Antisemitism in Canada digest #41

Today is Remembrance Day, a day to remember those who gave their lives to defend ours, a day to honor and thank all those who served our country.

Canada is securely far away from all the world's evil, surrounded only by a friendly neighbor and oceans. The harder it is to sense the existential threat, the harder it must be to find the motivation to dedicate one's life to protecting our country. And the more grateful we all should be. I know I am.

1. But not everyone is. 
In Ottawa, at Sir Robert Borden High School, named after the First World War Prime Minister, a Palestinian freedom song in Arabic was played as part of the Remembrance Day ceremony. 

The Remembrance Day ceremony in Saanich, BC, included a reading from the Quran.

The so-called pro-Palestine protesters also showed up masked and keffiyehed-up, with their signs, to hijack the Remembrance Day ceremony in Kingston, Ontario. 

2. Eylon Levy had to go into Concordia University in Montreal in disguise after the “Allahu Akbar” welcome he received at the University of Calgary, where students were barricaded in a room by security for their own safety and had a crowd yelling at them, "You can't hide," "Shame on you," "Nazis," etc.

Also in Montreal, in violation of the injunction protecting Jewish institutions from antisemitic demonstrations, the jihadists gathered at the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, where Eylon Levy was scheduled to speak, disrupted life in a residential neighborhood, chanted their regular “Viva Intifada” and other welcoming slogans, intimidated staff and guests, and even called out and threatened some students by name.

I’m disappointed that our locals didn’t rise to the occasion and Eylon Levy left Canada under-appreciating the Vancouver terrorist supporters.

3. The person who is, on the other hand, welcome at McGill University is the UN special Palestinian Rapporteur, infamous antisemite Francesca Albanese. She is so exceptionally antisemitic that she was condemned by Germany and even France. 

After dedicated efforts of Jewish advocacy groups and even a demand to bar her speech served by a law group representing Jewish organizations, the McGill Law School denied the space for the event. However, the pro-Hamas students managed to find an alternative venue, and Albanese successfully held her pro-terror hate session to the great joy of the keffiyeh-wearing activists.

4. Albanese also appeared on a panel at Carleton University (the same university that hires a convicted PFLP terrorist).

Next to her was a professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Dr. Nahla Abdo, who called for defining Israel’s right to exist as racism. The mask-wearing, keffiyeh-wrapped audience applauded and cheered.

5. Another person who, unlike Eylon Levy, is welcome on Canadian campuses is Younus Kathrada, the imam from Victoria, BC, who openly called on Muslims to engage in an armed struggle against the Jewish people, called all non-Muslims enemies, and equated every non-Muslim to a murderer and pedophile. He speaks against women's rights, calls homosexuality an abomination, and praises Sharia law and the Taliban. He was spreading his hateful propaganda years before October 7, he was investigated by the police shortly after October 7, but no consequences followed, so he continues.

The Muslim Students Association (MSA) invited him to lecture at the University of Victoria.

When I encounter the same antisemites over and over again, I occasionally fall for the illusion that there is a finite number of them. This is not the case; here are some that are also welcome at UVic, but I haven’t encountered their names before:

Previously this year, the MSA hosted another prominent Islamist scholar, Assim Al-Hakeem, at UVic. Among other things, this scholar endorsed Muslims kidnapping women as sex slaves, stated that women must not leave their house without a husband’s permission, and calls for parents to beat their kids. He endorses the death penalty for Muslims who leave the religion and, of course, he designates Jews as inherent enemies of the Muslims.

Later this month, the MSA is scheduled to also host Moazzam Begg, who openly supports the Taliban and advocates for the freedom of terrorists. He was alleged by the US Department of Justice to have trained at Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

6. The brilliant Gad Saad calls this suicidal empathy. Our society has become so tolerant that it has lost the ability to make a judgment about what must not be tolerated and lacks the courage to put an end to intolerable manifestations. 

Canada tolerates too much. This week, like every other week:

Canada tolerates people dressed up as terrorists. 

Canada tolerates terrorist supporters rallies.

Canada tolerates Muslims blocking the road for prayers and Muslims blocking the roads to threateningly scream “Allahu Akbar.”

Canada tolerates people calling for violence against Jews and people cheering for it. For example, the crowd rejoicing at  this call into a microphone: “We all saw what happened in Amsterdam… We have one message. They [Zionists] are not welcome wherever they go.” 

Canada tolerates commemoration ceremonies for Yahya Sinwar and other genocidal leaders of organizations designated as terrorists in Canada. A mayor of a Canadian city has issued a public statement that such commemoration is supported under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Canada even tolerates the hijacking of the most sacred Canadian symbol, the poppy – the symbol of Remembrance Day, the symbol of honor for Canadian veterans, those who gave their lives to serve our country and to fight for our freedoms.

The one thing that Canada seems to not tolerate is people opposing terrorism. The Toronto police are giving a rough and disrespectful treatment to the Iranian activist Salman Sima. Toronto police are arresting RebelNews journalist David Menzies yet again for doing his job.

