Debates of Feb. 24th, 2015

Rise in anti-Semitism

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Mr. Chairman, absolutely these incidents do happen. However, the important thing is that they need to be condemned in the strongest way possible, not just by the government but also by other community leaders.

We also have to ensure that there is no grey area, that what is wrong is wrong. If it is happening in an institution or an organization by those community leaders, then we do not go to that institution anymore. We have to draw the line and say that what they are doing is wrong, that we will not stand for it anymore, and that we will speak out against them. What is important is that we take this as a right or wrong issue, and we have to always be on the right side of this.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Chair, I am honoured to rise today to address the concern that all those who value human rights and dignity share, and that is the current and very troubling rise around the globe of anti-Semitism. This re-emergence of anti-Semitism is such that I believe everyone should be troubled by this most virulent of all forms of prejudice.

What is also very troubling is that anti-Semitism is like the proverbial canary in the mine, as my colleague from Mount Royal has already said today, warning of a broader poison of racial hatred that is at work in some hearts and minds in our society.

That is because when people find it easy or palatable to hate Jews simply because they are of Jewish ethnicity or faith, it is not a stretch for discrimination to then metastasize to include more and more faiths and more and more ethnicities, with worse and worse consequences. As free people, we should make sure we stand up most vigilantly and say absolutely no to this.

Other members have talked about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe as witnessed by the Paris attacks and the proliferation of websites and blogs that make horrendous fabricated allegations against the Jews and Israel. This is most disturbing and worrisome.

Unfortunately, this echoes the testimony that I and other members of the House heard in 2010 during the hearings conducted by the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, as well as the International Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism Conference that was held right here in Ottawa in November 2010.

It is why we approved the Ottawa protocol at that summit.

What we identified in 2010 and what we witness continuing in Europe and North America today is a diabolical new strategy employed by those who perpetrate anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Their strategy is not to attack people of Jewish descent directly, but rather by stealth, to launch illegitimate criticism against the Jewish homeland, Israel.

Please allow me to be clear. In a free society such as Canada, legitimate criticism of any nation and debate of policy concerns is perfectly acceptable, in fact, even encouraged. Goodness knows we put up with plenty of it here. However, when the intent is to systematically demonize a nation, not for the purpose of disagreeing with its policies but out of racial hatred, then that is illegitimate and must be called out for what it is.

I think this is what we are seeing on Canadian campuses, called Israel Apartheid Week, not a reasoned debate on policies and actions of a country, but a concerted effort to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel to exist and the Jewish people to have a safe homeland therein.

Why would there be those who would drive support of a movement to boycott, divest, and sanction every dimension of the Israeli economy and development? Why would there be those who attempt to sanction and censure Canadian academic professors who are simply supportive of Israel?

I believe that most people caught up in these activities are either too busy to check the facts about Israel—after all, this is a democracy on a tiny sliver of land in a troubled region—or are simply naive.

However, I also believe there are some of those in these movements whose motives are prejudicial, racist, and hateful. They are using these vehicles to promote anti-Semitism. What other conclusion could one derive from these actions that only demonize Israel and the Jewish people?

Why is there no boycott initiative or apartheid week against Angola, Iran, Congo, or North Korea? Again, this is the essence that is documented in the report by the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, released in 2011.

Anti-Semitism's rise around the world concerns me, but here at home it is a much bigger worry for me. In my constituency, there has been anti-Semitic graffiti on homes and synagogues, and at McMaster University an annual Israel Apartheid Week.

We know the recommendations of the coalition's report said that the best way to combat this ignorance and prejudice is through education and the courage of all Canadians to speak out. Certainly that includes all members of the House who are speaking out tonight.

This fight requires the courage of Canadians to be vigilant when anti-Semitic words and deeds are perpetrated. They cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. It is that courage to stand up to the racist bullies who bluster insults and threats that can intimidate even the hardiest of souls.

While this is always easier said than done, if insults and threats are the worst that we have to endure, then so be it, because in other countries that are not as free and tolerant as our own, we can understand why it might be a very slippery slope to harassment, perhaps even loss of property, and in some extreme cases, torture and worse.

