Canadian Legalization of Cannabis : Trial and Mostly Error

"I do my own market research. I ask people, 'Why don't you go to Hobo [legal cannabis store]? They say, 'Legal product tastes bad. It's s--t'. I say, 'Don't worry, I got you."
"People text and come to me from smaller towns and reserves around Ottawa and they are saying there's no place to even buy legal weed."
"So I get it to them, you know?"
[Name protected] black market cannabis dealer

"One of the first things that comes to mind for me when I think about the last year is a reality check. A reality check for everyone; consumers, the government, producers, the public markets. I wish there was something more positive to say."
"There has been such a focus on scale over everything else, that quality in particular got left behind. I think the first miscalculation that took place was when larger companies presumed that if they got the big supply agreements and they were first to market, they would capture all this early market share and that would be a huge advantage for them in the future."
"In the early days, retailers just wanted product. Any kind of product they could get."
"When the metric is growth and you're being rewarded for it by capital markets, government doesn't really come into the fold because it is not a factor in achieving that goal."
Aaron Salz, chief executive, Stoic Advisory Inc., boutique investment firm

"The industry relied on hype so much to get its stock price up so it could raise capital at an efficient level, that it thumped its chest on metrics link 'funded capacity."
"The biggest problem right now is this massive delta we have between what we are harvesting and what we are shipping."
"Unless we are able to magically sell all that product and get almost the entire black market over to purchase legal product very soon, there is going to be a massive supply glut and plunge in prices."
"There is so much margin confiscation. You have the province getting in between this, then the excise tax on every gram, then HST."
Craig Wiggins, independent industry analyst, founder, The Cannalysts 

"I don't think we've had an impact on the black market at all."
"The customers we are seeing now are not price sensitive. I think they are brand new to the industry, don't buy from the black market and that's why they are willing to pay such high prices."
"We're all buying from the same government store. Ultimately, prices will go down if we are allowed to directly purchase from the producer or have direct delivery to the consumer."
Trevor Fencott, chief executive, cannabis retail chain Fire & Flower Cannabis Co.

Canopy Growth's Tweed facility in Smiths Falls, Ontario . (Sean Kilpatrick / CP)

Black market procurers of cannabis boast that their business has, if anything, been growing since the government of Canada legalized recreational cannabis a year ago. The experiment, which was meant to cut out the black market, to provide safe marijuana to users at a reasonable cost, obtainable through provincial government online ordering sites as well as authorized storefronts in approved city locations, appears to have stalled. Initially, accredited producers were in overdrive trying to produce enough product to fill orders and failing, leaving people complaining about the shortage.

The dozens of legal cannabis producers who were overjoyed with legalization and their permits to produce were backed by billions in investor capital, and had expectations of their own that the black market would be hard put to match their sales. Canada, everyone believed, would be on the forefront of an expanding global industry, mass-producing high quality, heavily (health) regulated marijuana. Since then, poor earnings, executive shakeups and mini-scandals have served to send the enthusiastic users back to their usual suppliers.

 (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

The revelation that the legal market managed to supplant a mere 14 percent of the black market post-legalization has pricked the balloon of excited aspirations. So what went wrong? Mediocre product quality, uncompetitive pricing, a heavy regulatory burden for starters. When the market first opened and product shortage crimped everyone's expectations, large producers like Canopy Growth and Aurora Cannabis promised a consistent product stream but failed to make good on the promise. The provinces blamed the producers, the producers spoke of supply-chain challenges starting with government excise stamp delays, to be pasted on every product.

Once more producers were introduced to the market, the problem of supply was less critical but then people who bought from the legal market seemed to become more aware of quality and choice and found them lacking. Tweed, the Canopy brand, originally dominated the online retail market to acquire over 30 percent of the market, yet more latterly it reports unsold product with demand slipping. While the problem of capacity seemed solved, profit became elusive with mediocre sales failing to offset rising production costs.

And the same appears true of most producers where profit is elusive, an unexpected turn of events given the great, enthusiastic expectations evinced both by producers and the public anxious for legalization to turn the use of coveted cannabis into a world of wonders. Where once the prospect of huge profits loomed following the first year of legalization, the reality is otherwise. The producers began looking outward, to expanding internationally. The CannTrust Holdings rush to boost output began growing in unlicensed spaces leading to an Ontario Securities Commission investigation and license suspension, ruining the company's stock. Haste makes waste certainly proved itself.

