democracy – Page 2

The fight for democracy

The following remarks were delivered at the Israel hostages rally at Vancouver Art Gallery on Sept. 15, which is also the International Day of Democracy.

In recognition of the International Day of Democracy, I will talk about how antisemitism is harming and potentially destroying democracy. This talk will be based mainly on a report by Amy Spitalnick, just published in the United States. Fair warning, this talk will be heavy, but, in my view, important to understand.

Antisemitism is a form of religious, racial and ethnic prejudice against Jews. But, unlike other such prejudices, antisemitism also operates as a conspiracy theory that lies about Jewish power and influence. And, because it functions as a conspiracy theory, antisemitism poses a threat far beyond the Jewish community. It fuels other forms of hate and extremism, including against other communities and against democratic institutions that are depicted as pawns of Jewish control.

Antisemitism – like other conspiracy theories – increases at times of social or political anxiety, as people look for a source to blame for what’s wrong with society and with their lives.

Enemies of democracy, such as Iran and Russia, use antisemitism to undermine trust in democracies and make them seem like failed states. The “conspiracy myth” that Jews control certain sectors of society, such as banks, media or elections, is the cornerstone of antisemitism, and anyone who accepts this myth loses faith in democracy. If Jews control elections, judges and finance, people say to themselves, how can I, as a non-Jew, live up to my potential? My failings are caused by evil forces beyond my control.

Casting Jews as all-powerful naturally fuels hatred of Jews. But it also explains what extremists believe – that other communities, like People of Colour, non-Christians, LGBTQ+, are incapable of success except through unfair or illegal ways. And so, belief in this powerful Jewish control group causes distrust in democratic institutions and values.

When neo-Nazis came to Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, they chanted “Jews will not replace us,” showing that they believed in the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. Once hidden in the dark corners of the internet, this conspiracy theory says that there is a deliberate Jewish effort to replace the white population with immigrants and People of Colour. This conspiracy theory has directly inspired many mass killings targeting not only Jewish people (Pittsburgh and Poway), but also Hispanic people (El Paso), Black people (Buffalo), Muslims (New Zealand and London, Ont.) and other communities.

Versions of this conspiracy theory have become increasingly mainstreamed, courtesy of influencers, elected officials, candidates and foreign powers in our social media. They use it to advance their own political goals – and, at the same time, they embolden violent extremists. In the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Congress, when many insurrectionists carried white supremacist symbols in their efforts to overturn the 2020 US election results, they included false claims of undocumented immigrants stealing the election. Only recently, we heard in the presidential debate about immigrants eating their neighbours’ pets from a man who wants to be president.

Recent polling shows that belief in conspiracy theories is among the best predictors of antisemitism. And a recent US survey found that highly antisemitic Americans are significantly more likely to support political violence and other forms of anti-democratic extremism. So, what to do?

First of all, we need to fight like hell! We need to call out conspiracy theories against Jews and any other identifiable group every time we encounter them. We need to educate ourselves about what antisemitism means by knowing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and its examples, and we must call out antisemitism and other forms or racism when we see it.

We should fight against antisemitism but also against all other forms of racism, including Islamophobia, misogyny, sexual-preference bigotry and other forms of hate and violence; and we should work to advance inclusive, multi-ethnic democracy. The safety and fates of all minority communities and, eventually, all supporters of democracy, are bound together. Jews historically thrive in free, democratic states, and don’t do so well in autocracies, even if autocratic rule might at first seem attractive.

I know this won’t be easy. Many Jews, including me, have felt abandoned and isolated by those who have remained conspicuously silent, or worse, fallen for anti-Israel and antisemitic lies. This crisis since Oct. 7 exposed the lack of understanding of antisemitism in so many parts of society, including how antisemitism is present in conversations related to Israel. Fundamentally, there is a lack of recognition that Jewish safety, including in Israel, is deeply linked to the safety of all communities in all democracies. We need to change that.

But, while we need to work tirelessly to save ourselves and combat antisemitism, we alone, without allies, cannot stop antisemitism. We need to recognize that antisemitism is one part, granted a big part, of the assault on democracy that affects everyone.

If we accept what we need to do as I’ve outlined today, it means having open and difficult conversations with others who think they can save democracy without fighting antisemitism. We need to show them that they are wrong. Let’s start today.

Bernard Pinsky, KC, is chair of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

Eby talks about record, plans

BC Premier David Eby says election is “about the values of who we are as a province and how we move forward on the big issues of our time.” (photo from news.gov.bc.ca)

David Eby, the incumbent BC premier and leader of the New Democratic party, assured Jewish voters that, if reelected Oct. 19, his government would have their backs.

Speaking with the Jewish Independent, Eby said the loss of Selina Robinson as a cabinet minister and then as a New Democrat caucus member earlier this year was a blow, but that his government is committed to the issues that are important to Jewish British Columbians.

“It was really tough for our caucus and for our government to lose Selina,” Eby said. “She was a major contributor to our team. It’s hard to really quantify that kind of emotional feeling that a lot of people on our team have around the loss, of not having her being part of our team going forward. But it hasn’t slowed down our work and our commitment to the overall Jewish community and our efforts to fill the role that she did as a critical bridge between our caucus and the broader Jewish community.”

Eby and his party have been working with community agencies to fight antisemitism and to increase security for Jewish institutions, he said.

“We’ve been working closely with a number of Jewish organizations to identify ways that we can provide support in this incredibly challenging time where we see this rise in antisemitism and some really disturbing behaviour targeting Jews, everything from the horrific arson attack [against Schara Tzedeck Synagogue] to slurs that people are enduring in the street,” he said. “From increasing support for security for synagogues and Jewish community centres, mandatory Holocaust education deployment, making sure that that is a reality in our schools in the province, we’re working on that together.”

He also cited British Columbia as “having the strictest standards around hate crimes” and promised that prosecutors will ensure that hate crime cases make it to court.

