Harvard president Claudine Gay has resigned after countless examples of plagiarism were exposed by independent journalists. Now that she’s out, the media is blaming it all on conservatives, with one commentator going so far as to say exposing Gay’s plagiarism was an “attack on diversity.” True North’s Andrew Lawton weighs in.
Plus, starting this year, Saskatchewan isn’t collecting the carbon tax on fuel and home heating as it protests the federal government’s exemption for Atlantic Canadians and their home heating oil. Saskatchewan Crown Corporations Minister Dustin Duncan joins The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss.
Also, the Federal Court has ruled that Rebel News’ lawn signs promoting Ezra Levant’s book “The Libranos” were illegal. Levant weighs in on what this means for free speech and political discourse.
A Covid-19 vaccine mandate for city employees has led to a quarter-million-dollar lawsuit between a former Fredericton firefighter and his ex-employer.
Gregory Billings, who resigned from his position as captain of the New Brunswick city’s fire prevention division after 21 years of service, is suing the city for $280,000 in compensation and damages.
He claims he was misled by city human resources staff into believing he would lose his severance and pension if he was terminated for refusing to comply with the vaccine policy.
Instead of waiting to be terminated, Billings claims he was led to believe that resigning from his position would lead to a better outcome and his entitled benefits.
The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 14, also accuses the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1053, Billings’s former union, of failing its duty to provide a member with proper representations by not filing a grievance on his behalf.
“The plaintiff relied on the misrepresentations of the City of Fredericton that retirement was being offered to him and suffered damages as a result through loss of his severance pay and loss of a portion of his pension,” writes lawyers.
The city and the union have not yet filed statements of defence and declined to comment on the matter. The allegations have not been proven in court.
True North was unable to reach the union for comment.
Billings said he was earning about $140,000 per year, including overtime, when he was sent home without pay on Sep. 3, 2021, for not following the masking and testing protocols for unvaccinated staff.
“The plaintiff was subsequently informed in January 2022 that he was not eligible for his severance pay or deferred pension,” the claim explains.
“The City of Fredericton has breached the contract by refusing to provide the plaintiff with his retirement benefits and pension as promised in their agreement, and the plaintiff has suffered damages in the amount of his lost pension and severance as outlined in the collective agreement.”
He alleges that in October and November 2021, human resources staff gave Billings false or negligent information claiming he would forfeit his retirement severance and pension benefits if he was fired for not getting vaccinated.
He says he was told that he would receive those benefits after resigning voluntarily, which he did on or around Dec. 15, 2021, after the city introduced a mandatory vaccination policy.
Call it vindictiveness or yet more proof of their lack of accountability but the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) seems prepared to try any legal means available to them to cancel teacher Carolyn Burjoski for a second time.
The WRDSB and its former chairman, NDPer Scott Piatkowski, have doubled down by appealing the Nov. 22 ruling from Justice James Ramsay of the Ontario Superior Court in which he dismisses their attempts to put an end to Burjoski’s $1.7-million defamation suit against the board.
In response to the board’s anti-SLAPP motion, Ramsay said in the ruling from Nov. 22 that the now retired teacher’s claims have merit and she has a right to free speech.
“What happened here should not happen in a democratic society,” Ramsay wrote. “The chairman of the board (Piatkowski) acted with malice, or at least, with a reckless disregard for the truth.”
Ramsay was referring to Burjoski’s January 2022 presentation – during which she highlighted two highly sexualized books in the board’s elementary school libraries.
Piatkowski shut her down after four minutes and expelled her from the meeting.
She was put on home assignment the next day and threatened to keep quiet if she wanted to keep her retirement benefits.
This was while Piatkowski did the rounds of Kitchener-Waterloo’s friendly media alleging she was “transphobic” and had used “hate speech” contrary to the Human Rights Code at the January 2022 meeting.
Ramsay said in his ruling that Burjoski did not not breach the Human Rights Code or question the right of trans persons to exist.