We saw how the seeds of discrimination sown in Europe some 80 years ago manifested into something far more sinister. I am not suggesting that it will happen here in Canada. However, what I am suggesting is that when we say "never again", it is because we are always mindful that we must stand by those words with action. We must stop any anti-Semitism in its tracks. We must never allow it to escalate.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, we have said many times tonight that education is the key. To me, that really starts at home with parents.

My hon. colleague just mentioned the apartheid weeks at Canadian universities. How do we educate people if our institutions of supposed higher learning promote and condone things like that, including at McMaster, York, and wherever else it is condoned? It flabbergasts me that administrations of institutions of higher learning would allow that to happen.

I wonder if my colleague has any comment. I know he has ties to McMaster. Has he taken that up with McMaster?

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Yes, Mr. Chair, I have not only taken it up with the administration at McMaster, but I have actually gone on campus to confront some of the people who spew their hatred. Some good news, frankly, is that a lot of the comments I hear in response from the students passing those spewing the hatred and anti-Semitism are to go home, shut up, get off the campus, to take their hatred some place else. It is very heartwarming. However, we always need to be vigilant.

I mentioned earlier how much I appreciate having this debate tonight and my colleagues for standing up and speaking out against anti-Semitism here in the House, but I would also encourage my colleagues to be part of the education process too and to make sure that in our communities, and across the country and internationally when we travel, we take every opportunity to speak out against anti-Semitism and racial discrimination.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Chair, it has been mentioned that throughout history other peoples have suffered discrimination and genocide. I have a Ukrainian heritage and have worked quite a lot on issues like the Holodomor that occurred. However, the one constant throughout history is the anti-Semitic actions of governments and peoples against the Jewish people. It is important that there be education, awareness, and measures like creating a national holocaust monument and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which makes a major contribution about the Holocaust.

I want to ask my dear friend about how our role as politicians can help influence and stop anti-Semitism in Canada and around the world.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Chair, one of the ways is to get involved in the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism. Another way is what I have mentioned already, to take every opportunity to speak out and make sure that people understand where we stand on anti-Semitism.

Another way is to support people like Madeleine Levy in my community, who spends tireless hours going to high schools, trying to recruit students to join the March of the Living, to get teachers who will accept curriculum about the Holocaust, teach students about anti-Semitism, and help them at a young age to understand what racial hatred is about, and how pernicious and seductive anti-Semitism is.

The minister mentioned earlier the fact that even Canadian policy, years ago, was such that one Jew was too many. This is a terrible blot on our history and I am glad that we built a monument on the east coast called the Wheel of Conscience to make sure that we could do our part, say never again, and educate people. This even captured a free country like Canada.

Supporting private initiatives of individual Canadians who are trying to make a difference and educate people on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust is another way that we can help educate future generations.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Chair, this is one of those moments when I am particularly proud to belong to a party that has always unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism.

Fighting racism and hatred is at the heart of what it means to be a New Democrat. As early as 1938, the CCF, the NDP's predecessor, was the only party in the House of Commons to unite and fight, without reservation, to ensure that Canada became a safe haven for Jewish refugees who were fleeing the Nazis in Europe.

Throughout the Second World War, the CCF continued to fight and stand up for these refugees, despite the climate of anti-Semitism in the government and the country in general at that time.

Unfortunately, anti-Semitism, like all forms of hatred, is a trend that has persisted. We are still seeing it today.

Just two weeks ago, hundreds of Jewish tombs were vandalized in a cemetery near Strasbourg, France. In May 2014, in Brussels, a gunman opened fire on a Jewish museum, killing four people. Obviously, we are all aware of the shooting in a kosher grocery store following the Charlie Hebdo attack. Earlier this month, two people were killed and five police officers were wounded in two attacks in the capital of Denmark.

Last year, during the general election in Hungary, the far-right Jobbik party won over 20% of the vote, which makes it the third party in the Hungarian national assembly. One in five votes went to the extreme right party, whose leaders have called for things like putting Jews on a list because they might pose a national security risk. That is scary and it brings back bad memories. Ironically, this country was designated a so-called safe country by our current Conservative government.

Yes, anti-Semitism lives on, not only in Europe but also in the Middle East. Take for example some of the statements made by the former Iranian president and others throughout the world, including in Canada. Many people consider Canada to be one of the safest countries for the Jewish diaspora. I think we can all be proud of that. However, such has not always been the case. For a long time, anti-Semitism was far too prevalent.

