Image: An Instagram post advertising a month-long “Youth Summer Program” at the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University is being denounced by the university administration. (PHOTO BY @sphrmcgill on Instagram).
In Montreal this week, at McGill University, there was a call for young people to participate in a “revolutionary” youth summer program. Posters promoting this summer encampment featured online photos of masked, armed guerrillas. The student group, calling themselves, ‘Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights,” is calling for students to be signed up for revolutionary training to be held on the McGill University campus.
Prominent Conservative Michelle Rempel-Garner has asked, “So, is anyone on the Canadian left going to take issue with an urban summer camp, focused on revolutionism, targeted to minors, that will take place in an arguably illegal encampment that has expressed anti-Semitic views?”
That may be a fair question, but the other half should also be asked: Are political leaders on the Canadian right going to take issue with this overt call for revolutionary training on Canadian soil? I haven’t heard anything substantive from that part of the political spectrum either.
In fact, I fail to understand why this initiative has not been nipped in the bud, stopped before it starts, with zero tolerance for this type of activity in Canada. There is a limit to free speech and free assembly when it promotes hate and violence.
There is a lot of anger in Canada today, and I wonder if this will be the summer of discontent. Traditionally, we tend to slow down a little at this time of year as politicians hit the barbecue circuit, glad-handing their constituents, kissing babies, and promising things they will never deliver. I am not certain how effective that will be this year.
Student demonstrations may ease somewhat as university terms end, but other demonstrations under the flag of support for Palestine will continue. I strongly suspect that many of these rallies, especially those that promote anti-Semitism and vandalize Jewish property, have been infiltrated by activists who promote insurrection at any level and see the Israel-Palestinian conflict as a convenient platform to achieve their more extensive and dangerous objectives, not just in Canada, but in other parts of the western world as well.
If you believe that to be an overstatement, look at our neighbour to our immediate south. Just this week, Steve Bannon, a well-known radio host in that country and a staunch disciple of Donald Trump, said that January 20, 2025 (American Inauguration Day) will be “Accountability Day – Victory or death.” Trump himself has stated that if he loses the election in November, there will be a “bloodbath” in America. And Trump, in a recent campaign funding e-mail, proclaimed, “Bring out the guillotine.” Revolution indeed. This isn’t a movie we are watching with popcorn in hand. This is on our doorstep.
Of course, in Canada, we are much more subtle. But the underpinning of civil discontent is here. We see it in the multiple demonstrations across Canada, many of which promote violence and hate. We see it in the reluctance of law enforcement and, yes, politicians to step in and stop it.
We also see it in a tragic increase in anti-semitism in Canada, a place where Jewish people have always felt safe and honoured, until now. These days they have a great deal of concern for their safety.
To address the elephant in the room, we also see it in the fear that increased immigration is changing traditional Canadian values. It may not be fair or accurate, but it cannot be denied that it is a concern for many Canadians. Nor can it be denied that many other Western countries are dealing with the same conundrum.
Canada is a product of immigration, and we should always welcome new people with new ideas and customs who want to be here, as we also support and embrace the principles, traditions, and institutions that identify us all, new and old, as Canadians.
Many Canadians are restless right now, perhaps not all for the same reasons, but the cumulative effect is that people are looking for change. The ballot box is still our preferred method of achieving this, but it should not be ignored that the risk of civic unrest in this country, for multiple reasons, is at a higher level than it has been in decades.
I believe this is one reason the current Liberal government, headed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is so far back in recent polls and that strategies put in place by that government to reverse its fortunes have not worked. People want change.
Policies are important, of course, but people primarily want change. They have had enough of Justin Trudeau, who has become a catalyst for their discontent.
It is time for him to go, and I predict he will—sooner than most people expect, probably this summer or early Fall. No walk in the snow for him.
The people behind Justin Trudeau know that as things stand, he cannot win the next election, and the Liberal Party will need time to choose and introduce a new leader. They will make it happen.
Then, we will have a leadership race and a general election within a year or so, during which time Canadians can let it all hang out. Every single vote will be up for grabs. People will have a chance to express their views and anxieties. Politicians will have to listen or go down to defeat.
Generally, people want a solid economy, Canadian unity, and many things done very differently than they have been. Whoever can convince Canadians they can do that will win the next election. It will not be so much a left or right thing as it will be who can convince Canadians, in very uncertain and challenging times, that they have their back.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, and hopefully, it does.
The last thing we need in Canada is anything close to a revolution.
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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Leon Kushner says
Thanks very much for that article Hugh! You will go down in history as one of the few journalists in Canada who had the moral clarity and courage to bring up the overt antisemitism that has infected the world and especially our very own country.
