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ST. ELIZABETH PARISH, JAMAICA – Jamaica wasn’t really the best place to see the eclipse on Monday.

For one thing, it’s way too far from what the scientists were calling “the totality,” which has an unsettling end-times feel to it (we’ll get back to that in an minute).  For another thing, nobody around here seemed to care.  No one was scrambling to find solar-eclipse-safe glasses on Amazon (where “Solar-Powered Adaptive 0.1s Photochromic Sports Polarized Sunglasses for Men” were available, in a limited offer, for $59.97).

But the nutbars sure cared, didn’t they?  Hoo boy.  It was the Super Bowl for conspiracy theorists, said Wired magazine, and it was.

On the Left and Right, too.  Conspiracy theorists are found at every stop on the ideological spectrum. The solar eclipse was a conspiracy theory bonanza for the Lefty and Righty crazies.

Here’s a sampling on the Right:

•    Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who used to work for Donald Trump, to the surprise of absolutely no one) is now the Governor of Arkansas (to the surprise of pretty much everyone).  She declared a state of emergency in the State of Arkansas because, well, we’re not sure.  Huckabee Sanders issued her executive order to make thousands available under the Governor’s Disaster Response and Recovery Fund.  “To defray program and administrative costs,” Huckabee Sanders’ government said.  She also put state crews on “standby,” because the moon was going in front of the sun for a couple minutes, and perhaps she expected some liberalism to break out.
•    Marjorie Taylor Greene, the MAGA Republican who previously opined on “Jewish space lasers” (more on them in a minute, too), said that the solar eclipse was a sign from God that America needed to repent. The eclipse and the recent mini-earthquake in New York State were “strong signs” of the need to atone for our sins, she wrote on X.  “I pray that our country listens.” At this point, we could point out that Taylor Greene’s husband filed for divorce citing her “multiple affairs,” but that would be mean, so we won’t.
•    Alex Jones, who is a pile of garbage disguised as a human, held an event on X Spaces to chat about “what the globalists have planned for the imminent total solar eclipse”. The word “globalists” is the word far-Rightists like Jones often use to refer to Jews.  In that vein, he went on, noting that the solar eclipse fell on a date on the Hebrew calendar where energy can be pushed into the new year to do “evil things.” That’s not all, said Jones, headlining one clip: “Major Events Surrounding The April 8th Solar Eclipse – Masonic rituals planned worldwide to usher in New World Order.”  Rituals.  Gotcha.

No to be outdone, insane people on the Left were prognosticating about the big day, too:

•    The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, for one, decided to make the eclipse day a “Professional Activity Day,” which seems to be neither professional nor active.  Their public school counterparts, however, said they’d still be in class, because it’d be a great day to learn about science and whatnot.  Outraged, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario – Waterloo Region said: ”We disagree with the decision!” Why? Well, kids could look up and see it and go blind if it’s a school day.  Nobody pointed out that the kids can look up at the sun while at home, too.  Why bother with science? Making stuff up is more fun!
•    Over on Reddit, someone using the name “wefellinloveinnyc” noted that the line of the 2017 and 2024 solar eclipses form a giant “X” over the New Madrid Fault Line in the Southwestern United States.  That means “an earthquake on the New Madrid Fault Line could be up to 20 times larger than an earthquake with a SoCal epicenter.” Lots of fatalities, wrote the Reddit correspondent. Because…well, just because.

Anyway.  All of these conspiracy theorists are nuttier than a fruit cake, of course, but most of them can usually be traced back to one thing that is serious: anti-Semitism.  Thus the fulminations about “Jewish space lasers,“ “globalists” and Hebraic calendars: if something goes wrong, it’s the Jews’ fault, say the crazies.

In his amazing book about same, Jewish Space Lasers, Mike Rothschild – who is Jewish, yes, and whose surname is another anti-Jewish conspiracy theory, yes – writes: “Almost all conspiracy theories are rooted in anti-Semitism, and almost all anti-Semitism is rooted in conspiracy theories. Jewish people will always be scapegoats for some people…In many ways, the story of conspiracy theories is the story of modern anti-Semitism. That is how inseparable they are.”

