The following story contains an image that has been criticized for being antisemitic.
A political cartoon in a French-language newspaper depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire has sparked accusations of antisemitism.
The cartoon appeared in Wednesday’s edition of La Presse, a prestigious digital-only newspaper. It shows Netanyahu with long claws, pointed ears and wearing an overcoat — imagery reminiscent of Count Orlok, a vampire from the 1922 silent film, Nosferatu.
In the cartoon, Netanyahu stands on a ship above an inscription that reads “Nosfenyahou, en route to Rafah.”
Politicians and Jewish leaders criticized the cartoon and called it antisemitic and reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews. Serge Chapleau, the cartoonist who drew it, dismissed the criticism in an interview with CBC and said he did not believe it was antisemitic. Nonetheless, by late morning, the cartoon no longer appeared on the La Presse website.
A screengrab of the cartoon showing Netanyahu as a vampire as it appeared in La Presse on Wednesday morning. (CBC)
Jeremy Levi, the mayor of Hampstead, a town on the island of Montreal with a large Jewish population, called the cartoon “extremely hurtful.”
“Everybody who’s Jewish understands the significance of what that meant,” Levi said of the cartoon. “The problem is, you go back 100 years ago, this was starting to be done in Eastern Europe and Germany and Poland. Today, there’s just a level of ignorance where people don’t know.”
Chapleau, who has drawn political cartoons for La Presse since 1996, said people are overthinking the meaning of the cartoon.
“It’s a caricature based on an old character Nosferatu, an old vampire who goes and invades another country,” Chapleau said in French. “That’s all, it’s not worse than that. If you look up cartoons of Netanyahu, you’ll see much worse.
“It’s not antisemitic, it’s not that at all.”
Jeremy Levi, seen here in a photo that was taken in November 2021 shortly after being elected as mayor of Hampstead, says the cartoon depiction was ‘extremely hurtful.’ (Sarah Leavitt/CBC)
Chapleau said he was not aware that the cartoon had been taken down. CBC News has reached out to La Presse for comment.
The cartoon’s inscription is a reference to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and another 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Federal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said the reaction to the La Presse cartoon was emblematic of how the situation in the Middle East was causing tension in Canada.
“As heritage minister, I’m going to be very prudent around the independence of the press,” she said. “Communities are feeling this conflict very profoundly, that it’s normal that there are critiques with such a cartoon.”
But Ya’ara Saks, the minister of mental health and addictions, blasted the cartoon.
“Political discourse is important in this country, as is political criticism,” she said. “To see that, to see antisemitic tropes used in a national publication like this, is just egregious.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