 (Joe Mahoney/The Canadian Press)

The paucity of brick-and-mortar stores in Ontario for example, with only 25 permits issued along with the online government-operated store to serve a population of 14 million people represents an obstacle to success. With so few options to buy legally, little wonder the black market is thriving. The price disparity between legal and black-market cannabis is significant, with the average price of legal cannabis $10.23 a gram as opposed to $5.59 on the illegal market; it's a no-brainer. Additionally, most provinces are virtual wholesalers between the licensed producer and the retailer.

Health Canada's extensive rules imposed on producers with its mandate to ensure legal weed sold in Canada meets the highest safety standards has faced criticism about taking the situation too seriously at the expense of the goal to dismantle the black market. Cultivation licences awaiting approval from Health Canada represent a serious backlog, out of the hundreds 221 have so far been approved. "They are not incentivized to move faster because that is not their goal. Their goal is to ensure that the product is safe. It is healthy, from the regulators' perspective, to be slow, because they are turning dials on a brand new policy that could have massive implications down the road", observed an industry insider.


Now, it is the turn of Cannabis 2.0 (production of cannabis edibles, oils, lotions, etc.) to enter the market when licensed producers must begin submitting product applications to the regulator from October 17 forward for a late December or early January product approval. A lag that will no doubt give the black market a great boost. And then there is the vaping health crisis in the U.S., where the use of marijuana-infused vape pens has caused lung infections in users and even deaths.

"We could say, look, there are structural challenges, but all these additives south of the border that are causing problems with vaping are not even allowed in Canada because of strict regulations. I would argue Canadian companies and our regulatory structure are still looked at abroad as an example of how to legalize. Strict regulation is exactly why Canada will still maintain a first-mover advantage in this industry."
Graeme Kreindler, analyst, Eight Capital

Or not.

Um, Most Definitely Not Canadian

"I strongly condemn this kind of activity. I don't know in what degree they call themselves Canadian. I think they are taking advantage of the freedom of speech in western countries. "
"We all said our oath of citizenship. The moment we became a Canadian, we swore to be loyal to our adopted country and [to] abandon our loyalty to the home country."
"If they [Chinese-Canadians with a history serving in China's Peoples Liberation Army] are permanent residents, I suggest the government take this record into consideration [of their service with the PLA] when they apply for citizenship."
Anna Wang, Chinese-Canadian writer

"They took advantage of democracy, of the Canadian system."
"But communism, the PLA is not compatible with democracy and the rule of law. ... Before their nostalgia, there is a very bloody history."
Sherman Lai, retired PLA lieutenant-colonel, political scientist, adjunct professor, Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario

"I am a soldier, from the common people." 
"I defeated the Japanese dog bandits, extinguished the army of Chiang Kai-shek."
"The revolutionary war tested me, and left me even stronger."
Maoist-era I am a Soldier song

"If you take on Canadian citizenship, then you sign up for a certain loyalty to our country, and particularly loyalty to our values, our way of life."
"[That may be incompatible with proud membership in a veterans group whose military reports directly to the Chinese Communist Party and contributes to] instability both domestically and internationally."
Christian Leuprecht, political science professor, Royal Military College

Singers dressed in the uniform of China's People Liberation Army perform at a concert in Richmond Hill, Ont.    Easyca.ca

In Western society, the Peoples Liberation Army of China is not in particularly pleasant odour. It  represents an oppressive Communist state order that brooks no dissent from its people. The PLA was involved in China's 'outreach' in Tibet to bring it into China's orbit, diminishing it from a sovereign nation to a Chinese dependency. Infamously the Tiananmen Square massacre of democratic protest fame owed much to the PLA's defence of the Chinese Communist Party, upholding its firm and implacable interests in subjugating its citizenry and brooking no dissent.

The aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Mashable

Canada has a huge expatriate Chinese community, Chinese-Canadians who emigrated from China over a hundred years ago, and those who became recent immigrants, along with those from Hong Kong who don't share the same values as those from the mainland. Last year, a new Canadian association for Chinese Veterans was launched, bringing together immigrants formerly with the Peoples Liberation Army of China as a social group. Named Canada Chinese Veteran’s Society, they recently staged a celebratory get-together, with performers singing in a choir songs reflecting their home country's past and future.