And, when anti-Semitism is now worse than it has been in any time since the Holocaust, a conspiracy theory or two about a solar eclipse is just what the crazies ordered. It’s icing on the conspiracy cake.

But when it’s all said and done do you know what the solar eclipse really, truly is?

It’s the moon blocking out the sun for a few minutes.

You’re welcome.

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Politicians can’t direct police. They can’t direct prosecutors.

But can they do indirectly what they can’t do directly?

They shouldn’t. And, in the case of two politicians who are members of the Toronto Police Services Board, they can try.

And they did.

In recent days, Toronto police have been attacked, physically, by the pro-Hamas mobs. Even though cops in Canada’s largest city have shown extreme restraint – sometimes to the point that some of us have been highly critical of them – they have still been attacked by those who hate the Jewish state.

Video evidence shows they’ve been speared with signs. They’ve been physically assaulted. And they’ve even had horse feces thrown at them.

Some of those crimes have resulted in arrests. Some are still the subject of active investigations.

And that doesn’t even include the other ongoing police investigations – the unsolved firebombing of a Jewish delicatessen, anti-Semitic vandalism and threats, and more.

So, with all of those criminal investigations still under way – with Toronto police themselves the actual victims of crimes – should elected members of the police board be issuing a letter to side with the haters, and against the police?

The answer is obvious. No. Never.

In their Code of Conduct,  Toronto police board members are required to act impartially, and never, ever interfere with police work. But two far-Left members of the board – Amber Morley and Lily Cheng – have seemingly done just that.

On Thursday night, Morley and Cheng issued an extraordinary statement along with four other Leftist city councillors. In it, they stated that those who protest against Israel and the Jewish community – in recent days, even by targeting synagogues for hate – “must be protected.”

In the middle of criminal investigations of attacks on Jews and the police, Cheng and Morley and the others said – in boldface print, no less – that what most of us regard as the Israel-hating mob must “be free to demonstrate and engage in protest.”

Nobody disputes anybody’s right to protest. That’s a constitutional right.

But should two Leftist city councillors – two councillors who have enormous power, setting the police service’s budget and its policies – make such a statement in the middle of ongoing criminal investigations?

No way. Never.

Their Code of Conduct forbids it, in multiple sections. It looks like they are interfering with police operations (section 2). That they are speaking on behalf of the board, when they shouldn’t (section 5). That they should not pick sides and should always act impartially (section 7).

That they should inspire public confidence – all of the public, not just some extremist members of the public (section 8). And on and on.

These two city councillors aren’t just warming seats. They have enormous power – one of which is picking the Chief of Police.

For them to issue that statement in the middle of ongoing police investigations is so, so wrong. It’d be like a judge offering an opinion about a defendant in the middle of a trial – before a decision has been reached. It’s just not done.

And, here, it is breaking the rules in a serious way.

Morley and Cheng need to resign  from the Toronto Police Services Board.

And if they won’t resign, they should be fired.

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Canada’s state-funded national broadcaster has a secretive committee to oversee the network’s reporting on Israel – presumably to provide balance.

But Jews who work at the CBC say the network’s coverage isn’t balanced. At all.

Said one: “It’s depressing, I am afraid to speak up because I hear stories about my colleagues getting reprimanded. I feel like I am bashing my head against the wall.”

Another: “Jewish journalists aren’t being listened to. When ideas are being pitched it falls on deaf ears. [Our] stories are being ignored.”

Now, the suggestion that Canada’s state-funded broadcaster has been less-than-fair to Israel, before and after the horrors of October 7, isn’t particularly news. CBC refuses to describe the terrorist group Hamas as terrorists; it routinely accepts unverified casualty counts that come from Hamas; and, to cite just one example, it has refused – unlike other major media organizations – to apologize for falsely accusing Israel of bombing a hospital in Gaza City and killing hundreds.

For most Jews, CBC’s ongoing coverage of Israel can be fairly described by the Honest Reporting watchdog: “CBC News provides one-sided smears of Israel.”