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression that a fish rots from the head. That expression applies to our country. The vile antisemitism masked as pro-Palestinianism is given a full pass by our PM who’s brother works for Iran. He continues to ruin our great country by letting in some truly vile characters who want sharia law to replace Canadian law and who have no intention of ever integrating with our society. Instead many bring their culture of hate with them. Since the majority of immigrants are not vetted properly, if at all, some are actually paid demonstrators. Paid by organizations that are sponsored by Iran or Qatar. The school to brainwash children at McGill is just one such example.
I guess too many politicians simply check the population of Muslims vs Jews and make policy decisions based on the numbers. Hint: Muslims outnumber us thanks to Trudeau’s immigration/open border policy.
Hugh Holland says
People have short memories. They seem to forget that the Trudeau government has faced and continues to face a staggering list of domestic and world challenges since 2015. They haven’t done a perfect job, but the list of governments that have done a better job is very short, if it exists at all. What countries would you put on that list? If things are really that bad, how is it that we have construction going on everywhere and there are no old cars or trucks on the roads?
Poilievre’s entire platform to date has been to “axe the carbon tax” and “cut taxes” generally. Its easy to be a critic, but do you really believe that a group of inexperienced critics with such a limited set of ideas is going to make things better. How far and how long will they set us back? Do we really want to bet your kids future on nothing but cutting taxes? Who will be the only beneficiaries of that? Do we really want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Allen Markle says
Pretty scary!!!!! We have people in our government, who don’t seem to feel it’s important that the country is alerted to treasonable people, in our government. And now it’s okay to train revolutionaries on the grounds of Canadian universities.
This training is to be carried out here in Canada people! Maybe your or some of your neighbors sons or daughters? Maybe you want to re-up yourself? Unbelievable. Mind boggling.
And where do these people, once trained, propose to carry out this revolution? I’m pretty sure most won’t be into trying to swim into Gaza from a zodiac a quarter mile out in the dark Med. Sneaking across the border in a tunnel might not be quite as much fun as practicing in good ol’ and safe Canada.
Who among them wants to really face armed Israeli soldiers fighting to stay alive and to preserve their country? It won’t be for fun if any of these ‘revolutionaries’ really do make it to where the training will ‘pay off’. This training is for show for sure, but will it still leave these ‘trainees’ here in Canada. And if someone is trained to do something, they generally want to give it a go.
Hugh Holland: It doesn’t matter how wonderful a job some see Trudeau doing, or how poor an alternative Poilievre might be. Once these pseudo-Palestinian trainees are here! How safe should you feel when just up the road there is a field with a big bonfire surrounded by a bunch of pick-up trucks? Likely just some kids having a good evening. But can you be sure?
Will we have to keep our daughters and grand-daughters close? And the music turned down?
And this could be a possible scenario here in Canada????
Dave Wilkin says
The Trudeau government has been the worst in recent memory. They have divided the country, doubled the national debt, grown the size of the federal government over 40%, created an immigration mess, worstened the housing and health care crises, weakened business investment and productivity growth, and overseen a decline in our real standard of living. The list of major scandals.continues to grow. Blaming global factors doesn’t cut it. It’s no wonder Canadians are done with them.
Too bad we may have to endure 16 more months of this level of incompetence. Let’s hope the decline doesn’t continue much further until we can vote them out.
Bob Braan says
Don’t be fooled by lying complainers from the right.
Again.
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/america-divided/
They are counting on the stupidity of the electorate.
Search “A neuroscientist explains why stupidity is an existential threat to America | Opinion.”
Same thing in Canada
All Poilievre does is complain without any solutions.
Complaints are easy.
And worthless.
Solutions are hard.
And very valuable.
Remember all the complaints about Wynne?
Ford’s entire platform was also based on complaints. Not solutions.
Results?
Ford is much worse by all measures.
Search “Cost of Doug Ford’s cabinet, parliamentary assistants exceeds $10M”
” Ford is now in charge of a “big-spending, out-of-touch government” that’s out of sync with his promises in 2018.”
“One of the things Doug Ford ran on in 2018 was shrinking the size of government to show respect for taxpayers,”
“Including base salaries, the current cost of Premier Ford’s cabinet now amounts to $5.7 million compared to $3.3 million when his party first rose to power in 2018. Adding parliamentary assistants to that total comes to $6.9 million 2018 and $10 million in 2024 — a cost increase of 45 per cent.
“[Taxpayers] should look at this and say the gravy train at Queen’s Park is picking up more cargo, and that’s consistently what we’re seeing.”
““He’s giving more of his MPPs a raise and he’s created the biggest cabinet in Ontario history while people are struggling to pay their bills, find a home, find a family doctor,” he told Global News.”
“Ontario’s $9.8-billion deficit in 2023 is larger than Wynne’s $7.8 billion in her final budget in 2018, while Ford has added $86.7 billion to the provincial debt in five years, compared with the $61.4 billion the Liberals added to the debt over a similar five-year timespan.”
