New Year, Same Cowardice

And Some Heroes we Didn't Know we Needed

Happy New Year, readers! I know it’s a bit late to say it, but I think until mid-January it is acceptable. Last year, my resolution was to wear more jewelry. I like resolutions that are easy to accomplish, and since I really only wear earrings, I was a huge success in 2023. I wore necklaces a couple of times and a bracelet and a ring. Oh, and a big fake flower on my coat which I believe qualifies as a brooch. This year, my resolution is to watch more Netflix - also easy to accomplish since for most of 2023 we unsubscribed, but now we are back at it.

So far I’m giving Toronto’s mayor, Olivia Chow, an F on her resolution of making this city kinder and nicer. (See my piece about her election here.) That was one of her many campaign promises last year, but in her dealings with the anti-Israel protesters (I will not call them pro-Palestinian protesters, because it’s clear they do not care about Palestinians) she is failing miserably. Unless I misunderstood and her resolution was to make this city kinder to psychotic Jew-hating half-wits, in which case she gets an A.

Here’s what happened - she hosted a skating party last weekend at City Hall and Torontonians were invited to join and skate and drink hot chocolate and meet our mayor. A nice idea. Guess who ruined it? Psychotic Jew-hating half-wits screaming “genocide” and “ceasefire” as Chow tried to give a speech. Rather than tell them that, if they really want a ceasefire, they should be calling for Hamas to surrender, or mentioning that Hamas is the only group attempting any genocide, she tried to suck up to them, by desperately reminding them that she also has called for a ceasefire! Like me, please like me, she seemed to be pleading. It was pitiful. If, as Frank Zappa said, life is like high school with money, Toronto’s mayor is the goody two-shoes Student Council president trying to placate the bullies. If that weren’t bad enough, there was a lovely couple who looked to be in their 70s who tried to speak reasonably with the protesters (the naivete of some dies hard, doesn’t it?). The mob thanked them by circling them, pointing at them and screaming “shame” at the top of their lungs. Dreadful. A similar thing happened in San Francisco this week, when a man who lost family on October 7th was testifying at a public hearing, and protesters stood behind him making pig noises and horn gestures - yes, they went there. We’ve gotten into a time machine and landed at “Jews have horns.”

I don’t think Chow is a bad person. What she is, is a politician who does not seem to understand this simple rule of both economics and life: if you subsidize something, you will only get more of it. (As my economist spouse says, this is why rent control doesn’t solve housing problems.) Toronto has been subsidizing these insane protesters, who, as aforementioned, are not pro-Palestinian. They are antisemitic. They protest in Jewish neighbourhoods and outside Jewish stores. They do not stand peacefully with placards outside, say, the Israeli Consolate. They use genocidal language. After months of this, the Toronto police have finally announced that protests on overpasses are now banned. A favourite spot of these kaffiyeh-wearing Hamas apologists has been an overpass in Toronto right in the heart of - you know it - a Jewish residential area. Toronto’s Chief of Police has stated that “people can expect to be arrested, if necessary.”

About time.

Now, I was no fan of the truckers, of the Freedom Convoy. I believed in their right to protest but honestly, I thought they were silly. (I did appreciate the attention they brought to my hometown, though. It was fun seeing all those American reporters in their winter hats frolicking in the Ottawa snow.) That said, it is difficult to not notice a double-standard in how they were treated (bank accounts frozen, arrests) versus how people threatening Canada’s Jewish community and calling for the destruction of the state of Israel are getting treated.

Of course, our Prime Minister is not known for his principles. He is known for worrying about polls. This must be the reason his government took so long to do the sane, moral thing and condemn South Africa’s stunt at the International Court of Justice. The UK, the US, Germany all immediately did so, calling it “completely unjustified,” “meritless and galling,” and something which has “no basis in fact,” respectively. Yesterday, Chrystia Freeland stated that Canada needed to hear both sides of the case (i.e., check internal polling) before making any decisions. This morning they finally made a sensible statement, but the time it took is an embarrassment. This is not “neutrality” or being an “honest broker.” This is moral cowardice in the face of a threat to civilization.

Not unrelated: I still have not heard a dang thing from the diocese of my (now ex) church, or from the priest in question. At the very least, one would think an attempt might be made to reach out to a regular attendee and have a conversation. (The previous rector there was very good at that sort of thing but they got rid of him. No idea why.) The more I think about it, the more I wish I had been more forceful that day, but I was so shocked by his ridiculous reaction. I mean, one of the things I talked to him about was a Hamas video of a bloodied and terrified teenaged girl who, after having been raped, was thrown on the back of a truck in chains. (The girl’s mum has written this heartbreaking essay.) My priest’s response was to go all Jeremy Corbyn and criticize Israeli military action, as though it were morally equivalent to the sexual assault of a civilian or the kidnapping of a child or grandmother or burning people alive. FYI, the church I had been attending was an Anglican church, and I got a bit of a laugh out of this report, stating that there has been criticism “that the Anglican Church of Canada has not been sufficiently opposed to the acts of Hamas.” Ya think? Sheesh. Apparently those of us who complain about it are wrong though - the report goes on to say that the church has called Hamas’s actions “unacceptable.” A brave stance. Next comes the sternly-worded letter. Yahya Sinwar will sit up and take notice!

(Double Canadian content alert: the church I was attending was Robertson Davies’ place of worship for many years. He apparently incorporates it - though he uses a different name for it - into a couple of his novels. It was also the church of Healey Willan. I don’t know what the political views of either Davies or Willan were, but I’m guessing both would have used a stronger word than “unacceptable” to describe the depravity of Hamas.)

Well, my spouse did say - and he is wise - that October 7th was going to change our friendships/relationships, likely ending some. I don’t want to be utterly negative - there are heroes we didn’t know we needed out there. Step up and take a bow, Senator John Fetterman! I freely admit I was wrong about him. I feared he would be a Squad-type Democrat. Far from it, he has been stellar on this issue and on others. Peter Savodnik sings Fetterman’s praises here, eloquently. Those who know me know I like a little sartorial sass, but hell, I don’t even mind those hoodies anymore. Dress as you like, John. Closer to home, we have Kevin Vuong, federal Independent MP for Spadina-Fort York, and Anthony Housefather, Liberal MP from Mount Royal, and my old friend from media days, Shuv Majumdar, Conservative MP for Calgary Heritage, none of whom engage in any hesitancy or mealy-mouthedness when it comes to antisemitism or Israel’s right to defend itself. And there are more. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

I’ll bring this ramble back to my opening paragraph, and sign off with a clip of someone I’ve been watching on Netflix (See? Keeping my resolutions already!), Philomena Cunk (aka, Diane Morgan). Bloody genius and hysterically funny. I love watching these scholars try to keep straight faces.

[Brava! The bloopers must be an absolute scream.]