“We’re going to continue to do that work,” he said.

Speaking just days before the official start of the campaign period, Eby predicted that affordability, particularly around housing, will emerge as a top concern for voters.

“The availability of housing in the province, regardless of where, is a huge issue for so many people,” said Eby. “It’s a drag on our economy that we’re not providing adequate housing for people.”

Young people who cannot afford to own a home are questioning whether they have a future in the province, he said.

“I really think that housing will be, if not the issue, certainly one of the main issues, because there’s a fairly bright line between ourselves and the BC Conservatives on this issue,” Eby said. “They [the Conservative party] appear to think that people are best left to the market when it comes to housing, that government does not have a role to play in initiatives like using public lands to build more attainable housing or restricting the excesses of platforms like Airbnb or people buying vacant homes as an investment.”

Eby pointed to a recent report that said rental costs have increased across Canada by 5% while in British Columbia they have fallen by 5%.

“We are finally starting to see rents come down across the province,” he said. “The most recent report shows that we’re on the right track and we can’t stop now.”

Eby cited climate change as a topic where his party and the Conservatives have diametrical opinions.

Last week, Eby announced that his party is now committed to eliminating the consumer carbon tax, a sudden reversal of an environmental policy that was first implemented by the BC Liberal government in 2008. While the NDP have altered course, putting them on the same side as the Conservatives on the future of the tax, Eby positions the shift as an affordability issue in a time of economic pressures for consumers and went on the offensive against what he characterizes as the BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s climate change denial.

“John Rustad has taken the very bizarre position that climate change is not real,” Eby said. “It is bizarre, but it’s also dangerous for British Columbians. Will a premier who doesn’t believe that climate change is real protect your community from floods or forest fires, make the necessary investments around infrastructure for protecting communities right across the province?”

Other issues likely to take centre stage in the campaign are the related topics of mental health, addiction and homelessness.

“A lot of people want to see the folks that they see suffering on the sidewalks in our communities get the care they need,” Eby said. “And they are also feeling anxious when people with mental health, brain injury, chronic addiction are banging on the hood of their car, or engaging in petty theft or, in some cases, quite dramatic and awful violent incidents.”

The upheaval among the opposition parties – with the folding of the BC United campaign and the unification of right and centre-right candidates under the Conservative banner – in some ways did not come as a surprise to Eby, he said.

“We were expecting a unified right-wing vote,” he said. “The surprise for me was really that the unification came around the far-right side of the political spectrum and not the centre-right side that the BCU [BC United party] represented.”

Eby said he has been reaching out to former BC United supporters who he said “feel quite abandoned.”

“I know these are people who don’t see themselves in a party where the leader is a climate change denier and who supported anti-vaccine convoys as they were rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated,” he said. “I know those aren’t the values of British Columbians.”

He said former BC United supporters are sending emails, letters and donations, telling Eby, “I never thought I’d vote NDP but this time I will.”

Eby is asking those who do not feel comfortable in the BC Conservatives “to lend us their votes this election.”

The concept of “lending” a vote was employed by the late federal NDP leader Jack Layton in the 2011 Canadian election when that party made unprecedented breakthroughs, winning more than 100 seats and forming the official opposition for the first and only time. Asked if that was a deliberate echo of his former federal leader, Eby suggested this moment in BC politics is unique.

“I’m not asking for a commitment of lifelong fealty from these voters,” Eby said. “I want to prove myself as committed to British Columbians and their priorities and doing our best to address the big challenges. This election, in my opinion, has become less and less about partisan politics and more about the values of who we are as a province and how we move forward on the big issues of our time, whether we do it together and united as a province that welcomes everybody and ensures that we’re stronger together or whether we start to divide ourselves along culture war lines and use internet conspiracy theories as a compass for deciding how we address certain issues.”

Greens seek breakthrough

BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau wants to “make sure we have a province that is centred around well-being, that is centred around everybody’s basic needs being met and is centred around creating communities where everybody can thrive.” (photo from facebook.com/SoniaBCGreens)

Sonia Furstenau is hearing from Jewish voters that they feel abandoned. The BC Green Party leader wants to rebuild trust between the Jewish community and the province’s elected officials, she said.

“Trust comes from relationships, it comes from understanding and it comes from people really being reliable,” Furstenau told the Jewish Independent. “I think we have shown that we are committed to approaching the work we do from a place of building relationships.”

The Green leader, who hopes to exponentially expand her two-member caucus in the legislature in the Oct. 19 election, reflected on what she has heard from Jewish British Columbians recently.

“I’ve had many conversations in the past month with members of the Jewish community who have expressed to me … that people feel abandoned, that people are concerned about growing incidences of antisemitism,” she said. “It’s a recognition of the need to continue conversations and stay connected.

“But, at a provincial policy level, it’s education, education, education,” Furstenau said. “I know that the premier has made a commitment to [mandatory] Holocaust education and I think that is important and necessary. I want to expand that. We need every student in BC to graduate with a very firm and reliable fact-based understanding of 20th-century history. We need people to be able to withstand the disinformation that is now becoming so dominant in discourse, political and otherwise.”

To address the challenges, Furstenau said students need to be equipped against disinformation so that they can navigate the contemporary world with a solid grounding in history and what it means to be an engaged citizen in a democracy. That means understanding the Holocaust in the context of the 20th century, she said, but also in the context of the antisemitism that has existed for centuries.

“The key piece is that we are building an informed and inclusive community here in BC that does not tolerate hatred or discrimination or racism of any kind,” she said.

As much as she wants voters to consider policies or issues, Furstenau is urging British Columbians to think first and foremost about representation.

“When we go into the ballot box, we’re not voting for a party or a premier,” she said. “We’re voting for the person who is going to be our voice in the legislature.”

She is asking people to take seriously “the question of who is going to be the best representative for me in my community,” she said.