Wynne looks pretty good by comparison. By any measure.
Ontario’s power used to be 96% non-fossil fuel.
Something to be proud of.
Only a small amount of green energy and storage was needed to get to 100%.
Instead Ontario is down to 90% and dropping due to Ford’s many, many mistakes.
Something to be embarrassed about.
Including cancelling 750 green energy projects, already under construction, that would have taken Ontario toward 100%.
And wasting 100s of millions of dollars doing it.
Along with his many, many other mistakes.
Scandal after scandal.
But the stupidity of the electorate means his poll numbers are unchanged.
For a list of 26 articles that debunk fanatical PC lies regarding the carbon tax and energy go to:
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/to-a-good-future/
3 more are here.
https://southmuskoka.doppleronline.ca/letters-conservatives-are-telling-tall-tales-on-carbon-tax/
Anyone actually think Poilievre will be any different than Ford? Seriously?
Don’t believe those who parrot Conservative lies. Over and over.
It’s insulting.
The electorate needs to smarten up.
Hugh Holland says
Dave Wilkin, please do a little fact checking. Canada happens to place first among G7 countries in terms of net debt to GDP and is well ahead of second place Germany. Net debt is the true measure of the financial health of a business or a country. And who is really dividing the country? One can argue it is Mr. Poilievre with his long-standing reputation as a ruthless critic and whose foolish, shallow, and ineffective solutions will divide the country even more. Which of the other parties will agree to work with Poilievre? So far, none.
Dave Wilkin says
Hugh, Net Debt is a not the best measure when looking at implications on future spending. Gross debt is best, because that is what the government has to pay interest on. Net Debt adds in huge pension funds assets, which can’t be touched for other spending without large negative implications. On that measure, Canada falls well back in both the G7 and G20. Canada is not on a good track, and we are falling behind many other wealthy countries, that’s a fact.
Poilievre is smart not to layout the conservatives platform/solutions in detail yet, still too far from an election. It’s the opposition’s job to hold the government to account, and this government has fumbled so many balls, it’s a good target for criticism.
The polls are clear, a large majority of Canadians want change, and it’s likely to grow stronger with time. If the Liberal party wants to avoid getting hammered in the next election, they need a new leader and a shift in direction. That may happen. The St Paul riding by-election in Toronto may be a tipping point for the Liberals, if they badly under-perform there.
Nancy Long says
Like the Beatles sang “we all want to change the world”. I wonder what the pro Palestinian supporters think the solution is?
Allen Markle says
Dave Wilkin and Hugh Holland: Do you gentlemen sit down, have a coffee and plan your next ‘for and against’ revue? If so I would love to sit in. Anyone else? Maybe Starbucks. Give me a date. I’ll buy.
I don’t think Mr. Trudeau will be returned as PM. The country is ornery. There are lots of people out there who benefited from his running the mint full bore and bailing them out. Maybe he should have let them all sink. But that was last week. The pandemic seems to have become a long term malaise. I think you have to face it Hugh; no matter how you spin the numbers I think Mr. Trudeau will crap out.
Poilievre has the lead and has offered nothing to earn it. He’s just not Trudeau.
But Mr. Wilkin might I observe. Poilievre offers nothing but anti-Trudeau/Liberal sound bites. The “in detail” part of your comment is superfluous,. You seem to have an opinion as to all the things that are wrong today. I won’t argue those points with you, but with this new regime you tout, what will be the changes? We get not even a ‘fer instance’ from the PCs, except everything they say the Libs. got wrong (Does that sound Trump/Obama?)
What will get fixed first? How long will it take to correct all the countries ills? An opinion maybe. Will government get smaller? Is the debt to be tackled first? Does Immigration get sorted and slowed? Can the PC do a welding job on a country you claim is divided?
There’s not much time before this apparent ‘fresh start’. Maybe then all will be revealed and the sky won’t fall.
And there’s still Starbucks.
Britt Stevens says
Hugh Holland & Dave Wilkin I would consider GDP per capita as the best measurement for performance and the overall health of a countries economy. Canada has slowly been falling behind for decades among G20 countries. We have a growing population that produces less goods & services per person while our debt along with government including all civil servants (teachers, law enforcement, fire fighters etc..) government regulations, social programs and taxes continues to grow disproportionately. I am not saying we don’t need civil servants and government programs and all the valuable services they provide but it has to be a reasonable ratio to our population and GDP. Private and publicly traded non government companies produce 100% of Canada’s GDP which pay for everything are relocating to countries with a more favorable business environment. And we are not attracting new ones.
So… our economic engine is losing horsepower while taking on more passengers. Medium & large companies produce most of our GDP(and tax revenue) and are healthy and profitable if generating $200,000+ in sales per employee. Canada as a country produces $50,000 per person.