For example, even after World War II, Canada's Jewish population experienced discrimination. Jewish doctors could not get hospital appointments. There were no Jewish judges, and Jewish lawyers were excluded from most firms. There were scarcely any Jewish teachers, and Jewish nurses, engineers and architects had to hide their identity to find jobs in their fields. Often certain refugees were not allowed access to French schools, which could eventually lead to very real problems trying to integrate into society. Some of them live in my riding.

I am talking about the past, but the present is not so rosy either. Here again, many Jewish Canadians say that they have been the victims of harassment and violent threats.

Last night, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough of Montreal, four vehicles that were parked in a private parking garage used by Jewish Montrealers were spray-painted with swastikas. There has also been talk about bullets and death threats, which are no doubt violent acts of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism, and religious and ethnic hatred in general, is a worldwide problem. Nonetheless, I would like to talk about hopes, because peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and productive interactions between people of all faiths and origins is also possible.

I would like to provide some examples. The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel created a network so that Jews, Christians and Muslims can meet and get to know one another with the goal of helping to shape a society that transcends war and enmities.

Last week, three Jewish organizations joined 15 other interfaith organizations to express their fear that the U.S. government is marginalizing American Muslims. These groups came to the defence of American Muslims. This type of thing gives me hope. Here in Canada, we have a program called FAST. I apologize, but I only know the English acronym. I am not sure if there is a French equivalent. It is called FAST for Fighting Antisemitism Together. These are non-Jewish business people who join community leaders to raise awareness and take various measures to fight anti-Semitism.

I would like to end my speech with a message of hope. We need to work on combatting anti-Semitism. To that end, I suggest that we look to a very important religious figure who is not Jewish, Christian or Muslim. I am talking about the Dalai Lama, who tells us that the problems we are facing today—violent conflict, the despoliation of nature, poverty and hunger—are all man-made problems that can only be resolved through human effort, understanding and the development of a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a universal responsibility and a universal empathy for one another and for the planet we share.

Since I started by saying I am proud to belong to a party that for decades and since its earliest days has fought against anti-Semitism, I would like to conclude with the words of Jack Layton, who also had a huge influence on me. “My friends, love is better than anger.”

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie for her remarks.

I jotted down a quote earlier today, one that has affected me for a long period of time:

New Democrats have long believed that so long as any among us are unfree, all of us are unfree. So long as any among us are persecuted, so we all are persecuted.

Earlier, my friend from Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale was talking about McMaster University. In Hamilton, people will know that following 9/11 there was a firebombing of the Hindu samaj. The racists thought it was a mosque. The member also mentioned Israeli Apartheid Week. As well, there was an event where one of the professors wore an niqab, which caused a problem.

I think it is really important to look at the Shoa, or just before the Shoa, and at what happened to Jews in Germany. They lost their voice. They lost their opportunity to be themselves and to present their case on whatever kind of an issue that was happening.

Therefore, when we have Israeli Apartheid Week, I agree that we have to engage and have to try to change the direction. Be it on the issue of a niqab, or whatever anti-racism work that we can do, we have to engage.

It does not work and has not worked to go from the top down, saying that we have an edict and that this is how we must act. We have to protect people's freedom of voice so they can deliver the message needed to change history.

Anti-Semitism has the longest history, and many speakers tonight have said this. For century upon century, the Jewish people have been the victims of anti-Semitism. We have to protect the voice of our communities to fight that.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Chair, my colleague touches a point that touches me very personally. I think people in the House know that I do not tend to get very personal when I am debating issues. This one touches me very personally. I think we are all in the same boat. We are all together, and we are all going to either float together or sink together. The politics of division is how it started in Germany. That is why the politics of division upsets me so much.

Also, we talk a lot about education. Someone mentioned that it is also at home and everything. Education is a lot of things. A few decades ago, I read a book called Treblinka. It was so many years ago I cannot even remember the author of that book. However, it made me understand so many things that have marked me for the rest of my life and that are a source of my social and political engagement.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, I appreciate my colleague's comments and her passionate commitment to the issue. I think we are all passionate and committed to this issue.

