Hi Matt, it was nice to *meet* you this morning on John Tory's show. I really appreciate this post. The rise of antisemitism in this city has become a regular topic of conversation, especially with my parents who moved here to get away from it. It's a terrifying trend.
The government should be using every legal means to identify and deport any non-citizens who participate in rallies calling for violence here or abroad, whether Palestinian or Khalistani.
And, in the ideal world, they would treat threats and violence against individual citizens as harshly as that against the regime and their pets. But we know that's not happening: compare Southport and Rotherham.
Before the police can lay a charge of hate speech, they have to get consent from the provincial attorney-general. This is in the law, so whether it counts as improper political interference or merely appropriate political oversight in the public interest is a matter of taste, I suppose.
However, Mr. Hajahmad wasn't charged under the hate-speech law. The allegations do include language taken from that section of the Criminal Code. But he was charged with supporting a terrorist organization. That's very different from mere hate speech. It might be that the police think it will be easier in this case to prove he supported a terrorist organization with concrete actions than to prove that his mere speech broke what is in fact a vague law that ought to make civil libertarians very uncomfortable. (Disclosure: I oppose hate-speech laws on freedom-of-speech grounds so I am glad to see that he was not charged with hate speech but with something more action-oriented.)
This doesn't explain why it all took so long. (Maybe his computer and phone were tough nuts to crack and there could have been foreign evidence-gathering and money-tracing that we don't know about yet.) But the case is clearly more than hate speech.
I'm thinking of a scenario where instead of just busting dirtbags who utter hate speech on street corners but who don't actually *do* anything, the police investigated this guy more closely and found evidence that he's a really bad dude. They and the RCMP may have had to penetrate some networks in the process of gathering their evidence. This goes way beyond hateful slogans. Trying to be fair to the police, this really could have taken quite a while to put together.
The police don't require permission from anyone to investigate. They do require permission from one politician -- the A-G -- to lay a charge under certain types of offences. The offences where they have to run it by the A-G are so noted in the Criminal Code. The A-G can't direct them to investigate or charge anyone, or to take any police action like traffic control or riot suppression. The police are expected to know how and when to do this according to their judgement. All the A-G can do is grant or deny permission to charge in certain offences. The independence of the police from the politicians who oversee them is a fundamental tenet of English law.
As I say, I don't know if the time-frames in this case are appropriate or not because the details are subject to a publication ban. For all we know this could be on a par with the espionage case of the atomic bomb secrets. The main point I want to make is that this is not just a case of the police belatedly deciding after much foot-dragging to charge a guy with hate speech.
True, but the Prime Minister has a duty to take a clearly defined position on antisemitism. It is the greatest crime in human history. Every lever of power in government and industry partnered in the extermination of more than six million Jews because they were Jewish.
Forming an advisory committee is a tried and true tactic in Ottawa is such a pathetic move it is worthy of maximum scorn. It gives the appearance of doing something about the monstrous rise in antisemitism in Canada while doing absolutely nothing at all. It also screams that Mark Carney possesses no spine. He has a moral responsibility to defend all its citizens and he chose not to.
Canada is not a serious country. This is just another example and it has 100% made life dangerous for all our Jewish citizens. Lives. Are. In. Danger. But yes, lets form a committee. My God, how low this country has fallen. Jews used to be safe here.
Any non-citizen who makes him/herself an undesirable, *persona non grata* can be deported at the pleasure of the Crown. It is a perfectly reasonable "answer". Yes, I know he will fight the deporation order in Federal Court who will let him stay so as not to "derail his immigration journey" but that is a separate question.
Deportation is an administrative remedy to the situation where someone shouldn't be in this country but is. It's not a criminal punishment that requires the due process necessary for imprisonment.
There are circumstances where a non-citizen *must* be deported, such as conviction of a crime where the usual sentence is six months or more, but the Courts block even those deportations, too.
So maybe that's what you mean, that deporation isn't the answer because the Courts won't let us enforce our own immigration laws. But surely we can do better.
Oh noes! Not letting someone stay in Canada is the meanest mean a person can ever mean!
