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This IS Who We Are: Canada Fails to Protect Jews · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: John Litke has a take. Good morning, John.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Well, we're talking about a number of issues here. I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: should mention to the good listenership that you are an
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: advocate for the Jewish community. You are Jewish, and you
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: have been doing this for many, many years. Now, we're
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: talking about the shooting near a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: in eastern Ontario. Like most synagogues, there was a police
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: officer there protecting the congregation. Shots rang out. The police
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: officer confronted the gunman. He was shot. In the course
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of that, the police officer was also shot in the arm.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: He suffered non-life-threatening wounds. He's a hero, in fact, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this came right on the eve of Yom Kippur. So
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: with that in mind, you've been extremely critical. A federal
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: NDP leader, Avi Lewis's social media post on Yom Kippur.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: What did he say, and why did you oppose it?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, Gene, thanks for having me on. Within
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: an hour of the shotgun rounds piercing the stained glass
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: windows of the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, NDP
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: leader Avi Lewis published on X a post telling Canadian
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Jews that we failed to do our part to stop
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: an overseas conflict committed in our name. I oppose this
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: because it's morally bankrupt and it's flatly against Canada's official
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: anti-racism policies to collectively hold a group together for the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: actions of a singular person or a group of people
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: somewhere else on the other side of the world. In 2019,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Canada officially adopted the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism as
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: federal policy. When a federal political leader lectures Canadian worshippers
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: on our holiest day, holding us collectively accountable for a
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: foreign military, he's violating our own anti-racism guidelines. I don't
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: care that he's Jewish himself. and he's constructing an ideological
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: permission structure that turns local synagogues into targets. I'm not
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: blaming him for the actions that happened. I think it's
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: incredibly tone-deaf that he put out that post while there
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: were still congregants, I believe, sheltered inside, or at least
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out what the aftermath of the situation was.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: It was disgusting, it was deplorable, and we can talk
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: about what his statement actually had to say, though.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Well, Lewis's statement came... Within an hour of the shooting
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: at the synagogue in Belleville, the one you were talking about. However,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: every major political leader, the Prime Minister, Premier Ford, NDP
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: leader Merritt Stiles, issued swift statements condemning the shooting and anti-Semitism,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: except for Lewis, who took 19 hours to respond. Why
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: do you think it took him so long?
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I think it took so long, it took 19 hours,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: because their team was in crisis management, realizing that they
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: had been caught stoking the very hatred that can lead
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: to real-world bullets in our communities. But when he finally
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: did post at 2.13 p.m. the following day, think about that.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: how long it took, 19 hours, roughly. I mean, it's just,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: it's insane. He made things worse. First, he completely erased
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Constable Jeff Smith, who is still in hospital right now
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: after taking that shotgun blast. He didn't mention him whatsoever.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: He didn't name him. He didn't thank law enforcement. He
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: didn't wish him a recovery. Second, he pulled an all-lives-matter pivot,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: diluting a targeted anti-Semitic attack on Yom Kippur into a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: generic lecture about the safety for people of all faiths.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And third, while he put out that sanitized PR statement,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: his original post holding Canadian Jews collectively guilty for the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: actions of Israel still remained live on his feed, and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: it still does.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Now, looking at the federal government's response, including Minister Mark Miller's, basically,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: our thoughts and prayers are with you message, and the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: new Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion, and their
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: lack of communication, I'm probably guessing you're not that satisfied.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Not in the slightest. And fortunately for NDP leader Avi Lewis,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of blame that goes around here, as
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: we can talk about from the government side. Thoughts and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: prayers from cabinet ministers are meaningless when government policy is
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: actively failing, Gene. The federal government dissolved dedicated, accountable anti-hate
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: envoys and replaced them with a diluted advisory council on rights, equality,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and inclusion. And it's been around for, what, over a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: year now? And I haven't seen them do anything. I
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: haven't seen them even put out really meaningful statements. It's
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: pure window dressing and PR. When you replace, you know, actionable,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: clear policy with broad advisory committees, you get zero deterrence.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And so while Ottawa is sitting around and issuing polite statements,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: synagogues are literally being shot up. Businesses, Jewish businesses, have
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: been burned over the past three years. And right now,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: police officers are taking bullets in the line of duty.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: It is useless bureaucratic cover for their own inaction.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Well, not only did that happen in Belleville, and that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: was shocking to wake up to on Monday morning, news
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: broke yesterday that Durham Regional Police arrested a 19-year-old in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Whitby for threatening to shoot up synagogues. And how does
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that fit into what you describe as a broader systemic
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: escalation since October 7th?
