“Jew-haters roam the streets but we’re not alone,” by Brian Henry

Vigil for October 7, 2023, terrorist atrocities, Toronto, Oct 7, 2024

Part two of: One Year On

October 7, 2024

Regarding the situation here in Canada, the most important thing to say is that Canadians support Canada’s Jewish community.

Yes, we witnessed the glee with which Israel-haters here in Canada greeted the news that 1,200 Jews had been murdered. We saw their jubilation at hearing 250 men, women, and children had been taken hostage. We saw their smug dismissal of reports of mass rape, of mutilations, of torture.

Sure, we knew the anti-Israel crowd was a vile bunch. But we were shocked – even those of us who have followed this closely for decades – we were shocked at the depth of the hatred. Jew-haters literally danced in the streets.

But we’re not alone. The large majority of Canadians have also been shocked.

By celebrating or at least excusing Hamas’s barbarism, much of the self-styled “progressive left” revealed itself as avatars of bigotry and hatred. As Jen Gerson put it in a widely read and widely shared column, it was “a real mask-off moment for the left, eh?” (here). 

But normal Canadians don’t celebrate Hamas or Hezbollah or any other terrorist group. For example, the Abraham Global Peace Initiative recently completed a study on antisemitism in Ontario. Almost 80% of Ontarians “are concerned about attacks – including gunfire and firebombs – targeting synagogues, Jewish schools, and businesses (here).”

That doesn’t mean the remaining 20% approve of attacks on Jews. A few do – obviously – and many more will make excuses for those attacks, but some of that 20% simply regard anything short of a nuclear war as no big deal. So, they can go back to sleep now – at least for the time being.

Moreover, more than 60% of people in Ontario “are alarmed by aggressive behavior from pro-Palestinian protesters.” And that’s despite most media doing its best to downplay how aggressive and hate-filled these protests are.

How hate-filled are these protesters? Well, if you haven’t been watching, perhaps start your reading here.

And if anything, the anti-Israel protests continue to become more radical.

On October 1, “pro-Palestinian” protesters (as the media likes to call them) ran amok in downtown Montreal, breaking windows, spray painting graffiti on store fronts, and throwing homemade firebombs at the police. 

And on October 7, they smashed windows at McGill University.

In Toronto, protesters carried signs calling for “armed resistance” and a speaker called for demonstrators to teach their children that the “Zionist entity is an enemy.”

Iran’s Press TV carried the Toronto protest live, to show how much support terrorism (supposedly) has in Canada. Correspondent Firas Al-Najim stood in front of a masked man waving a Hezbollah flag who said that Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group only because of the “Zionist lobby’s” influence. “We’re here to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance,” he said, adding “we’re not going to be quiet anymore.”

I hadn’t noticed them ever being quiet.

There have been a lot of Hezbollah flags at anti-Israel protests of late and also people carrying photos of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, to mourn his recent death.

On the upside, Toronto police charged two men with public incitement of hatred for waving Hezbollah flags (here). After all, Canada does list Hezbollah as an illegal terrorist group. Like Hamas, Hezbollah’s whole reason for being is to destroy Israel and kill Jews – which they have always done to the best of their ability. You can see how the police feel that enthusiastic support for this bunch crosses the line.

In Ottawa, protesters gathered outside a Jewish community centre housing a nursery among other services and blocked all the entrances. They claimed to be protesting an event by Sar-El, the volunteers for Israel program (here), but in Arabic, speakers praised shaheeds (martyrs), jihad (holy war) and mujahedeen (holy warriors) (here).

They screamed a chant: “We want bullets and missiles … we do not negotiate with Israel except with the gun (here).”  

A Jewish long-term care home sits across from the community centre, and police warned the seniors it wasn’t safe for them to go outside. Indeed, several Jews leaving the community centre were assaulted.

But the police didn’t make the streets safe for the seniors to leave their building. They didn’t clear the screaming Israel-haters away from the doors to the community centre. And as of yet, no arrests have been made for assaulting people leaving the community centre (here).

At a Parliament Hill protest, a speaker proclaimed: “We will continue fighting until the Zionist entity crumbles, along with its accomplice the United States, and this country [Canada] crumbles to the ground.”

Samidoun's ad for its celebration of al-Aqsa Flood,
which was Hamas's official name for its mass
terror attack of Oct 7, 2023

And of course, all the pro-Palestinian terrorism fan clubs are marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel with events celebrating Palestinian “resistance,” which is the word they use to describe mass murder, rape, and kidnapping. 

In Vancouver, a speaker at a Samidoun rally shouted: “We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas,” and led a crowd of hundreds calling for “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.”

Jews are also marking the October 7 anniversary. One year on, Hamas continues to hold 101 hostages. Hamas continues to fire a few missiles into Israel, though nothing like the thousands of missiles it attacked with last October 7. And Hamas remains as committed as ever to its central purpose of destroying Israel and killing Jews.

But one year on, Hamas no longer has an army. Never again will it be able to commit an atrocity such as October 7.

And the people of Israel still live. Am Yisrael Chai. עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

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Update, Oct 14: Samidoun has confirmed that “Death to Canada accurately describes their goal (here). Samidoun and its arm for young people, the Palestinian Youth Movement, are responsible for organizing many of the “pro-Palestinian” protests across Canada. For a rundown of the main anti-Israel groups in Canada and how they’ve been trying to incite violence, see here.

Further update, Oct 15: After years of the Jewish community and friends (special thanks to Terry Glavin!) pointing out Samidoun's connection to terrorist organizations, the Canadian government has at last designated Samidoun as a terrorist group here.

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This piece was originally published on the Canadian Zionist Forum.

Read Part One of One Year On: “Iran escalates the war, but Israel has a lot of friends” here (and scroll down for more of my pieces).