Besides, if you can't trace your ancestors back to a specific location at least 10,000 years ago you have no more right to be there than any random person anywhere else on the planet. Because we say so and because it so happens to coincide with mass immigration policies favored by the ultra wealthy who control our government and media.
You're going beyond where I was intending to go, but that's fine. I'm not giving an opinion on immigration per se, just pointing out that one of the differences between non-citizens (including permanent residents) and citizens is that the former can be deported administratively if they call unwanted attention to themselves. (In the US, the State Dept. can revoke the visa of any person if it receives what it considers derogatory information about him, and then the person must be deported. Some of the ICE targets are of that nature. It's not Trump being a fascist. It's US law. I'm less familiar with Canadian law because we rarely make the effort, but the Minister can over-rule any decision of an Immigration Review Board...if he's willing to pay the political cost. He can't over-rule the Federal Court, though.)
I do think there is a difference between immigration of people we want as permanent residents -- you can argue about the numbers -- and people we don't really want but have decided we have to accept anyway on the basis of asylum claims.
Asylum goes back many centuries -- states often said, No, as with the MV St. Louis in 1939 -- but in modern times in the West it was applied to people escaping to freedom from the Iron Curtain countries. They were considered good risks because they had white Christians values like us, and were demonstrably fervently anti-communist. We just had to weed out the double agents pretending to defect. But now that the Warsaw Pact is no more (except for Cuba and North Korea), there is no reason anymore to have an asylum system at all. I submit that our Refugee Tribunal commissioners have not the foggiest idea if a oral claim of state persecution made in a foreign language without corroboration about a country most of them have never heard of can be considered credible....and even if it is credible, what's in it for us to let them stay? Each asylum claimant we allowed in from 1945 - 1989 was a blow against communism. If we let in a modern claimant, dollars to donuts he would cheerfully persecute his countrymen were his tribe to gain power back home.
Ending asylum (and most foreign student visas, many of whom claim asylum when their visas are about to expire!) will prevent most of the trouble-makers from getting here at all.
Good article. Canada’s justice system at several layers appears to be broken. Justice is a prime responsibility of our governments and this is unacceptable.
A chronically unserious one. Government and officialdom response has been @#$% bungling ineffectual display of pathetic gutless non-leadership. Make no mistake, the electoral math is the guiding principle. The holocaust was/is/ever shall be the greatest crime in human history. Where all the levels of government and industry partnered up to eradicate a race of human beings with all the power that comes from both. I am seriously contemplating submitting an expletive filled essay about the gutlessness and non-accountability that is not protecting its citizenry. They come for the Jews first .....
Platitudes from our mayor , chief of police, and other civic leaders that antisemitism is " not who we are" or " violence is not acceptable", are not going to solve the problem. Holding Jews in Canada responsible for Israel's actions must be actively discouraged by not only our civic leaders, but our university professors and even our high school teachers. Otherwise, there will be more attacks on Jews in Toronto.
The important thing is that the general public MUST UNDERSTAND that what Israel does is supported/not supported by each individual Jewish person. It's up to the individual to make the decision to support or not support it. This is not a determined this, just because they're Jewish. We live in a democracy, they can make up their own minds on where they stand. It's not up to the rest of us to do it for them.
No. This is wrong. The important thing that we need to understand is that DON'T SHOOT AT, VANDALIZE OR OTHERWISE ASSAULT AND/OR DESTROY Jewish persons or their business and property because it's illegal and immoral. Israel, Netanyahu, etc, are not necessary to discuss. Just don't do illegal and immoral things to innocent people. That's the lesson. Full stop. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I don’t disagree but I think a better way to word it would be “… Jewish persons or their business or property primarily because they’re Jewish…”
The second part of your statement neatly captures the broader context of don’t do shitty/awful/violent things to innocent people — without diminishing antisemitism.
Yes, Mark Carney is famously in charge of Toronto-area policing and Ontario courts. I mean, definitely hold the man accountable, but knee-jerk it's-Carney's-fault-for-everything is about as productive as the pickup trucks still driving around plastered with Fuck Trudeau paraphernalia. Which is to say completely ineffective and also a pathetic joke.