We talked about some of the acts that are being played out, whether it is painting swastikas on cars or whatever, but some of them are violent. Some of them are destructive, and some of them hurt people. How far should authorities go in trying to stop those acts if they can see them being talked about or plotted, whether it is on the Internet or through other means where people can be observed?

This is a sensitive issue in the House right now, as I mentioned earlier about some other legislation being debated. How far does my colleague think authorities should be able to go to stop those kinds of acts when they are apparently going to be violent?

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am not saying that there is no kind of police action or things like that needed, but what we are getting at is the crux of the debate we often have from one side of the House or the other.

For me, the wisest, most efficient, in the long term, and most profound way to work at that is to work through education, to work at the beginning and work at prevention. Of course, prevention is not 100%. Sometimes we will not be able to achieve everything. However, we will not be able to solve these kinds of problems if we do not work on the roots. It is like a diseased tree if the disease comes from the roots.

I know that some people on the other side do not like the expression “root causes”. I tend to like it. If we do not work on the origins of the problem, we can patch up as much as we want in the end, but we are not going to resolve the issue in the long term.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, that is kind of what I expected, but I want to go just a little further. I agree on root causes. I agree on education. We all agree on that. How far should the authorities be able to go to detect if someone is about to commit a violent act? We are not talking about root causes now. We are talking about someone being about to commit violence. How far should authorities be able to go to detect that and stop it from happening? That would involve finding out if someone was going to do that, whether it was through the Internet or some other method. How far should authorities be able to go to stop that?

We can work on root causes, absolutely. However, we need to stop violent acts from happening. How far should we go?

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Chair, it should not be so far that we destroy the very values we are trying to protect, like human dignity, civil liberties, and things like that. Every time we do that, we also need oversight.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.

It is truly tragic that in 2015, the House finds that it must again recognize the pervasive existence of anti-Semitism in Canada and around the world. Despite the best efforts of parliamentarians and private citizens, and the vigilance of determination of organizations such as B'nai Brith Canada, the Jewish community's foremost human rights agency, which has been active in Canada since 1875, anti-Semitism, humankind's original hatred, remains alive and hatefully well in Canada and abroad.

B'nai Brith Canada's most recent annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents, from April 2014, revealed that Canada-wide incidents of vandalism and violence increased by 21.6% and 7.7% respectively over the previous year. Frank Dimant, who has just retired as the CEO of B'nai Brith Canada after 36 years, said of the audit:

The sustained level of antisemitism in Canada when taking a ten year view which shows a 49% jump should be of great concern to all Canadians.

However, Mr. Dimant feels that numbers are only part of the story. He said:

What we are hearing from callers is a growing sense of dread among Canadians...hatred of Jews has veered so far into normative discourse that it is no longer seen as wrong.

Canadians can remember brief periods in recent decades when we might have thought, wishful thinking, perhaps, that anti-Semitism was a vile phenomenon of the past, but then came a resurgence of both classic and hybrid hate. In my riding of Thornhill, there is anti-Semitic vandalism and graffiti, with swastikas over the Star of David. In Montreal, there have been firebombings of Jewish businesses and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. Anti-Israel rallies during periods of Middle East tension have deteriorated into openly, and in some cases, violently anti-Semitic events in Calgary, Mississauga, and Toronto. Of course, on university campuses, not all but on far too many, there is Israel Apartheid Week.

Israel Apartheid Week and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement represent hybrid anti-Semitism. Proponents and propaganda for IAW or BDS say that they are not anti-Semites and have nothing against the Jewish people but are merely against Israel, the Zionist state, the Zionist entity. “Zionist” has become the hate-mongers' code word for “Jew”.

Our government has consistently supported Israel's right to defend itself. The only democracy in the Middle East is under constant threat and regular attack by terrorist entities and quasi states, not to mention the threats both tangible and bombastic from Iran.

Israel may not be perfect. Our government also recognizes the principle of fair criticism. However, as the Prime Minister has said:

...whatever Israel's shortcomings, neither its existence nor its policies are responsible for the pathologies present in that part of the world.

I was proud to be a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism. I believe that members will hear in greater detail about this area from my colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, but in closing, I would like to refer to a central conclusion of its inquiry panel report. It pointed out that criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic in itself but that denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction can be considered anti-Semitic acts.