Other Chinese-Canadians in the expatriate community are critical of the staging of this event, finding it un-Canadian and representative of a Chinese perspective that not all Chinese-Canadians share. The divisions in the Chinese-Canadian community over support for the Hong Kong demonstrations and those critical of them have created unease and friction within the community, each accusing the other of disloyalty; one to the Chinese cause, the other to Western democracy as exemplified by Canada's values as opposed to those of China's Communist ruling party.

A rising vocal support for Beijing among diaspora Chinese has brought a backlash from the majority of Chinese-Canadians who see little of value in Communist China, and cling to democracy they find in their lives in Canada, eschewing Chinese political values for Canada's equality and freedom choices in democracy. The launching of the veterans' group seems to be synchronized with latent heritage sentiments aligned with a rise abroad in the diaspora in support of China's elevation of its power and influence structures.

A group salutes in unison the flags of Canada, China and the PLA  Easyca.ca

Registered as a federal non-profit corporation, the group gathers for meetings while serving food and drinks and enjoying Chinese celebratory performances. Last year, the group saluted at one such event, the flags of Canada, China, and the PLA, where relaxed veterans reproduced the high-stepping marches as a signature Chinese style, before a People's Republic flag. At the more recent concert in Richmond Hill just north of Toronto, various Chinese performers entertained, with the group's choir singing two songs: Love in Canada, and I am a Soldier, reflective of the Mao era.

The Canadian writer Anna Wang has just published her book with first-hand observations of the Tiananmen protests; herself a native of Beijing, her book titled Inconvenient Memories, she suggests the veterans' group leaders are likely China loyalists -- with the bulk of the membership nostalgic-motivated immigrants from China revelling in fond memories of their youthful days in China.

There is nothing particularly different in this situation from social groups launched by other immigrant groups from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Vietnam, Sudan, Lebanon or Sri Lanka, as an example, who celebrate their heritage, recall their cultures in their home countries and invite other non-similar-ethnic Canadians to come and share in the festivities, the food and the entertainment.

It's just that China in particular has become a world bully, and its recent offensive against Canada has been beyond troublesome, even while global attention is focused on its oppression of ethnic groups from within.

What?!?! Men Can Never Be Women...?

"[Libraries] have always supported vulnerable communities by welcoming and creating space for different perspectives, rather than through censorship."
"One of our core responsibilities is to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable."
"Another is to make available our public spaces and services to individuals and groups without discrimination."
Vickery Bowles, Toronto head librarian

"A woman is a female. That's it. And if you are born male there is no way to become female. It's simply not biologically possible."
"And beyond that, why would a male ever NEED to 'become female'? I mean, by all means, be yourself, dress how you like, express yourself as you wish, in ways that make  you feel good and authentic. Push back against gender stereotypes."
"But why that would demand one is literally the opposite sex, I do not know. 'Woman' is not simply a set of stereotypes, an outfit, a feeling. There is nothing wrong with being male or being a male who rejects masculinity."
"But it is ridiculous to say that if you reject gender stereotypes you are literally no longer male."
Meghan Murphy, feminist writer, columnist, blogger, activist

 Meghan Murphy on gender identity Oct. 29, 2019. Chris Young/The Canadian Press

"Murphy asserts publicly and repeatedly that trans women cannot be women and will always be men."
"This is a denial of the lives, experiences, and identities of trans people. It is a crude, hateful and hurtful assertion."
"It says that the existence of trans people is invalid and that therefore their human rights are up for public debate."
Pride Toronto

"Those who want to disseminate hate speech today know that they can misrepresent, then weaponize the phrase 'freedom of speech' in order to get what they want: an audience and space to speak to and then mobilize that audience against marginalized communities."
Petition

Transgender rights activists outside a Toronto Public Library branch where writer Meghan Murphy spoke at an event on Oct. 29, 2019.  Chris Young/The Canadian Press

A feminist activist whose understanding of biology is vastly at odds with those in the 'progressive' wing of society who fulminate against a realistic interpretation of sexual identity citing nature and biology as their guide, is labelled a hate-monger. Well, that's par for the course when clear-headed reality bumps headstrong against those who insist that if a man rejects his malehood and opts to consider himself a herself instead, his decision, his appearance, his behaviour, his expectations and his entitlements to 'hers' recognition without question and without typical pronouns be not only respected but lionized as the new reality.