If he wanted change there would be change. But the attitude is "Thomas, have you seen the demographics in my riding?" Jews have to pay the price to keep a Liberal government.
And he does appoint the Superior Court judges that would try terrorism charges.
Sean Fraser is the current federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He's the guy that you need to direct your energies too, not Carney.
But he doesn't have anything to do with policing. That's the Solicitor-General's job for the RCMP only. Municipal policing is up to the municipal police forces themselves. The politicians can't direct them to enforce some laws more vigorously in response to outcry. (Whether the government can "direct" the RCMP is not entirely clear. They are consitituted as a gendarmerie, -- that's what the G means in their French initials-- and that is different from a purely independent municipal police force, which enforces ordinary laws in towns and cities.)
Thank you Matt, your support and voice is incredibly important to the Jewish community. Please continue to find the strength amongst the other challenges in your life.
Sweden is showing the way here. As a start (just a start- the problem is broader than this remedy), we need a law similar to the "good behaviour" law that was recently passed there. That Sweden has done so gives me a scintilla of hope that something could happen in this country. The usual suspects would scream Islamophobia if someone were to propose such a law here of course but now one can point to Sweden (often a go-to country for progressives) as an example of how enlightened countries deal with this problem. Enlightened countries do not spew pathetic "thoughts and prayers" platitudes. Get on with addressing the problem FFS!
Sweden is a socialist democracy who has a problem with not having enough resources to assist integration of refugees. This has nothing to do with the Jewish people that live there.
A law like Sweden's may not directly impact the troubles the Jewish community faces but it would at least show we were somewhat serious about crime. Backing it up with action has impact.
Thank you Matt for the article. Our security and judicial system is beyond broken and it begins with those in positions to change course, to have the balls and courage to fix the problem… now. No advisory councils, no inquiries… enough of punting the ball! Now. Do it now. Change, and charge. Bloody sad state that Canadians put up with this crap. To the Jewish community and my friends in Montreal… stand tall as I know you will.
Thank you for continuing to cover antisemitic crime in Toronto, and the lack of enforcement against said criminals, Matt. It feels like I have to search high and low for consistent coverage and analysis beyond the one-off headlines when another Jewish business/shul gets shot into or another Jewish person gets harassed or assaulted.
I would think that it was my all encompassing rage over this issue clouding my ability to judge its coverage quality clearly, except for the fact that my progressive, otherwise politically informed non-Jewish friends don't seem to have a damn clue that any of this is happening. Anecdotal but: when I mentioned that the shul I attend with my husband (he's Jewish, I'm a goy) was vandalized, my friend looked completely confused, like they had no context for what I was saying at all. Hadn't heard about it, and didn't seem to know that this sort of thing had happened many times in Toronto (or that it would happen again).
In fact, I would worry about this story being potentially identifying, but there have been so many synagogues vandalized in this city over the past 3 years that I don't think I have to worry at all. Hopefully U.S. consulate shooting part deux will spur some action - wish the human suffering of Toronto Jews was enough of a reason on its own though.
It’s a sad statement to have to make but thanks for airing this disgrace. It would be nice if this case was an anomaly but we all know it’s situation normal in our “justice” system. Hope is most definitely not a strategy but with that said let’s hope that our politicians at all levels see this article and give it some consideration. Alternatively let’s see if we can get some sort of groundswell of public awareness and more importantly, anger, on this mess. In the meantime I eagerly await the Flipping the Line article from those in the system who try to defend the indefensible
Thanks for magnifying this issue. Highly recommend Hank Idsinga’s The High Road which sheds some light on the systemic racism within the TPS senior ranks.
Idsinga is half Jewish and his grandfather died in the camps. This family history partly inspired his choice to enter law enforcement. He was disillusioned at the antisemitism/racism and sexism he witnessed especially in the senior ranks.