“We have a first-past-the-post system,” she said. “We elect, in this case, 93 representatives to the legislature and, in the best-case scenario, we have a diversity of voices and viewpoints and ideas and we have a legislature where people can find the capacity to work together and across party lines.”

In addition to a number of independent candidates, likely including a few incumbents made politically homeless by the suspension of the BC United party’s campaign, Furstenau hopes voters will consider Green candidates and elect enough members who do not belong to either of the two largest parties to result in a minority government.

“What I think would be an ideal outcome in this election is [a scenario where] no single party has all of the power,” she said, “that we have a legislature with a diversity of voices and representation and we are seeding the conditions where we’re working collaboratively, finding common ground and focusing on solutions for people.”

Furstenau is knocking on doors and the issue she hears about most from voters are affordable housing, cost-of-living, access to reliable health care and climate change.

“When people talk about housing, of course they talk about the fact that we have a growing homelessness crisis in this province,” she said. “The vast majority of people that I talk to about this want to see solutions so that we don’t have people who are living without homes in our communities. That’s a really key piece and some of the politicization and rhetoric that we are already hearing in this election misses the mark, as far as I’m concerned. We can solve this. We can make sure that nobody in our community is living without housing, and we should. For us, the key thing is that British Columbia could be the best place on earth to live. It’s a beautiful place, it’s full of extraordinary people, it’s got an enormous amount of richness and diversity and what we want … is to ensure that everybody here has the best chance to have a good life in British Columbia.”

The coalescence of right and centre-right candidates is not a positive development for democracy, in Furstenau’s view.

“I don’t think that having fewer choices on the ballot is a good thing,” she said. “I think, in a democracy, more choice is better. I think this was an unfortunate loss for the people of BC and I think that suggesting that we should have concentration of political parties and fewer political parties is the wrong direction. We just have to look south of the border to see where that leads us. I was disappointed by the decision that Kevin Falcon and a small number of people apparently made to fold an entire political party. That’s not the kind of leadership that we need right now and it’s not an approach to democracy that we need right now.”

Barring unforeseen developments, there are three main parties to choose from, and Furstenau hopes for a Green electoral breakthrough.

“We are determined to elect the biggest Green caucus in history,” she said. “We have six or seven key ridings where we see that possibility.” In addition to her own riding of Cowichan Valley, she cites other Vancouver Island ridings as possible pickups, including Saanich, Courtenay-Comox, Esquimault and Victoria-Beacon Hill, as well as West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, which the party narrowly lost last election, and opportunities in the Kootenays.

“We’ve built our platform around the idea of well-being, that when we have a society that is rooted in the well-being of its citizens, of its communities and its natural world, we get to a place where we don’t have the kind of conditions to create more hatred and more discrimination,” Furstenau said. “We know that political parties will scapegoat groups of people, including Jewish people. We know that, when people don’t feel safe and secure, we get into political discourse that is dangerous and so our response to that is let’s make sure we have a province that is centred around well-being, that is centred around everybody’s basic needs being met and is centred around creating communities where everybody can thrive and we have to be focused on that and that’s what we are doing.”

Vote – and volunteer

CJPAC, the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, wants you to vote in the Oct. 19 British Columbia provincial election. But they want you to do more, too.

“Yes, you should vote,” said Kara Mintzberg, CJPAC’s director for BC. “But you should also remember that volunteering will give you potentially even more impact than your one vote in the ballot box.”

CJPAC is a national, independent, multipartisan organization with a mandate to engage Jewish and pro-Israel Canadians in the democratic process and to foster active political participation.

“CJPAC is here to make it easy,” Mintzberg said. That includes giving people who have never volunteered on a campaign before the lay of the land and identifying activities where they can use their interests or skills to help the candidate of their choice.

“There’s really something for everyone,” she said, whether one prefers getting out and meeting people or working in an office.

Matt Woods Baum, director of marketing and communications for CJPAC, said that, whether it is hammering lawn signs in the ground, phone banking, organizing events or canvassing door-to-door, it is important for Jewish voters to get involved in the process.

“Now more than ever, it’s critical that people take action to get involved,” he said.

CJPAC has a designated volunteer sign-up page for the BC election at cjpac.formstack.com/forms/bc24. Mintzberg also urges people to opt in to CJPAC emails, as there is a range of online briefings, webinars and other opportunities around this and future elections.

CJPAC will be present with an information table at an election town hall, Sept. 22, 6:45 p.m., at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. Richmond election candidates will discuss issues of relevance to Jewish voters in a forum moderated by Shane Foxman. Pre-registration is required at bethtikvah-ca.shulcloud.com/event/townhall. For more information and to submit questions for the candidates, email [email protected].

Visit here inspires hope

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Vancouver for the first time to meet with members of the Jewish community and local business leaders. It was a wonderful experience that enabled me to see the Jewish community up close, and I plan to return soon to this city with its beautiful landscape, and warm and friendly people.

Through my work, I know how difficult it has been for the Jewish community given the explosion of antisemitism, especially since Oct. 7. The sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, including attacks on synagogues and the shocking experiences of students at the University of British Columbia, have created an ambiance of fear, anger and uncertainty. At the same time, this troubling climate has brought together Jews from all walks of life to defend our values, our people and the state of Israel.

One name that repeatedly arose – a nongovernmental organization I am very familiar with through my work at NGO Monitor – was Samidoun. Samidoun is a Canadian-registered not-for-profit, founded by a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Khaled Barakat. Barakat’s spouse, Vancouver resident Charlotte Kates, is its international coordinator.

Although Canada declared the PFLP a terror group in 2003 and, despite Samidoun’s antisemitic and pro-terror rhetoric, the government still has not taken action to shut down this NGO.

Like the PFLP, Samidoun disseminates messages and an agenda supporting violence, terror and antisemitism as a means to destroy the state of Israel. Since the Oct. 7 atrocities, Samidoun has expanded its local activities, contributing centrally to the sinister atmosphere facing Canadian Jewry. Illustrative examples include a July seminar in Toronto that called for eliminating “Israel as a military, political and economic establishment” and an event in Vancouver where the PFLP, Hamas and Hezbollah were praised. There have been dozens more such events.