Meghan Murphy, with her master's degree in gender sexuality and women's studies -- with her focus on "women in the media and the medicalization of sex", has become the new enemy of the LGBTQ2 community, joining Jordan Peterson and others of his presumed sociopathic ilk, spewing hatred because they simply speak of the realities of nature's selection in gender and sex endowments. Ms. Murphy achieved notoriety by testifying against a Canadian law, Bill C-16, adding gender identity and expression to the prohibited grounds list of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

As far as she is concerned, realistically, empowering transgenderism, disempowers women's rights. That men who decide to inform the world that they are not really men, but women, and entitled to be viewed as such, and entitled as well with their exceptional status, to compete against women in elite sports competitions despite their obviously male genetic inheritance of greater strength, victimizes women in that arena. Men claiming to be women insist on entry to women's washrooms, prisons, and any safe-from-harassment areas women claim as their own.

More latterly Ms. Murphy engaged in an exchange with the ultimate transvestite, a Vancouver resident by the name of Jonathan Yaniv, a flamboyant narcissist who calls himself Jessica Yaniv, with a high-profile presence on the Internet, as a coarsely provocative, rude bully whose interest in young girls and online exchanges with them discussing intimate body parts should alert anyone to the fact that this man is practising a particular type of perverse social indiscretion. Highlighted when he brought serial human rights discrimination claims against immigrant southeast Asian women working out of their homes as estheticians,

He made a practise of contacting these vulnerable women to enquire about the availability of Brazilian waxing, casually dropping the head-splitter that 'she' was in possession of male genitals and a male body, with the expectation that this would not be an issue of contention. The women were frightened and refused the request once aware that it was a man requesting such an intimate service they were not prepared to provide. One after another, this disgustingly unprincipled man filed complaints against the women, putting them out of business, and threatening them.

Jessica Yaniv Courtesy Jessica Yaniv

There were seven complaints in all, seven impoverished women whom this man targeted and terrorized. Ms. Murphy became involved and in so doing revealed much publicly about this man's female status and the incomprehensible reality that he had an ardent following supporting his wretched complaints against those whom he had chosen to serially hound as a male predator championing his rights as a woman.  Fortunately, B.C. Human Rights Tribunal member Devyn Cousineau found that Yaniv had been deceptive on numerous occasions, targeting small businesses for financial gain "or to punish certain ethnic groups which she perceives as hostile to the rights of LGBTQ+ people." Complaints dismissed.

And while 'Jessica' Yaniv has contrived to convince the gullible that he is a she and entitled to be viewed as such, and not the unsavoury clod that he really is, his feed on Twitter is protected, while Meghan Murphy suffered the indignity of having her Twitter account withdrawn, in line with the social media site's hate and harassment policy in support of the transgendered. Yaniv permitted to continue spewing his special brand of filth, and Ms. Murphy's free speech rights utterly curtailed.

Ms. Murphy has responded to invitations to speak to others who share with her convictions that appall the LGBTQ2 community, withholding full support of their harassment techniques against the segment of the public that fails to fall all over itself in admiration and support of their aggressive tactics attempting to socially and politically marginalize those they view as their detractors. Accusing them of hateful propaganda, of inciting to violence, when nothing could be further from the truth. A substantial but silent proportion of society merely shrugs while withholding personal involvement.

But they are seen as guilty of transphobia and labelled as 'haters'. An engagement to speak at a branch of the Toronto public library has seen a campaign unfold of raging anger at the accommodation given to allow Ms. Murphy to air her beliefs and opinions as an activist feminist with ample experience in her field of study and her professional life. Petitions to the library denouncing their decision to allow Ms. Murphy a public platform, and exhorting the library to reverse its decision appear to have gone nowhere.

Other than that the library is now written off as a participant in the Toronto Gay Pride parade, just as occurred in Vancouver when a library branch there was open to having Ms. Murphy speak to a similar gathering that has failed to be subservient to the demands of the LGBTQ2 community for total commitment to their cause, and they too were banned from Gay Pride Vancouver's parade. Oh, the pain of it all, the indignity of being denied the opportunity to appear as a happy banner-flaunting supporter of the LGBTQ2 community. We can live with it.

