Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit record high in 2007

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: Ha'aretz

WINNIPEG - Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit a record high in 2007, according to a recently released report by the League of Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada.

The group recorded 1,042 anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2007, up 11.4% since 2006. A 59.1% increase was noted on Canadian college and university campuses.

In Montreal, anti-Semitic incidents increased 16 percent from 2006 to 2007, and regional Quebec showed a significant increase of 282 percent from the previous year.

The study also showed that over the past 10 years anti-Semitic incidents have jumped 400 percent in Canada.

Nearly 30 percent of all incidents in 2007 were attributed to internet activity. Of these, nearly one-third involved threatening or harassing communications.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/989445.html

[BunkerHill24]

1. Bullshit...n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

2. That was a thoroughly argued response

Not.

Try to expand on it.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. Seems it has increased in a number of countries.

Are all those reports "bullshit" too or just this Canadian one?

[pattmarty]

3. Probably because of the right leaning government that took power a couple yrs ago.

[Posteritatis]

8. This crap's been going on since long before Harper showed up. (nt)

[LeftistGorilla]

4. I can see this....

At my University there is some tension between Muslim and Jewish groups...
and I know at York University they've actually had fights as well..
In Quebec it's the same...

In general, most people here get along...
Unfortunatly...there are some problems...

[asthmaticeog]

5. In Montreal?

Gosh, I never in a million years would have dreamed that French people could be anti-semitic. :eyes:

[LynnTheDem]

6. Just as I never dreamed a liberal on DU would make sweeping generalizations.

Just goes to show, even liberals can be racist bigots.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Anti-semitism in France has been on an alarming upswing in recent years.

Am I a racist bigot for pointing that out? Or were you just SO itching to commit the True Scotsman fallacy that you clutched at straws?

[LeftistGorilla]

9. The French...

in Quebec are different then the French in France in many ways...
Especially in Montreal...

There is a high concentration of Jews and Arabs in Montreal...
Which has caused tensions that have erupted over the last couple of years...

the riot at Concordia and the protests against the invasion of Lebanon not too long ago being two examples...

[Flagg]

11. don't you know the French are genetically anti-semite ? It's been proven scientifically

:eyes:

[asthmaticeog]

12. They don't get irony, either, despite generating a lot of it.

I SEZ WE NUKE 'EM!

[provis99]

13. anti-semitism has always been high in Quebec

Mordechai Richler used to note in his interviews that French Quebecers are more anti-semitic than English Canadians. Goes to that whole "master race", "Je me souviens" thing that the Quebecois have always had going.

[iverglas]

15. I'll bet this is more of that "irony" stuff

Mordechai Richler used to note in his interviews that French Quebecers are more anti-semitic than English Canadians. Goes to that whole "master race", "Je me souviens" thing that the Quebecois have always had going.

Actually, it goes to several things, to the extent that there is some truth in it. (I confess to having no idea what "that whole 'master race' thing" is, so I can't tell whether there's any truth in that.)

Quebec is obviously heavily Roman Catholic, although these days it's increasingly in name only. (Quebec has the highest proportion of unmarried cohabiting couples, including with children, in Canada, e.g.) Historically, the Roman Catholic church has been quite anti-Semitic.

The history of the French-speaking population of Quebec, up until about 50 years ago, is a history of economic exploitation by the English-speaking population, with the collabortion of the Church, which worked hard to keep its followers impoverished by demanding that women produce as many children as possible, thus placing a financial heavy burden on the family and excluding women from the mainstream economy (inclusion of women being an important factor in economic development), and by touting the virtues of the agrarian life and opposing all social progress, as the RC church is wont to do everywhere. In order to advance economically, French-speaking Quebeckers, individual Québécois, had to speak English and thus risk cultural assimilation as a group. This is something that virtually all cultural groups resist and resent.

The English-speaking population of Quebec has historically been disproportionately Jewish, i.e. in comparison to the English-speaking population of the rest of Canada. It is not unusual for the legitimate targets of resentment -- in this case, exploitive capitalists -- to be demonized on the basis of their personal characteristics, particularly when there are major influences at work drumming up the resentments, as the RC church did -- in this case, the characteristics being culturally and linguistically English and in many cases Jewish.

The memory of centuries of exploitation and precarious collective existence isn't exactly dead this short time on, nor is the survival of the culture completely assured at this point, not that any culture's survival ever is. One might even think that Jews would have some understanding of and affinity for a people that fears assimilation and loss of its religion and culture and language.