You’d think that would give the board and Piatkowski pause to reflect on their actions but they appear to have no contrition whatsoever, choosing to use money that is not their own to run out the clock hoping she’ll run out of money.
In her YouTube posting Tuesday, Burjoski said Ramsay’s decision was a “ringing endorsement of free speech” and that she did not engage in “hate speech.”
She said the board is appealing a ruling that clearly defended “the fundamental principles of free expression and open debate in Canada.”
Burjoski, noting the legal battle has been “draining”, said her legal fees have now totalled more than $90,000.
The appeal defense will cost $25,000, she said, while the defamation action will cost $60,000.
She said support from her GoFundMe efforts have so far made her fight possible.
One can only imagine how much the WRDSB has wasted and taken out of classroom needs to fight a teacher they so clearly wronged, in my view.
Considering they are using a pricey downtown Toronto law firm, the bills have to be even higher. But it’s not their money and they appear not to care one bit about what they spend.
Burjoski said the fight must continue because it is all about ensuring educators, parents and citizens have a right to voice concerns “without fear of retribution.”
She said they must make sure voices, especially those that seek to protect children, are not shut down “by those in power.”
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s foreign and defence policies, claiming that the country was losing relevance internationally.
CEO Perrin Beatty argued in the letter that the Liberal government’s policies are not up to date with the challenges facing Canada at the moment.
According to the National Post, this became obvious to him following several events in the Indo-Pacific.
“Canada is increasingly being viewed by our partners in the region as a well-meaning but unserious player on the international stage,” he said.
Beatty was critical of Trudeau’s defence policy, having been defence minister himself under the Mulroney government.
He believes that the peace and stability offered to Canada since the end of the Second World War was no longer something the country could rely on.
“It is clear that we can no longer take for granted the stable and peaceful international conditions that Canada helped to shape following the Second World War. This moment calls for a sober assessment of our international priorities and a recalibration of how we engage with other nations,” said Beatty.
While he was confident in the government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, which was released last year, Beatty thinks that Canada’s overall foreign policy hasn’t been handled with the severity it requires.
“Unfortunately, with the exception of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canadian foreign policy in recent years has frequently appeared, instead, to be reactive and unfocused,” he said.
“We have too often concentrated our efforts on policies designed to produce good feelings instead of on those that will produce good results.”
Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy seeks to make major investments in defence as well as to create stronger diplomatic ties in the region to offset the influence currently maintained by China.
Beatty’s letter warned of the coming updates on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, scheduled for review in 2026. The deal was signed in 2018 as a replacement for the previous NAFTA agreement.
“Canada should be preparing the ground now through a coordinated outreach campaign by all levels of government and the private sector to demonstrate to America’s citizens why a healthy relationship with Canada is important to them,” said Beatty, arguing that trade with the U.S. is too vital for Canada’s economy to ignore.
He likened Canada-U.S. trade to a company which has one major customer, advising the prime minister to spend more time and effort working on that relationship.
“Any company that did two-thirds of its business with one customer would spare no effort to maintain and strengthen that relationship,” said Beatty.
Additionally, Beatty warned that it’s time to start investing in defence, as the world is becoming increasingly unstable.
“Canada needs to meet its key commitments to avoid being viewed as an unreliable partner. Particularly in the current security climate, Canada must prioritize meeting the NATO target of allocating at least two per cent of GDP to defence spending.”
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Trudeau government promised to review its spending on defence regarding NATO, however, it has not yet announced any sort of proposal.
Canada is currently spending 1.3% of its GDP on defence, however, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that to meet the annual NATO target of 2%, it would have to spend an additional $14 billion per year.
St. Albert has joined Edmonton in the list of jurisdictions facing criticism for overpromising on the capabilities of expensive electric bus fleets.
The city’s electric buses have fallen short of their promised lifespan and performance, falling from what was initially thought to be 18 years to an expected lifespan of 12 years – 33% less than predicted.