"A scrotum is different than a vulva — regardless of the gender of the person it is attached to."
"Given the difference in techniques, training, and physical body parts, it is not appropriate to lump both together under the broader  rubric of “genital waxing”, or — as Ms. Yaniv argues — 'genital waxing for women'."
B.C. Human Rights Tribunal member Devyn Cousineau 

Credit Where It's Due

"Baghdadi's death represents a huge blow to the organization's capacity to swell is ranks, mobilize its existing supporters and develop the momentum that could restore it to its past glories."
"That said, ISIS [Islamic State] will still be a potent, underground terrorist threat."
Ranj Alaaldin, fellow, Brookings Institution, Doha

"[The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces] played a key role [in the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound]."

"[The US has been] in close touch [with SDF Commander Gen. Mazloum Abdi] about all aspects of what we’re doing."

"He, his people, and his intelligence sources, played a key role in all of this. It’s a very, very important role. Nobody should underestimate how key the SDF was in all of this."

U.S. Senior State Department official

We have declassified a picture of the K-9. Donald Trump

"We’re not releasing the name of the dog right now. The dog is still in theater. The dog, the K-9, the military working dog performed a tremendous service as they all do in a variety of situations."

"Slightly wounded and fully recovering but the dog is still in theater, returned to duty with its handler."

"So we are not going to release just yet photos or names of dogs or anything else."

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

An agent of the Syrian Democratic Forces had successfully infiltrated ISIS to become a vital informant. He was able to lead the special U.S. forces to the exact location where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was in hiding, and to relay to them vital information on how to access his hiding place; warning that the front entrance would be booby-trapped, leading the special ops group to blast a hole in the side of the building for entry, according to SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali. In addition, a piece of Baghdadi's underwear and blood sample obtained by the information was used to verify the terrorist leader's identity through an on-site DNA test prior to the raid taking place.

Just as the U.S. special forces were instructed, after they raided Osama bin Laden's compound at Abbottabad, Pakistan, to bury his body at sea to ensure that his corpse would not endure as a venerated inspiration buried in a shrine dedicated as an Al-Qaeda memorial, so too was the body of Baghdadi taken by helicopter as the special forces withdrew after destroying Baghdadi's compound, to be similarly buried at sea. What will remain as a testimonial to the psychotic killer's memory is the bitterness of those whose loved ones were butchered by his command.

Eleven children were found in the compound, aside from the three that Baghdadi dragged along with him when he fled the American soldiers closing in on him with their K-9 dogs. The eleven children were evacuated from the compound and taken into safe custody, their near future presumably given over to a humanitarian effort to decompress them psychologically from the hate-filled Islamist screed they were programmed with. Their mothers -- at least two of Baghdadi's wives who were present at the compound, were found shot dead, though they were wearing intact suicide vests.

Later that same day, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which coordinated with the U.S. on the joint operation, ISIS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir was also killed, along with two other ISIS leaders, near Jarablus, norther Syria. Al-Muhajir was viewed as Baghdadi's second-in-command. On the death of the two principals, however, another groomed leader was  elevated to succeed Baghdadi. Neither the 'ideas' of the ideology of death nor the faithfulness of Islamic State followers will die for lack of oxygen, unfortunately.

People look at a destroyed houses near the village of Barisha, in Idlib province, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, after an operation by the U.S. military which targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group. President Donald Trump says Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead after a U.S. military operation in Syria targeted the Islamic State group leader. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

There were eight U.S. stealth helicopters involved in the well co-ordinated raid, long in the planning, with Delta Force and Navy Seals who flew over Barisha, a village holding a few thousand Syrians in Idlib province close to the Turkish border. Close to midnight when they arrived, the group was fired on from the ground, and they reacted by demolishing the source of the fire, then the special forces  troops rappelled to the ground close to the Baghdadi compound.

Russia and Turkey were advised beforehand of the passage of the group overhead, but not of the raid, since the helicopters had to fly over northern Syria now controlled by Russia and turkey. While Seals set up a perimeter after landing, Delta Force approached the compound wall in the knowledge they had to bypass the booby-trapped main gate They entered through the wall they had penetrated with explosives instead, encountering a number of close cadres of Baghdadi within the compound, killing a half dozen, themselves sustaining no injuries.

