As for my government standing on guard for me, I'd be more grateful if I knew from whom I actually needed to be protected. By any conceivable standard, we Canadian Jews are surely among the most privileged, most secure, most successful, most influential minorities in Canada and indeed in the entire world. We don't have a powerful Christian right-wing that is openly prejudiced, as in the United States, and the anti-Semitic incidents that do occasionally happen, while deplorable, are almost invariably caused by kids, crackpot white supremacists or marginalized thugs.
The B'Nai Brith annually publishes the number of anti-Semitic incidents that are reported to it, but these reports are never checked out or confirmed. And whatever those numbers, the vast majority of Canadians Jews know perfectly well that they now live their entire lives completely untouched by anti-Semitism. Indeed, perhaps the most politically correct stand in Canada today is the race by political and community leaders to immediately denounce even the slightest hint of anti-Semitism, however unproved or trivial. You could say they compete to see who will win the anti-anti-Semitic championship.
Folks, trust me it wasn't always this way.
Last week, the Harper government vetoed CIDA funding for a fine NGO called KAIROS, Canada's pre-eminent faith-based human rights organization. Eleven Christian organizations run KAIROS. You would think that the Harper government, whose Christian piety is worn pretty close to their sleeves, would be among KAIROS's great admirers, doing the Lord's work by fighting injustice around the world.
And yet when asked why KAIROS had its funding proposal peremptorily turned down for the first time, John Baird, the government's rabid pit bull, replied that his party, then not in government, had opposed anti-Semitism at a human-rights conference in Durban, South Africa, back in 2001. This same curious little factoid appears in my government brochure as well. Those of course were the good old days when the Reform Party's generous representation of creationists, misogynists, gay-baiters, choice-deniers and other proud members of the Cashew Coalition had not yet had their lips sewn together.
Like every self-respecting NGO, KAIROS supports causes that the Harper government disdains. Presumably, though, the government doesn't intend to de-fund every group that cares about global warming or the exploitation by plundering Canadian mining companies of impoverished Congolese workers. But who really knows?
I think Baird's bizarre answer points to an even more unforgivable sin perpetrated by KAIROS. The organization cares a great deal about justice in the Middle East. So they oppose the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and support Palestinians who have peacefully protested against illicit Israeli policies and practices. But for the Harperites, whose ignorance about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be a matter of principle, this “one-sided” stance may have been the last straw.
Why is this Conservative government so determined to woo Jewish support? Why is it so reflexive, so mindless, in its support for Israel? Given their single-minded pursuit of ethnic voters, politics seems a more plausible explanation than conviction. Yet Jews constitute only 1 per cent of the Canadian population and are a factor in only a tiny number of seats. Most Jews vote Liberal and while some have defected to the Conservatives over Israel, most still will. So the unseemly Conservative embrace just doesn't add up.
