Thoughts on BC Politics and More

There are places where you expect to find antisemitism in 2025. You expect to find it in the hallways of elite universities where settler-colonial dogma has replaced moral reasoning. You expect to find it in the public squares of cultures shaped by centuries of hostility toward Jews. Finding antisemitism in these places is awful and distressing, but not shocking. What is shocking is its rise on the Right in Western countries. Not only on obscure Reddit threads or the fringes of Twitch, but within new movements that see themselves as insurgents against an unresponsive establishment. Antisemitism is emerging in spaces that once took individual agency, moral responsibility, and equality before the law as bedrock truths. That is new. It demands explanation ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government is expected to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to crack down on people willfully intimidating and obstructing individuals entering places of worship, cultural community centres and schools, CBC News has learned. A source with knowledge of the government's plans says Ottawa will propose three new offences under Canada's Criminal Code, including creating a new hate crime offence. Carney promised during his election campaign to respond to what he's called a "horrifying rise in hate" including antisemitism and Islamophobia. He signalled to his caucus this week changes were coming ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

When Canadians talk about Canada, their discussions frequently turn to the ways that it is (quietly) superior to the United States. Of the many advantages, here is one that is rarely mentioned: that we can sometimes observe the conditions of liberal democracy more clearly in Canada at a remove from the glare shed by its neighbour’s superpower status. For example, since the 10/7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, the United States has seen waves of protests—as well as a notable rise in antisemitism—across the country. These are frequently attributed to the inevitable dissatisfaction that arises from America’s role as Israel’s patron. Yet, it is less remarked upon how Canada—which plays at best a minimal role in the geopolitics of the Middle East—has seen similar protests and a similar rise in antisemitic activity over that same period ... CLICK HERE for the full story

For the week of Dec. 15, 2024: Terry Glavin’s latest is a 6,200-word exploration of post-Oct. 7 Canada for The Free Press, under the headline “The Explosion of Jew-Hate in Trudeau’s Canada.” For an American audience, the Vancouver Island columnist with the National Post and publisher of the Real Story on Substack breaks down the evolution of the antisemitism epidemic north of the border.   Glavin, Bob Mackin’s guest on this week’s edition, also weighs-in on the collapse of the brutal Assad regime in Syria and the imminent final report of the Hogue Commission on foreign interference.   Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. CLICK HERE for the full interview

A federally-funded “anti-hate” organization says its relative silence on weeks of antisemitism has been because it only has the resources to focus on hate from theHamas “extreme right.” Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) founding chair Bernie Farber made the admission on X in response to a post criticizing the organization for its silence on the recent wave of antisemitism following a terrorist attack on Israelis ... CLICK HERE for the full story