The panel also recommended that police forces across Canada be better trained to deal with anti-Semitism, that universities do more to counter Israel Apartheid Week, that education regarding human rights be a bigger part of welcoming programs for new Canadians, and finally, that the House foreign affairs committee study the United Nations':

... over-emphasis of alleged human rights abuses by Israel, while ignoring flagrant human rights abuses of other member states.

Just as I believe that vigilance is the price of freedom, so too is eternal resistance essential in the fight against anti-Semitism and in the defence of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Chair, I do not think there is anyone in this House who can disagree with the horrible escalation and growth of anti-Semitism as we see it around the world today. It gives me pause to wonder, because we know there are different nations, Canada included, that have looked at ways of trying to prevent it and of trying to educate people.

Can the member tell us of any successful effort in any part of the world to combat anti-Semitism and to plant the seeds so that people will actually live together in harmony?

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, my colleague has asked a very difficult question.

As we have seen over the centuries, and I referred to anti-Semitism as humankind's original hatred, it is a generational phenomenon that rises and falls. After the Holocaust, there was a renewed sensitivity and there was an attempt, certainly in Germany and across Europe, to recognize the extremes to which, as the member for Mount Royal said earlier, words were the first step toward the gas chambers.

As I said in my concluding remarks, just as eternal vigilance is the basic requirement for freedom, so too is eternal resistance of anti-Semitism, wherever it may be found.

Canada regularly speaks to this in international gatherings, almost annually at the United Nations, in the General Assembly and elsewhere. I think that is something that is one of the primary continuing missions of not only Canada's domestic policies but of our foreign affairs policies abroad.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Chair, this is a timely debate we are having, especially with the event that happened today in Montreal, where swastikas were painted on cars and bullets were left behind to intimidate a Jewish community.

Even though we are talking about increasing education and awareness and making sure that the hate of the Jewish people is removed from our society and cultures around this world, we are seeing increasing violence. We are seeing increasing avenues being used to actually promote anti-Semitism, such as anti-Zionism, people who do not want to recognize the State of Israel as a nation. We are seeing increased violence from groups such as the Islamic State, which wants to establish their caliphate and in that process get rid of all Jews and other non-believers in their idea of their religion.

I was wondering if the member for Thornhill could speak to the point that we are facing a dangerous time, again, in our history that we should get beyond. One would think that as an educated society, as a society that has more opportunities to disseminate information, we would be more peace-loving and accommodating to all cultures and all religions, yet we are still faced with this horrible hate, a scourge that seems to be spreading across the globe.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Chair, I believe this comes back to eternal resistance of this most vile aspect of human nature. We have seen, for example, in the development and evolution of the annual Israel apartheid week on university campuses a hatred which in many cases is absolutely overt. There is no attempt to mask using the buzzwords of the hate-mongers to mask their intentions to the point that on several university campuses across the country, Concordia 10 years ago and the university across the street from my riding, York University in Toronto, have seen Jewish students refuse to take part in student activities, the normal part of university years, simply because they are intimidated. Some of them even have gone so far as to remove any vestiges that would reveal their Jewish identity.

In today's incidents that we saw in Montreal, again this is the more overt manifestation, the vile graffiti, the intimidating bullets. Again, we need to hear voices raised in the community in Montreal tomorrow, which denounce today's events.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Chair, I rise today to talk a bit about some of the experience I gained as the co-chair of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, which produced this report in 2011 based upon very extensive hearings. Some of the materials we collected have been put together with the presentations we heard into a book about anti-Semitism, edited by me and our former colleague, Mario Silva. The book is called Tackling Hate: Combating Antisemitism: The Ottawa Protocol .

One of the issues that arose at that time, and has arisen in the context of this debate this evening as well, is one that gives me endless frustration. Given the fact that I only have five minutes, I thought I would concentrate on this one thing.

We hear it said that we ought not to be discussing anti-Semitism unless we also discuss the other hatred that is the opposite face of that coin: Islamophobia. I want to suggest that is a false dichotomy. I understand the legitimate discussion that happens when people say, on the one hand, that perhaps we should discuss anti-Semitism on its own. Others say, no, that we should discuss anti-Semitism as the prototype for all forms of hatred of the other, for dehumanization of the other. Both of those discussions and both of those points of view are legitimate.