In contrast to Canada, Samidoun activities have been banned in several countries, including France and Germany. Meta (formerly Facebook) shut down the social media accounts of the Vancouver and Toronto chapters of Samidoun, while Stripe, a major credit card processing company, closed Samidoun accounts on its platform, preventing online fundraising in Canada.

Let’s not be naïve. Samidoun is not the only NGO that is problematic, and it joins more than 100 other groups in Canada engaging in offensive and, at times dangerous, rhetoric. Moreover, the hatred stemming from Samidoun’s headquarters in Vancouver is not just against Israel and Jews, but against Canada and all Canadians. The NGO uses strategic attacks against the state of Israel and the Jewish people to distract from their assaults on the very values that enable Jews, Muslims, Christians and others to peacefully live side by side in Canada, Israel, and around the democratic free world.

Samidoun’s threat to Canadians, beyond the Jewish community, is blatant in their statement declaring Canada a settler colony “that require[s] the same settler logics and brutalities as ‘Israel’” and their claim that international law allows for people living in a colonialist society to “resist.” All law-abiding Canadians should be extremely concerned for Samidoun’s justification of Hamas’s Oct. 7 abduction, rape, mutilation and murder of innocent children, women, Holocaust survivors and eight Canadian citizens (including Vancouver’s Ben Mizrachi) as “resistance.” Moreover, Samidoun’s argument about Israel, that “imperialist warmongers will call it terrorism, but we know this is anti-imperialist resistance,” defends any terrorist activities they choose to initiate anywhere and is not reserved only for Israel but rather for all Western “imperialistic” countries.

While Kates is working to overturn Canada’s designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as terror groups, Samidoun is allowed to operate and flourish. After her appearance recently on Iran’s national television station to commend “the brave, heroic Oct. 7 operation” by Hamas that killed Canadian Jews, it is all the more critical to terminate Samidoun’s soapbox of hate that is based in Vancouver.

One of the impressive aspects of the BC Jewish community is the collective desire to work closely with those outside of their faith toward building a better society for all in Canada. After my visit to Vancouver, I am optimistic that Jews and non-Jews will work collaboratively against the seeds of divisiveness and hate sown by Samidoun. This will not end antisemitism in Canada, which has become, unfortunately, widespread. But it is an important first step.

Olga Deutsch is vice-president of NGO Monitor and has extensive expertise in international politics, humanitarian aid, funding to nongovernmental organizations, international development, post-Oct. 7 antisemitism, efforts to delegitimize Israel, and BDS.

Be seen and heard this year

Students from CJPAC’s 2023/24 Generation: Student Leaders Program cohort (photo from CJPAC)

It is Elul, the month before the Jewish new year. Traditionally, this is a time for cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of one’s soul, before the reflection and repentance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This year is not like years past. This year, our individual and community accounts are overdrawn. Instead of looking into how our souls spent 5784, instead of wondering what we could have done better, instead of cheshbon hanefesh, this year should be one of hashka’at hanefesh, investment in our souls.

As we move towards Rosh Hashanah, Jewish communities and individuals will blow the shofar and recite Psalm 27. This is a daily call to action and a recitation of a mantra that means so much more this year.

Of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?… Though an army may camp against me, my heart will not be afraid; though war rises against me, I will be confident…. Deliver me not to the will of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen against me and breathe out violence…. Look to Hashem; be strong and of good courage! Look to Hashem! (Psalm 27, excerpted)

The 14 verses of this psalm help us examine the past year and focus and inspire us for the coming one. Recited through the High Holy Days until Hoshannah Rabbah, it is a call to make that investment.

The year 5784 was a challenge. It was a year of pain. Through it, the worldwide Jewish community declared, “We will dance again.” Now, the shofar and the words of the psalm force us to confront metaphors made real. Though it seems like we are surrounded by enemies, these verses call upon us to act. If we do, our “head[s] will be lifted” and we will again “offer sacrifices of joy.” “We will dance again” will be realized when we stand up to say, “Hineini.”

Hineini – I am here. It is a word of intentional presence. When God approaches Avraham, Avraham answers, “Hineini.” When Moshe is called to lead, he responds, “Hineini.” Our leaders were not prepared. Nevertheless, when asked, they stepped up. This is the lesson of the High Holy Days. It is a call to action that begins with the individual and moves to the communal.

It is our time to answer that call. It is time for our community and our allies to stand up and step forward to make a difference and an impact. It is time to say, “Hineini. I am here, I am present.”

The Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) is here and present to help Canadian Jews and their allies be seen and heard.

Now is the perfect time to get involved in politics, with the BC general election set for Oct. 19. You can make a real and tangible impact. CJPAC is here to guide you. In political campaigns, every single volunteer who steps up can be the deciding factor in a candidate’s success.

It is not the loud, angry voice that makes the lasting impact. The difference is made by people who show up and get the job done. Say “Hineini,” and sign up to volunteer for the candidate or party of your choice.

Sign up for CJPAC emails to stay informed about specialized training opportunities. From Politics 101 to the importance of running for a school board or campaign volunteering, CJPAC’s Advancing Campaign Training (ACT) program will help prepare and connect you.

In our tradition, what begins with the individual ultimately ends with the community. Sign up with friends for a CJPAC Day of Impact or create your own. By coming together, we inspire future generations. Volunteering with children not only teaches but empowers them to take action – and not just during difficult times.

If you have, or know, a teen in grades 10 to 12, be sure to check out CJPAC’s Generation: Student Leaders Program. Throughout the school year, teens engage in thoughtful discussions with peers, empowering them to participate in the democratic process.

CJPAC’s flagship Fellowship Program trains 50 of the top pro-Israel, politically engaged post-secondary students from across Canada to become the next generation of political leaders. Applications close on Sept. 18.