“It’s disappointing that [the buses] didn’t live up to the hype,” said Coun. Wes Brodhead, according to the St. Albert Gazette.
In 2017, St. Albert distinguished itself as the first Canadian municipality to add long-range electric buses to its public transport system. It debuted three such buses in the spring and expanded the fleet by four more in 2018. The city received $2.1 million in funding from provincial and federal sources to help purchase the buses.
“This looks like a huge waste of taxpayers’ money at every level,” Canadian Taxpayer Federation’s Alberta director Kris Sims told True North.
She explained that this isn’t like buying a remote-controlled car for Christmas and having the batteries not work. The batteries cannot be replaced at the dollar store.
“City halls need to stop using taxpayers as guinea pigs for their pet projects that don’t work. Getting about half of the life span and drive distance that we were promised with these electric buses is not acceptable, and that’s not a good return on investment,” said Sims.
The buses, sourced from Chinese manufacturer BYD Ltd., experienced premature battery degradation, mechanical failures, and charger malfunctions, significantly hindering their efficiency and reliability.
A city spokesperson, Pamela Osborne, detailed the myriad issues plaguing the fleet.
“The battery replacements on our three BYD buses each took 80 days to accomplish and were out of service for the duration of the replacement,” she said.
This development echoes similar issues faced by Edmonton with its electric buses, adding to the growing skepticism surrounding the viability of electric public transit in Canadian cities. Most of Edmonton’s electric buses, manufactured by the now-bankrupt Proterra, remain inoperable, with no way to acquire the parts to fix them.
Forty-four of Edmonton’s 60 electric buses are no longer roadworthy. Proterra’s website claims that the buses can go up to 482 km on a single charge. However, the buses from Edmonton have a range of merely 117 km, not even a quarter of what was advertised.
This limited range means electric buses are only on the streets from 5-8:30 am before charging and eventually returning to the roads between 2:30-6:30 pm.
Conversely, a diesel ETS bus can be on the road for 21 hours without ever tanking up, Steve Bradshaw, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 569, told the Edmonton Journal.
Despite the setbacks, St. Albert’s electric buses have yielded some environmental benefits.
Osborne highlighted, “The electric buses continue to produce 51 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than the city’s diesel fleet.”
However, these gains are overshadowed by the buses’ limited range, especially during the winter months, and their higher frequency of breakdowns compared to diesel buses.
With the buses needing replacement by 2029-2030, future councils face the dilemma of either investing in newer models of electric buses, which currently cost around $1.3 million each, or considering alternative fuel buses.
“It just shows that with new technology, we have to be very, not skeptical, but very cautious,” said Coun. Mike Killick. “It’s a tough position for St. Albert, but certainly not as bad as the Edmonton situation,” he added.
Coun. Sheena Hughes voiced concerns over the financial impact, saying that there is no guarantee that St. Albert will receive future government funding to help purchase replacement buses.
“The next time some bureaucrat has a grand idea about making a big change like this (replacing diesel buses that work with electric ones that might not), the city councillors and the mayor need to ask themselves three basic questions, as economist Dr. Thomas Sowell has posed, said Sims.”
“‘Compared to what?’ ‘At what cost?’ ‘What hard data do you have?’ In this case, it looks like St. Albert city hall has struck out on all three questions, and taxpayers are left with the bill.”
An Ottawa NDP politician who called for a crackdown against the Freedom Convoy is complaining about noise bylaw tickets being issued to pro-Palestine protesters.
Joel Harden, a socialist member of Ontario’s legislature, was ticketed for using a megaphone at a rally and is now highlighting the need to protect “core civil liberties.”
I love Ottawa, but I’m disappointed in my city today.
Using a small megaphone to advocate for Palestinian human rights gets a $490 fine?
Harden expressed his frustration with being fined in a letter to Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and members of Ottawa City Council.
