FightingAntisemitism: We Did Not Wait for the Trademark! 

It took nearly three years for our Trade-marks Certificate ofRegistration for the "Tour for Humanity" to arrive on my desk. Butwhile the pace of bureaucracy is slow, we did not wait. Our bus has alreadycriss-crossed an entire province and educated approximately 100,000 students.If hate and intolerance does not sleep, neither can we. Every single day, weare educating and advocating at schools, universities, community centers,police departments, festivals and more. We are trying to cover as much groundas possible, before its too late.  

If we can inoculate students before they enteruniversity campuses, we might stand a chance of countering antisemitism, hateand discrimination. Every student that participates in our program will have anunderstanding of antisemitism, past and present. They will learn to questionthe propaganda sold to them on university campuses today. 

I was especially perturbed this week when the head ofQueen's University used the 'free speech' card (in conversation with me) togive allowance to a 'mock checkpoint' on his campus during the despicable'Israeli Apartheid Week'. In contradiction to the 'free speech' argument oftenused by universities to protect antisemites, the institutions often come to an"arrangement" with the offending students. They have discussion aboutwhere they can table and how aggressive they can be vis-a-vis otherstudents. 

Therefore, there seems to be 'management' about how antisemitismcan and cannot be conducted on campus, in contradiction to the defence of 'freespeech'. Therefore, do universities - and by extension the governmentsthat fund them - have an obligation to protect students from trauma of 'freespeech' particularly when it becomes systematic and institutionalized? You bet. 

This week, the University of East London and Middlesex Universityboth cancelled book launches for Richard Falk, a known anti-Israel activist whoaccording to Campaign Against Antisemitism, had been denounced by the UK on atleast three separate occasions for antisemitism. The University of Middlesexsaid, "we are clear that there is no place in our society for hatred,racism or discrimination such as antisemitism". In our Feature Articletoday, The Toronto Star's Rosie Dimanno calls Falk an "evangelist forantisemitism, couched - and not so couched - as anti-Zionism (the new ageanti-semitism) and anti-Israel dogma, which can clearly be traced in thehalf-dozen obsessive reports he filed for the UN during his rapporteuryears".

Here at home, speakers and events are routinely cancelled byuniversities, contradicting their 'free speech argument'.  In the Globeand Mail, Margaret Wente cited examples in an article entitled, "Whycampuses are ditching free speech". Her examples include, DanielleRobitaille's speech was cancelled at Wilfrid Laurier University whileUniversity of Toronto's Jordan Peterson was shouted down at McMasterUniversity. 

Free speech at universities, in other words, is not sacrosanct. Itis determined and protected often by the administration or by mobrule - whichever is stronger. Either way, both mob rule and theadministration - even if they say they detest the anti-Israel andantisemitic behaviour - refuse to act courageously against "it" - andonly "it". Often, it comes from a place of fear of the radicalizedstudent who might turn violent.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who spoke to FSWC's topgifts this week, condemned antisemitism on Canadian campuses. In fact, therewas one university in Canada the Prime Minister had drawn a red line for whenit came calling.  

Antisemitism in this country on campuses and beyondis deplorable. In many cases, it is whitewashed and taken out of focus asthe primary area governments should focus on - even while the statistics areclear. In Toronto, the Police Hate Crimes Unit released its annual reportlast week. The report found that crimes motivated by religion accounted for 46per cent of the incidents reported. The city's Jewish community was targetedthe most, accounting for 30 per cent of reported attacks, followed by the LGBTQ(17%), black (15%) and Muslim (15%) communities.

I would argue that these hate crime statistics are miscounted -they are actually higher. If we were to count up all the university incidentsthat victimize Jewish students (and all the students that feel victimized); andcount up all the homes that were hit over the last number of years by anantisemitic newspaper distributed in Toronto, and all the "swastika"incidents in schools, community centres and the like and all the workplaceantisemitic attacks that are silenced through HR deals - the list would beoutrageous.  

This is why we must counter-educate as many students as possible. The propaganda they are being fed on our campuses and in main streamsociety is dangerous. Trademark or no Trademark - time is of the essence.

But this Trademark is another nice feather in our cap; "Tourfor Humanity" is ours!

Shabbat Shalom,

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Avi

P.S.Special thanks to Andrea F. Rush for assisting us pro-bono with the Trademark!