We make a difference when we show up. The more people who give of their time and efforts, the greater our impact. Connecting with the party or campaign of your choice through CJPAC offers you a tangible opportunity to support the community and build a better Canada.

Listen to the call this Elul. It is time for our community and our allies to stand up and step forward to make this difference.

Hineini – I am here.

Hineini – I am ready.

Hineini – Even if I am afraid, I will be an upstander. I will pray with my feet before and beyond the chaggim (holidays), acting for the future, the future of our children, and of our communities – both Jewish and more broadly Canadian.

Hineini.

Rabbi Jennifer Gorman is CJPAC national director of outreach & programming. To learn more about CJPAC or sign up to volunteer, visit cjpac.ca or contact Kara Mintzberg at [email protected].

No slow news days here

In the journalism biz, summer is generally considered slow news season. That’s why our publishing schedule takes a bit of a hiatus. Then there are years like this one.

Rarely in political history has anything so upended American politics than the debate by President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump June 27. Biden’s performance was deemed so portentous of defeat that a groundswell of Democratic party operatives mobilized to replace him on the ticket mere weeks before the election.

Avoiding potentially divisive competition, the party instantaneously rallied around Vice-President Kamala Harris, who then selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and, according to early opinion polls, the race has been completely shaken up. This week’s Democratic National Convention was the Harris-Walz ticket’s effort at solidifying the momentum that began with her selection a month ago.

Practically the only bad news the Democrats have had during this honeymoon period has been the disruptions at Harris rallies and at the convention by anti-Israel campaigners and those pushing for an end to the Gaza war. As the vice-president said to one group of hecklers, “If you want Donald Trump to win, say that.”

Israel’s opponents are not the only ones agitated by the Democrats position on the Gaza war. At the fringes of the pro-Israel movement are those who believe a President Harris would undermine the US-Israel relationship and those who have particular concerns about Walz. In fact, both candidates are effectively in line with the mainstream Democratic party and larger American consensus, which recognizes the invaluable and special relationship between the two countries.

On the other hand, pro-Trump Zionists, who insist that the former president’s rhetoric and family connections guarantee a degree of loyalty to Israel, premise these assumptions on the flawed idea that Trump has loyalty to anything beyond his own self-interest or that he subscribes to any coherent position on anything. And they ignore his connections to and endorsements of far-right and antisemitic figures and movements. As we saw on Trump’s 180-flipflop on electric vehicles after he was endorsed by Tesla-founder Elon Musk, or on bitcoin or on TikTok after donations and endorsements from other billionaires, Trump has no core principles. It would not be in the interest of Israel, American Jews, Jews around the world, or the rest of the world to trust the future to a person who is demonstrating increasingly erratic behaviour and policies.

The Democratic party’s comparatively speedy defenestration of their incumbent president has inspired some members of Canada’s Liberal party to wonder if such a political decapitation might happen here.

The incumbent government is stuck in opinion polls far behind the opposition Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre. The loss of an erstwhile safe Liberal seat in a Toronto by-election in June has a number of Liberals wondering if self-preservation demands the replacement of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as leader. This fall’s return to Parliament – and probably the outcome of two upcoming by-elections, especially one in a relatively safe Liberal seat in a Montreal suburb – will almost certainly determine whether the Liberals stand by their man or take a lesson from their cousins to the south.

Still closer to home, British Columbia politics has been heating up over the summer. The BC Conservative party under leader John Rustad is polling higher than that party has dreamed in about a century. Since being thrown out of the BC Liberal caucus two years ago, Rustad has taken the failing provincial Tories – a party that last won an election in 1928 – to opinion poll heights of a few points off top spot.

Kevin Falcon, whose disastrous rebranding of the BC Liberals to BC United seems to have left millions of voters unclear on what party he leads, is now in the single digits and faces complete obliteration, if polls are to be believed. Fears of a split centre-right vote (a perennial driver in BC politics for a century or so) seems to have been obviated by an overwhelming consensus by non-NDP voters to rally around the BC Conservatives.

Of course, campaigns matter. When voters realize that Falcon’s party is the one they used to know as the BC Liberals, some may return to familiar patterns, especially since BC United has frantically prevailed on Elections BC to allow them to include both their new and old names on this fall’s ballots.

It all just goes to show that you should take nothing for granted. With the BC election on Oct. 19, the US election on Nov. 5 and a minority Liberal government with increasingly uneasy backbenchers (and frontbenchers), the slow news season of the summer seems likely to usher in a rather exciting autumn. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Tory leader woos Jews

BC Conservative leader John Rustad speaks with an audience member at a June 20 event at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue. (photo by Pat Johnson)

It has been 96 years since the Conservative party won a provincial election in British Columbia. The last time a Conservative was elected to the BC Legislature was a 1978 by-election. So, the rapturous reception BC Conservative leader John Rustad and several of his local candidates received from a mostly Jewish crowd at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue recently may have been a phenomenon unseen in generations.

Public opinion polls over the last year have consistently put the BC Conservatives in second place, ahead of the BC United party, which was known as the BC Liberals before a rebranding last year. The four sitting Conservative MLAs, including Rustad, were all initially elected as BC Liberals and later crossed the floor.

The June 20 event was convened by Saul Kahn, a Jewish community leader who acknowledged he has not been politically active before. The synagogue, he noted, was a venue and the Conservatives’ presence there did not represent an endorsement.

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt, Schara Tzedeck’s senior rabbi, said he would welcome any politicians who want to meet and answer questions from the community. He noted that the event took place three weeks to the day after an arson attack on the synagogue and said the Jewish community is deeply concerned about developments in education in the province at all levels – primary, secondary and post-secondary.

Rustad, the MLA for Nechako Lakes, an enormous riding sprawling across central British Columbia, lamented the situation.