“The Palestinian community has hosted weekly protests expressing heartfelt, anguished grief, for reasons one can fully appreciate,” he said. “The Palestinian events I’ve witnessed have been passionate, but the noise involved was not excessive, no louder than Capital Pride or several of our city’s terrific street festivals.”
Harden urged the city to “ensure people can speak their mind reasonably without repercussions.”
“We have a shared interest in community safety, and ensuring Ottawa is a place where core civil liberties are protected,” he said.
The tickets in question were handed out at a large pro-Palestine protest held on Dec. 30 in the Canadian capital.
Many were quick to call out the socialist MPP’s hypocrisy, given that he had been a staunch opponent of the Freedom Convoy.
Harden referred to the convoy as an “occupation” and suggested it had antisemitic elements.
“We have seen antisemitic and white nationalist flags being flown around town,” said Harden in a Feb. 2022 letter denouncing the convoy.
Carleton Progressive Conservative MPP Goldie Ghamari took to X (formerly Twitter) to ask Harden “why the double standard? Does the law not apply equally to everyone?”
Ghamari’s colleague, Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, also criticized Harden.
You’re a professional protestor who doesn’t support the rights of protestors who don’t share your views. You associate with antisemites. You pick and choose who has human rights. And clearly you decide who gets to protest loudly downtown and who doesn’t. https://t.co/S50DmCIWDA
“So Ottawa’s hypocrite MPP (Joel Harden) wants immunity for protesters he agrees with but fines for those he doesn’t. Hypocrisy has another name: Joel Harden,” said one user.
“That ticket was probably for his own protection. Megaphones have been known to instigate unprovoked assaults against MPP Joel Harden in the past,” said another. This was in reference to Harden appearing to injure himself with his megaphone while counter protesting parents opposed to gender ideology in June 2023.
— Caryma Sa'd – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) June 11, 2023
Harden was not the only prominent anti-convoy figure to oppose the handing out of noise fines to pro-Palestine protesters.
Ottawa lawyer Paul Champ, who helped obtain an injunction against honking during the convoy and who is now involved in a 300 million dollar lawsuit against the convoy’s organizers, said the ticketing of pro-Palestinian protesters is “unacceptable” and an “affront to our deepest and most important democratic values: the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”
This is an affront to our deepest and most important democratic values: the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of asswmbly. A ticket for using a megaphone for a couple of hours on a public street to protest against a horrific war? Unacceptable @_MarkSutcliffehttps://t.co/GQuze5QXPa
Champ defended his position in a statement to True North, noting that he is a supporter of protests that “can be noisy and disruptive and cause inconvenience,” but that “there are limits.” He says the convoy crossed that line, but not the Dec. 30 pro-Palestinian rally.
“The protest for a ceasefire in Gaza was a classic protest,” he said. “A few thousand people marched down some streets with signs and they were chanting and singing as they walked. Some people were using megaphones to direct the marching crowds and the chants. Some streets were obstructed, but the entire march lasted only two to three hours.”
Champ said if the convoy had lasted three hours instead of three weeks, it would have been reasonable.
“But of course, that’s not what they did,” he said.
University of Ottawa law and epidemiology professor Amir Attaran and Horizon Ottawa director Sam Hersh, who both vehemently opposed the convoy, also criticized the fining of pro-Palestinian protesters.
More shameful behavior from @OttawaBylaw today using taxpayer dollars to clamp down on those advocating for justice in Gaza and Palestine.
In an end-of-year video addressing her city’s residents, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow claimed that Toronto had become a safer and more affordable city in 2023.
Chow’s claims are contradicted by data showing the number of crimes committed in the past year increased while housing prices in the city remain unaffordably high.
In a video posted to social media ushering in the new year, Chow listed off a number of accomplishments she feels she achieved in 2023.
“Working together over the last year, we’ve created a more welcoming city, a more caring city, a safer city, and a more affordable city,” said Chow.
Happy New Year! 🎉
Working together over the last year, we’ve created a more welcoming city. A more caring city. A safer city. A more affordable city.
