IS THIS WHO WE ARE?

Trudeau’s strong stand on anti-Semitism comes too late

His words should have come earlier, as we’ve been calling for, but Prime Minister Trudeau took a strong stand, stronger than he has taken in the past month, to denounce the rising, rampant wave of anti-Semitism in Canada.

“Molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues, horrific threats of violence targeting Jewish businesses, targeting Jewish daycares with hate – this needs to stop,” Trudeau said emphatically, while speaking with reporters. “This is not who we are as Canadians.”

While I applaud his sentiment, I worry that this is who we are as Canadians – that despite all the soothing words we tell each other, we’re all balkanized people living parallel lives.

We have large parts of the population that have stated loudly and proudly that Israel, and its Jewish population, got what was coming to it on Oct. 7^th. We’ve seen professionals – doctors, lawyers, academics and union leaders – justify the terror attacks carried out by Hamas on an innocent civilian population.

Two weeks ago, I watched in horror as professional people made statements effectively saying that if Jews were targeted in Canada, it was because of what Israel was doing in the Middle East. We wouldn’t and shouldn’t accept such statements against Canadians of any background.

But too often, our leaders have been silent as such statements were made against Jews in this country.

Which is why Trudeau’s statements were so welcome and why he and other leaders need to keep making them until the aggression, the threats and violence stop in this country.

If Canada can’t figure this out, who will?

Yet, as these Jewish businesses, daycares, schools and more have been targeted, Trudeau has been silent until now.

He has posted about Islamophobia, which no doubt is a problem, but not on the same scale. However, Trudeau has been relatively quiet about the hate openly directed at Jews, and about threats made to the Jewish community.

His comments now must be welcomed and what he said should be taken to heart by all political leaders, including those in his own cabinet, where some have been better than others.

“All of us as political leaders need to do everything we can to get back to bringing people together to listen to each other, to understand that there are people across this country hurting, scared for themselves, scared for their kids here in Canada and scared for their loved ones on the other side of the word and there is no sign of it getting better anytime soon,” Trudeau said.

As Canadians, we should all acknowledge that there are fellow citizens on both sides of this conflict who are hurting. We should all want and hope for peace as soon as possible because the cost of war is brutal, it’s steep, it’s more than most of us want to pay.