Focusing on anti-Semitic crimes brings the spotlight on an aspect of this country that brings me great shame. This is important and needs immediate attention by all levels of government. However, while vitally important it is only one area of a totally failed system. Every night on the news there are stories of people being sentenced for crimes that took place 3-5 years ago. Then the news outlet has to run a history of the crime as it took place so,long ago.
Police now take hours to investigate crashes closing major highways. Here in BC we have ‘No Fault’ laws so to what end is the lengthy on-scene investigation achieving? It seems everything in the Justice system, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts move at a snail pace. Is it due to a lack of police, prosecutors and judges? Is it because courts require that cases delve into ‘how many ants can dance on the head of a pin’ detail? Probably both. It is time for a Royal Commission to take a detailed look at all aspects of the system to return it some sense of reasonableness and even a notoriously plodding Royal Commission would like be faster than the present ‘Justice system’.
Please keep on this. I’m ashamed for my country.
Hi Matt, it was nice to *meet* you this morning on John Tory's show. I really appreciate this post. The rise of antisemitism in this city has become a regular topic of conversation, especially with my parents who moved here to get away from it. It's a terrifying trend.
The government should be using every legal means to identify and deport any non-citizens who participate in rallies calling for violence here or abroad, whether Palestinian or Khalistani.
And, in the ideal world, they would treat threats and violence against individual citizens as harshly as that against the regime and their pets. But we know that's not happening: compare Southport and Rotherham.
Start enforcing the law on face coverings at these protests.
So the reasons would "appear" to be either:
1) The police don't think hate speech is a crime, or
2) The police know but don't care or are too lazy to enforce the law, or
3) The police officers on the street were told not to treat this as a crime by senior officers, or
4) The police officers on the street were told not to treat this as a crime by politicians or political staffers.
That covers only the timeframe from offences to the search warrant.
As we can presume some reasonably quick conclusion would be reached following execution of the search warrant then the next set of questions becomes:
1) The police case was refused by the Crown Prosecution Service and further evidence needed to be collected to satisfy the Crown, or
2) the case was given to the Crown and they didn't move it forward due to
a) legal questions, or
b) political interference.
The first set of questions requires accountability from the Mayor or the Chief of Police.
The second set of questions requires accountability from the Premier of Ontario or his Attorney General.
I see some above trying to blame this on the PM.
The feds do not administer the criminal justice system. That is a provincial responsibility under our Constitution.
Hate crimes against any group or individual need to be dealt with quickly to provide deterrence and re-establish faith in our justice system.
Before the police can lay a charge of hate speech, they have to get consent from the provincial attorney-general. This is in the law, so whether it counts as improper political interference or merely appropriate political oversight in the public interest is a matter of taste, I suppose.
However, Mr. Hajahmad wasn't charged under the hate-speech law. The allegations do include language taken from that section of the Criminal Code. But he was charged with supporting a terrorist organization. That's very different from mere hate speech. It might be that the police think it will be easier in this case to prove he supported a terrorist organization with concrete actions than to prove that his mere speech broke what is in fact a vague law that ought to make civil libertarians very uncomfortable. (Disclosure: I oppose hate-speech laws on freedom-of-speech grounds so I am glad to see that he was not charged with hate speech but with something more action-oriented.)
This doesn't explain why it all took so long. (Maybe his computer and phone were tough nuts to crack and there could have been foreign evidence-gathering and money-tracing that we don't know about yet.) But the case is clearly more than hate speech.
I'm thinking of a scenario where instead of just busting dirtbags who utter hate speech on street corners but who don't actually *do* anything, the police investigated this guy more closely and found evidence that he's a really bad dude. They and the RCMP may have had to penetrate some networks in the process of gathering their evidence. This goes way beyond hateful slogans. Trying to be fair to the police, this really could have taken quite a while to put together.
Thank you for the clarification and additional information.
The timeframes are still egregious, especially if permission was not required to investigate.
The police don't require permission from anyone to investigate. They do require permission from one politician -- the A-G -- to lay a charge under certain types of offences. The offences where they have to run it by the A-G are so noted in the Criminal Code. The A-G can't direct them to investigate or charge anyone, or to take any police action like traffic control or riot suppression. The police are expected to know how and when to do this according to their judgement. All the A-G can do is grant or deny permission to charge in certain offences. The independence of the police from the politicians who oversee them is a fundamental tenet of English law.
