Dear Justin Trudeau:
 
Unhappy members of the Liberal Party caucus are reportedly getting ready to send you a letter, asking you to leave. So, several million of us regular Canadians got together to send you a letter, too.  Here it is.
 
We haven’t seen the Grit caucus letter, yet.  But, based upon past experience, it’s likely to be 90 per cent flattery and only about ten per cent the subject-matter, which is this: it’s time to go, big guy.
 
Do we need to persuade you of this? We doubt it.  You don’t get to be Prime Minister of Canada by being a total idiot. You can read a poll as well as the rest of us.  And the polls – all of them, no exceptions – say that you and your Liberals have been behind the Conservatives by as much as 22 per cent for more than a year. In politics, that’s death row, Justin.
 
The main reason for your party’s unpopularity isn’t a policy, per se.  Sure, Pierre has convinced lots of people that the carbon tax is the reason why every sparrow falls from the sky. After he becomes Prime Minister, however, and people still need to take out a second mortgage to fill up the tank, they’ll realize that “axing the tax” made for a boffo bumpersticker – but killing it wasn’t be the cure for every ill.
 
No, Justin, it’s not a policy that has reduced the Liberal brand to endangered-species status. It’s you.
 
Now, we’ve watched you on the job for the past almost-decade.  We’ve seen that calling you names and getting angry at you doesn’t work.  In fact, it gives you energy.  You’re like the Incredible Hulk of Canadian politics: when people come after you, you add muscle mass.
 
So, we will try a different approach.  We will be kinder and gentler, like George Bush Senior memorably once said.
 
You have nothing left to prove, Justin.  You have had three huge achievements.  You have a legacy to be proud of.
 
One, you took the Liberal Party of Canada from third place to a big, big majority.  That is something that no other party leader has done in our lifetimes. Circa 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada’s obituary had been written up by just about every member of the commentariat. But you created your own DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN moment, and made the punditocracy look like fools.
 
Two, separatism did not once raise its head during your time in power.  Every Prime Minister, for generations, has struggled with Quebec nationalism and separatism.  You, however, led the country through nearly a decade in which, blessedly, we did not hear the word “constitution.” Call it luck, call it skill. Whatever the reason, you kept the Canada-wreckers at bay.
 
(Tory leader Pierre Poilievre, we note, will not be so lucky. His biggest challenge won’t be cutting back on your fiscal excesses – in government, any monkey can wield an axe. His biggest challenge will be the return of the Parti Quebecois at the National Assembly, and the fact that Quebeckers don’t ever like anglophones telling them what to think. But we digress.)
 
The third reason why you can leave with your comely head held high: you lifted hundreds of thousands of Canadian children out of poverty. When children are going hungry, when children do not have a roof over their heads, you don’t really have a country anymore. Your Canada Child Benefit (CCB) didn’t fully eliminate child poverty – it will forever be among us, per Jesus Christ – but hundreds of thousands of Canadian children were given better lives. The last time the Tories said they’d “reform” the CCB they lost an election they should’ve won.
 
So, there you go, Justin: you shouldn’t leave because we’re mad at you (even though several million of us are). You should leave because you’ve had almost ten years at the top, and that’s as good as it gets. 
 
It matters to you, we suspect, that you led minority governments instead of majority ones.  But that doesn’t matter to us, your bosses. For most of those years, we were comfortable with you being in charge. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t have defeated Messrs. Harper, Scheer and O’Toole.
 
Anyway: that was then, this is now. It’s over. 
 
You are a proud guy, like your Dad was. In politics, you are only remembered for your last loss or win.
 
Be remembered as a winner, not a loser. Go. You’ll be happier, and so will we.  Everyone wins.
 
Sincerely,
 
Canadians
 
 

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It’s made headlines around the world: Canada’s national government believes that a malign foreign entity – India – engaged in a campaign of intimidation, harassment, assaults and murder against Canadians.