However, 2023 did not see a decrease in crimes committed in Toronto, but instead saw an across the board rise in crime across the city.
According to statistics from the Toronto Police Service, major crime indicators increased by 17.6% in 2023.
Compared to 2022, there were 3,248 more assaults,or a 15.2% increase, as well as 24.2% more auto thefts, 25.3% more break-and-enters, 9.2% more robberies, and 6.3% more sexual offences.
Toronto police also reported 73 homicides in 2023, a marginal increase over 2022.
Toronto also experienced a wave of violence on public transit, with 1,522 recorded assaults, an increase of 14% from the year prior. There were also 152 sexual offences on Toronto transit, a 27% increase from 2022.
When it comes to the cost of living, one of the biggest impediments to achieving affordability in Toronto is the high price of housing.
Currently, the average price for a house in Toronto is just over $1,050,000, making the city one of the most expensive markets in the country.
2023 did not see much progress in addressing unaffordability in the housing market as prices slightly increased from 2022 and the Bank of Canada’s interest rate hikes have made home loans even costlier for Canadians.
According to the cost of living index Expatistan, the estimated monthly costs for someone living on their own is $4,345 and $7,472 for a family of four.
Manitobans can expect to see even cheaper prices at the pump as the provincial government unveils its plan to temporarily pause its fuel tax.
The provincial government wasted no time in the New Year revealing that it would pause the tax as part of its promise to provide economic relief to residents.
In contrast, Premier Danielle Smith faces public backlash for her decision to reinstate Alberta’s provincial fuel tax in a reduced form after a lengthy pause.
Albertans now have to pay nine cents per litre in fuel taxes, as opposed to the previous rate of 13 cents per litre.
Before implementation, Alberta’s government suggested re-imposing the fuel tax, which faced opposition from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) and the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), as previously reported by True North.
CTF’s Alberta director Kris Sims joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to discuss Alberta’s tax reinstatement, which came into effect on the first day of 2024.
One year ago, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was praised for her decision to temporarily suspend the fuel tax, explained Sims. This relief led to Albertans saving $10 when filling up a minivan, $15 when filling a pickup truck, and about $130 for a trucker filling up his big rig. These savings added to about $100 million a month province-wide.
The initial relief was tied to the price of a barrel of oil. When the suspension was announced, the Alberta government said that if the price of oil dropped below a certain threshold, it would reimplement the tax.
The CTF would not be urging Alberta to extend the tax relief if Alberta was near a deficit. Sims explained that debt is a major issue, with Canadians spending billions on paying down debt annually.
“That isn’t the case in Alberta. They have a $5.5 billion surplus after a year of not collecting this tax. So mathematically, it’s a big head-scratcher as well,” said Sims.
The province has agreed to use 50% of its cash surplus towards paying down the debt. Even still, Alberta could use their surplus to pay down debt, keep the tax off, and still have more than a $1 billion surplus by budget time.
Sims explained that while there is a math aspect to the tax, the political aspect needs to be considered as well.
When initially implementing the pause on fuel tax, Smith said she was doing this because people were struggling to afford the basics because inflation was a huge problem. Sims explained that Smith also saw this as a shield against Ottawa and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s continuous increase of the carbon tax, which is set to increase even more in a few weeks.
“None of that stuff has changed. In fact, it’s getting worse,” said Sims. “Politically, mathematically, we don’t get it. This doesn’t make any sense.”
For the first time in a year, Albertans are not paying the lowest fuel taxes in Canada. Manitobans, under NDP Premier Wab Kinew, are now paying less. This is largely in part to the Manitoba government removing their fuel tax the same day that Alberta reinstated it, saving motorists in Manitoba 14 cents per litre.
Manitoba said that it introduced the measure to help motorists with inflation.
“Alberta’s fuel tax is a predictable source of provincial revenue, helping to offset the volatility of other revenue sources. As a stable component of Alberta’s revenue mix, the fuel tax helps fund programs and services Albertans rely on while maintaining our significant tax advantage,” he wrote in the letter.