“We shouldn’t need to have security,” he said, noting that churches and other institutions rarely even have to consider the issue. “We’ve allowed antisemitism to take root. We are not standing up and saying it’s wrong. It starts in our schools.”

Anybody who is promoting hate in the province should be criminally charged, he said, and, if they are not Canadian citizens, the federal government should consider deporting them.

Schools should be “teaching kids how to think not what to think,” said Rustad, and he promised to rescind the provincial government’s policy on sexual orientation and gender identity, commonly called SOGI. While promising to remove SOGI, Rustad pledged to support all students and pursue anti-bullying policies.

The leader, who has been in the legislature since 2005 and served in cabinet under premier Christy Clark, promised to go through all material in the education system “with a very critical eye” toward issues of ideology, gender and the environment. He said he assumes the BC Teachers’ Federation will fight back on issues like SOGI, which he calls the “sexualization of our children,” but said some of the things being taught in school could not be put on television or said in the legislature.

The party leader condemned anti-Israel protesters on BC university campuses.

“How is it that this is OK?” he asked. “People do not have the right to incite hate.”

He floated the possibility of holding back funding or otherwise putting pressure on universities to respond to this sort of activism.

Rustad condemned the province’s approach to addiction, saying that safe supply is “creating the next generation of addicts.” He called for long-term care and supports that help people get off drugs.

“I don’t think it’s OK as a society to say it’s OK for them to live on the street,” said Rustad.

Addressing the physical addiction is one thing, he added, but providing supports so that people coming off substances do not fall back into old habits and relationships must be part of the recovery process.

Rustad would like the province to gain the sort of autonomy over immigration that Quebec has been granted, “not from the perspective of saying people can’t come, but identifying those with the skill sets we need,” he said.

Housing construction needs to be ramped up and immigrants who can work in those sectors need to be encouraged, he said. Likewise, the province should be working with post-secondary institutions overseas to address issues of credentials before new Canadians move so that people can integrate smoothly into the economy when they arrive.

The foreign buyers’ property tax allows British Columbians to, he said, point at others and say “they are the problem” for high housing costs.

The province’s new densification policies overrule municipalities’ official community plans, he said. These “sound great” in terms of housing, said Rustad, but do not consider sewers and other infrastructures.

Dallas Brodie, the Conservative candidate taking on BC United leader Kevin Falcon in Vancouver-Quilchena, shared her “Israel coming-of-age story.” She had practised law for 10 years and served as a legal aid criminal defender for young offenders before getting into broadcasting. She intended to do legal analysis but broadened her scope to become a producer for CBC in Toronto and Ottawa and later for CKNW talk radio in Vancouver. She noted a media double standard in which, for example, if a pro-Israel speaker were booked, management would demand equal time for an anti-Israel voice. The process became so onerous, she said, “you just stop covering the topic of Israel altogether.”

Eventually, Brodie became host of a weekly program on the University of British Columbia campus station CITR, which she refers to as a “viper’s nest of Marxist thought.” There, she said, she was told not to say the word “Israel” on the air because it is upsetting to people. This UBC connection put Brodie in touch with staff at the campus Jewish organization Hillel, who included Brodie on trip to Israel that she says presented a balanced introduction to the region.

“Even the Palestinian perspective was presented to us,” she said.

The next year, she participated in March of the Living, where participants visit the Nazi death camps.

Running for the provincial legislature, Brodie said some people suggested that including her strong support for Israel in her political biography might hurt her chances, but she insisted on including it.

“My party more than supports my position and stands firmly and strongly behind me,” she said. “I will never go wobbly.”

Vancouver-Langara Conservative candidate Bryan Breguet, an economist who teaches at Langara College, noted that his institution became “internationally famous” last fall after a colleague (later fired) celebrated the atrocities of Oct. 7.

Breguet reflected on a recent incident in which a Burnaby public school teacher engaged in a “thought experiment,” asking students whether Israel had a right to exist. He questioned what the public reaction would have been to a thought experiment asking whether slavery should or should not have been abolished.

Breguet said he traveled to Israel in 2007 and was shocked to see the separation barrier in the process of construction. What shocked him, he said, was that the wall “hadn’t been built decades earlier.”

John Coupar, the party’s candidate in the newly created riding of Vancouver-Little Mountain, cited his 12 years of experience as an elected Vancouver park commissioner and his efforts to save the Bloedel Conservatory.

He condemned the provincial government’s “failed experiment to legalize drugs” and called for “treatment, recovery and safe streets.”

He addressed antisemitism and condemned the governing New Democrats for their choice of candidate to run in the riding he is contesting.

“Your community is suffering deeply,” he said, before criticizing the governing NDP who he says “doubled down” by nominating Vancouver city councilor Christine Boyle as the NDP candidate in Little Mountain, “the only councilor to vote against IHRA [the adoption of a working definition of antisemitism] not once but twice.”

“This is absolutely appalling to me,” Coupar said.

A question from the audience addressed concerns that a failure to unite Conservative and BC United voters could result in a reelected NDP government. Rustad said discussions to fuse the parties, or to form some sort of electoral alliance, were unsuccessful, a failure Rustad placed on the other party.

He claims his party’s polling and analysis suggest that, if the two parties merged under the Conservative banner, the election would result in a six-seat majority for the Conservatives while, if they coalesced under the BC United banner, the NDP would win by 20 seats.

The election is on Oct. 19.

Pat Johnson’s full speech – rally for Israeli hostages March 17/24

I want to thank Daphna not just for inviting me today. But for inviting each of us here every Sunday. It’s so important.

Daphna – todah rabah.

I was not born into this community. Nor did I convert. I just showed up here, about 30 years ago, like a stray dog. And you took me in.

As someone coming into this community from the outside — but especially, coming from a background of progressive, left-wing activism, from the gay community, from antiracist activism, I have had the opportunity to see, to hear and to understand events from different angles.

When I showed up in Vancouver’s Jewish community, I had no idea about the depths of the familial, spiritual, emotional and personal connections between almost every Jewish person and the state and the land of Israel.