As I say, I don't know if the time-frames in this case are appropriate or not because the details are subject to a publication ban. For all we know this could be on a par with the espionage case of the atomic bomb secrets. The main point I want to make is that this is not just a case of the police belatedly deciding after much foot-dragging to charge a guy with hate speech.
Thank you. I always love a day when I learn something new.
True, but the Prime Minister has a duty to take a clearly defined position on antisemitism. It is the greatest crime in human history. Every lever of power in government and industry partnered in the extermination of more than six million Jews because they were Jewish.
Forming an advisory committee is a tried and true tactic in Ottawa is such a pathetic move it is worthy of maximum scorn. It gives the appearance of doing something about the monstrous rise in antisemitism in Canada while doing absolutely nothing at all. It also screams that Mark Carney possesses no spine. He has a moral responsibility to defend all its citizens and he chose not to.
Canada is not a serious country. This is just another example and it has 100% made life dangerous for all our Jewish citizens. Lives. Are. In. Danger. But yes, lets form a committee. My God, how low this country has fallen. Jews used to be safe here.
Deporting people is not the answer.
Oh? What is the answer, then?
Any non-citizen who makes him/herself an undesirable, *persona non grata* can be deported at the pleasure of the Crown. It is a perfectly reasonable "answer". Yes, I know he will fight the deporation order in Federal Court who will let him stay so as not to "derail his immigration journey" but that is a separate question.
Deportation is an administrative remedy to the situation where someone shouldn't be in this country but is. It's not a criminal punishment that requires the due process necessary for imprisonment.
There are circumstances where a non-citizen *must* be deported, such as conviction of a crime where the usual sentence is six months or more, but the Courts block even those deportations, too.
So maybe that's what you mean, that deporation isn't the answer because the Courts won't let us enforce our own immigration laws. But surely we can do better.
Oh noes! Not letting someone stay in Canada is the meanest mean a person can ever mean!
Besides, if you can't trace your ancestors back to a specific location at least 10,000 years ago you have no more right to be there than any random person anywhere else on the planet. Because we say so and because it so happens to coincide with mass immigration policies favored by the ultra wealthy who control our government and media.
You're going beyond where I was intending to go, but that's fine. I'm not giving an opinion on immigration per se, just pointing out that one of the differences between non-citizens (including permanent residents) and citizens is that the former can be deported administratively if they call unwanted attention to themselves. (In the US, the State Dept. can revoke the visa of any person if it receives what it considers derogatory information about him, and then the person must be deported. Some of the ICE targets are of that nature. It's not Trump being a fascist. It's US law. I'm less familiar with Canadian law because we rarely make the effort, but the Minister can over-rule any decision of an Immigration Review Board...if he's willing to pay the political cost. He can't over-rule the Federal Court, though.)
I do think there is a difference between immigration of people we want as permanent residents -- you can argue about the numbers -- and people we don't really want but have decided we have to accept anyway on the basis of asylum claims.
Asylum goes back many centuries -- states often said, No, as with the MV St. Louis in 1939 -- but in modern times in the West it was applied to people escaping to freedom from the Iron Curtain countries. They were considered good risks because they had white Christians values like us, and were demonstrably fervently anti-communist. We just had to weed out the double agents pretending to defect. But now that the Warsaw Pact is no more (except for Cuba and North Korea), there is no reason anymore to have an asylum system at all. I submit that our Refugee Tribunal commissioners have not the foggiest idea if a oral claim of state persecution made in a foreign language without corroboration about a country most of them have never heard of can be considered credible....and even if it is credible, what's in it for us to let them stay? Each asylum claimant we allowed in from 1945 - 1989 was a blow against communism. If we let in a modern claimant, dollars to donuts he would cheerfully persecute his countrymen were his tribe to gain power back home.
Ending asylum (and most foreign student visas, many of whom claim asylum when their visas are about to expire!) will prevent most of the trouble-makers from getting here at all.