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You know, this proves, Gene, that Belleville wasn't a crazy
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: isolated incident. Durham police arrested a 19-year-old because he was
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: actively planning on social media talking about it to shoot
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: up a synagogue at the exact same high holy holiday
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: weekend for Jews this just past weekend. For three years
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: since October the 7th, Canadian Jews, globally Jews, have been
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: screaming that the early warning signs are being ignored. It
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: started with rallies in our streets. Then we saw fire
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: bombings at businesses, at community centers, at synagogues. Then there
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: were shootings at schools at nighttime. Then there were assaults
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: at grocery stores, a stabbing at a kosher grocery store.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: And now we have seen a shooting near at a
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: synagogue on the holiest day while congregants were inside. Because
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: politicians treated those early violent escalations with polite hand-waving, extremists
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: have become emboldened. We now have province-wide threat environments where
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: radicalized people feel entirely justified grabbing a shotgun or posting
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: online plots to slaughter Jewish worshippers. This is Canada.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Now, you and many Jews have repeatedly challenged the common
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: political refrain, this isn't who we are in Canada. It
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: sure looks to me, and I'm not Jewish, that this
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: currently is who we are or who we have become.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: This is who we are. A country is defined by
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: what it tolerates, not by the lazy slogans politicians repeat.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: So when 20 to 30 shotgun rounds are fired outside
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: a house of worship, when stained glass windows get riddled
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: with bullet holes, when a hero police officer had to
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: go into the hospital to taking shots in the line
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: of duty to save congregants, and when mobs gather, and
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: as we just saw on social media, I didn't mention
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: this to you, outside the Toronto Arts Centre shouting profanities
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: and horrible things, just that Jewish families trying to pray
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: on the holiest day of the year. You can no
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: longer pretend that this is an anomaly. This is Canada.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Right now, under our current political leadership and rhetoric, this
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: is exactly what Canada has allowed itself to become. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: until political leaders stop hiding behind slogans and start treating
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: anti-Jewish hate as an active national security crisis, those bullet
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: holes in Belleville won't be the last. And first they
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: come for the Saturday people. Next they come for the
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Sunday people.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Why should the average non-Jewish Canadian care about this?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I think the everyday non-Jewish Canadians care about this because
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: targeted extremist violence never stays contained to one group. And
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: the rule of law in Canada, Gene, is actively breaking down.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, look at what happened in Belleville. We saw
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: the most 20 to 30 rounds fired in a residential
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: neighbourhood yesterday. Outside of a house of worship, stray shotgun
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: blasts actually striking homes and parked cars. More importantly, a
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: 13-year vet of the police force is sitting in the
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: hospital still because of taking that blast to protect Canadian worshippers.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: If police officers are taking bullets in the line of
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: duty just to defend houses of worship, no neighborhood in
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: this country is safe. If the basic Canadian guarantee of
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: freedom of worship can be shattered while leaders look the
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: other way or issue meaningless platitudes, the social contract is
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: broken for every Canadian. So today it's a synagogue. Tomorrow
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: it's any community or any institution that an extremist decides
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: to target in this country.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Excellent take today.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Gene.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: John Litke. Litke's got a take. He's back with us
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: later in the week.