Radically transform Canadian politics to eliminate hate speech

An odd essay on the Toronto Star website by Les Scheininger discusses racism and extremism. In discussing his Jewish father, he remarks:

"He witnessed and endured the state-sanctioned racism which Jews faced daily in Eastern Europe."

What state-sanctioned racism? I think the time period in question is 1930-1939. 

• Perhaps he is talking about Poland? What state sanctioned racism was there in Poland? Jews were massively over-represented in the merchant classes and in the more affluent professions. They were, as in Prussia, the bulk of international merchants and bankers. Is he speaking of quotas in Universities?
• Is he talking about the Soviet Union? Probably not, as it appears the family fled TO Russia and not away from it. The Cossack pogroms against the Jews in Russia are examples of anti-Jewish violence, but they cannot be what he means.
• Anti-Jewish racism in the Soviet Union is dubious during this time period. In fact, anti-semitism was made into a crime by the disproportionately Jewish Bolsheviks. Stalin kept that policy, although he attempted to reduce Jewish influence within the government.

The whole article is rather light on concrete examples, and heavy on hand-waving.

"In the summer of 1941, as the German army was approaching, my father gathered family members together and with them, my parents and older brother, who was 3 at the time, escaped to Russia and found themselves in Uzbekistan."

The Soviet government was transferring large numbers of Jews from areas east of Germany (e.g., Poland) into its interior at the time, so this makes sense.

"My father was immediately torn from his family and taken to a labour camp in Siberia. He toiled, as did so many others, in indescribable conditions. He never had the loving pleasure of seeing and holding his daughter, who was born shortly after he was taken away and who did not survive through infancy."

Why was he taken away exactly? Why would a Jewish refugee be placed in a gulag?

Given that tens of millions of Christians and Muslims died in a gulag system that (according to Solzehnitsyn) was largely run by Jewish commandants, I'm not sure why we are supposed to believe that the gulags were particularly awful to Jews.

Note also: "he toiled, as did so many others". This sleight-of-hand seems to be designed to convince us that the gulags were full of Jews. In fact, the majority of gulag inmates were Christians. 

"When the war ended, Jews began searching for their loved ones, and with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Service...my father was among the fortunate ones reunited with their families. HIAS facilitated housing in a displaced persons’ camp in Steyr, Austria, where I was born."

So because he is grateful to HIAS, we should all be grateful to HIAS.

"my father maintained, articulated and imparted to my brother and me a fundamental philosophy that Jews should be able to live in liberty and safety anywhere on this planet, and not be restricted — as they had been for centuries — by discriminatory state decree, despots and bigots to ghettos or outlying communities."

A few questions:

• why do Jews claim a right to be able to live in Japan or China without restriction?
• do indigenous people have no right to be able to exclude foreign populations?

I completely disagree with this.

• Jews might be interested in open borders, but it does follow that other people have to embrace them on that basis.
• Why is it racist and bigoted to refuse Jews access to a country, but Arabs born in Palestine cannot return and live in Israel?

This is redolent of Hillaire Belloc's observation about Jewish attitudes to immigration:

"He is, in his own view, only saved from the disadvantage of a latent hostility when he is thus protected, and he is therefore convinced that the world owes him this singular privilege of full citizenship in any community where he happens for the moment to be, while at the same time retaining full citizenship in his own nation."

The remark about ghettos is odd. The Jewish population in Poland lived in isolation from their Christian neighbours voluntarily. They had zero interest in interacting or mixing with the Poles and Belorussians, whom they regarded as stupid and inferior. (A common epithet was 'pig' or 'goy'). Intermarriage was punished heavily. Any perusal of books on Jewish life in Poland would confirm this. In contrast, the Jewish population in Germany had a significant proportion that was integrating with the rest of German society.

"To him and many others, who have endured adversity and hatred in many areas of the world, Canada and the United States represented the ideal of what they desired for their families and descendants."

Odd that there is no mention of the Zionist movement, which was a major impetus in the relocation of Jews in Russia to Palestine.

"We know that that there is no panacea. There will always be, among us, a segment of society that harbours hatred against others who they view to be different." 

Indeed, like the > 50% of Israeli Jews who would like to expel the Arab population of Israel. Or the Chabad Lubavitchers, who believe that gentiles are inferior. No mention of either of those.

"We now need effective, strong political leadership and the will to move beyond words to deliver the message that hate-mongering will no longer be tolerated."

Well, you could have started with the Imam in downtown Toronto who was caught preaching Jew-hatred. I guess he wasn't important enough.

"we require pressure from our communal leaders to call for prosecutions and for our political leaders to direct our law enforcement officers to investigate, lay appropriate charges against, and prosecute those charged"

Why should 'communal leaders' have any say in law enforcement matters? For that reason, why should political leaders be able to direct law enforcement? The separation of powers has proven to be somewhat useful in allowing the development of societies that at least have a semblance of the rule of law.

"The present dangers are so much greater than in the past."

Apparently it is even worse than 1939 these days.

"In years before, those charged with these offences were viewed as fringe personalities having little influence on most of us"

David Ahenekaw comes to mind, as does Ernst Zundel. It is fair to say that these are not mainstream individuals with any great media exposure.

"...but causing sufficient concern that they not be viewed as role models, so they were charged criminally. Today, these types of individuals are prominent through social media, are running for office and in some cases being elected internationally."

Eastern Europeans (and Koreans) are rejecting mass immigration, and they are electing politicians who will represent their views (e.g., Victor Orban). None of them are as xenophobic or ethnocentric as the typical Israeli politician.

"attention must be given to the political and government arenas and those who have influence within. It is often forgotten that our elected leaders have real responsibilities, not only to develop policies and pass legislation, but to be role models demonstrating values and principles."

The role of political leaders in a representative democracy is to govern with the consent of the electorate. It is not to be 'role models' in demonstrating values and principles. It makes one wonder what tradition this fellow came out of, since his view of politics is at odds with typical western notions of liberal democracy.

" It is now necessary for political parties to develop effective processes to ensure individuals who seek to be nominated and elected as representatives of a party and receive its endorsement truly believe in the party’s policies, values and philosophy, and promote them"

So goodbye to representative government and the preferences of constituents in a given riding.  How does one reconcile this with either representative democracy or an interest in 'diversity' and 'inclusion'?

"Canada would be in a unique position with its values, history and experience to provide global leadership to combat expressions of bigotry and racism, assuming the further appropriate steps, as noted, are also taken."

Why is Canada in a 'unique position'? France, Sweden and other countries are also experimenting with mass immigration.

" It is clear that the scourge of neo-nationalistic hatred is an international problem requiring co-ordination and co-operation among countries."

Great, let's start talking about Israel. How many Palestinian women and children have been killed by Israel in the last few years? Shhh, they don't count.

"We no longer have borders, let alone walls, when it comes to communications. "

But Israel has a physical wall.

"Canada has now established its credentials of being ahead of the pack on a number of new, progressive and creative movements and initiatives."

Not really. The UK is far ahead of Canada when it comes to criminalizing speech, and we can see how that is working out. Left wing MPs estimate that up to a MILLION English girls have been gang raped by Muslim rape gangs, who have been aided by Police and Social Workers who would rather not be called 'racist'.

So here we have a person writing an article that fails to provide key details or data of any sort. On the basis of hand waving, they are urging major changes to our political system, including:

• complete party discipline, whereby MPs are not allowed to deviate from the party line
• the ability of the government to direct law enforcement
• the abdication of any form of representative democracy

The shaky stories about the gulags are there for emotional impact, and the double standard of Jews maintaining a violent ethno-state in the Middle East is nicely swept under the rug.