The notion that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation tilts against Israel isn’t news, as noted. But the revelation that there exists a covert internal group overseeing CBC’s coverage of Israel, and that stories that are critical of the anti-Israel side are being actively suppressed? That’s news.

Consider these appalling facts from Jews who work within CBC:

• CBC News Network has not put The IDF on the air since before 2024
• One anchor has been posting very anti-Israel posts on social media – behind a wall, so only a select few can see it
• There’s no tracking of CBC coverage on perspectives – nor who is being put on the air

Said one former senior CBC producer – who, like all the others, feared retribution for speaking out: “As a former CBC person,  I am deeply disappointed and troubled by the coverage of this war. It’s extremely one-sided and is only leading to more misinformation and hatred towards the Jewish community in Canada.

“The CBC was once the gold standard for journalism. However, those days are now gone – unless something radically changes within management.”

Asked for a comment about the shadowy “committee’s” work, CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly admitted that it exists, which has not been publicly revealed before. Said Kelly: “We have a longstanding Middle East advisory committee created a few years ago to give CBC leadership recommendations about long-term coverage strategy in the region.”

When October 7 happened – when 1,200 men, women, children and babies were slaughtered, and 200 more taken hostage – CBC ramped up the work of the clandestine group. Said Kelly: “When coverage intensified in October, we put together a list of internal contacts (producers with extensive international experience) to provide editorial support if needed. Reporters and producers can choose to email them to ask questions or seek advice on day-to-day coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.”

Insisted Kelly: “They don’t review coverage.”

But how can the committee “provide advice” if they’re not in fact reviewing CBC coverage? And, for that matter, who is on the committee? What is their expertise? And what about suggestions that Jewish voices are disregarded, or non-existent on the committee?

Says Kelly: “We don’t have access to individual statistics on our staff’s religious or cultural identity, nor is that information we would share.”

She then goes to share what she says CBC management don’t have access to: “I can confirm the assertion that no one on the list belongs to the Jewish faith, or identifies as Jewish, is false on both accounts.”

Make sense to you? Me neither.

And nor does their coverage – which is, indeed, wildly unfair to those millions of viewers and listeners who support Israel and desperately want a balanced perspective. Will the taxpayer-funded ever get around to supplying that kind of balance?

Don’t hold your breath.

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Who are you going to call?

It’s not a Ghostbusters reference – although, the mission is similar: to defeat evil.

If you’re Jewish – or if you’re a supporter of Israel and the Jewish community – and you’re being harassed or attacked or vilified or threatened? Then you should call the Lawfare Project.

The Lawfare Project is based in New York City, but is led by a brilliant Canadian woman from Toronto.  It’s a team of more than 600 lawyers based in different countries, and created in 2010 to protect the civil and human rights of Jews everywhere.  It’s a pro bono effort – meaning, literally, “for the public good,” and at no cost, too.  Lawyers donate their time to fight for Jews facing anti-Semitism and hate.

And they’re very busy, these days.

Western democracies are presently in the midst of the worst surge in anti-Semitism since the Holocaust.  October 7 was the worst of it, of course, with 1,200 men, women, children and babies tortured and slaughtered in Israel by Hamas – and 200 taken hostage in Gaza, where more than 100 remain.

But since that terrible day, Jews around the globe have been targeted for the supposed sins of the Israeli government.  And, for some, “it’s become perfectly acceptable to project their hatred of a foreign government on Jews,” says Brooke Goldstein, the founder and executive director of the Lawfare Project.

Born and raised in Toronto, Goldstein went to McGill University in Montreal, then the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York City.  She’s an extraordinary person, and is the granddaughter of a commander of a unit of Polish partisans who fought the Nazis in World War Two.  And she started the Lawfare Project after working as a film producer and an advocate for children’s rights.

The Lawfare Project essentially got its start with her 2011 book, Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech: A First Amendment Guide for Reporting in an Age of Islamist Lawfare. In it, Goldstein offers advice to journalists about how to protect themselves from Islamic extremists who increasingly use the law as a weapon to silence, or punish, those who dare to write about militant Islamists, terrorism – and their funding sources. (Full disclosure: this writer has been targeted by multiple legal actions by opponents of the Jewish state.)