7. A theater director I once knew used to say: “It is a false impression that actors are smart people. They just know many great plays by heart.” Some actors don't give this impression to begin with.

A perfect example is the Toronto-based actor Kevin Aichele, who calls Zionists “wild dogs” and “disgusting,” believes that “Hitler is mainstream taboo” because he had “European victims,” posts the Islamic Republic of Iran’s flag accompanied by “We are all hostage to US & Israel,” and, last but not least, inquires whether Hamas is hiring fighters his age.

He identifies as “white guy for Palestine,” probably referencing the “white dudes for Kamala” campaign, which is yet another attestation of his unimpressive intellectual abilities.

Another actor is the Vancouver-based Hamas supporter Ryan Booth. In his free time from Palestine storytelling in Squamish, he continues targeting me online. He previously reposted a picture of me with the Power Gay and initiated a mass attack that cost me my instagram account. This time, he posted a long video accusing me and my good friend Michael Sachs, i.e., “extremists and Zionists,” of teaming up to take down Samidoun. 

As flattered as I am by an acknowledgment of my humble role in this enterprise, I would like to see some accountability for people who continue advocating for a group that has finally been designated as a terrorist organization.

8.I teach my children not to use the word “hate” lightly. I lead by example and only use it in special circumstances, for example, when I speak about Harsha Walia. Her speech celebrating October 7, on October 9, 2023, at the Vancouver Art Gallery shocked me to my core and shattered every last doubt that these people are out to kill me, no less. Harsha doesn’t only hate Jews, she also hates police, she hates churches, she hates everything about Canada.

There is a Soviet joke: a Russian and an American argue whose country has the most freedoms. “I can stand in front of the White House and yell that Reagan is a fool,” says the American. “So what?” argues the Russian, “I too can stand on Red Square and yell that Reagan is a fool.”

The Canadian freedoms are vaguely defined: one is allowed to hate; one isn’t allowed to incite. But it doesn’t really matter because the laws are either not enforced or do not apply to everyone. Harsha Walia doesn’t only incite hatred, she also publicly calls for burning down churches and weapons factories. She even attaches maps to indicate what specifically should be burned. 

9. Pogroms against Israeli soccer fans took place on Thursday in Amsterdam after the game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. As much as I complained about the Toronto police earlier in this text, the Dutch police are way worse. Dutch police officers are allowed to refuse to protect Jewish sites “over moral dilemmas.” 

As horrendous as the videos of violence shared by the attackers themselves were, the media insisted on portraying the event as just a routine incident between soccer fans. CBC was, of course, not an exception. 

They updated the title since, but continue to push the narrative that Israelis provoked or even started the violence. True, not all behavior of Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam was exemplary. I am also absolutely certain that Jews in Auschwitz weren’t all wonderful people either, and the victims of 9/11 had flaws too. 

Dalida Alhaddad, a Toronto-based community and justice services graduate, took an extra step; she gloated at the victims of the violent attacks in Amsterdam. 

The staff and owners of Limon, a Jewish restaurant in Toronto, have been harassed and threatened by Jew haters via emails, voicemail, and false reviews. This week, the restaurant received a phone call threatening that the Amsterdam pogrom would repeat itself in Toronto.

10. The Amsterdam pogroms almost coincided with the anniversary of Kristallnacht and also coincided with Islamophobia Awareness Month. The Canadian PM met with Canada’s Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, and made a commitment for the government to adopt Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR). APR was already adopted by the Toronto District School Board last school year.

If adopted by the Federal government, the following statements will be considered racism: 

• Jews are indigenous to Israel.

• Palestinians are Arabs; Arabs are indigenous to Arabia.

• There was never a state called Palestine; Palestine is a colonial name. 

• There is nothing unique about the displacement of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, the so-called Nakba, neither in its scale nor in its cruelty. 

• Hamas, PFLP, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah are terrorist organizations.

Was it ever possible to imagine that speaking the truth in Canada could become illegal?

Today, during the Remembrance Day Ceremony, for a short moment, I forgot all the nonsense, hatred, and threats that we are facing in Canada, and for a moment, I was humbled and proud to be a Canadian. I was surprised and relieved to see so many people attend today's ceremony in Vancouver. I was ashamed for never having attended in previous years. I was hopeful, seeing so many young folks in uniform.

And then the speaker said something about the world being less peaceful today. He clarified: “I am talking about the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East.”

Tragedy unfolded in Jasper, Alberta, this summer when forest fires went out of control and burned the city down. Tragedy unfolded in Florida and North Carolina when these states were hit by deadly hurricanes. What’s unfolding in the Middle East is the Islamic Regime of Iran and its proxies’ aggression against Israel. Other Islamic Regime proxies burn Canadian flags and call for terrorism and death to Canada in our cities. By failing to name the perpetrator, the Canadian officials not only betray the Canadian Jewish community; they betray all Canadians.

Never Again is Now.