Good article. Canada’s justice system at several layers appears to be broken. Justice is a prime responsibility of our governments and this is unacceptable.
A chronically unserious one. Government and officialdom response has been @#$% bungling ineffectual display of pathetic gutless non-leadership. Make no mistake, the electoral math is the guiding principle. The holocaust was/is/ever shall be the greatest crime in human history. Where all the levels of government and industry partnered up to eradicate a race of human beings with all the power that comes from both. I am seriously contemplating submitting an expletive filled essay about the gutlessness and non-accountability that is not protecting its citizenry. They come for the Jews first .....
Oh, for some names and titles.
Matt, if your purpose was to lament an embarassing and hopeless Canadian failure, you dun good.
If your purpose was to stimulate change...not so good. Naming names--top responsibility names-- is the only heat that will generate action.
Platitudes from our mayor , chief of police, and other civic leaders that antisemitism is " not who we are" or " violence is not acceptable", are not going to solve the problem. Holding Jews in Canada responsible for Israel's actions must be actively discouraged by not only our civic leaders, but our university professors and even our high school teachers. Otherwise, there will be more attacks on Jews in Toronto.
The important thing is that the general public MUST UNDERSTAND that what Israel does is supported/not supported by each individual Jewish person. It's up to the individual to make the decision to support or not support it. This is not a determined this, just because they're Jewish. We live in a democracy, they can make up their own minds on where they stand. It's not up to the rest of us to do it for them.
No. This is wrong. The important thing that we need to understand is that DON'T SHOOT AT, VANDALIZE OR OTHERWISE ASSAULT AND/OR DESTROY Jewish persons or their business and property because it's illegal and immoral. Israel, Netanyahu, etc, are not necessary to discuss. Just don't do illegal and immoral things to innocent people. That's the lesson. Full stop. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I don’t disagree but I think a better way to word it would be “… Jewish persons or their business or property primarily because they’re Jewish…”
The second part of your statement neatly captures the broader context of don’t do shitty/awful/violent things to innocent people — without diminishing antisemitism.
Carney. He is willing to sacrifice anything and anybody to stay in power.
Yes, Mark Carney is famously in charge of Toronto-area policing and Ontario courts. I mean, definitely hold the man accountable, but knee-jerk it's-Carney's-fault-for-everything is about as productive as the pickup trucks still driving around plastered with Fuck Trudeau paraphernalia. Which is to say completely ineffective and also a pathetic joke.
If he wanted change there would be change. But the attitude is "Thomas, have you seen the demographics in my riding?" Jews have to pay the price to keep a Liberal government.
And he does appoint the Superior Court judges that would try terrorism charges.
You're really not very strong on civics, are you?
You are strong on arrogance. Why not teach me something?
Guys, honestly. How fucking hard is it to not get into arguments the goddamn comment section? It’s our first day back.
Sean Fraser is the current federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He's the guy that you need to direct your energies too, not Carney.
But he doesn't have anything to do with policing. That's the Solicitor-General's job for the RCMP only. Municipal policing is up to the municipal police forces themselves. The politicians can't direct them to enforce some laws more vigorously in response to outcry. (Whether the government can "direct" the RCMP is not entirely clear. They are consitituted as a gendarmerie, -- that's what the G means in their French initials-- and that is different from a purely independent municipal police force, which enforces ordinary laws in towns and cities.)
Mark Carney is ruthless in the pursuit of wealth, power, and influence.
He doesn’t give a flying rip about Jewish folks in Canada, or their plight.
Thank you Matt, your support and voice is incredibly important to the Jewish community. Please continue to find the strength amongst the other challenges in your life.
Unfortunately, this is what results when you have a chronically unserious country with high trust citizens led by gormless weasels.
Sweden is showing the way here. As a start (just a start- the problem is broader than this remedy), we need a law similar to the "good behaviour" law that was recently passed there. That Sweden has done so gives me a scintilla of hope that something could happen in this country. The usual suspects would scream Islamophobia if someone were to propose such a law here of course but now one can point to Sweden (often a go-to country for progressives) as an example of how enlightened countries deal with this problem. Enlightened countries do not spew pathetic "thoughts and prayers" platitudes. Get on with addressing the problem FFS!
