When it comes to Jew hatred, Liberals paralyzed
Today, a simple question for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Does he agree with his anti-islamophobia adviser, Amira Elghawaby, that the only problem with what we'll laughably call a “pro-palestinian” demonstration in Ottawa last weekend was that, as she put it on X, “a few individual protesters engaged in problematic speech?”
She added that “this is unacceptable and contrary to our shared values” before warming up to her main argument, which was: “What is also concerning are deliberate efforts to smear all protesters with one brush, suggesting that anyone calling on Canada to uphold and protect international humanitarian law is aligned with terrorism. This is a patently false and harmful insinuation.”
In the demonstration Elghawaby referred to, the marchers cheered as one of their number, equipped with a microphone, shouted this praise for Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel: “Our resistance attacks are proof that we are almost free! Oct. 7 is proof that we are almost free! Long live Oct. 7! Long live the resistance. Long live the intefadeh! Long live every form of resistance.”
In other words, long live murder, rape, torture and kidnapping by terrorists. One assumes Trudeau believes this incident was more “problematic” than Elghawaby, given that he said on X: “There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful intimidation. It is unconscionable to glorify the anti-semitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. This rhetoric has no place in Canada. None.”
That was at least better than Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland who, when accurately asked by a reporter: “Over the weekend, protesters in Ottawa were heard chanting among other things `long live Oct. 7' and `Oct. 7 is proof that we are almost free,' is this hate speech?” responded: “I wasn't in Ottawa over the weekend and I'm not aware of those specific reports and so it would be just wrong of me to comment on something that I am not specifically aware of,” before adding that anti-semitism and Islamophobia are on the rise.
Later, having seen the video, Freeland said on X: “I can only express shock and disgust at the anti-semitism and glorification of terrorism that occurred on Parliament Hill. This hate speech has no place in Canada. None.”
This is a microcosm of how the Liberals are so politically conflicted on the wave of anti-semitism that has swept across Canada since Oct. 7, that they are incapable of providing the moral leadership necessary to address it.
They know this is the worst outbreak of Jew hatred since the 1930s, but they also know there are far more Muslims in Canada than Jews, whose political support they covet.
So they instinctively equate antisemitism with Islamophobia, instead of dealing with the reality that while both are evil and both have increased since Oct. 7, the unprecedented targeting of Canada's Jewish community has been different in both kind and degree.
While the Ottawa police's hate crimes unit has announced an investigation into comments made at the Ottawa demonstration, the larger issue is that Jew hatred has already been normalized across Canada.
What happened in Ottawa over the weekend is far more than “problematic” in the context of the reality that for months Jewish gathering places have been firebombed, Jewish day schools shot at, Jewish-owned businesses torched and vandalized, swastikas painted on synagogues and homes, Jewish university students threatened and Jewish communities, described as “Zionist-infested” areas, targeted.
The Liberals know this but they're politically paralyzed when it comes to countering it.