“Albertans will continue to save four cents per litre on gas and diesel in the first three months of 2024,” Horner explained. “After that, Albertans will save some or all of the provincial fuel tax when West Texas Intermediate crude prices average $80 per barrel or higher in each quarterly review period.”
Horner said that another update will be provided before the next quarter ends on March 31, 2024.
In Ontario, the provincial governments have decided to prolong the reduction in the gas tax until June, allowing motorists to keep benefiting from a nine cents per litre discount.
Meanwhile, in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, despite the opposition parties’ requests for a gas tax reduction, the respective provincial governments have opted not to implement such measures.
Ontario’s NDP and other advocates are pushing for the Progressive Conservatives to create a plan for free contraceptives for all ages.
While the Ontario Health Insurance Plan covers prescription contraceptives for those under the age of 24, advocates believe that it should be covered beyond that, especially for those on family benefits plans who want to take birth control without the knowledge of their parents or spouse.
“This saves money in the long run on the health care system and in social services,” said Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles. “I think we need to broaden it out and realize that people’s reproductive life is a lot longer than that,” said Stiles, referring to the 24 year age cut off.
Zoe Lazaris, a 22-year-old who suffers from migraines due to a brain injury said that using hormonal birth control pills has helped to reduce her headaches.
“It’s improved my quality of life a lot. I don’t have to stay at home for a full day as often as I used to, when I was just taken out by a migraine,” Lazaris told the Globe and Mail.
Lazaris recently graduated from university and is no longer able to access her pills at a reduced rate.
“In my future, the coverage is going to look different depending on the jobs I get,” she said.
British Columbia became the first province to cover all contraceptive expenses for all ages, including the intrauterine device, or IUD, which can cost up to $500.
Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew has promised to do the same for his province in 2024.
In Ontario, the NDP are pressuring the Progressive Conservatives to create a similar plan under OHIP that would cover the cost of all forms of contraception.
So far, the Doug Ford’s PC government has not agreed to support it, saying that there are already several programs that cover prescriptions for adults under the age of 24.
There is also the Trillium Drug Program, which alleviates the cost of expensive prescription drugs for some patients.
“Our government already provides free, publicly funded contraceptives to nearly half of Ontario’s population through the Ontario Drug Benefit program and OHIP+,” said Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones.
However, advocates are pushing for more leniency, arguing that it should be easier and free to obtain contraceptives, without having to answer questions.
“It’s a much more involved process than just having access to an IUD or birth control pills,” Mohini Datta-Ray, executive director of Planned Parenthood Toronto, told the Globe and Mail.
The organization serves youth aged 13 up to 29.
Datta-Ray argues that past the age of 24, many women don’t have access to OHIP and that they don’t want to tell their parents they are using contraception in order to use their insurance.
“What we’re seeing, unfortunately, is they don’t have access to contraceptive coverage, and so then sometimes abortion itself becomes a form of birth control,” said Datta-Ray, who noted that contraceptives are also used for endometriosis, a disease that affects the uterus and causes pain and potentially cancer.
In the past three months we have seen a torrent of antisemitic protests, hateful comments, boycotts of Israeli goods, shameless media bias and other vulgarities relayed non-stop on social media and on our TV screens.
It is unspeakable Jew hatred.
University and college administrators have sat on their hands while pro-Palestinian protesters have hijacked their campuses and tried to intimidate Jewish students.
Police everywhere – in London, NYC and Toronto – have for the most part stood idly by while protesters with their faces masked and keffiyehs covering their heads have uttered death threats, invaded private spaces, violated public ones like highway overpasses and vandalized Jewish-run businesses such as Indigo and Zara.
For someone who has watched antisemitic hate escalate over the past 10 years, I am not surprised that so many Jew haters have reared their ugly heads.
They were, shall we say, lying in wait.
