You’re Canadian. You have a regular, normal life.

Imagine what it feels like when someone throws a bomb at your place of worship. Imagine that. It’s hard to, isn’t it? Of course it is. This is Canada, not some place in the Middle East.

Maybe you don’t go to church. Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve gone somewhere to pray.

But, if you’re a Canadian, chances are that you’ve been to a wedding or a funeral or a baptism or something like that. Chances are you’ve been to a place where people go to pray. It’s normal. It happens a lot in Canada, still.

When you’re there, you look around. Apart from the clothes they’re wearing, and maybe a book of prayers or hymns, nobody is carrying anything special. Nobody is carrying a gun or a knife or pepper spray or a fire extinguisher. That’s for certain.

You don’t need those things when you go to a place of worship in Canada. You go there for solitude or to be with other people. And, perhaps, when you’re there, you become faintly aware of something: you are totally, completely vulnerable. You’re defenceless, like everyone else is. There’s no security because you don’t need it. Not in Canada.

At the Schara Tzedeck synagogue on Oak Street in Vancouver, they need security. Since October 7, and before it, there’s been trouble. There’s always trouble, actually. As far back as 2016, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver was tripling how much it spends on security for Jewish places of worship.

That didn’t stop someone from throwing a bomb at the lovely inscribed doors of the the Schara Tzedeck synagogue last week, however. People were inside, praying, when the bomb slammed against the doors, bursting into flame.

So, imagine that. You’re somewhere in Canada, praying, and someone throws a bomb at you. What does that feel like? Can you even imagine it?

Aron Csaplaros doesn’t have to imagine it. He lived it. Aron is the British Columbia Regional Manager for B’nai Brith Canada. He’s a good guy.

Aron’s job is to advocate for the Jewish community in the Lower Mainland. He does that by fighting antisemitism and hate – hate in all its malevolent forms, not just against Jews – and to help out when one or some of Vancouver’s 27,000 Jews need a hand.

Aron takes antisemitism seriously. Along with being a Jew living in Canada post-October 7, Aron is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. Asked if he’s feeling targeted in Canada for being a Jew, Aron says: “Every day.”

On the night the firebomb hit the front doors of the synagogue, he was not far away. The synagogue is in a nice Vancouver neighborhood, just a bit South and East of Granville Island. Aron describes what happened next.

“The second I received a frantic call about a fire at the synagogue, I jumped in my car, not knowing what to expect. This is the synagogue I attend weekly and that I first attended when I was ten days old.”

When Aron arrived, there were only a few congregants there – one of them had thrown his coat on the fire to put it out – and a lot of officers from the Vancouver Police and Fire Departments. Aron made his way over to the police to find out what he could.  

He describes the scene. “Over time, more and more people started to arrive. Rabbis from different synagogues, people who don’t attend this particular place of worship, and of course many of the synagogue’s congregants. Needless to say, the community was stunned, horrified and disgusted that such a large Jewish institution would be targeted in such a violent and dangerous attack.”

He pauses. “It was especially concerning that someone harbors so much hate for Jews that they would be willing to try and burn down a synagogue – where people pray for peace every day, where volunteers pack food boxes for the needy.”

Aron had known some of the people there for years, decades. He tried to speak to all of them, to comfort them.

He told them he and others would be working “with the police, to ensure that the perpetrator is found and brought to justice, and that we do not see an escalation of these types of violent, antisemitic attacks.”

Except, there has been an escalation. There has. A big one, right across the country. In the same week, in fact, schools for little Jewish kids in Montreal and Toronto had been sprayed by bullets. Asked about that, Aron says:

“[The Vancouver synagogue attack] comes just days after two Jewish schools in Montreal and Toronto were hit with gunfire. The question I’m asking myself is ‘what’s next?’ We are far, far past the need for words and condemnations. If our leaders do not immediately act, it is only a matter of time before people are injured, or worse. The violence and incitement must end now.”

Will it? Will the violence targeting Canadian Jews end now?

It hasn’t. Given the pathetic responses to date of some politicians, police and prosecutors, chances are it won’t.

Next time you are at your place of worship, think about that. Next time you are praying, think about that.

Then think about what you’d feel when a bomb hits.

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Donald Trump, convicted criminal.

If you want to get detailed and in-depth coverage and commentary about this historic criminal case, there’s lots and lots that has been written by some smart Americans this morning.

But if you want the perspective of a Canadian who worked as a volunteer for Joe Biden in his last couple campaigns, you’ve come to the right place.

Ten observations.

1. The people who are said to me that Trump would never ever be convicted are the same people now saying the conviction will help him win. Why don’t I listen to these super smart people? I know nothing about politics or the law.

2. He won’t get jail time. White collar crime, first offense (that we know about anyway), no prior criminal record. Jail time seems impossible. My question is, will Canadian border agents let the Mango Mussolini into the country now that he’s a convicted criminal?

3. A related point on that: in Florida, where Trump resides, convicted felons are not allowed to vote. Among other things, this presents the delicious possibility the Trump will be unable to vote for himself at the Republican convention where he is the presumptive presidential nominee.

4. Related to that related point: his sentencing is happening four days before the GOP convention kicks off in Milwaukee. Whatever the Trumpkins may think, it’s going to be interesting to see how sane, law-and-order Republicans applaud a convicted crook. Expect lots of close-ups of Nikki Haley’s hands.

5. The 2024 Democratic convention in Chicago was always going to be a circus, just like the Democratic convention in Chicago was in 1968. The reason: anti-Semitic Gen Z types descending on the Windy City to violently protest Joe Biden’s longtime support of Israel. Now, the GOP will have a deep, dark pall over the proceedings: their candidate is a convicted criminal. Ouch.

