Pained Sensibilities

"Are we  turning into one of those Third World countries where a police chief can pick up the phone and tell a free institution, in this case a religious institution, that you can not do this and you can do this?"
"I'm speaking here as a Muslim. I'm terribly angry and upset that these people in the name of my religion and my tradition want to stop somebody else from speaking."
"They have the right to complain but that doesn't mean that right to complain conflates into an action that goes against the very values about this society."
Dr. Salim Mansur, Western University

There speaks a man of conscience and calm sensibility. A Muslim proud of who he is and secure in that knowledge. Sufficiently so that he has no need to silence others. Nor to stand idly by saying nothing when he knows that others, sharing his religion, and in the name of protecting his religion from statements many might find harmful to its reputation, call on authorities to apply authoritarian pressure to disallow speakers who fault Islam.

Professor Mansur took his outrage at the silencing of free speech in the name of protecting a segment of the population from censure by another segment of the population directly to the source. In this case, York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe. To inform him precisely how the good professor feels about the guaranteed laws of the land, where free speech is enshrined as a guaranteed entitlement, when it does not pose a threat of violence perpetrated against an identifiable group.

"If he had not cancelled the event -- and again, that was his decision -- then we would have had to re-evaluate his relationship with York Regional Police because it would be clearly be (sic) in contravention of the values of our organization. Our concern is that Rabbi Kaplan is also a representative of the police, he wears a police uniform, and some of the comments that have been attributed to Ms. Geller really posed a conflict situation for us at York Regional Police", explained Insp.Ricky Veerappan.

Inspector Veerappan is the leader of the York Regional Police force's diversity, equity and inclusion bureau. The Rabbi to whom he referred in his explanation is Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad @ Flamijngo Synagogue. And Rabbi Kaplan is also a volunteer chaplain with the police force, which falls under the police bureau of diversity, equity and inclusion. Whose purpose is obvious enough and laudable as well.

Five chaplains volunteer with the police bureau, representing the five largest faith groups in the area. Inspector Veerappan's caution to Rabbi Kaplan was successful in persuading the rabbi to cancel the synagogue's hosting of a scheduled and well advertised May 13 speech by American blogger Pamela Geller. A woman who is known for her anti-Islamic stance, and her opposition to the building of a mosque in New York in the shadow of the World Trade Centre.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association's Cara Zwibel was of the opinion that intervention by police in this particular instance may have had a purpose: "In general, police involvement in deciding who can speak where and when is something we are concerned about because it could have a big impact on freedom of expression."

"Having said that, in this case it appears the police force was concerned that they might be seen as endorsing the speaker's views because of their relationship with the synagogue's rabbi. In these circumstances, I don't think it is illegitimate for the police to raise this concern with the rabbi intending to host the event."

Sounds rational. "Ms. Geller is free to speak. The organization may move it to another location, that's great", said Insp. Veerappan. And indeed, this is just what happened, though her speaking is completely lawful and needs no reassurance of it being so by Insp. Veerappan. The event with guest speaker Pamela Geller has been re-located to the Toronto Zionist Centre. But the fact remains that a rabbi whose volunteer work with the police force was bullied into compliance.

It was his decision to make; his volunteer position, versus his right to have his synagogue host a respected speaker with views that are legitimate in many quarters, but problematical to a segment of society. The York Region Muslim community made an attempt to have the immigration minister rule Ms. Geller inadmissible to Canada for the speaking engagement. It wouldn't be the first time a right-wing U.S. personality would be black-listed; it happened at Carleton University when Ann Coulter was prevented from speaking due to protests.

That Inspector Veerappan is himself a member of York Region's Muslim community simply points out the unwillingness of a religious culture to accommodate itself to the norms presented within a free and open society like Canada's. Which one of their members is himself eager to school them on: "I am appalled that ... we continue to hear regularly how the liberal democratic tradition of Canada and the West is being systematically shredded by institutions sworn to protect it."

There are those among the Canadian-Muslim community, said Professor Salim Mansur, who "need to learn the culture ... of a society that is open to debates and discussions however painful this might be to someone else's sensibilities."