On Saturday, at least tens of thousands of peopleacrossCanada attended pro-Palestine rallies calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Pro-Israel lobby groups, panicked at the rising support for Palestine throughout the country, were ready and eager to smear the protests as antisemitic in an effort to slow the tide of opposition to the apartheid state. And so they tried.
On Saturday afternoon, Howard Fremeth, director of communications at Israel’s embassy in Canada from 2011 to 2016, tweeted a photo of a sign he spotted on Parliament Hill. An hour later, the Centre For Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), tagged by Fremeth in his post, seized on the image and tweeted, “Swastika seen on Parliament Hill today. We expect all to speak up & condemn this overt symbol of antisemitic hatred immediately.”
As is often the case, the Israel lobby’s wish was a command for politicians, and the condemnations quickly rolled in.
Four hours after CIJA’s post, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, “When we see or hear hateful language and imagery, we must condemn it. The display of a swastika by an individual on Parliament Hill is unacceptable.” Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre tweeted, “All Canadians should condemn the displays of hate and antisemitism that we continue to see at demonstrations across the country, including […] the open display of a swastika on Parliament Hill.” Several other MPs joined in as well.
The single image of the sign at the protest also received widespread media coverage, including from the CBC, CTV News, City News, Ottawa Citizen and others.
Ottawa police, meanwhile, announced that they’re “aware” of the image, and that “it is under investigation.”
There clearly has been a great deal of discussion about the sign, and yet, little of it has actually dealt with what it likely was intended to get across.
The photo CIJA attached is blurry and the sign is difficult to make out with certainty. No one else has come forward thus far with a clearer image of the sign, and CTV News Ottawa, which had a camera at the rally, noted that “the pictured sign was not observed in a review of raw footage recorded at the protest.” Still, it appears as if the sign was taken from Google Images, and is as follows:
The mentions of the sign from politicians make it appear as though a swastika was being waved on its own in support of Nazis. This is particularly true of Trudeau and Poilievre’s tweets, which had no images attached to allow people to see for themselves. The sign, however, is obviously not pro-Nazi. Instead, it’s equating Zionism with Nazism, as a means of critiquing Zionism. You don’t compare something you want to critique to something of which you approve.
I’m sure the politicians in question and pro-Israel groups don’t agree with the comparison, nor do many others. Regardless, it’s not the same as flying a swastika on its own in support of the Nazis. And comparing your political opponents to the Nazis, or their leader to Adolf Hitler, whether warranted or not, is a common practice. Such examples have been spotted all across Ukraine protests in the past couple of years.
Photo via Alisdare Hickson on Flickr, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
It’s telling that this is the best example of supposed antisemitism that the largest pro-Israel groups in the country have come up with on a day where tens of thousands of people taking part in rallies they deem to be inherently hateful were in full public display.
It’s also telling that when a swastika appeared in Ottawa during the right-wing “Freedom Convoy,” along with a Confederate flag, CIJA had quite a different perspective than what they tweeted out over the weekend. I’ll include both of the tweets here so you can see the stark difference.
1/2 It’s right to call out images synonymous with hate – like the swastika – that have insinuated themselves in the protests. It’s not right to imply that the majority of protesters – or the political leaders who support them – endorse such toxic symbols. https://t.co/MBgkWN16id
In sum: someone who used to literally do PR for Israel shared an image that was picked up by a pro-Israel lobby group and misrepresented in a blatant attempt to smear pro-Palestine protesters despite a worse incident being brushed off by them in the past when the protest in question had nothing to do with Palestine. And then the most prominent politicians in the country spread the smear as far as they could.
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.
