Jagmeet Singh owes Canadians an apology for courting Louis Farrakhan follower
NDP welcomed a speaker who supports the infamous anti-Semite and homophobe
That Justin Trudeau wore brownface makeup as recently as 2001 is shocking, and it is good that he has apologized. But Jagmeet Singh also owes Canadians an apology.
In February 2018, the New Democratic Party invited Tamika Mallory, an American organizer of the Million Women March, to speak at its convention. Mallory was a follower of Louis Farrakhan, a known anti-Semite. As recently as 2018, Farrakhan said “the powerful Jews are my enemy.” Farrakhan is also homophobic. In 2015 he referred to homosexuality as filth and condemned Jews for promoting it.
That Mallory admired Farrakhan suggests, at best, that she was unwilling to criticize him for his antiSemitic and homophobic views; at worst, that she agreed with him. If the NDP did not know this at the time, it certainly knows so now.
Mallory has recently said that she does not agree with Farrakhan’s opinions about Jews, although she does not condemn him for them. She has also declined to agree that Israel has a right to exist, saying “everyone has a right to exist” but not acknowledging Israel’s right to exist as a state.
It is legitimate to criticize Israel for its discriminatory treatment of its own Arab citizens and for its violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the West Bank and Gaza. This is not anti-Semitism. But when you refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, you are applying a standard rarely, if ever, applied to any other country. Anti-Israel activists do not, for example, campaign against the right of Serbia to exist as a state, yet it was founded in violence 50 years after the founding of Israel. Refusal to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as a state can justifiably be considered anti-Semitism.
When I learned about Mallory’s support of Farrakhan, I contacted NDP headquarters three times to ask why it had invited her to speak. I would have been satisfied with a reply acknowledging that the NDP should not have invited her. But I received no reply.
As the leader of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh should apologize both to Canada’s Jewish community and to its LGBTQ+ community for the NDP’s having invited Malika Mallory to address it in 2018. He should acknowledge that, at best, the NDP made a mistake.
Singh should also acknowledge that anti-Semitism is not merely offensive to Canada’s Jewish population. It is offensive — or should be — to anyone who cares about any kind of racism in Canada. Unfortunately, some Canadian critics of Israel equate Canada’s entire Jewish population with the policies of the current government of Israel, and so think that anti-Semitism is justified. If any public figures were to equate Canada’s Muslim population with the policies of the current governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, or other officially Muslim countries, they would be rightly called out for racism. But some people think that every single Canadian Jew can justifiably be criticized for Israel’s policies.
Singh should acknowledge the harm the NDP did by inviting a follower of a known anti-Semite and homophobe to address its national convention. He should officially apologize for this invitation and for the NDP’s silence about the matter over the last 19 months. He should deliver this apology in the presence not only of leaders of Canada’s Jewish community and its LGBTQ+ communities, but also in the presence of other members of Canada’s social justice community who actively oppose both homophobia and anti-Semitism.
Singh should also apologize for — presumably-wishing that this issue would go away, much as Trudeau has apologized for hoping that the pictures of him in black and brown-face would never be exposed.
In the meantime, Canada’s national press should be questioning Singh on this matter. Trudeau last wore brown-face in 2001. The NDP invited a follower of a known antiSemite and homophobe to address its national convention in 2018. It would seem that the NDP’s erroras it can best be described- and its unwillingness to acknowledge and apologize for it, is far more egregious than Trudeau’s.
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann is professor emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she held the Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights from 2003 to 2016.