Of course, if you intended to say something that wasn't more bigoted than you allege the people you were attacking are, feel free to elaborate.

[oberliner]

14. Another troubling development is the growing visibility of a neo-Nazi group called the Aryan Guard

Another troubling development in Canada is the growing visibility of a neo-Nazi group called the Aryan Guard. This spring, about 25 members of the group staged a "White Pride" march through downtown Calgary. The neo-Nazis shouted denials of the Holocaust and condemned non-whites. Police separated the group from some 200 anti-racist protesters, many of whom covered their faces for fear of retribution from Aryan Guard members. Though the Aryan Guard states on its website that it is nonviolent, police in February were looking into whether the group might be linked to two firebombings in the area. In one of the incidents, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the home of anti-racist activists.

Although the Aryan Guard appears to be on the rise, a white supremacist street gang based in Edmonton was severely crippled in March after police arrested 17 of its members and issued warrants for another five. The White Boy Posse, which has links to the Hells Angels and members throughout northern Alberta, often incorporates the swastika into tattoos and gang paraphernalia. The group is also involved drug in trafficking; police confiscated cocaine and cash during the arrests.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=930

[iverglas]

16. white supremacist / anti-Semitic groups in Canada

There is a long history of them. In my home town 30 years ago, in southern Ontario, the Western Guard was the big one. They regroup, they recruit ... and they have stars, like Ernst Zundel and the rest.

Alberta is our own hotbed of fundamentalist right-wing Christians, and private fundie schools have been caught using anti-Semitic teaching materials. It's a thing with many, not necessarily related tentacles.

Groups like the one you refer to have also targeted Roma, in particular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Krymowski

Efforts to combat their activities using human rights legislation to sanction hate speech are the subject of loud outcry from the right wing, cloaking itself with the righteous liberal belief in "free speech".

[LeftishBrit]

18. Sad

It seems that the neo-Nazi organizations have their tentacles everywhere.

Oh, and by the way, fuck Ernst Zundel.

[iverglas]

19. ah, Ernst Zundel has been well and truly fucked ;)

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/02/15/zundel-germany.html

Ernst Zundel sentenced to 5 years for Holocaust denial
Last Updated: Thursday, February 15, 2007 | 8:58 AM ET

A German court on Thursday convicted Ernst Zundel of 14 counts of incitement of racial hatred and sentenced him to five years in prison, the maximum allowed under German law for denying the Holocaust.

... The German-born Zundel lived in Canada for four decades, making frequent court appearances to argue for the freedom to express his anti-Semitic views in books and pamphlets, and on a website.

... In several European countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Spain and France, Holocaust denial is a specific criminal offence. In Canada, Holocaust denial can be prosecuted as a hate crime. <i.e. as inciting hatred against a named group>

... In 2005, a Federal Court ruling that Zundel was a threat to national security because of his connection with white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups paved the way to his extradition.

[iverglas]

17. the report

The summary:

http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit2007/esummary.pdf

The 1,042 incidents across Canada break down as follows: 699 cases of harassment (67.1%), 315 of vandalism (30.2%) and 28 of violence (2.7%). As in previous years, harassment continues to comprise the majority of cases.

One should note that these are "anti-Semitic incidents" as defined by B'nai Brith Canada.


The audit:

http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit2007/audit2007.pdf

"Appendix I - Definitions of Antisemitic Incidents used by the League" and "Appendix II - Working definition of Antisemitism used by the EUMC" do not appear to be included in that document.

One area where this type of obtuseness has been particularly glaring is on campus, where a ritualized campaign of anti-Israel hate fests has been given a home year after year by university authorities. This is in spite of the creation of a ‘poisoned atmosphere’ that has led to incident after incident against Jewish students by persons apparently invigorated by hate propaganda disseminated throughout the year against the Jewish State. In the name of “free speech”, hate speech has been allowed to take root in contravention of clear findings by international human rights experts that the “‘new anti-Semitism’ commonly manifests itself in the guise of opposition to Zionism and the existence and/or policies of the state of Israel”.

That is certainly true.

It is also true that opposition to anti-Zionism commonly manifests itself in the guise of allegations of anti-Semitism, and I would want to be sure that B'nai Brith was not engaging in that.