This is when the dead wives were encountered and the eleven children moved into custody, and the presence of a number of tunnels discovered, one of which Baghdadi fled down; a dead-end tunnel, not the one that was believed to be open-ended. With three children in tow, soldiers and military dogs in hot pursuit Baghdadi chose to detonate a suicide vest ending his life and those of the three children. The tunnel roof collapsed, and the bodies were laboriously excavated from the rubble, a DNA test concluded again, positive.

A Canadian Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic Voting Bloc

"The Voting Guide purports to assign a 'Fail' grade to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for recognizing that BDS is a form of anti-Semitism that harms Jewish students on Canadian campuses, and gives the same failing grade to Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer."
B'nai Brith statement

"It is totally unacceptable that government funds have been used to promote an anti-Semitic movement in Canada."
"It is deeply troubling that taxpayer dollars were used to subsidize a document 'guiding' Canadians on whom to support in an election."
Michael Mostyn, CEO, B'nai Brith Canada

"[The Canadian Islamophobia Industry Research Project studies] media outlets, political figures, academics, think tanks, far right groups and ideologues, and the donors who fund their campaigns [as part of a broader anti-Muslim] industry."
Canadian Islamophobia Industry Research Project website

Canadian Muslim Voting Guide

"SSHRC [Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council] grants are awarded through a competitive and impartial process of independent merit review -- managed at arm's length from government -- designed to ensure the highest standards of excellence."
SSHRC statement

"Islamophobia is on the rise in Canada and political speech can fuel or quell it,"
"We’ve examined party leaders’ stances based on their public statements and voting records to help Canadian Muslims, and anyone interested in the issues we’ve identified, decide how to vote in the Monday, Oct. 21 federal election."
Jasmin Zine, professor of sociology and Muslim studies, Wilfred Laurier University

"[As disturbing as it is to see academics using Jew-hatred as a] useful metric [on how to assess a political party, what is worse is that the Liberal government paid for this] hateful propaganda."
"This is a clear violation of parliamentary ethics, election law, not to mention simple decency."
Conservative Senator Linda Frum

The Guide, to be sure, while censuring Justin Trudeau for 'rejecting' the Palestinian cause by classifying the BDS campaign in support of 'Palestinian human rights' as anti-Semitic -- punishing Israel for its 'oppression' of Palestinians -- so it is forgiving at the same time, contending that Trudeau was the "target of Islamophobic hate campaigns", and thus succumbed to pressure from the Jewish lobby -- as well as forgiving his black face antics because of his public stance against Islamophobia.

The 34-page voting guide was a dedicated labour of love by Jasmin Zine, a professor of sociology and Muslim studies, along with helpful and committed graduate students Fatima Chakroun and Shifa Abbas out of Wilfred Laurier University. The National Council of Canadian Muslims and Professor Zine received a $24,923 Partnership Engage grant in September of 2018 to map the 'Canadian Islamophobia Industry'.

At this junction, given the surprise revelation of the production of a Muslim-oriented voting guide, the SSHRC is taking steps to initiate an investigation into "an unapproved use of funds" whose granting was originally allocated for an entirely different purpose. It would appear that the grant, following on an earlier one of $80,000 to Professor Zine in 2009 for the study of Muslim youth post 9/11, was meant for an entirely different, academic purpose.

Funds were diverted for the project of assembling the Canadian Muslim Voting Guide gauging responses to six national and six international matters of concern to Canadian Muslim voters by the leaders of the federal parties engaged in the 2019 October 21 election campaign. The guide was meant to target, inform and urge Muslim voters to cast their ballot in support of federal parties whose positions align most closely to the interests of Muslims in Canada.

Clearly, it assumes that Canadian Muslims have one overriding interest in Canadian politics; how government policy will advance Muslim, not Canadian interests for the foreseeable future. And it is abundantly obvious that interpreting Muslim interests to be intertwined closely with the outcome of the Palestinian 'struggle' in its conflict against the existence of the State of Israel assumes an importance greater than the struggle of Canadians to forge their own identity as a nation of consensus and self-respect among all its regions.