“We fight those who use the legal system as a weapon of war,” says Goldstein from New York, where she is based. “You see this happening with Israel, right now – the bias, the horrific charges of genocide and apartheid, and so on. It’s the attempt to add a legal patina to a blood libel against Jews, and abuse the international legal system, to hinder the ability of Israel and other democracies to fight and defeat terrorism.”

That fight expresses itself in myriad ways, Goldstein, says.  At any given time, the Lawfare Project promotes civil rights by providing legal help to those who have been discriminated against.  It advocates for human rights by combatting extremism.  And, most off all, it fights “lawfare” – the abuse of legal institutions to destabilize democracy everywhere.  Not just Israel.

One of Goldstein’s partners is the affable senior counsel Gerard Filitti, who was also on the line from New York.  Told about this newspaper’s efforts to document how anti-Israel protesters and organizers are getting paid to show up – and how the money for that is often coming from outlaw states like Qatar and Iran – Filitti isn’t surprised.

Says he: “We currently have a lawsuit against Carnegie Mellon University [in Pittsburgh], which over the years have received more than $800 million (U.S.) from Qatar – and it is also a university where we have seen a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism on campus during that time period. We want to see if there is a connection between the anti-Semitism and the funding.”

In that case, the Lawfare Project is representing a Jewish student.  And, they stress, they want to hear from Jewish students in Canada – and Jewish non-students – who are being demonized for supporting the just and proper war on Hamas.  Or for just being Jewish.

“We are trying to see what this money is doing…because we are seeing so much money coming in, from Qatar especially.”

They are doing God’s work at the Lawfare Project – for Jews and Jewish allies alike.

Got a human rights issue?  Give them a call.  They might be able to help.

[Kinsella is a lawyer who is establishing a war room to combat the rise in anti-Semitism in Canada.]

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Bubble zones: they work.

Bubble zones – or “buffer zones,” “safe access zones” or access zones” – first started to show up in the early 1990s.  Back then, women seeking legal abortions, or just seeking advice, were routinely being harassed and threatened at clinics and hospitals that provide those services.

Going back to 1984, doctors offices and abortion clinics in the U.S. were being bombed. One doctor was shot to death at a clinic in Florida in 1993. A clinic volunteer was murdered in 1994, again in Florida.  And, across the United States and Canada, women were being threatened and attacked for coming near places that provided safe and legal abortions.

In 2000, Dr. Henry Morgantaler told this writer that he had received “untold thousands” of death threats over the years.  And that he, his staff and his patients regularly needed protection from violence.

So, legislatures started to create what are often called bubble zones.  That is, defined areas where certain activities are against the law – initially, to protect doctors, nurses and women providing or seeking abortions.  By creating a designated buffer zone around a clinic, police were compelled to act: if an anti-abortion lunatic crossed the line, they’d get arrested.  Simple.

It’s now apparent that we need to do likewise for Canada’s 400,000 Jews – around their places of worship, in particular.  The pro-Hamas, Jew-hating mobs have targeted Jewish businesses, community centres, schools and synagogues.  Police weren’t preventing the attacks, or they weren’t doing enough to keep the haters away.

So, create bubble zones around those places where Jews are most vulnerable.  Like synagogues.

Quebec (surprisingly, given the province’s documented problems around anti-Semitism) went first.  Earlier in March, the Quebec Superior Court made history.  The Court ordered that groups associated with extremism – Montreal4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal, Alliance4Palestine – stay at least 50 metres away from Jewish institutions in predominantly-Jewish areas of Montreal, Notre Dame de Grace and Cote-des-Neiges.

Then, a few days later, Vaughan mayor Steven Del Duca proposed the same thing for his city.  Del Duca urged councillors in the city North of Toronto to approve a bylaw that would prevent protests near places or worship, schools and could care centres.  The objective, Del Duca said, was to stop those who “incite hatred, intolerance and violence” in such places.

Del Duca’s law would keep the Israel-haters 100 metres away from designated places.  Anyone who violated the law would face fines up to $100,000.