It is legitimate to say that the Jews have faced, unlike any other substantial numerous population in the world, an actual deliberate, methodical attempt to exterminate them completely. There is no other parallel in the world on the scale of the Holocaust, anywhere in the world. That makes what happened to the Jews in the 1940s absolutely unique. On the other hand, to refer to anti-Semitism and the Jews as being the canary in the coal mine for other forms of discrimination, abuse and hatred is also valid.

However, saying that we ought not to be discussing anti-Semitism as it occurs domestically in Canada or overseas unless we also deal with Islamophobia is really improper. The reason for this is very simple.

When we start discussing Islamophobia, it is very clear that we are normally not discussing the incidents that have occurred from time to time, for example, in the wake of 9/11 where Muslims in general have been targeted within the community. I can give many examples. In fact, I have a collection of essays that were published, presentations to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, which say that what we ought to be talking about is the ostensibly racist actions of Israel, the so-called apartheid state. One could be very offensive in referring to Zionism as racism, as the United Nations General Assembly once did. These are almost always stereotypes that characterize Israel very unfairly, but saying that unless we deal with that issue, we ought not to be dealing with anti-Semitism. This raises an important point. It insists that Jews, in this case Canadian Jews, are somehow collectively responsible for the actions of a country of which they are not citizens. They are somehow responsible for the actions of another group of people over which they have no authority.

Let me give a parallel. Let us imagine for the sake of argument that there is today a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment of the sort that existed back in the days of the Yellow Peril in the late 19th, early 20th century, back when there was systemic discrimination against the Chinese both from government and from private citizens. There was mob violence in some cases against Chinese on the west coast both in Canada and the U.S. Let us imagine in a situation like this if someone were to stand and say that we cannot talk about discrimination against Chinese until we deal with the politics of that human rights abuse in the People's Republic of China, until we deal with the way in which the Tibetans are being treated by the People's Republic of China, that we cannot deal with domestic issues relating to discrimination against Chinese. That would be self-evidently preposterous. I submit that once we scrape off that patin of concern over the Tibetans—who, believe me, deserve our concern in real life—it would be obvious this is de facto a form of racism. That is what is going on here when we make this parallel.

It is entirely legitimate to explore and discuss Islamophobia as a form of discrimination that has no place in our society.

It is legitimate to discuss every form of discrimination. We can do them all as a group, we can do them as individual forms of discrimination, but we ought never to say that some group has a collective responsibility somehow for issues over which it has no authority. That is a tremendous intellectual problem. I suggest that we always ensure never to allow ourselves to fall down that particular rabbit hole.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague for being the chair of the Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism. We had many early morning meetings in the administration of developing that coalition. I was very appreciative of his efforts.

My question will be short so that the member can spend the time developing it.

The boycott, divest and sanction movement actually targeted professors academically in Canada who supported Israel. I want to give my colleague a chance to deal with that subject, as well as his subject matter about international policy versus domestic policy.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Chair, the BDS movement is a movement to essentially cause institutions and individuals to divest from companies that are part of the Israeli economy, or trade with Israel, or have operations in Israel. Sanctions of various sorts include academic sanctions and they legitimize, to some degree, the taking into account considerations other than academic merit in the promotion of professors.

Many of us have been university students. We all know that some students do not want to adopt a position that is likely to negatively affect their marks. There is a certain amount of subtle pressure there on students in many cases.

Separate from this, but I remember being very careful to write some papers for some professors without giving any clue that I was not necessarily supportive of Marxism back when I was a student in the 1980s. It is a universal phenomenon, and those social pressures are meaningful.

However, in general, the idea of singling out Israel and applying a different standard to it and then saying therefore we ought to boycott and divest, almost invariably the comparison is to apartheid in South Africa under the white regime. Any objective view of Israel makes it clear that there is no resemblance. The parallel is completely inappropriate, but that is articulated over and over again, particularly in the Israel Apartheid week, which unfortunately is cleverly crafted as a marketing slogan. It is hard to even mention it without repeating the message of those who purport that somehow apartheid in South Africa and Israel are related.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Chair, the member mentioned Israel Apartheid Week, that disgusting manifestation that happens on our college campuses. He mentioned that apartheid comes from what happened in South Africa.

