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Record 50,000 walk for Israel in Toronto · Kvetch & Release

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  It has been about eight months since that horrific attack by Hamas into the country
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  of Israel, immense deaths. It has led to a conflict which is still
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  ongoing now. However, we have also seen a large uptick in anti Semitism
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  in our own country. But this past weekend, fifty thousand people turned out,
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  according to the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto for the Walk with Israel.
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  It was a record setting attendance. They raised one point two million dollars earmarked
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  for rebuilding in Israel after those attacks. Joining me is someone who has been
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  following the I guess you would say the Israel file, the Anti Semitism file,
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  writes about it fairly often and brings it up. Is Warren Kinsella,
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  who is a columnist with the National Post and the Toronto Sun, as well
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  as just a great ally to the Jewish community. Warren, how are you
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  today? Good, my friend? Thanks for having me on, Thanks for
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  joining me. Huge numbers, fifty thousand people right off the bat. What
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  does that say to you? Well, I checked before we talked, and
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  I think it's bigger than just meant. Anything that's ever happened in the city
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  of Toronto, where I am at the moment, bigger than the COVID protests,
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  bigger than the Black Lives Matter rallies, just meant anything that I could
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  find, nobody seemed to appreach approach fifty thousand. Certainly not the anti Israel
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  rallies and protests have been happening. And the other thing was extraordinary, along
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  with the fact that, you know, fifty thousand people, it's like the
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  population of Bellville, Ontario like is that there really wasn't any trouble. There
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  were a few arrests by people who are trying to cause trouble, you know,
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  the Prohamas crowd, but for the most part it went off without a
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  hitch. So, you know, the Toronto Police Service and the UJA Federation
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  of Toronto and did a really good job and nobody got hurt and everybody seemed
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  to have a good time well, and that's incredibly important. And again we
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  look at that number fifty thousand, there's really only close to three hundred and
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  fifty thousand Jews in the country as a whole. I mean, I'm not
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  suggesting that everybody who was there was Jewish. Of course, there were allies
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  there, There were people who wanted to support the the you know, just
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  the cause for Israel. But it really does speak to just I mean it's
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  a huge number, it really is. You know, I was there.
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  I saw with my own eyes like it was just there were people everywhere,
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  but it was it was the mood, you know, people and they it
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  didn't you know, it wasn't just Israeli flags that they were waving. They
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  were waving Canadian flags too, which is something you never see. I have
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  been to encampments, I've covered protests and written about them and watched them.
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  You never see a Canadian flag at these anti Israel things. There were tons
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  of Canadian flags in evidence yesterday. The canadianthem was sung. There were Indigenous
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  people there, there were people of color. It was it was like a
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  United Nations kind of event, and it was it was really positive. You
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  could tell that people needed it because the Jewish communities, you know, John
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  has really felt besieged in the past eight months. They felt isolated, they
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  feel abandoned by governments, they feel under attack and you know, quite literally
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  they are from fire bombings to shootings to vandalism, and they needed it,
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  like they really needed a positive event like that, and they got it.
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  Well, you know, I mean we're looking here right now. As much
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  as the Jewish community needed that, of course, we have seen, you
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  know, a bit of opposition to it. Aside from as you said,
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  you know, there was some tensions here or there. I saw your colleague
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  Joe Warmington had posted a few videos about it. But you know, that's
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  that's part for the course. You expect to see stuff like that every now
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  and then when it happens. But what we didn't see there was the Mayor
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  of Toronto, no Olivia Chow was not there. Justin Trudeau, the Prime
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  Minister Canada, was not there, and that was really disappointing. You know,
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  in the case of Chow, it's been a growing sense of disappointment I
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  think in the Jewish community and allies of the Jewish community. Just a few
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  days ago, you know, there was a flag raising at City Hall in
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  Toronto, the Israeli flag on the occasion of you know, Israel's Independence Day,
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  and that's happened for years. John like just a single flag in a
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  remote corner of City Hall, and she refused to go, saying it was
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  to visit, you know. And this is the same woman who's allowed you
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  know, Hamas banners to be displayed and all kinds of awful things said without
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  it being impeded. And in the case of Trudeau, it was disappointing because
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  you know, he is said all kinds of things about the way in which
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  Israel has conducted the war that have been shown to be false, and he
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  really seems to have not been an ally to the Jewish community, and so
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  you know, people were disappointed. But there were other leaders who did show
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  up, as from the federal, provincial, and municipal level, and they
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  were all well received. So how does this all play out do you think
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  politically speaking? I mean, again, the Jewish population is not a huge
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  one, but people are looking towards you know, what politicians are doing or
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  rather not doing through their actions, and what do you think that translates to
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  to the average you know Canadian who again not Jewish, but someone who's looking
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  at this going oh wow, I wasn't expecting this person to act the way
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  that they are. That is the key phrase. It's not just Jews we're
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  preoccupied with this. You know, my firm, the Daisy Group, does
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  polling. We write questionnaires, we pay close attention to public opinion. We're
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  in the business of public opinion, and I can tell you the vast majority
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  of Canadians are on side with Israel. They believe that Israel has a right
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  to defend itself. They believe that Humas needs to be eliminated. They want
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  to see the hostages come back. Overwhelmingly, that's what Canadians want. And
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  so you know, it's not just a question in the Jewish vote, it's
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  the vote of everybody who's on the side of decency and civilization and democracy.
