Last Wednesday, two young people, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were mowed down and murdered by an assassin who repeatedly shouted, “Free Palestine.” It was an act of terrorism, an execution in cold blood.
The two were both working at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. still in their twenties and on their way up in Israel’s diplomatic corps. They were also planning a wedding. They had their whole lives ahead of them and an exciting road to travel. Now, none of that will happen thanks to a horrible act of antisemitism.
Meanwhile, in Toronto, over just the last 24 hours, three synagogues have been vandalized, and pro-Palestine activists are blocking access to the Ontario Food Terminal, which is Canada’s largest fruit and produce distribution centre. These same activists were also trying to disrupt a ‘March for Israel’ that took place in Toronto today.
Lisa MacLeod, a former member of the Ontario Legislature and who also served as a Cabinet Minister in the Ford Government, recently posted this. “Why are Jews still being murdered for being Jews? Why did October 7th not shock the world into moral clarity? Why are our leaders silent while mobs intimidate Jewish people on the street? Why is this happening in Canada?”
All good questions.
Antisemitism in Canada, the United States, and many other parts of the world has risen sharply since the attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, raping, murdering, pillaging, and taking innocent hostages. It is Hamas, who at the time controlled much of the Gaza Strip, that started the war with Israel. We should never forget that.
Nor should we ever forget that peaceful demonstrations are an important part of the democratic process. The problem is that most of the so-called pro-Palestinian protests, spreading all over North America, are in many cases, anything but peaceful. They have been disruptive, angry, fiercely antisemitic, and, at times, destructive and dangerous.
It should also be noted that many of these Pro-Palestinian protesters quite likely couldn’t find Palestine on a map if it was put in front of them. They are activists who will choose any platform of dissent to further their own causes and create chaos. I cannot help but view this type of behaviour as reminiscent of similar activities and disruption immediately before World War II.
There are those who criticize and condemn the length to which Israel has gone to defend itself against Hamas and other Middle East jurisdictions that are openly hostile to them. While others may not agree, they have a right to believe that.
As well, one would have to be very hard indeed not to have empathy for the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who are either starving or dead because of the Hamas war with Israel.
It is critically important, however, to distinguish between criticism of a nation and hatred of a people. There is simply no excuse for antisemitism or the discrimination, hate, violence, and terrorism that it spawns. Those in positions of leadership who downplay it, completely ignore it, or exploit it for political purposes risk repeating one of the darkest periods in recent history. For that, they should be ashamed and held accountable.
Turning now to the United States, here is where the conundrum comes in. Recently, President Donald Trump defunded Harvard University, one of the more historic and respected post-secondary institutions globally. He also barred them from enrolling international students, including those from Canada, who represent a third of their student body.
One of the reasons Trump stated for punishing Harvard was that Harvard allowed a Pro-Palestinian rally on their campus. Readers of my Listen Up commentaries will know that I am no fan of those.
However, assuming they were demonstrations within the law, I question whether this significant attack against Harvard is a repression of free speech and an attempt by government to tell universities what they can and cannot advocate or teach, again, within the law.
Such a move by the Trump Administration, which looks and smells like an attempt to control freedom of thought and expression, must send spine chills to every university in the United States and Canada.
Universities have traditionally been a forum for free thought and free speech. Most people who attend those universities are in their late teens or early twenties.
As part of a longer quote, Winston Churchill once said that anyone at 21 who was not a socialist had no heart. I don’t particularly agree with that, but I do believe that many young people who pursue post-secondary education are, in one way or another, idealists at that point in their lives. They look to universities and colleges as a platform to express that idealism, and many change their views as they grow older. To me, it is a very important part of growing up. To suppress it is just wrong.
In the United States at the moment, we are seeing very visible indications of threats to civil liberties, the judiciary, and free speech, all signs of a serious democratic decline. We cannot allow that to spill over into Canada.
Here, we must defend freedom of speech within the law, both on academic campuses and in wider society. At the same time, we need to vigorously oppose antisemitism, hate of any kind and violence against those with whom we may not agree.
We cannot allow political, or self-interest agendas to turn legitimate protest into a pretext for repression. Rising antisemitism must be condemned in the strongest and most effective manner. But so too, must we condemn the political punishment of academic institutions, or any other venue for that matter, for allowing free expression within the law.
We don’t fix broken dialogue by shutting people up. But neither do we protect free speech by turning a blind eye to hate and suppression.
Therein lies my conundrum.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Mr. Clark, I see your Emperor has the regalia of TV reality show entertainment. Enjoy the performance.
Hopefully the hook to remove him from the stage helps him shuffle off to Buffalo?
Thanks Anna Lisa for your perfect description of President Biden.
Kathryn Henderson, Hi. You keep believing that, if it gives you comfort.
However, what others see is a President with a sociopathic personality disorder and advancing cognitive impairment. They see Presidential corruption, lawlessness, constant lying, and cruelty.
If interested – long ago, Danish Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairy tale called, “The Emperor Has No Clothes” – have a read. It is about a narcissistic King who could be flattered into thinking that he donned new clothing. When he paraded down the street, with everyone flattering his appearance, a young child watching the parade called out, “But Mommy, he is bare naked, he has no clothes on!”
It is a conundrum, but we cannot resolve it by suppressing free speech. Hatred is a learned emotion often made worse by the feeling of being powerless. and not listened to. Those feelings are influenced a lot by government action and inaction and the autocratic style of government we are seeing now in the US and Canada is making it worse. We have no control over US policy but we should be vocal in support of free speech in our own country and resist any attempt to censor Canadians rights by using the law to suppress opinion. Open communication, tolerance and leadership will be required to solve this issue, not the forced suppression of viewpoints that disagree with our own. .
