One Damned Thing After Another
From Narnia to Jeremy Corbyn
Of the simplistic things Justin Trudeau said when he won his majority mandate in 2015, the most irritating had to be, “Canada’s back.” (That, and his using Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s “sunny ways” speech.) As though we had been away. As though we had been under enemy occupation. Leaders in other countries and across the political spectrum say similar things - I wrote about this phenomenon in the Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago. It is not merely politicians who speak in these dramatic, Manichean terms. The rest of us do. When Stephen Harper won the federal election in 2011 - also a majority - friends of mine bemoaned the occasion with social media posts about how it wasn’t their Canada anymore. This isn’t my Canada! I don’t recognize Canada anymore! Wah wah wah. When Trump won in 2016 heads exploded and when he lost in 2020, there was an equally over-the-top reaction. I know people who threw parties and drank champagne on Biden’s inauguration day. I was happy Biden won, too, as I was pleased when Harper became prime minister. Yet I could never imagine throwing a festive affair over either event. I always understood one important thing: when someone you don’t like wins an election, that is all that has happened. Someone you don’t like has won an election. You will survive. You may even agree with some of their policies. When someone you like wins, that is also all that has happened. You may even not agree with some of their policies. (I wish to goodness I could remember the name of the blogger who - when George W. Bush won his second term in 2004 - wrote a post about exactly this sort of hysteria and foolishness. It was something along the lines of, “you will not be put in concentration camps; he is not a Nazi; it is not the end of the world; there is another election in four years; calm the heck down, people.”) It happens every day. Those we dislike win and those we like lose. The key is that we have elections. The pendulum swings.
I bring this up in regards to the recent vote in the House of Commons about Canadian support for Israel. Or lack of it, at least from the political and institutional left. It made me feel mortified and embarrassed to be Canadian and I confess that I had a few “is this still my Canada?” moments, as I watched it unfold. But sadly, this is my Canada - one where the Overton window has altered dramatically. It is now acceptable to try to “both sides” and trivialize what happened on October 7th, to “protest” in front of synagogues (one thing I can say for this nightmare: there is no intellectually sound or relevant argument to be made that antisemitism and anti-Zionism aren’t one and the same) and to suggest some moral equivalence between a democratic ally and a theocratic extremist group that rapes women and corpses, burns families alive, takes hostages and call it “resistance.” While I am thankful that recognition of a Palestinian state was removed from the motion, the sorry spectacle in our parliament was an insult to Israel, to Jewish-Canadians and, frankly, to any sane Canadian. It might be non-binding, but it says a lot about us. It makes us look silly and morally inept. Having the governing party cynically outsource foreign policy to Israel-haters is not how a serious country proceeds. (Hats off to the three Liberals - Ben Carr, Marco Mendicino, Anthony Housefather - and to Independent Kevin Vuong for their principled stance in voting against the motion.)
Further, part of what passed was the decision to halt all arms exports to Israel. Now, one can laugh about that, as Israel has not purchased weapon systems, light weapons or arms from Canada in three decades. But the message is clear: Canada is saying, de facto, that we do not support the right of Israel to defend itself. And what is not non-binding is the government’s decision to continue funding UNRWA. More than ten percent of UNRWA facilities contain terror infrastructure and at least 15 of their employees were actively involved in the October 7th attack, making the organization complicit in the murder of eight Canadians. At least a couple of those Canadians were active peaceniks who worked hard to reach out to their neighbours in Gaza. They were the type of idealists one might conclude would have - before they were murdered by Hamas - supported the Greens, the NDP, the Liberals.
So yes, this is my Canada. The idiot balaclava and kaffiyeh-wearing purple-haired young people, many of whom do not understand the slogans they are shrieking are my Canada. Or part of it. Also part of it are the quieter, rational people with functioning moral compasses, who know history, and know that history is one damned thing after another (I think Churchill said that) and the damned things will keep happening. As in the past - say, 1938 - platitudes about peace in our time do not win the day. There are bad people out there who will take everything from us, if we allow it. Israel can’t half take out Hamas, just as we could not half take out Nazism or Imperial Japan. Which brings me to Masters of the Air, a series I briefly mentioned in my previous piece. It took me a few episodes to “feel” the series, but once I did, I was hooked and deeply moved by it. The challenge was that, in the early episodes, there is so much action and so much death, with little opportunity to get to know the characters. But if you stick with it, you will be rewarded - the pace slows and the people and storylines bloom. I bawled my eyes out in the last episode and a couple of times prior to that. The series (based on this book) is a testament to sacrifice, courage and simply doing the right thing, to understanding that much of the latter involves decent young men having to participate in the ugliness of war.
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[Franciscan Friary, known as “The Abbey,” on Sherkin Island, Ireland. Probably never an NGO. Photo: Rondi Adamson, 2018]
I have written previously about October 7th and my ex-church. Click on the link for details, but to sum up, on the morning of October 8th, the priest at my church kept trying to “what about” and “both sides” the attacks. He kept insisting he was not justifying the slaughter of Israelis or suggesting moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, though his comments seemed to indicate otherwise. It was disturbing. The church I had been attending is Anglican, and I find it curious, therefore, that the Anglican Church of Canada recently issued a “stand against antisemitism.” They must have been getting blowback for their initial squishy reaction to October 7th, because I notice they now call the attacks “horrific.” Previously, they were merely “unacceptable.” So there is a teeny amelioration. But what I find revealing is this part of their statement: “[Antisemitism] has since reached into communities around the world, as polarization concerning the response of the state of Israel has incited fear, vandalism and hate speech against Jews.” (Emphasis mine.)
In other words, they are blaming the Jews - the Jewish state - for the increase in antisemitism. It is a reaction to Israel’s response! Really? What about the fact that on October 8th, before Israel had responded in any way (they were too busy picking up body parts and weeping), there were rallies around the world - literally - glorifying the attacks and calling for death to Jews and destruction of Israel? Talk about no self-awareness.
So here’s a kind of funny addendum, though perhaps not “funny ha ha.” Funny sad. A friend - a long-time Anglican deacon - told me, with despair, that her own church had “traveled from Narnia to Jeremy Corbyn.” I just though that was a great line and I wanted to steal it and use it. It is not inaccurate. When did churches, especially Protestant churches, become NGOs? Mine even had a social justice consultant. The focus is too often on the causes that divide us – in case we weren’t already divided – rather than on awe, reverence, ritual, spiritual community.
A propos a lack of self-awareness, I must mention Trump and his Bible. Although perhaps with Trump it is more a lack of shame. “This is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump.” In your face, Council of Nicaea! In your face, Council of Rome! In your face, Council of Trent!
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My mum died ten years ago today. A wee tribute to her here. Also, I made her cookies this weekend for Easter.