The historical antipathy of Arabs and Muslims against Jewish interests exemplified by its hatred of Israel as a Jewish state is manifested in the incorrigible streak of violence incited by Palestinian authorities against Israeli Jews and Jewish statehood, where 'martyrs' are celebrated who have been inculcated with hatred and have committed violent lethal attacks against Jews as a symbol of their 'struggle' against brutal 'occupation', mandated by Israel seeking to protect the lives of its citizens from Palestinian 'vengeance' against their 'oppressors' with whom they refuse to sign peace agreements.

The Canadian Islamophobia Industry feels justified in slandering Israel, in upholding their right to manipulate Canadian public opinion through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions targeting Israeli markets, academics, industry and science, but would never admit this is practising anti-Semitism, spreading hatred and alienation, and dividing Canadian public opinion on an intractable Middle East conflict stemming from religious-ethnic persecution, yet they soar in sanctimonious righteousness over 'Islamophobia' resulting from vicious Islamist threats against the international community.

The voting guide directly focuses on the BDS movement, arguing for the international boycott of Israeli interests at every conceivable point and level, for divestment from all state and business activities in Israel, in an effort to impact on its international relations and burden the country with  the failure of international outreach in trade, academic exchange and scientific and technical partnerships.

For its part, the government academic-scientific funding body, SSHRC stated it had no prior knowledge of the production of the voting guide, and "was not consulted in the development of this document", nor would it have been, given the nature of the guide and the purpose of its production, with the knowledge by its authors that this project would be disqualified for financial support from any body associated with government, however much at arm's length it operates.
 

Leaving Zion To Return To Spain

"They took everything from us -- our identity, our possessions, any property that we had."
"I don't have $6,000 a pop to do this [assemble qualifying materials and pay for the application process], and I don't see how it would benefit me."
"I was planted in the United States, and in the United States I'll stay."
Maria Apodaca, Sephardic Jew, Albuquerque, New Mexico

"It's almost like a huge, many, many months-long scavenger hunt."
"[An immigration case he worked on of a Venezuelan refugee claim to enter Canada was] 100 times more simple [than his own Spanish citizenship application.]"
"It's odd, but I felt the need to reciprocate. They cannot make amends through our mutual ancestors ... if the descendants do not take up the offer."
Daniel Romano, lawyer, Montreal

"There's definitely a lot of Jewish people that feel like their Spanish or Sephardic expression of Judaism is important to them, so being validated by Spain is something that's pleasing."
"But I think also Brexit is just having a big [impact on] young, liberal European-liking people who don't want to give that up if they don't have to."
Ben Shapiro, Interfaith Charity, London, England

"You had to do it [unusual 'family customs' such as not eating pork, washing hands before and after meals, covering mirrors at home after the death of a family member], but you never knew why."
"I always wanted to know who I was. I think this is something I had to do for my ancestors. They went through a lot of pain. They were expelled from their land ..."
"To me, it's not about, What I can do with that citizenship? It's more about restoring something that I love, or we loved, hundreds of years ago."
Juan Hernandez-Villafuerte, 41, Montreal 

A gift shop in the old Jewish quarters of Toledo, where Jews were expelled five centuries ago. Photograph: Gérard Julien/AFP/Getty Images

Juan Hernandez-Villafuerte was led to believe by his family that they were Christian, despite the peculiar customs his family observed, well known to the Jewish community as identifying features of Judaism, but unknown to him, though his mother suspected their family had once been Jewish. That would have been before the year 1492, when Spanish Jews faced the Inquisition, and expulsion from Spain. Some Jews had acquiesced to the demand they abandon Judaism and become Christian. But even these people, called Marranos, were suspected of secretly practising Judaism, and some were burned alive, in auto-da-fes, the lethal penalty of spurning Roman Catholicism by those seen as heretical.

He was curious enough to return to Mexico City where his family had lived for generations, where he sought out police and church records, discovering an old property record dating from 1610 with the name of his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather as the owner of a property there. "I was actually able to touch it. I always wanted to now who I was." He had felt impelled to do that genealogical research when in 2015 the Spanish Parliament passed into law the granting of citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jewry who could produce documentation that they qualified.