I had the privilege of being at a parliamentary forum internationally with a member of Parliament from South Africa, who is a leader of one of the parties there. He has started an opposite movement called Defend, Advocate and Support Israel, or DASI. Kenneth is a black man who lived under apartheid. He said, “Show me anything about Israel that you call apartheid and I'll explain to you why it is not”.

Kenneth has started this movement, and he is trying recruit about 25 young black Africans to help carry the message around the world that this slur against Israel, a modern form of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, is in fact totally out of touch with reality and is an insult to what people actually did suffer under apartheid.

Would the member care to comment? Was he aware of this? Is there something we might be able to do to help bring or encourage this movement to bring some of those folks to Canada to help inform our public discourse?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have to be honest, I was not aware of that movement. It sounds like a good idea.

To be honest, the best thing anybody can do for Israel and its place in the world is simply this: treat Israel like every other state in the world and apply the same rules. If Israel acts inappropriate, breaks international law, engages in aggression that is inappropriate, it should be dealt with exactly the same way it would be if any other state did the same thing. Apply the same standards and be tough about those standards, as we should with every other state in the world. That would do more for Israel's appropriate place in the world than anything else.

Also, all this concentration on Israel at the UN has the effect of distracting attention from the many human rights abuses that occur in so many other countries in the world. It has become a convenient way to simply draw attention to what is going on over there and therefore keeping attention away from a multitude of human rights abuses occurring in countries that frankly have nothing to do with Israel at all.

It is not even countries that follow or have a stake in the game of trying to de-legitimize Israel because they dislike Israel. It is simply countries that want to have attention focused on something other than their own human rights abuses that keep that whole process going.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I want to pick up a bit on what the previous speaker said. I am of the belief that until we can find a way through to ending anti-Semitism, we will not have any hope of addressing all of the other antis either, the Islamophobias or whatever. We have to confront this right on.

I want to personalize this a little bit. The member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie talked about how her experience with anti-Semitism had affected her. I have a couple of stories from my history. As a young boy in 1959 in a little town called Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, where the train derailment was last year and where I grew up, we never had a black person in our community. We never had a Jewish person in our community. We had difficulties between the English and French, but we never learned racism.

As a boy of 12, one day in the summer, I was out on the lawn in front of my home and a car went by, a 1949 Dodge. I will never forget it. That has left a mark on me. A man and a woman were on the back seat having a disagreement, and all of a sudden a shoebox came out of the window and it was full of pictures. As a boy will do, I started to collect the pictures. To me, that became the saddest day of my life for many, many years, because the pictures had to have been taken by guards at Auschwitz.

We have heard the stories of the tattoos that became lampshades. There was a picture of that. The picture I still see from time to time was of a women, still alive, being pushed into a furnace on the rack.

I sat back for a long time trying to understand, as a 12-year-old cannot understand, how people could do this to one another. I did not have any idea that they were Jews, and I took the pictures.

My grandmother had an old sewing machine that had a cabinet. I stuffed the pictures in there to hide them, because I did not want to believe that these were anything other than pictures from some horrible movie. It took me many, many years to come to terms with all of that because I did not understand racism and came from a caring community.

Then, of course, it was around the period when the movie Exodus took place, and my father loved to take me to movies, and also Judgment at Nuremberg. That was the first point in time, in a movie, on screen, where there were pictures of bodies being bulldozed.

I cannot express the feeling, the connection between the pictures that I found as young boy and a couple of years later seeing that movie, which is when I started to understand the horror of what had taken place. It left me with a feeling to this day, enhancing the sense of justice and the need to protect all of our people.

As I went along in years and got involved in the labour movement. I was a simple delegate at the Hamilton District Labour Council. There was a gentleman there, probably in his sixties at the time, Al Smith. He was probably kindest, gentlest man you could ever hope to see. He stood about five foot two. He had spent 10 to 20 years on the human rights committee of that labour council.