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  They want to see their leaders step up and ally themselves with a community that
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  is under attack, and a lot of leaders are doing that. I would
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  say the majority leaders are doing that, but some in places like Montreal or
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  Toronto or Ottawa are not, and they're going to pay a price for that
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  politically. So I'm looking at a colleague of yours, Brian Pasifume, who
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  has just put out a tweet about charges that have been laid in regards to
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  this weekend's walk with Israel in Toronto. Oh, sorry for throwing this at
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  you without you knowing what I'm about to say. But there have been six
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  charges, one for public incitement of hatred, another for public incitement of hatred,
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  resisting an officer as well another disturbance. Then there's a fail to leave,
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  obstruction and resistance of an officer, a further assault charge, and then
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  finally mischief interfere with property ages ranging from twenty two up to seventy five years
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  old. It's just staggering what's happening on our streets. It is, and
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  it's lawlessness that is not just bad for Jews, bad for all of us.
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  It's bad for Canadian society. And things have been tolerated in the past
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  eight months that would have never been tolerated with many other communities and on many
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  other occasions. And so you know that's not just a failure of our politicians.
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  Police and prosecutors have failed as well. I think the Toronto Police Service
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  had been under a lot of crit from guys like me over the past few
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  months about stepping up their efforts to basically deal with crime it was happening in
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  our streets. And they've done that and we really saw that yesterday. They
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  protected people, they got right between groups to ensure that there was no trouble
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  and no violence. And now, as you point out, we've got these
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  arrests that are taking place and some of those charges that you've outlined, some
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  of them are serious ones like assault, right resisting an officer, disturbance at
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  public excitement of hatred. Those are big charges. They can result in serious
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  jail time. You know, my parents used to run a pretty big music
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  festival and it's you know, tone and leadership comes from the top, and
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  you're going to end up with a rowdy crowd at an event if you don't
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  create the you know, the tone. Quite frankly, that that's not allowed.
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  And it seems as if up until at least, let's just say,
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  this weekend, almost encourage or at the very least condoned. And that's been
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  a problem about war. And I mean, you've never seen it the way
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  that it looks like, have you. No? And I've been reading about
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  this stuff for more than thirty years. Neo Nazi groups, white supremacist groups,
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  hitler friggs, you name it. I've interviewed them all from coast to
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  coast, and no part of the country has got a monopoly on virtue,
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  John, Every part of the country has got a problem, whether it's hatred
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  against Jews or people of color, or gays and lesbians, you name it.
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  Everybody has been a target one time or another. But I have never
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  never seen it as bad as it is right now. And one of the
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  big reasons why it's bad right now is these people are organized and well financed,
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  and they're receiving organizational help from inside and outside Candidate number one, but
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  number two like, they're being allowed to do these things with impunity. Like
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  if a bad guy, you know, takes a swipe at someone at a
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  protest and they see that they're not getting arrested, well, they're much more
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  likely to do it again. That's on the Prince and law we call deterrence.
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  They have not been deterred by the actions of public officials, and that
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  has to change. We have to clamp down on this kind of criminal behavior.
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  Well, we're going to have much more of it, and that has
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  been the lesson of the past eight months. We've got more of it because
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  we haven't been dealing with it. It will not subside on its own.
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  There needs to be at least some action. I agree with you on that,
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  Warren. I really appreciate your time. It's always illuminating to speak with
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  you. Thanks my friend, Thank you. Warren Konzella is a columnist with
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  the National Post. As well as the Toronto Sun or