By Rebel News | Created at 2024-11-27 18:41:29 | Updated at 2024-12-05 02:33:01
1 week ago
Trudeau’s Attorney General would not commit Monday to prosecuting rioters and hate-mongers for acts of antisemitism, leaving Canada’s Jewish community to fend for themselves.
Though Minister Arif Virani expressed disgust by antisemitic rioting in Montréal last Friday, he refused to prosecute anti-Jewish agitators with apparent sympathies to Hamas, reported Blacklock’s.
Dozens of pro-Hamas agitators wrecked storefronts, destroyed public property and burned down vehicles in their midst. This ultimately resulted in Montréal police arresting three people following the five-minute riot, though no reports of antisemitic hate crimes were received, according to one spokesperson.
“What happened … was a disgusting and appalling act of lawlessness and unlawful behaviour by people who would seek to sow havoc and chaos,” Virani told the Commons justice committee, who did not address the antisemitic riots further.
Among the organizers include members of the Divest for Palestine group, with one apparent supporter burning an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A litany of social media posts showed masked participants chanting “Free Palestine,” while setting off smoke bombs.
“Canadians would have appreciated you calling that out at the time,” said Conservative MP Larry Brock, a former Crown prosecutor.
“Why did you display a lack of leadership and courage in calling out this extreme antisemitic hate and violence?” he asked. “I reject that categorization,” replied Virani.
On Monday, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) was fed up with the antisemitic outbursts and called on the Attorney General to do more. “After more than a year of inaction we have had enough,” said Richard Marceau, executive vice president.
“Enough with the demonstrations in and around Jewish neighbourhoods simply to intimidate us. Enough with having to go to court to get injunctions,” he added.
CIJA wants Virani to oversee more hate crime prosecutions against those who target and harass Jewish Canadians. “More arrests should be made,” Marceau said. “More charges must be laid and more legal action must be taken.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the violent Montréal riots Monday for a second time. He expects the perpetrators to face consequences, reporters learned.
“Acts of antisemitism, intimidation and violence must be condemned wherever we see them,” Trudeau wrote Saturday, his first public denouncement of the riots.
Virani faced further backlash from Conservative MPs, who claimed he had done nothing to protect Jews, like the prime minister.
“This Liberal justice minister won't lift a finger to do anything about the violence targeting religious communities in Canada,” claimed Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, a committee member of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. “I reject that out of hand,” replied Virani.
“On this side of the House … we are working to ease tensions in our communities,” he said. “We are looking at the statistics on hate crimes. We are seeking to address them.”
Jews were the target of the most police-reported hate crimes out of all groups, a report by Statistics Canada shows, though not all hate crimes are relayed to law enforcement.
“Hate crimes target the integral and visible parts of a person’s identity and may affect not only the individual but also the wider community,” reads the report. “The number of police-reported hate crimes increased from 3,612 incidents in 2022 to 4,777 in 2023, up 32 percent.”
The Attorney General pivoted to the controversial Bill C-63, An Act to enact the Online Harms Act, one of many censorship laws tabled by the Trudeau government that he says will counter online radicalization.
“In this chamber, who was standing by my side? The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs,” Virani said. “Why? Because … online radicalization is causing antisemitism.”
The justice committee last December 6 claimed an Anti-Hate Crime Task Force would protect Jews from antisemitism and anti-Jewish protests in their communities. It published 78 reports and petitions documenting antisemitic incidents across Canada.
On confronting antisemitism, Virani said last fall that 'online harms' legislation was on its way. “We need a safe and secure digital environment as much as we need safe streets in our communities,” he told CIJA at the time.
“The time to act is now,” penned Marceau in an editorial. “We can have legislation that acts as a shield against the dangers of ‘online hate’ while balancing the right to freedom of expression.”
Meanwhile, CIJA called on the feds to censor “antisemitic and anti-Israel conversations.” X, formerly Twitter, said blocking websites through a regulatory framework is consistent with authoritarian regimes.
“People around the world have been blocked from accessing Twitter and other services in a similar manner [...] under the false guise of ‘online safety,’ impeding peoples’ rights to access information online,” penned X in a follow-up letter.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