Now, Toronto councillor Brad Bradford is pushing for a similar law in Canada’s largest city.  Bradford wrote to Ontario’s Attorney-General to call for the creation of what he called “safety zones” around places of worship, but also important social infrastructure.  That addition is welcome, too, because the pro-Hamas mobs have shown their willingness to block major roadways and target hospitals.

“A shocking 56 per cent of incidents have been anti-Semitic and target Toronto’s Jewish community,” Bradford said in his letter.

In an interview, Bradford explained why he took action: “Over the past six months, there has been an absence of leadership at City Hall when it comes to ensuring people have the right to practice their faith in peace without fear of violence or persecution. We’ve seen businesses attacked because of who owns them, we’ve seen neighbourhoods targeted because of who lives there, and it continues to undermine the diversity, tolerance, and acceptance that used to be the hallmark of Toronto…It has to stop.”

Establishing safe zones, Bradford says, “would be a meaningful step that would provide another [way] to stamp out hate and start to restore the type of civility and tolerance we ought to expect in a city like Toronto.”

Brad Bradford is right – as are the other leaders in Quebec and Ontario who are taking action.  We need to protect people when they are at prayer – when they are most vulnerable.  We need to make neighbourhoods feel safe again.

Establishing safe zones, as Bradford calls them, would do just that.

Will Canada’s other leaders follow his lead?

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Grassroots. Gotcha.

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas propagandists would like you do believe that theirs is a spontaneous, organic, community-based effort, one that is entirely funded by regular folks, presumably through bake sales.

Oh, and this: they want to reassure you that their advocacy isn’t against Jews.  It’s against “Zionists.” (Who Dr. Martin Luther King, no less, said are the same thing.)

Most of all, they want you to believe that it’s a grassroots effort.  That is, just a bunch of well-meaning ordinary people concerned about “genocide” being committed by “Zionists” in Gaza.

Even though, you know, Gaza’s population growth has far exceeded Israel’s.  Even though Israel provided Gazans with food, water, fuel, medical supplies and more, for years. Even though…well, you get the point.  If the “Zionists” were committing “genocide,” they sure weren’t doing a very good job at it.

Which suggests that the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas folks aren’t telling the truth about that, and quite a few other things, as well.  Such as how truly “grassroots-y” they are.

Because they aren’t.  They are, in fact, one of the best-organized, best-run, best-funded propaganda efforts many political people has seen in a long, long time.  Ask James Carville, the guru who got Bill Clinton and many others elected: “America’s far-left, for which I hold a very low opinion, is mobilized by the war. And they’ll undoubtedly seek to exploit the unrest it creates – foolishly believing the turmoil advances their cause.”

Former Republican strategist (and, full disclosure, friend) David Frum has said that “Iran, China and Russia have made large investments in anti-Israel, pro-Hamas messaging.” And that propaganda, Frum says, is too often working – particularly with young people.

And it’s not – not – grassroots.

Take, for example, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights’ “City Council Palestine Organizing Toolkit,” recently leaked to this writer.  The multi-page “toolkit” is one of the most professional-looking (and sounding) lobby and PR blueprints I have ever seen.

Essentially, the document is a “guide on organizing for ceasefire resolutions in local city councils.” Here is what it contains:

•    draft anti-Israel resolutions for City Councils to pass
•    a media guide on how to manipulate news coverage
•    guides for calling and emailing voters to apply pressure on city councillors
•    maps on how to increase “grassroots advocacy capacity with digital tools, such as mass mailers, text alert systems, etc.”
•    how to host “weeks of action” to paralyze cities and towns who do not comply
•    how to “create narratives” that “ending genocide is a moral issue”
•    how to track votes
•    talking points, graphics and leave-behind documents

And on and on.  The plan reports on the cities where they have been successful (Dearborn, Providence, Akron, Detroit, Seattle, Oakland, Kalamazoo, Portland, St. Louis and Chicago – where, ominously, Democrats are having their convention in August.)