6. And, sure, lots of MAGA Republicans won’t care about the fact that their messiah is a crook. They’d vote for him if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, as Trump himself has bragged in the past. Democrats, meanwhile, were never going to vote for him. Neither matter. The most important constituency in American politics isn’t committed partisans (who should be committed, most days). It’s registered Independents. Those people decide presidential elections. And they are the ones who don’t, and won’t, shrug that twelve of Don the Con’s peers unanimously decided he broke the law 34 times.

7. Which is why it’s so hard for MAGA nutbars to spin this one away as a Biden-led conspiracy: Agent Orange was convicted, unanimously, by twelve regular citizens – include some who admitted they use Trump’s Truth Social platform to get their news. Saying there’s a judge-led conspiracy is always easy. Saying twelve regular folks conspired against you is a lot harder.

8. His sentence may not include jail time. But it ain’t gonna be nothing. Why? Because Cadet Bone Spur repeatedly (and insanely) attacked the judge, the lawyers, and the entire legal system, every single day for weeks. That’s what judges call “showing no remorse.” A lack of remorse is a major, major factor in sentencing. It’ll be a factor when the judge brings his gavel down on July 11.

9. Biden and the Democrats now have a smoother ride to re-election. Sorry, MAGA knuckle-draggers, but they do. You can write the attack ads yourself: just show average Americans saying, straight to camera: “I don’t want a convicted criminal to be my president.” It’ll work. Trust me.

10. I’ve worked for Jean Chretien. I’ve worked for Joe Biden. Their political opponents always, always make the same mistake: they underestimate them. Biden was being underestimated by American pundits and politicos. Now, it’s impossible to do that. One candidate is a convicted felon. The other isn’t. Some days, that’s all you need to know.

But again, what do I know about politics? I’m just a dumb Canadian lawyer and former advisor to a Canadian Prime Minister.

Pay me no mind. Keep doing what you’re doing, Republicans.

Please.

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Woooot!

Trump will be sentenced four days before the Republican convention.

I wonder if they will permit a convicted felon to vote? US law says they shouldn’t: Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974).

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Universities, we used to think, were places where the smarter kids went, and where the smarter teachers taught.

We used to think that.

Now, not so much. Now, universities – including the most-admired ones, like Harvard and Columbia and McGill and U of T – are where profoundly-stupid things are happening. And where hate is running rampant.

The Times of Israel published a story about all of this a couple days ago. A study found that the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel madness has gripped elite universities – but not the less-exclusive colleges, where kids from lower-income families go.

The study was conducted by the Washington Monthly. “Have pro-Palestinian protests taken place disproportionately at elite colleges, where few students come from lower-income families?” the study’s authors asked, then answered their own question: “The answer is a resounding yes.”

The survey focused only on U.S. universities and colleges, but is applicable in Canada, too. Because we’re not seeing so many kids screaming “from the river to the sea,” or hanging Jews in effigy at Red Deer Polytechnic or Durham College, are we?

The survey looked at 1,421 colleges, some public and some private. Only 123 had some kind of an encampment. At private colleges, they were practically non-existent.

But at the big-shot universities? At the fanciest universities, like Harvard – where, full disclosure, I attended classes at the business and law schools – the protests and rallies and encampments have been positively widespread. Said the study’s authors: “In the vast majority of cases, campuses that educate students mostly from working-class backgrounds have not had any protest activity. For example, at the 78 historically Black colleges and universities, 64 per cent of the students, on average, receive [grants for coming from lower incomes]. Yet according to our data, none of those institutions have had encampments and only nine have had protests.”

Their conclusion: “Protests are overwhelmingly an elite college phenomenon.”

Thus, what we witnessed at the University of Manitoba in recent days. A Dr. Gem Newman was asked to give the valedictory speech at U of M on May 16. The people who asked him should’ve checked out his social media first.

In his speech, Newman said that the Jewish state deliberately targets hospitals and healthcare workers. He said Israel was committing “genocide.” He said graduates should oppose “settler colonialism both at home and abroad,” “injustice” and “violence.”

Not surprisingly, a controversy immediately erupted, with U of M alumni, and others, expressing outrage about Newman’s attacks and false statements.

If anyone had bothered to review Newman’s social media, as noted, they wouldn’t have been shocked by his speech. For example, last year he expressed approval when someone posted on X that “if my kid respected Israel, I would have him tested for rabies.”

He liked another one calling Israeli “a genocidal apartheid state,” that was “engaged in ethnic cleansing.” Also one saying that Israel was not “a real country,” much in the way the Hamas Charter says it isn’t. In his own words, he has said “Israel is an apartheid state.” He has posted about the IDF being a “mass assassination factory.” And so on.

It would be comfort, small as it may be, to say that Gem Newman is the exception at our best places of learning. But he isn’t. Just this week, someone at the University of Toronto made Nazi salutes on-camera, approvingly called Hitler “a gangster” and said he should have finished exterminating Jews. At McGill, a Jewish leader was hanged in effigy at the universities main gates. Nobody did anything.

Everywhere you look, these days, our supposedly-elite places of learning have degenerated into festering pits of hate and division. Their presidents may appear before House of Commons committees, and they may agree anti-Semitism is a problem on their campuses, but then they do precisely nothing about it.

Higher education? It is neither. It is very very low, these days, and there is nothing educational about it.

Do your kid, and yourself, a favour. Send him or her to a community college. They’re less likely to end up praising terrorists, and more likely to get a better life.

 

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