Sweden is a socialist democracy who has a problem with not having enough resources to assist integration of refugees. This has nothing to do with the Jewish people that live there.
We also have a different system of democracy.
A law like Sweden's may not directly impact the troubles the Jewish community faces but it would at least show we were somewhat serious about crime. Backing it up with action has impact.
Thank you Matt for the article. Our security and judicial system is beyond broken and it begins with those in positions to change course, to have the balls and courage to fix the problem… now. No advisory councils, no inquiries… enough of punting the ball! Now. Do it now. Change, and charge. Bloody sad state that Canadians put up with this crap. To the Jewish community and my friends in Montreal… stand tall as I know you will.
Thank you for continuing to cover antisemitic crime in Toronto, and the lack of enforcement against said criminals, Matt. It feels like I have to search high and low for consistent coverage and analysis beyond the one-off headlines when another Jewish business/shul gets shot into or another Jewish person gets harassed or assaulted.
I would think that it was my all encompassing rage over this issue clouding my ability to judge its coverage quality clearly, except for the fact that my progressive, otherwise politically informed non-Jewish friends don't seem to have a damn clue that any of this is happening. Anecdotal but: when I mentioned that the shul I attend with my husband (he's Jewish, I'm a goy) was vandalized, my friend looked completely confused, like they had no context for what I was saying at all. Hadn't heard about it, and didn't seem to know that this sort of thing had happened many times in Toronto (or that it would happen again).
In fact, I would worry about this story being potentially identifying, but there have been so many synagogues vandalized in this city over the past 3 years that I don't think I have to worry at all. Hopefully U.S. consulate shooting part deux will spur some action - wish the human suffering of Toronto Jews was enough of a reason on its own though.
It’s a sad statement to have to make but thanks for airing this disgrace. It would be nice if this case was an anomaly but we all know it’s situation normal in our “justice” system. Hope is most definitely not a strategy but with that said let’s hope that our politicians at all levels see this article and give it some consideration. Alternatively let’s see if we can get some sort of groundswell of public awareness and more importantly, anger, on this mess. In the meantime I eagerly await the Flipping the Line article from those in the system who try to defend the indefensible
Thank you for covering this absolutely disgrace in Canadian justice.
We are all still waiting for some kind of action in the Greenbelt scandal, which is also taking years.
Where do we begin to address this? Did you hear anything that suggested a direction for a solution?
Also thanks for the suggestion about Kiva’s. Going by one today, and will take your advice.
Thanks for magnifying this issue. Highly recommend Hank Idsinga’s The High Road which sheds some light on the systemic racism within the TPS senior ranks.
Does it also speak about anti-semitism? That's the problem here, with the courts not acting or the police....not racism.
Idsinga is half Jewish and his grandfather died in the camps. This family history partly inspired his choice to enter law enforcement. He was disillusioned at the antisemitism/racism and sexism he witnessed especially in the senior ranks.
Focusing on anti-Semitic crimes brings the spotlight on an aspect of this country that brings me great shame. This is important and needs immediate attention by all levels of government. However, while vitally important it is only one area of a totally failed system. Every night on the news there are stories of people being sentenced for crimes that took place 3-5 years ago. Then the news outlet has to run a history of the crime as it took place so,long ago.
Police now take hours to investigate crashes closing major highways. Here in BC we have ‘No Fault’ laws so to what end is the lengthy on-scene investigation achieving? It seems everything in the Justice system, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts move at a snail pace. Is it due to a lack of police, prosecutors and judges? Is it because courts require that cases delve into ‘how many ants can dance on the head of a pin’ detail? Probably both. It is time for a Royal Commission to take a detailed look at all aspects of the system to return it some sense of reasonableness and even a notoriously plodding Royal Commission would like be faster than the present ‘Justice system’.
Don’t worry, mayor Chow has once again stated that this violence against Jews has to stop.