The “toolkit” gives the anti-Israel forces tips on how to manipulate their online presence – so that it will be harder for politicians and their staff to learn more about their backgrounds.  In particular, the plan describes how to effectively bully reluctant politicians into submission – or, if they are resolute, how to isolate them.

What’s incredible about all of this, of course, is that local city councils don’t set foreign policy.  They’re not even consulted about it – national governments do that.

But the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas forces are so organized, and so well-funded, they have enough resources to steal support for their extremist cause everywhere – including with people whose vote ultimately doesn’t ever change world events.

And make no mistake: the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is no grassroots group.  It has a multi-million-dollar budget, a website that is better-looking than just about any professional political party, scores of full-time staff, field organizers, plus steering committees and advisory boards aplenty.

The USPCR regularly accuses Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “colonialism.” It promotes anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment and Sanction” efforts, going after companies from Ben and Jerry’s to Airbnb.  Most seriously, USCPR helps fund the Palestinian BDS National Committee – which, Israel notes, shares members with Hamas.

USPCR exists and, so far, that fact hasn’t changed.  But this, too, is a fact: the “grassroots” campaigns we’re seeing, just about everywhere?

Many of them – perhaps most of them – just aren’t.

And they’re just trying to fool people into thinking they are.

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What’s that old military saying?  You know you’re over target when you’re taking flak?

That’s what the B-17 pilots used to say when flying over Europe on missions to bomb the Jew-haters in Hitler’s armies during World War Two.  The most intense flak happens when flying directly over target.

That saying – and the circumstances that gave rise to it – apply in the post-October 7 era, too.  Here at Postmedia, arguably the most pro-Israel newspaper chain on the continent, we tend to know when we are getting close to target: when the Israel-hating, pro-Hamas propaganda effort kicks into gear.  That’s when the flak gets heavy.

In recent days, this writer (and my editors) have taken flak, big time.  We’ve received hundreds and hundreds of letters, attacking us and Israel – using, over and over (and tellingly) the exact same subject line.  Using the same language and attack lines.

That is what is done in “astroturf” propaganda campaigns – namely, hiding the sponsor of the propaganda, to make it look like a spontaneous and organic grassroots response to something.

What enraged the Israel-haters? A column that stated what every sane person knows to be true: there is a coordinated, global and well-funded campaign to demonize Jews and the Jewish state.

It is seen in anti-Israel protestors getting paid to show up.  It is seen in experienced, professional organizers running protests and rallies to attack Jews, Jewish businesses and Jewish neighbourhoods.

It is seen online, where Gen Z and millennials – in particular – have been bombarded with messaging denying the atrocities of October 7, denying the right of Israel to exist, and denying that Hamas raped, killed, mutilated and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis.  It is seen in the deployment of professional-looking graphics and agit-prop around the globe.  Always to turn Israel, the victim, into the wrongdoer.

This newspaper, and other media, have documented all of this, many times.  And when we do, the Israel-haters lose their minds. They are sent into a spit-flecked rage. Because they know, deep in the cavernous pits where their hearts are supposed to be, that they cannot let the Jewish state ever be the object of empathy.

They cannot let people remember that Hamas broke the ceasefire. That Hamas started the war.  That Hamas used, and uses, innocent Gazans as human shields.  That Hamas brutalized and murdered hundreds of innocent civilians – men, women, children and babies.

The haters know that, if that happens, they will lose the propaganda war.  In that way, they’re just like the Holocaust deniers that preceded them: they need to deny, deny, deny.  To rehabilitate the reputation of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, the Holocaust deniers needed to erase the historical fact of the murder of six million Jews.

So, too, the October 7 deniers.  They need to deny the killings and the rapes and the kidnappings and the barbarism.  Because nobody will want to listen to their anti-Semitic chants if they recall that, on that day, Israel was the true victim.  Not the wrongdoer.

The astroturfing and hundreds of “spontaneous” letters aren’t going to work.  In their essence, they are a lie.  They are smoke and mirrors.  They are disinformation.

The letter-writers should know this, too: it’s not working.  In fact, it’s having precisely the opposite effect.  The more you complain – the more you attack – the more we know we are on the right track.

Because you’re telling us we are over target.

 

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