Why, then, has it been so difficult for Canada’s national government to also believe that malign foreign entities — Iran, Hamas, aided and abetted by Russia and China — have also engaged in a campaign of intimidation, harassment, assaults and attempted murder against Canadian Jews?

Because they have. Hamas and its axis are not merely conducting a war against Israel’s democracy. They are engaged in a simultaneous war against Western democracies. Canada included.

It’s not a conspiracy theory. In July, no less than the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, said this: “Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years. We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”

It has been “an Iranian campaign,” Haines said, speaking on behalf of the FBI and the entire American intelligence establishment.

That revelation came months after reporting by this newspaper that anti-Israel, pro-Hamas extremists were indeed being paid in a malevolent campaign to cause chaos in Canadian streets, and target Canadian Jews. The participants have been a mix of antisemitic agitators in the Muslim community, radicalized students, and far-Left NGOs and individuals who hate America and Western democracy.

The allegations against India’s regime, meanwhile, are deeply serious. They include assassination plots and acts of violence against members of another religious minority, Canada’s Sikh community. India has denied the allegations, but then hurriedly withdrew six of their diplomats before the RCMP could get the opportunity to question them.

Outstanding reporting by Sam Cooper, Stewart Bell and Mercedes Stephenson has established that Justin Trudeau and his ministers were repeatedly warned about Indian criminal activity on Canadian soil. The record will ultimately show Trudeau and his cabal did nothing about it.

So, too, with the threats and attacks by agents of Hamas, Iran and by violent Marxist extremists in Canada over the past year. Trudeau and his government were warned about all of that, as well. And they again did nothing to stop it.

Consider what Canadian Jews and their allies have experienced since Oct. 7, 2023:

— Schools for young Jewish children being shot up more than once in Montreal and Toronto.

— Firebombing of Jewish businesses, community centres and synagogues across Canada.

— Hospitals, schools, businesses and even entire Jewish neighbourhoods being targeted with vandalism and violence and threats.

— Federally approved organizations like Vancouver’s Samidoun applauding the murder of Jews and unapologetically calling for “death to Canada.”

And on and on and on. Unlike the alleged Indian campaign, the Iranian version only lacks a murder victim. But it has not been for lack of trying. To some observers, it is just a matter of time before a Canadian Jew is slain.

We live in an era where outlaw regimes are aggressively exporting their wars against their enemies to Canada, the United States and other Western democracies. To the likes of India and Iran, national borders are just squiggles on a map. They are disinterested in diplomatic niceties and international law.

All of that is obvious. Less obvious, however, is this:

Canada is finally moving against India for its alleged campaign of terror against Canadians.

Why isn’t Canada also moving against Iran, Hamas et al. for their campaign of terror against Canadian Jews?

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To remain human, the writer Graham Greene once said, you have to take sides.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has chosen a side: Jews, the Jewish state, Western democracy. Poilievre sometimes gets himself in trouble for lack of nuance.  But this week, his refusal to equivocate on Israel deserves high praise.

On Parliament Hill, Poilievre condemned the avalanche of antisemitism, the likes of which he said “we’ve never seen before in this country.” The Conservative leader cited the “firebombing of synagogues, the hateful, genocidal protests, [the] chants in front of Jewish businesses, homes and hospitals,” and – this week – the burning of the Canadian flag, and the “death to Canada” chants of Samidoun, the federally-registered nonprofit that Poilievre rightly describes as a pro-terror organization.

Said Poilievre: “Let’s unify our people…Let’s secure our borders. Let’s keep terrorists out of our country. And let’s stand up for what’s right once again, and stand with our allies against terrorism, and for decency. Let’s bring home the country that we knew and still love.”

Compare that to the spinelessness of Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who this week was notably absent from a Toronto ceremony to mark the terrible events of October 7, 2023. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and two dozen politicians from all levels were there. But not Chow.

