Tag Archives: canada

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The Jew Cries Out in Pain as He Strikes You

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Canada Gets Tough on Anti-Semitsim, Avi Benlolo, President and CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Canada, Huffington Post, 21 Sept 2011:

The government of Canada took an historic step yesterday by signing the Ottawa Protocol to Combat Anti-Semitism. By doing so, it recognized anti-Semitism as a pernicious evil and a global threat against the Jewish people, the State of Israel and free, democratic countries everywhere. As Prime Minister Stephen Harper has noted, “Those who would hate and destroy the Jewish people would ultimately hate and destroy the rest of us as well.”

The protocol is a declaration that hatred of this nature will not be tolerated in this country. It sets out an action plan for supporting initiatives that combat anti-Semitism and provides a framework for other nations to follow.

It also sets out a vibrant definition of anti-Semitism which, for the first time in history, links anti-Semitism to the denial of the right Jewish people have to their ancestral home land — the State of Israel. This, in fact, is what sets post-World War Two anti-Semitism apart from its historic roots. Today’s anti-Semitism is all about denial: denial of the legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish movement to reclaim the land of Israel; denial of a Jewish history in connection to the holy land and, in particular, the centrality of Jerusalem to the Jewish people; denial of the Holocaust (while at the same time accusing Jews of Nazism); and denial of Jews to live free of anti-Semitism, hate and intolerance.

Unquestionably, the Government of Canada’s stance on Israel is based on the principle of standing by your friends — especially when they are democracies and advocates for human rights. Most Jewish leaders would agree that Israel is indeed Canada’s greatest ally in the fight against hate and intolerance.

But the fight against hatred and anti-Semitism must be won here in Canada as well. The Ottawa Protocol is mostly the result of a report published this summer by a Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism which was comprised of leading Canadian politicians who volunteered their time to probe the increasing and alarming tide of anti-Semitism in Canada.

The Ottawa Protocol to Combat Anti-Semitism is a template for every Canadian to consider. But it is especially a document of significance for universities that have allowed themselves to become vehicles of hatred and complicit in its promotion. As my friend, Professor Irwin Cotler said last night at the Ottawa signing ceremony, anti-Semitism is not only the longest known form of hatred in the history of humanity — it is the only form of hatred that is truly global.

Every person of conscience should take note of the Ottawa Protocols and never forget the lessons of the Holocaust when the world was silent.

The full text of the Ottawa Protocol:

We remain alarmed by ongoing state-sanctioned genocidal antisemitism and related extremist ideologies. If antisemitism is the most enduring of hatreds, and genocide is the most horrific of crimes, then the convergence of the genocidal intent embodied in antisemitic ideology is the most toxic of combinations.

We are appalled by the resurgence of the classic anti-Jewish libels, including:

+ The Blood Libel (that Jews use the blood of children for ritual sacrifice)
+ The Jews as “Poisoners of the Wells” – responsible for all evils in the world
+ The myth of the “new Protocols of the Elders of Zion” – the tsarist forgery that proclaimed an international Jewish conspiracy bent on world domination – and accuses the Jews of controlling government, the economy, media and public institutions.
+ The double entendre of denying the Holocaust – accusing the Jews of fabricating the Holocaust as a hoax – and the nazification of the Jew and the Jewish people.

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The Multicult Ideal for Canada

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Zero Canadians.

Cast of Toronto’s Lake Shore even more despicable than cast of Jersey Shore. Go see the video. You’ll want to have an empty stomach.

One of the producers describes the show as: “a peek into what Toronto is like as a multicultural city.” That peek includes a jew, a Turk, an Albanian, a Lebanese, a Pole, an Italian, a Czech, and a Vietnamese, each loudly revelling in their alien identity. Seeing how they behave, it’s no surprise none of them want to live among their own kind, or that they don’t like each other either.

Somehow the producers got the strange idea they could sell this dystopian train wreck as a utopian sex party. Indeed, there’s trouble in paradise – but it’s not about any negative reflection on Toronto or the lack of people with northwest European heritage. Fast forward to 7:50 of the Lake Shore Sizzle Reel to see the real problem.

Anti-Jewish remark could stall show’s start:

But while Lake Shore is poised to begin production as early as next week, media and advertising experts say the program’s search for a major network backer could be in jeopardy thanks to a publicity-grabbing trailer posted on YouTube in which one of the show’s characters expresses her hatred for Jews.

“It’s already tough for Canadian productions to garner an audience so this one probably thought they could try something drastic,” said Florence Ng, president of the broadcast video investment division at Toronto ad agency ZenithOptimedia.

“When something controversial happens, regardless of what it’s about, it definitely would have some impact in terms of [advertisers’] intent to get involved. Nobody wants to get into any kind of controversial situation and I think for [the producers], they’re probably pushing the envelope.”

“I’m not racist because I hate everybody equally, especially Jewish people,” professes Sibel Atlug, a 23-year-old loud-mouthed woman cast as “the Turk.” The comments come during a mud-flinging free-for-all in which cast members share first impressions of their future housemates.

The show is the brainchild of executive producer Maryam Rahimi and Toronto television personality George Tsioutsioulas. A scheduled interview with Mr. Tsioutsioulas was cancelled by the production’s publicist yesterday. But in an e-mailed statement, the show’s producers said the trailer is a small snippet of a show that exposes what happens when you put eight people from all walks of life into a house together. “A promo reel is not a true representation of the whole story and should not be interpreted that way,” the statement said.

” Lake Shore will expose stereotypes in order to break them down, bridge relationships and show young Torontonians enjoying life and all the adventures that come their way.”

Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said Ms. Atlug’s comments perpetuate a pervasive sentiment that it is “still OK” for people to say openly that they hate Jews.

“We seem to have entered an epoch where basically anything goes,” he said. “People are free to watch whatever they want, to be as stupid as they want, and as insensitive as they want. But we still have to live with each other.

“If you’re going to make a show about outrageous people misbehaving, I suppose among the things people do when they’re misbehaving is to say things that are racist, sexist or anti-Semitic,” Prof. [Bob] Thompson [a popular culture professor at Syracuse University] said.

In a brief interview with Farber, The Trouble With LakeShore, via ShalomLife, we hear that:

Farber doesn’t think the show should be banned. However, he wonders if the comment would have been left in had it been about a different ethnic group, calling anti-Semitism “a longstanding virus that never seems to go away.”

He goes on to say that while he feels Canadians understand what the show is all about, he wants people to realize that the real issue is about a “producer who is trying to manipulate you using sex and racism and all that other kind of junk to attract an audience.”

The moral of the story is that anything goes, except for outrageous misbehavior that outrages jews. They won’t call for anything to be banned or anyone to be fired – unless their condemnations and economic threats don’t get results.

I’m wondering whether any other ethnic group so unselfconsciously projects their own nature by imagining their enemies as “a longstanding virus that never seems to go away.”