Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today.
I'm shocked to hear about anti-Semitism. I was raised by Dutch immigrant parents who left the Netherlands after World War II. I was raised hearing stories about Dutch people protecting Jewish people and hiding them, sometimes for years on end, and about the Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupiers. My grandfather died in a Nazi concentration camp for his defence of Jewish people. That's what I was raised on.
I thought anti-Semitism was dead, but obviously I'm naive about these sorts of things. I was very shocked, as was the whole world, about what happened in Israel on October 7.
Now, I have to tell you that I'm also very shocked as to what's going on at campuses in Canada, the Canada that I thought was a free and democratic nation, a country of the rule of law, where the laws should be enforced. I'm shocked to hear these stories.
Thank you for your bravery, for your courage and for standing up for everything that is right and decent.
I do have a question. I think I'll direct it to Nicole.
I thought it was a very interesting analysis equating being Jewish to being Zionist, and anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. You're equating them. Here's my question for you. In an environment of free speech and free expression, is there room for right-thinking people to be critical of the modern State of Israel today and the way it is conducting itself in the Middle East and, in particular, in the war in Gaza right now?