She – who is mayor in a region where half of Canada’s 400,000 Jews live – literally suggested to media that the multiple invitations she was sent somehow ended up in someone’s spam folder.  When that didn’t work – because Toronto councillors had reminded her about the event in person, too – Chow actually said she didn’t go because she was, and I quote, “tired.”

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Couldn’t CBC have shown some respect, even on Oct. 7?

More than 1,200 men, women, children and babies slaughtered by Hamas and Gazans in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023: On the day that Israel was mourning those many slain, could CBC have shown some restraint? More than 100 hostages, including babies and toddlers, held in captivity for a year: On the very day that Israel was hoping for their safe return, could CBC not show some decency?

No, it couldn’t. It didn’t.

On Oct. 7, and in the lead-up to that sad anniversary, CBC did what it has done throughout: Show that it is indifferent to the suffering of Jews in Israel and Canada — and demonstrate that it is unfair to its readers, listeners and viewers in Canada. The people who pay for it, and expect it to do better.

Case in point: Mohamed El Saife. El Saife is paid by CBC to work as a “videographer.” An extensive essay about El Saife was posted on the main CBC website on the day before, and on, Oct. 7. On that same day, a fawning profile of him was broadcast on CBC’s main news programs, on both CBC News Network and on its main network. There, he was described as CBC’s “eyes and ears” in Gaza.

Let’s take a look at what Mohamed El Saife, CBC’s taxpayer-subsidized “eyes and ears,” has to say on social media, shall we?

• El Saife says “Israel” — he puts the Jewish state’s name in quotation marks, to suggest that it is a fiction — has falsely stated that Israel has an “occupation army that violates the dignity of of the bodies of martyrs.”

• El Saife has falsely accused Israel of “massacring” citizens in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

• El Saife has published an A.I.-generated image of a Palestinian child wearing wings, and chased by weapons-toting IDF troops.

• El Saife (on his main post on Oct. 7, no less) has falsely said “Israeli threats” have resulted in the “displacement of Palestinians” — even though, in reality, Israel has taken the unprecedented step to warn, and help to evacuate, Palestinians before military actions.

None of this, regrettably, is news.

As this writer revealed a few days ago, the Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith conducted an analysis of CBC coverage of the Israel-Hamas war after Oct. 7. Of 150 stories in the final analysis, about half were considered openly pro-Palestinian. Only a fraction of that, 32, were possibly pro-Israel. The remainder were considered “balanced.”

The bottom line, according to the analysis: The CBC is wildly biased against Israel. And CBC would not even meet with B’nai Brith to look at their numbers.

That’s not all. CBC has repeatedly refused to call Hamas terrorists what they are – terrorists. They have accepted Israel-Hamas war casualty counts that come directly from Hamas. And they have established a secretive internal group, “Middle East 2023,” to oversee coverage of Israel.

Most recently, we’ve revealed that a member of their digital team wears a keffiyeh to work, and has posted online that Israel is “an oppressive, destructive” country and “you’re a vile human being if you still defend or excuse Israel.”

And, now, we have Mohamed El Saife — who the CBC itself describes as their “eyes and ears” in Gaza — publishing statements that, at a minimum, call into question what CBC insists is its commitment to fairness, balance and impartiality.

“Mohamed El Saife is an independent videographer. The content he shares on his X account presumably reflects his lived experience,” CBC’s chief spokesman, Chuck Thompson, said in response for comment. “That said, it has nothing to do with the content he provides CBC News as a freelance videographer. His views are his own and he does not speak for CBC.”

Is that good enough? Is that adequate? As one veteran and senior Jewish reporter at CBC said to this writer: “We are frustrated that our bosses have not taken a single concern seriously. They’re tried to manage this as a public relations exercise — without addressing the ethical problems plaguing CBC News.”

We, the people who pay for CBC, deserve better. We deserve a public broadcaster that is fair, balanced and impartial.

A broadcaster that is telling the truth.

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