
Someone here is citing a discussion between two nurses in Australia as evidence of rampant virulence, out-of-control antisemitism in Canada.
Hi Sheri: I'm Jewish, live in Vancouver and have seen/experienced anti-semitism regularly. On the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, a (now-former) Langara College instructor praised Hamas, Oct. 7 and burned the Canadian and Israeli flags, inciting the Pro-Pal crowd around her. One of our synagogues was fire-bombed, with people inside, in recent months. When we attended the Invictus Games last week to cheer on all the competitors, I was draped in an Israeli flag to go to the team's wheelchair basketball game and I was confronted by a group of young men (thugs?) shouting and telling me I "had a piece of toilet paper around (my) neck." I could go on and on. It is everywhere and while I'm glad you and your family feel safe...it is surprising.
Well said Lucas.
Many of my Jewish friends and relatives support and have for years supported the rights of Palestianians and demonstrate for them here in Winnipeg.
Do you consider them anti-semitic?
FYI
The synagogue wasn't firebombed. Please stop exaggerating.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver had initially said an “incendiary device” was thrown at the synagogue at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, but an update later Friday said someone poured fuel on the front doors and set them on fire.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/incendiary-device-thrown-at-vancouver-synagogue-says-jewish-federation
As long as French Quebec is a part of Canada or at least involved in the running of Canada antisemitism will remain entrenched. 250 years of subjection to the Catholic Church and isolation from the rest of the world (which kept the spirit of the Inquisition alive long after it died in Europe) resulted in antisemitism being bred in the bone of French Quebeckers and tolerated in Canada - the land of “None is too many”. (A still relevant 1983 book by Canadian historians Harold Troper and Irving Abella)
This is objectively untrue and I'm not letting this stay up, either.
Yikes. Should have left the comments closed on this one. Come on, guys.
I'm not going to allow that kind of comment to stay up.
That is a generalization about a people, no different than the racism directed at Jews. I think it's unhelpful to behave the same as other racists.