Sorry to butt in insolently (If R. Shepherd wants to he will censor this), but just add: Toronto great city??? And what exactly makes it so “great”? Its horribly ugly architecture generally? Its treeless downtown, wide boulevards without a single little plant? Its shabby shopfronts and streetscapes without any discernable distinction and characteristic? I know very well that it’s cool nowadays to hype Toronto, but I find it unconvincing. Full disclosure: my father actually loved it, and we had a very serious diff of opinion on this issue. Btw I’ve never been there BUT seen hundreds of pictures.) Sorry if I digressed…

Give me a break! Alarmist bull. The Ontario legislature, which is located in Toronto, specifically denounced Israel Apartheid Week — even the leftist NDP joined in. You are smearing a great city with silly, untrue remarks like that. If you mean Toronto’s large growing Muslim population that’s one thing, but it’s absolutely untrue to attribute these sentiments to the city as a whole — which, after all, has 180,000 Jews and a longstanding Jewish presence (e.g. Kensington market).

And by the way, I’m no fan of Toronto, having grown up in Montreal.

No, it doesn’t feel comfortable and sadder still are those who are joining the anti-Israel movement without stopping to consider exactly how the public were manipulated and fed propaganda when Hitler came to power.

They just can’t see that they are following along those same lines.

On a per capita basis, there are roughly 10 times as many anti-Semitic incidents in Canada each year compared to the USA. A relative, Scottish, converted to Judaism and now living in Canada, reports that he hears frequent anti-Semitic comments made by those who have no idea that he is Jewish. The problem has been exacerbated by the increasing Moslem population, primarily in Montreal (where Netanyahu once had to cancel a speech at a university) and Toronto, which doesnot distinguish between Israel and Jews.

The Canadian churches have been at the forefront of the BDS movement, and are virulently anti-Israel.

It looks like the Canadian leadership, and decent Canadians, may have woken up to the slippery slope their country has been pushed onto, and are trying to rein matters in before they become too critical.

That being said, that Canada was an entirely different place to post-WWII Canada, particularly since the Pearson-Trudeau years (early 1960s to 1984). True, until Harper, Canada has not maintained the same pro-Israeli stance as the U.S., but it has been a steadfast friend. The poll cited by Joshua reflects Canada’s middle position between the U.S. and Britain on this and many other issues. I am a Canadian Jew and I can count the number of anti-semitic incidents I’ve experienced in my 50+ years on one hand and have fingers left over. Even our Liberal opposition leader, Michael Ignatieff, is quite pro-israel, though he has waffled on some issues (like the Lebanon war in 2006). Early in this decade, the then (separatist) premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, resigned from his position because of what he perceived as anti-semitism in his party. Yes Canadian universities host the abomination known as “israel apartheid week” but that is because of the large number of muslim students on some Canadian campuses, and because hard leftism’s last refuge in Canada is in the university. Whenever the rank-and-file here get to vote on divestment, boycott or sanctions, they reject it utterly. Nor has Stephen Harper’s govt suffered politically for its unabashed pro-Israel stance. In short, it’s a bit disingenuous to claim that Harper is an anomaly; modern Canada is generally speaking free from bigotry and always wants to do the right thing: Sometimes that can temporarily play into the hands of the squealing leftie crowd and their anti-Israel obsession, but these views do not resonate among most Canadians, and Canada-Israel friendship remains stronger than ever. But hey, Canada isn’t the U.S., doesn’t want to be, and never will be. Compared to the rest of the world, though, we’re one of Israel’s staunchest friends and allies. If i’m not mistaken, we even have a free-trade agreement with Israel.

‘A few months later, Prime Minister King visited Germany to meet Chancellor Adolf Hitler. King recorded the following impressions of that meeting: “He [Hitler] smiled very pleasantly and indeed had a sort of appealing and affectionate look in his eyes. My sizing up of the man as I sat and talked with him was that he is really one who truly loves his fellow man. His face is much more pre- possessing than his pictures would give the impression of. It is not that of a fiery over-strained nature but of a calm, passive man deeply and thoughtfully in earnest. His skin was smooth. His face did not present lines of fatigue or weariness. His eyes impressed me most of all. There was a liquid qualify about them which indicates keen perception and profound sympathy. Calm, composed and one could see how particularly humble folk would have come to have profound love for the man. As I talked with him I could not but think of Joan of Arc. He is distinctly a mystic.”

The following day, our Prime Minister had lunch in Berlin with the Nazi Foreign Minister von Neurath, who delivered himself of some interesting opinions: “He admitted that they [the Nazis] had taken some pretty rough steps in cleaning up the situation, but the truth was the country was going to pieces at the time Hitler took hold. He said to me that I would have loathed living in Berlin with the Jews, and the way in which they had increased their numbers in the city, and were taking possession of its more important part. He said there was no pleasure in going to a theatre which was filled with them. Many of them were very coarse and vulgar and assertive. They were getting control of all the business, the finance, and had really taken advantage of the necessity of the people. It was necessary to get them out to have the Germans really control their own city and affairs. He told me I would have been surprised at the extent to which life and morale had become demoralized - that Hitler had set his face against all that kind of thing, and had tried to inspire desire for a good life in the minds of young people.”

And how did Canada’s Prime Minister react to these diabolically racist and extremely ominous comments by one of the most powerful leaders of the Third Reich?

Mackenzie King wrote: “I left him feeling that I had met a man whose confidence I would continue to enjoy through the rest of my days… After returning to the hotel, I wrote a letter of some length by hand to von Neurath whom I like exceedingly. He is, if there ever was one, a genuinely kind, good man.” ‘

Anti-Semitism: An Enduring Reality by Brian Mulroney

http://www.utoronto.ca/mcis/antisemitism/Mulroney.htm