To the Editors of Doppler,
With respect, if you’re going to allow comments such as those submitted by Hugh Holland re this article, at the very least, please fact check before doing so. Let me highlight just a few of his more visible errors:
1. “Jewish settlers were kicked out of Europe at the end of WWII to reclaim land in Israel”. Fact is that there has been a continuous Jewish presence in their homeland of Israel since biblical times. Following the holocaust during which 6,000,000 Jewish children, women and men were systemically slaughtered, a subset of the few remaining survivors (not settlers) sought refuge in their homeland and the one country in the world where they could be assured of receiving a welcome.
2. “Hamas attacks killed 1300 Israelis”. No, Hugh Hamas didn’t “kill” anyone. Hamas attacked, butchered, burned alive, raped and beheaded, 1300 grandparents and children (including the Bibas babies), who were enjoying life at a music festval, or farming in their kibbutzim., many of them members of “Women Wage Peace, including Canada’s Vivian Silver, and then took 250 more as hostages, starving and killing many of these in captivity.
2. “Every time that politicians give up on a two-state solution, the conflict re-ignites.” Really? It’s because of political interference from outside the Middle East that the conflict has dragged on. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and Iran aren’t sending missiles indiscriminately into Israel because of politicians giving up, rather they are doing so to stop normalization of Israeli relationships with countries such as Saudi Arabia and because of encouragement from Western politicians (and funding from Iran).
3. “Netanyahu is seeking to become a Dictator”. Netanyahu is not a Dictator. We may not agree with him as a leader, and I certainly do not, however he is the democratically elected prime minister of the ONLY democracy in the Middle East. Israelis go to the polls in 2026 and my guess is that he will be out of office by then (at the end of his 4-year elected term).
4. Lastly-Hugh…words can cause hurt and your comments and stance do nothing to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. If you truly want to be helpful, help end the conflict now by stating clearly and simply that Hamas needs to release remaining Israeli hostages and give Gaza back to the Palestinians by ceding their rule of the enclave. If you ever wish to grab a coffee and discuss this matter further, let me know. I want nothing more than the release of the hostages and an end to this war.
To understand this centuries-old problem of the division of the so-called Holyland’s, one has to go back at least to the end of WW2 when Jewish settlers were kicked out of Europe and went back to reclaim land in Palestine / Israel. Every time politicians give up on the concept of a two-state solution, the conflict reignites. In a 1947 UN agreement, the area known as the West Bank (of the Jordan river) was designated as Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu is a right-wing extremist who was already under siege for seeking to become a dictator by emasculating the supreme court of Israel. He acquired his votes by supporting 800,000 right-wing settlers in kicking Palestinians out of their previously designated homes in the West Bank. That gave the Iran supported Hamas extremists the excuse they were looking for to attack Israel.
But few reasonable people would argue that killing 40,000 Palestinians and destroying their entire country is just retribution for the Hamas attack that killed 1,300 Israelis.
In his great wisdom, Trump exacerbated the situation by cancelling Obama’s Iran Nuclear Agreement. That reignited Iran’s anger and support for Hamas. Now Trump wants to re-erect the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
Peace will never be achieved by extremists on either side, and it is causing unnecessary division in many other countries including Canada. One-sided support from foreign governments is not the answer. The only ethical solution is a true and honest two-state solution.
I think Trump is correct in doing what he is doing. He is keeping his country safe. Unlike our government who let these toxic protests happen in our streets and causing hate and havoc. Quit blaming Trump and start looking at ways to fix Canada for Canadians.
A very thoughtful and well-worded commentary, Hugh. I think in retrospect, History will not look kindly on the lack of tangible leadership shown in Canada at all levels of Government (except in isolated instances) in addressing the anti semitism (which to be blunt is simply Jew Hatred) being allowed to happen, across our great Country, without consequence.
PS: It would help if our Media stopped referring to the hate-filled and destructive rallies occurring in Canada as “Pro-Palestinian. They are anything but. I have yet to see one masked, placard-waving, graffiti scrawling, window-smashing rally that offered up any messages of love or caring for the Palestinian people, who are so desperately in need of this.
More than a conundrum, when so called “woke” beliefs fostering equality and supporting diversity measures are quashed. In the USA the schools, colleges, universities and even their court decisions are being disrespected by the White House. Witness all the horrible deportations and distant imprisonment without due process. This is the American Greatness that so many aspire to be part of?
“We cannot allow political and self-interest agendas to turn legitimate protest into pretext for repression” -well said Mr Mackenzie. Does it happen here in Canada? The supporters of the truckers occupation of Ottawa, the blocking of border crossings and the “bubbles” that protected entrance to health care services would say that it has already happened here. “Bubbles” to protect places of worship from protest in Toronto are understandable. It is more than unfortunate that a We vs Them trend has derailed any chance of dialogue and calming conflict over various issues in our communities. It does not help that government legislation like Bill 5 in Doug Ford’s Ontario is ploughing ahead to cut off possibility of dissent with the Ontario Place redevelopment, override former protections for endangered species, limit engagement with Indigenous Peoples (because he says they would never agree to unfettered mining and development in their treaty lands)- so we have that institutionalized intolerance of free speech in Ontario regarding government political development agendas.There need be no conundrum, if governments and people can value and respect others’ knowledge and experiences.
Agree.
The anti intellectualism of JD Vance, D .Trump ( ( see Heather Cox Richardson) now slipped into the Big Beautiful Bill, before Congress, is horrifying.
Will Congress have the integrity to amend, remove this attack on universities?
The infection of hate and ignorance of antisemitism is already in Canada demonstrated by violence, intimidation, we must speak up and protect our neighbours.
Pro Palestinian demonstrations have a place but we must speak up when they intimidate our neighbours, businesses and universities.