I’m not naive enough to think these hateful characters would be silenced by the atrocities of Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, burned to death and desecrated the bodies of 1,200 Israelis.
Some 130 hostages are still being held somewhere in Gaza.
But I am certainly appalled with the level of visceral hatred, violence and the unabashed targeting of Jews – based largely on ignorance and distortion of the facts and social media manipulation.
It is heartbreaking.
Several in my Jewish sphere were lulled into thinking Nazi Germany would “never again” happen and perhaps were in denial about the signs I’ve seen for years.
Some Jewish advocacy groups were equally out of touch with reality, choosing not to call out many of the toxic protests and antisemitic bullying by radical union activists.
But this time I see a huge difference.
We never thought the hashtag #NeverAgain would need to be used – again.
There are social media platforms and X (formerly Twitter) pages dedicated solely to exposing antisemites, from the hateful people who ripped down posters of the Israelis being held hostage in Gaza to a variety of mostly indoctrinated college students and their professors who declare the usual tropes about Israel being a “genocidal” and “apartheid” state or even worse, that Jews don’t deserve to live.
These platforms have thoroughly documented the obscene violation of public spaces – most particularly shopping malls in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver – where a motley collection of verbally violent and aggressive pro-Palestinian supporters harassed shoppers before Christmas.
We have watched the police stand by and do nothing, until recent days when a few of the more aggressive protesters were arrested for disturbing the peace.
Both Canary Mission and @StopAntisemities have done a wonderful job exposing this kind of Jew hatred.
The latter site recently posted its picks for antisemites of the year, asking us to select one.
Social media has made it easy not just for them to expose the hateful words and actions of antisemites but to identify them.
For example, a young woman who worked for the New York Botanical Gardens recently lost her job after being featured by this platform for her Jew hatred.
Many others have been exposed and deplatformed, including those in the medical field (doctors especially) who should know better.
There is a group of lawyers in Toronto who repeatedly post and repost anti-Israel vitriol under the guise of protecting Palestinians.
Free speech and university tenure has given cover to haters like Osgoode Hall law professor Heidi Matthews. She has even gone so far as to repost the anti-Zionist diatribe of former NDP member of Ontario’s legislature Sarah Jama.
Hate speech is finally being exposed, as is the media bias.
Honest Reporting Canada has done a yeoman’s job highlighting the inaccuracies – and the pure bias – of various news outlets.
Most have been forced to retract or correct their inaccuracies.
Virtually daily I receive an email from Honest Reporting Canada exposing biased reporting from CBC and CTV, which have been at the top of the list with their dishonest and less than objective reporting of the conflict.
There are private Jewish-only Facebook groups who issue watches and alerts to others about acts of antisemitism in Canada.
Even the Jewish advocacy organizations like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which sat on its hands for umpteen years cozying up to the Liberals, have been forced to concede that Justin Trudeau and the largely foolish ministers who surround him do not care one bit about Jews in Canada.
Why should they when we represent a minority compared to those who’ve been allowed to come into Canada, bringing their hateful ways with them.
Still it is like a game of whack-a-mole. One antisemite is uncovered and silenced; another one crops up.
We wish that our politicians would act rather than issue phony statements about how antisemitism is not tolerated in Canada.
There’s no doubt by their inaction and empty words that they tolerate it.
Ditto for the police who enable the violence and intimidation by refusing to arrest and charge some of the more aggressive haters.
Even if the court is lenient with these people – and I believe they would be – at least it would send a strong signal to others that this kind of behavior should not be tolerated.
What we’ve learned as a Jewish community is that there is indeed a shameless double standard as to how anti-Jewish hate is treated compared to the very limited acts of aggression comparatively against Muslims, other visible minorities or the LGBT communities.
We as Jews have concluded that we need to stand up for ourselves – and the haters have been aghast that we are finally standing up for ourselves.
If there’s one positive result of Oct. 7 and the antisemitic acts that have followed, we are bonded and more determined than ever as a community to fight back with a vengeance.
