— Feature, Musings —03.13.2024 10:24 AM
My latest: charge them now
What’s it going to take?
To charge someone with a hate crime, that is. It’s been less than a week since a mob descended on a Toronto Jewish synagogue, and the perpetrators are still walking the streets. How is that possible?
Because, make no mistake, what took place at the Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue in Thornhill on Thursday certainly looked like hate. It looked like a hate crime, in fact.
Up till this point, Ontario’s Jew-haters have gone after Jewish symbols – bookstores, delicatessens, restaurants, and even hospitals – but not actual places of worship. In Quebec, synagogues have been firebombed. But in Ontario, the anti-Israel mob hasn’t gone after a place of worship.
On Thursday, they did. Beth Avraham Yoseph is a modern Orthodox synagogue, meaning members are supposed to engage fully with the modern, outside world. They are expected to promote love and justice in their own community, and outside their community. They’re supposed to care for people who are less fortunate, and they do.
As one of their rabbis has put it, the modern Orthodox Jew is expected “to transform the world to benefit all humanity.”
It’s hard to see how anyone could object to that. But several hundred Israel-haters did on Thursday, and showed up allegedly to protest a real estate fair taking place at the synagogue, one that has been showing up in Toronto for two decades. It’s for people who want to make aliyah – that is, move to Israel.
Lawyer Caryma Sa’d was there. Sa’d has become well-known for the gutsy eyewitness videos shot by her and her team – at everything from political protests to political events. Her videos are raw and objective and have become invaluable to the news media.
Remember the footage of Toronto police officers carrying doughnuts to anti-Israel protestors who had targeted a Jewish neighborhood? That was Caryma Sa’d’s work. She was there.
And, on Thursday, she was at the Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue, as well.
“Objectively, I think there were individuals whose language crossed the threshold for hate,” says Sa’d, noting that many of the protestors were chanting about “Zionists,” quote unquote. Which she also sees as problematic: “The word Zionist has undergone a similar treatment to fascist or Nazi…where it has been stripped of its actual meaning, and can be used as a stand-in for something hateful.
“Which is unfortunate.”
Also unfortunate, to say the least, are some of the other statements made on Thursday. ”The whole world hates you!” one anti-Israel protestor screamed. Another: “F**k these Jews!” And: “They are demons!” And: ”Go back to Europe!” some chanted.
They grabbed Israeli flags and spat on them and kicked them into the dirt. There was pushing and shoving. There were fights. There were arrests.
Meir Weinstein, who runs the Never Again Live Podcast, was present. Recalls Weinstein: “I witnessed pro-Hamas supporters outside the synagogue chanting that [we are all] terrorists and racists. Some had a sign that said: ‘This is not a synagogue, this is a SINagogue.'”
Most media reports – with Sun colleague Joe Warmington being the notable exception – missed the most outrageous thing of all. Namely, that the “protestors” had targeted a synagogue. A place of worship.
And that is clearly against Canada’s Criminal Code. Here’s what section 319 says:
“Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment.”
All the elements are there: hateful statements were communicated about Jews, at a Jewish holy place, to clearly incite hatred. There wasn’t just the possibility of a breach of the peace – the peace had already been breached, necessitating the presence of dozens of armed police.
Calling a synagogue a place of “sin” eliminates any doubt. What happened on Thursday wasn’t about Israel’s government, or Israeli policy. It was explicitly an attack on a religion and the people who belong to that religion – at a “SINagogue.”
The sin, then, is committed here by the police, prosecutors and politicians who see that, and shrug.
The real sin is in doing nothing, and letting things get worse.
Warren,
I never thought I would see the day where invested stakeholders would serially come off worse than the agitators and protesters.
The Crown Attorneys, Police and Politicos are passing for lazy and incompetent idiots and that’s on their finest day.
“The hottest places in hell, are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
Dante
What is the word for the phrase “taking money under wrongful pretexts”? Fraud.
Doesn’t failure to do perform your designated duties, while receiving wages to perform those duties meet that the concept of “taking money under wrongful pretexts”. Physician (police and Crown prosecutors): heal thyself. Lay charges against yourself and your colleagues for fraud.
Warren,
And speaking of cold and considered competence:
From The Canadian Press:
“Canada pledges help for Palestinian sex-crime victims, angering Israeli envoy”
OTTAWA — An announcement this week that Canada would provide funding for Palestinian women who have survived sexual violence drew an immediate rebuke from a senior Israeli official.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly made the $1-million pledge on social media Tuesday.
“We believe Palestinian women,” she posted on X.”
They seem to think that Israeli and Jewish women and girls were in the land of Make-Believe on October 7th. Where’s Ottawa’s money to help these women and girls? Nowhere, that’s where.
It is past time for the SolGen to get involved and light a fire under somebody’s ass. If the head of the TPS won’t authorize the correct response, then the legislation exists for the province to step in. When the Freedom Convoy was misbehaving in Ottawa, the politicians were not hesitant to use their legislative authority. It begs the question, what is different now?
Ronald, you think women in every conflict in the world aren’t raped? Only one side commits atrocities? Of course men on each side raped women. 4 of 10 Canadian women in CANADA have been sexually assaulted. Violence against women is universal.
I salute your bravery in your ongoing coverage of this issue since October 7th, especially considering you are essentially a one man band.
As someone who is tangentially involved in the customer relations department of a Canadian media company, I can only imagine the deluge of vile feedback you have received over the last six months. I have seen it myself – if Bill 63 passes in its current form, I could have a full-time job, leading a large staff, filing complaints.
I think Bill 63 is horrible, dangerous and misguided legislation in its current form but would we be collecting $20,000 each time as it proposes? I fear not for the same reason our current government and law enforcement seems unwilling to act – there is somewhere between 4x and 5x as many Muslims in this country as Jews, and that multiple will only continue to grow.
In my suddenly long lifetime, I have witnessed politics at all levels simply devolve into a marketing contest to control the public purse (perhaps it has always been thus, but each new candle on the birthday cake seems to add clarity regarding this inarguable fact). Once you realize this, the moral pretzels politicians will twist themselves into to gain that access no longer surprises.
Isn’t Caryma Sa’d the same person who sued Bernie Farber and the Canadian Anti-Hate Network on specious grounds?
https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2023/2023fc1286/2023fc1286.html?resultIndex=1&resultId=8408aa8c81ec4f66b7611fc244007e87&searchId=2024-03-16T22:26:29:102/feedcc6d5953443e85c809e0bb109c26
Be careful with “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” reasoning. Sa’d is also the author of the so-called “Hategate report” which she wrote with Elisa Hategan and which whitewashes the hate group Diagolon, claiming that their hate speech was just joking around and satire (the same claim YourWardNews made). Her “report” also did its darndest to demonize and undermine the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. https://crier.co/the-hategate-affair-unmasking-canadas-hate-industry/