Anna-Lise Kear says
The World’s conflicts and problems (post-pandemic) continue in our country. Recovery is still happening, though it is evident, for some – this is taking too long.
Mr. Holland, I find myself more in alignment with your perspective – though, like Mr. Markle, would love a conversation forum to attend and listen.
The weekend Toronto Star had an article on the U of T President, Meric Gertler is dealing with the encampment on their main campus. [BTW, I was engaged in a sit-in at U of T @1971 – small potatoes to the encampment scenario – but student protests have been ubiquitous through the decades.]. “How head of U of T finds himself navigating conflict: those who know him personally describe a leader inclined toward careful, deliberate action” (Sunday, June 16, 2024, p. IN4). As written, this is the kind of leadership from Universities (board, executive, and faculty) needed. However, I do realize that the encampment situation may not be cookie cutter in character across all campuses.
Mr. Mackenzie, it is reassuring to read your comments about hate speech – not so long ago, you were singularly, boldly, defending free speech. Hate speech does matter.(smile)
When feeling helpless about the hate and hate-filled rhetoric, I look for peace-makers. Right now, Israel and Palestine need to raise up their own Peace-makers (their people are suffering). The difficult work of communication, cool heads needs to prevail on campuses.
An Example of better leadership behaviour over conflict:
I commend Elizabeth May (Federal Green Party of Canada) for her recent, and unite-ing comments concerning the interpretation of reports of foreign interference. Rather that use her platform to wedge a political difference with Mr. Singh (NDP), and grand-stand her party, she qualified the positions that MPs of all parties find themselves. The leadership we need in the face of foreign interference is fully awake, fully aware MPs (all parties; ostriches not welcome) to identify problems, provide protective legislation (“codify ethics”) to deal with this. There are times for robust opposition and times for concerted collective/collaborative effort over issues facing our country.
Hugh Mackenzie says
Anna Lise: I would appreciate it if you would check your facts. I have never promoted unfettered free speech, “singularly, boldly” or otherwise. I am a great believer and strong defender of free speech but have consistently insisted that it be within the rule of law. Hate speech, and for that matter libel and slander are illegal and are outside of the rule of law and should be prosecuted. I have never suggested otherwise and am not happy with your suggestion that I have.
Britt Stevens says
Hugh Mackenzie I just wanted to add that your “Blood bath” quote was taken out of context. Trump was not referring to or promoting violence in any way. He was talking about the automobile industry and how US auto Mfg.’s cannot compete with Chinese imports. Unless changes are made and I step in and help there is going to be a “bloodbath” in this sector. Meaning Chinese companies will easily take over the North American Auto market.
Susan Godfrey says
Britt; For the record, and Hugh will probably clarify himself, Trump was talking about a 100% tariff on Mexican produced vehicles entering the US and then..he interjected with”if I lose the election there will be a bloodbath.”
Anna-Lise Kear says
Thank you for your reassuring comments, Mr. Mackenzie. Some commentary by contributors and their elicited responses have bandied about phrases such as “political correctness” before and during campaigns.
There was a wave of opinion, as I recall, that the term, “political correctness” stiffled free speech – in all its forms. In those moments, I did not discern a conscious differentiation between ” legally free” vis-a-vis any form of hate speech.
Britt Stevens: Trump’s bombastic, exaggerated choice of words, from a very limited vocabulary, is his sales pitch; his rallies are his chosen form of therapy for his malignant narcissism. Consistently he uses the themes of fighting, violence, and provocation – Regardless of what topic he is addressing. The constants in his words and behaviour: chaos, fear, and anger, with inane plans (e.g. we’ll build a big wall, and Mexico will pay for it). He is a sick, very needy person.
Nathan Cockram says
Any person who cares to look can see that poorly designed, vaguely worded hate speech laws are in fact a serious danger to free speech, as they go far beyond traditional, established boundaries of legally proscribed speech.
For one example, our insane federal government thinks it is appropriate to place people under house arrest for making comments it deems ‘offensive’, even though the later term is not adequately defined.
That is simple authoritarianism.
Anna-Lise Kear says
Mr. Cockram;
I fully agree with the words in your comment, “… term is not adequately defined” – for example, in commentary journalism. Frequently, I have asked for definitions of “wokeness”, “cancel culture”, “political correctness” from writers on this platform – simple, coined terms that could describe anything.
I am not denying that there is disagreement in interpretation- just looking for some consensus in the meaning of terms used.
For example, “cancel culture” could merely mean another point of view OR it could mean the total denial of another’s point of view, one’s experience, one’s history. Canada has been a country of many voices, with many perspectives – because we are a country of immigrants, landing on territory from indigenous peoples – who themselves could have migrated centuries/thousands of years ago.