And I think this is one of the things that you probably discovered in the last five months. Most people just do not comprehend what Israel means to Jewish people.

We need to share that story. But we can only share that story if other people will listen. And that is the problem.

Because the people who need to hear it are too busy chanting to listen … or to understand.

Many British Columbians fail to understand why a former cabinet minister is claiming anti-Jewish bias while so many of her colleagues, who have apparently invested no effort into exploring the many forms antisemitism can take, steadfastly insist there must be some other explanation.

Israel is the national embodiment of the Jewish people. To attack Israel is to attack Jews.

Here is the bigger issue …

The people who are marching against Israel … they are not helping the people of Gaza … and they sure as hell are not making the world a better place.

The only thing they are doing is making Canada a more dangerous, toxic, intolerant country.

Hateful words against Israel are inciting violence against Jews in Canada.

And when we express concern about this undeniable correlation, we are accused of conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism … as if that distinction makes a damn bit of difference to the victim of a hate crime.

Words of hate … lead to acts of hate. We understand this when it comes to any other group.

But when it comes to Jews … people are willing to employ the most dangerous, inflammatory and incendiary rhetoric. And let the chips fall where they may.

But it is not only Jews and Israelis who are under attack by these radical extremists.

It is the very essence of what it means to be Canadian. It is our core national values that these activists betray.

Day after day, we see shrieking, crazed mobs shutting down events, screaming obscenities and threatening people who are trying to live their lives, commute to work, go to the theatre, attend synagogue or get an education.

The person you should be hearing from is not me.

Selina Robinson was invited here today. But it was not safe for her to come.

What does that tell you about the state of civil discourse in Canada?

You’ve seen their rallies. You have heard their chants. Do those look to you like people of peace?

They call for Israel to stop defending itself … but they refuse to demand the one thing that would immediately end the war and all this dying – the surrender of Hamas.

On the steps of this art gallery, days after the pogrom of October 7, people stood here and celebrated murder, rape, beheadings and kidnappings.

We mourn … we grieve every single innocent life lost.

We do not celebrate dead innocents.

Neither do we tally up bodies in a grotesque competition where the side with the most dead wins moral victory.

And even if some of the people who march for Palestine do not celebrate beheadings, do not applaud rape or rejoice at mass murder – they are absolutely content to march alongside people who do.

Those who on these steps called those horrific, inhuman atrocities “brilliant and amazing” are not only part of a movement that is holding human beings hostage.

They are holding hostage humanity itself.

They have abducted words like peace and ceasefire, freedom and human rights — but they desecrate these values.

Canadians have allowed people who align with the most misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic, violent and totalitarian forces on earth to masquerade as voices for justice and equality … while accusing us of humanity’s greatest crimes.

If these people were genuinely advancing human rights and social justice, they wouldn’t need to cover their faces in keffiyahs and balaclavas.

We need to figuratively tear off their masks and show Canadians who these people are …

Maybe many Canadians don’t care about a conflict half a world away.

But the violence, coercion, intimidation and racism these people embody is a threat to Canada… to our civility … our peace, our multiculturalism and political discourse.

But the threat does not come only from the goons marching in the streets.

It also comes from some of our elected officials – including some who, until very recently, we thought were our friends — from the trusted teacher, the activist clergyperson, the crusading union leader, the self-righteous politically engaged artist.

Meanwhile, far too many Canadians have stood on the sidelines while extremists have taken over our streets, our campuses, our community theatres, our high schools, our public service.

Maybe they don’t care about Israelis.

Maybe they don’t care if the Jewish people lose their country.

But when they wake up and see that Canadians have lost ours … Jewish Canadians and their allies will be asking. Where were you?

Where were you when we were standing up for the values that Israelis and Canadians share?

Where were you when we demanded bring them home?

Because if you are not standing with Israelis against extremism … you are emboldening extremism in Canada.

This is not about choosing between Israelis and Palestinians. Unlike the extremists, we want peace for everyone.

This is about choosing between civilization and barbarism.

And we need to ask every Canadian: Which side are you on?

New and old voices unite – NCJW, turning 100, partners with startup Beyond a Ballot

Amanda Alvaro, left, and Rachael Segal cohost the podcast Beyond a Ballot, on which they will interview former BC premier Christy Clark live on stage at the Waterfront Theatre on March 25. (photo from NCJW)

International Women’s Day is marked today, March 8, and this month one of Canada’s oldest women’s organizations is partnering with a new female-focused startup to encourage greater engagement with politics.

National Council of Jewish Women, Vancouver branch, is holding a special event March 25 with Beyond a Ballot. The social enterprise launched by Rachael Segal, a Vancouver woman with extensive experience in politics and broadcast journalism, aims to encourage women to get more informed and involved in politics at every level. Segal is cohost of the Beyond a Ballot podcast, which will be recorded in front of a live audience for the first time at this month’s event. She and Amanda Alvaro will interview former BC premier Christy Clark on stage at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island.

The collaboration between one of Canada’s oldest Jewish women’s groups and one of the newest innovations on the Canadian political scene is a product of the friendship between Segal and Jordana Corenblum, Vancouver chapter president of National Council.

Corenblum took over less than two years ago as president of the local section of NCJW, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year. The chapter is in the process of a major generational shift, she said, and partnering with a new female-focused organization on a live podcast fit the group’s vision. It is also a consequence of their personal connection.

photo - Jordana Corenblum, Vancouver chapter president of National Council of Jewish Women — Jordana Corenblum, Vancouver chapter president of National Council of Jewish Women. (photo from NCJW)

Corenblum’s first job out of university was as a youth director at Congregation Beth Israel, where she met a 14-year-old Segal. They have remained tight ever since.

Corenblum, who is a career youth worker, said she had been urging Segal for some time to create something that educates and encourages women to get more involved in politics. With

Segal launching Beyond a Ballot last year and Corenblum taking over the local branch of National Council, a partnership was a cinch.