I happened to be in the office one day and he was tasked with going to some event on behalf of the labour council and had paid for something. He brought the receipt in and was getting change. When the young lady gave the change back to this sweetheart of a man who had fought for 40 years for justice for people, he shoved a nickel back and said, “Oh, no, I cannot take that. That would be Hymie of me to take that”. I remember at the time thinking how insidious this was, how it became part of our culture to the point that Jewish people out and say, “Hymie”, or whatever other nasty name we wanted to put on them.

Tonight we have heard speaker after speaker say pretty well the same thing, that once again in our history anti-Semitism is growing.

We can get into debate on Israel. We can get into debate on Gaza, the PLO, or whatever we want, but we cannot deny that anti-Semitism is on the rise. We can do many things.

I am a firm believer in dialogue, communication, and debate. When we are confronted with hate, we have to stand up to it. If people have different views during Israeli Apartheid Week, they have to say so. I am very concerned that if we stifle that debate in the institutions of higher education, are we not, in the long run, preparing a path for some other form of hate?

The House is the place where we should be debating these issues. Yes, they are very personal for a variety of people and for a variety of reasons. Many members here have Jewish or Muslim communities in their ridings.

I had an experience in Hamilton. There was a firebombing of a Hindu samaj three days after 9/11. A group was started, called Strengthening Hamilton's Community Initiative. It got together to confront racism. The two men who firebombed that Hindu samaj thought that it was a mosque. Racism does not really understand much and the people that purvey it and do these things are pretty horrific.

That created a situation where we had leadership from the Muslim community, leadership from the Jewish community, and many others, during a time when Israel was in battle, one more time, in Gaza. That group of people put out joint statements of Muslims and Jews on the activities that took place. It is proof that people can come together who have extremely different points of view. That is important. We have to find a way to bring that level of understanding across the globe. There are governments who seem to be pleased when some ethnic groups, such as the Jews or the Arabs, or religious groups like the Christians, Muslims, Rohingyas, Tamils, or whoever, can point at another group and say, “They are different. They are lower than we are. They are not as good as we are”, or that they are taking people's jobs or land.

I will give an example of what can happen if we allow that to take place, which New Democrats raise here regularly, and that is Iran, with its rhetoric and hate pointed toward Israel. While it is doing that, it is actually masking the horrific things it is doing to its own people. Last month, 90-some people were hanged in Iran. I do not know the numbers for the last year, but they will be in the hundreds. We can go back to the time when people thought there was a rising in Iran and a chance of democracy blossoming, but we remember the slaughter that took place in the streets. We all remember the young girl who was killed—actually several of them.

I do not profess to have the answer, but I understand one thing: that we have to keep communicating. Canada has to remain a leader, because this is one of the few countries that I am aware of where there can be absolute debate and public discussion. I used to joke with my friends in Hamilton. Gore Park is in Hamilton, the centre of the community, and I used to say that in Canada, we can stand on a box in Gore Park and say whatever we want to say, as long as we are not preaching hate. We can say that we do not like the Prime Minister, not that I would ever say such a thing, but that can be done in this democracy and it can be done freely. If we were to try that in the United States, going to a park in New York City, standing on a soapbox and starting to rant, we would be put in police cars, and the U.S. claims to be the freest country on the face of the earth. No, we are here in Canada, and that is why we have to have a leadership role in fighting anti-Semitism.

We are the one country that many countries listen to and we have to put the programs in place and set the agenda within our own country to ensure that everyone, be they Jews, Arabs, whoever they are, are equally welcome and equally safe. What just happened in Montreal today is absolutely offensive.

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Chair, I agree with my colleague on the communication aspect and the fact that we cannot stifle debate. We have to keep the communication streams open and to find a way to ensure that what is right is spoken about and what is wrong is spoken about.

I also compliment my colleague who co-chaired the Ottawa protocol meetings and the issues that came out of that, identifying true hate and other issues that the House has to be forthright in addressing. By doing this tonight, all of us are clearly speaking to that support and a consensus, the fact that we are in agreement.

I wonder when we talk about some of the institutions of higher learning. I know there are levels of accountability that play a role. In talking about maintaining open lines of communication, addressing the issues, and identifying what is wrong, how would the member address the issues around universities, as an example, where accountability has to play a role in terms of who is responsible for allowing that hate to be manifest? How do we stop it?