Segal holds a master’s in law and worked on Parliament Hill with Conservative members of Parliament, ministers and senators. She has extensive broadcast experience in TV and radio and is a commentator on CBC’s Power and Politics. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria, she was president of the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students and she has worked with the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. She has served as senior director of the BC Liberal party.

Segal’s podcast cohost, Alvaro, who lives in Toronto, runs a communications agency and has also worked as a political advisor for provincial and federal Liberals. She is a regular commentator on CBC TV’s Power and Politics and appears regularly in national print media.

“For a generation, we’ve been talking about putting your name on the ballot,” Segal said. “We need more women in the Legislature. We need more women in the House [of Commons]. But nobody was ever talking to the women who didn’t want to put their name on the ballot, [who] just wanted to be more engaged. I decided to launch this company, which uses media product, educational product and the building of community to try to talk to women differently about politics.

“My goal is for every woman in Canada to have a daily touch point with politics, whether that means having a conversation with your girlfriends, talking to your kids about something in the news, reading a news story or maybe that means deciding to run,” she said.

The podcast has been “astronomically successful, beyond belief,” Segal said. “Amanda and I put hours and hours a week on it.”

Future plans for Beyond a Ballot include developing a mentorship model that allows women to engage in smaller, more intimate groups, and hosting national conferences to give a platform to women in politics.

“Nothing like that exists right now in this country,” she said.

Beyond a Ballot is all about multi-partisanship and that comes through in the podcast.

“We don’t care what your position is, just that you have one,” said Segal. “Amanda is from the Liberal side, I’m from the Conservative side, but we have a really interesting conversation, where it is not divisive. We don’t go after people based on their political positions. It’s really about education above all else.”

While Segal started Beyond a Ballot from scratch last year, Corenblum took over as the new face of an established organization already in progress.

The Jewish community has a long history of women’s philanthropic and leadership organizations, which have had huge impacts over more than a century. Social changes – not least the increase in women working outside the home in the past several generations – have had an impact on these groups. Moreover, as happens in any volunteer agency, leaders burn out or simply weary of the commitment.

Local leaders approached Corenblum, who had not been involved previously, and urged her to take a role.

“The people who had been involved in the leadership for decades were all stepping back,” said Corenblum. “They were looking to the next generation and courting me and my friends and really flattered us and said, we need you young people to be involved. When you’re in your mid-40s and somebody’s calling you young, it’s flattering. We’ll listen to anything they have to say.”

The relevance of National Council, she said, has not diminished, as there is backsliding on some of the issues facing women. More than many other women’s groups of longstanding, NCJW has always been deeply engaged in political issues, she said.

“I think there’s a lot of overlap between this vast array of Jewish women’s groups,” she said. “The unique piece about National Council is that it is specifically focused on social justice work. They have a long history of being involved in political advocacy.… The entire focus of the organization is about social justice and engagement of women in tikkun olam.”

Corenblum and the mix of new and experienced local leaders are conscious of the embarrassment of riches the Jewish community has in terms of organizations doing good works.

“There doesn’t need to be another organization that is doing programming,” she said. “We don’t need to get in and continue to offer more, because our community has so much to offer. What we really want to focus on is collaboration with organizations that are doing work or have values that are aligned with ours and doing things with them and supporting them in their work.”

One new NCJW initiative is working with Jewish Family Services on a garden-to-table project where they join with families planting vegetables in a community garden, then nurturing and harvesting the produce and cooking healthy meals.

Ideas sometimes fall into their laps. A thread on an online Vancouver Jewish moms group indicated that several families were coming to Vancouver from Israel for a respite from the chaos there. People were asking for car seats, warm clothing, highchairs, toys and other needs for families visiting for a few weeks.

“With National Council support, we were able to create a new local program called Warm Welcome,” Corenblum said. Before long, they had more donations than they could handle.

Ongoing projects the group runs include Books for Kids.

“It’s about getting kids books to families and institutions that don’t necessarily have access to new beautiful books for families and children to take pride in,” she said.

In January, as a local part of a national fundraiser, NCJW organized a games day that raised $8,000 in Vancouver alone to support a counseling service in Israel that has been overwhelmed with demand since Oct. 7.

“The thing that I love about this organization is that it so incredibly flexible,” said Corenblum. “People who are doing small projects around BC can apply to us for funding to help with whatever projects that are going on.”

She calls on anybody who has a passion project or is excited about an idea to reach out and make it happen together. “We really want this to be a grassroots organization for things that matter on the micro scale – and sometimes on the macro scale,” she said.

Corenblum acknowledged that her own politics do not mesh with those of the guest at the live taping her group is sponsoring – but that dialogue across divides is precisely the point, she said.

For Segal, Clark is a great get.

“Christy was on our A-list for our dream conversations,” Segal said, “so she very kindly agreed to do this one not only with us, but in person, which is amazing.”

The partnership with NCJW is an opportunity to reach new audiences, Segal added. “They approached us with this idea,” she said. “I think it’s pretty awesome that they’ve recognized the importance of this conversation and they have been incredible partners and hosts for this event.”

Segal said that, as a Jewish woman in the current climate, finding a supportive community is important.

“We saw everything with Selina Robinson on the provincial level, we’ve seen international issues, and I think there’s a lot of women who are feeling like they want to do more,” she said. “Beyond a Ballot aims to provide women with that opportunity. Engaging with us and knowing that you have a community across the country that is here to support whatever issues are important to you, and give you the tools to be a better advocate for your community, is what women across Canada should know about Beyond a Ballot.”

Tickets for the March 25 event, at 7 p.m., are $18 and available online at eventbrite.ca.

“If you’re going to go and engage in Women’s Month events, please consider putting this one on your calendar because it may not be the sexiest of all topics, but it is definitely the one that impacts your life every day,” Segal said.