Applicants had to prove connections with Spain going back centuries  AFP

Historically, Jews faced persecution, oppression, racist propaganda, pogroms and expulsion wherever they lived in the diaspora. And this modern-day 'change of heart' by a country that had made life impossible for Jews, and appropriated whatever assets and properties they might have had, while expelling them, discovered that with the detested Jews no longer to be relied upon for their trading, business and workmanship skills, their economies suffered, leading succeeding governments to invite the Jews to return.

Now, in our modern era, Spain and Portugal have done just that. As has done Sudan, beckoning former Sudanese-Jewish families to return to the places where they suffered intense human rights abuses. Come back, they say, where you belong, we miss you. They stand prepared to correct a historical wrong of immense proportions. Spain's economy is in ill health, its unemployment rate, particularly among the young, is sky-high. Just as it once closed its doors to Jews, it has more recently opened its borders to refugees and migrants streaming to Europe any way they can from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

As long as an applicant is able to provide documentation demonstrably proving their Iberian heritage that application will be considered. Census documents, birth records, baptism, marriage and death certificates. The records must be translated and the translator must be given official recognition by the Spanish government, they must pay the application fee of $6,000 and the applicant must be prepared to travel to Spain to sign their application alongside the signature of a Spanish notary.

The old Jewish quarter of Toledo was a major cultural centre in the Middle Ages AFP

A rabbi at a Sephardic synagogue in Vancouver receives up to dozens of requests monthly to write letters to accompany Spanish citizenship applications, with requests arriving from South Americans, Mexicans, and occasionally Canadians. Some of those people have in their possession original scripts dating from the Inquisition. "People really, really took this seriously", explained Rabbi Shlomo Gabbay of Vancouver's Beth Hamidrash synagogue.

Spain is facing the prospect of a steadily diminishing population with a low fertility and replacement rate among the Spanish just as is occurring all over the world as people prosper and become more educated and women put off childbearing in favour of putting careers first. Spain's fertility rate at 1.3 children per woman is below replacement level, projecting a declining population by 9.4 million between 2000 and 2050. Spaniards have been promised pro-natal government initiatives even while it has accepted increasing refugee numbers.

Despite which, one has to wonder whether the application process for Spanish-Jewish descendants has any focus beyond the obvious potential of economic enhancement for the country. Jewish repatriation applicants must pass a language and citizenship test, most must hire a lawyer and genealogist  to guide their claim forward, all details pointing to the fact that only the affluent could afford the time and the money it would require to fulfill all those mandatory details.

Andrés Villegas, a Colombian, found a Jewish ancestor who was born in 1595 AFP

The Spanish Citizenship Committee of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico received 50 to 75 calls daily from people making enquiries about Spanish citizenship. Some interested in pursuing citizenship never suspected that the customs their families had followed had anything to do with Judaism. "That s a bombshell that goes off in someone's head. That is a real identity crisis. Citizenship is like getting this badge: yes, we are who we are", explained Schelly Talalay Dardashti, with the Committee. Observing that some people resort to DNA testing.

"There's a sense certainly toward the Jews of some sort of historical debt, some sort of reckoning."
"But if I can be more cynical, I think there's also an element of an attempt to bring people with assets and affluence to the countries [Spain and Portugal] and also to offset some of the refugees that are arriving at these countries."
"Many of them are having an awakening that they have to have another place to go, and I think that Israel used to be that escape hatch, but now Israel is in as much chaos as the United States."
Howard Adelman, associate professor of history, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

"I was elected on getting out of these ridiculous endless wars."

"The region is in chaos because the hegemonic power does not seem to know what it wants to do, and so nobody else does."
"[Even in Britain, a close ally of the United States], nobody knows what to do any more."
Michael Stephens, scholar, Royal United Services Institute, London

"Many nations around the Middle East now are considering major changes in their strategic defense plans because they no longer see the United States as a reliable ally."
"It will be very difficult to convince nations of the Middle East that the United States is serious about what it says."
Gamal Abdel Gawad Soltan, adviser, Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, Cairo

In this photo from August 12, 2019, plumes of smoke rise after an explosion at a military base southwest of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Loay Hameed)

Who has the enthusiastic approval of Donald J. Trump in their behaviour and actions as heads of State? Men like himself. Devious, untrustworthy, convinced of their absolute divine right to rule and rule as they wish. The ruthless, the vain and the ignorant who believe they are their nations' deliverers and benevolent dictators. Those who believe in their elite destiny that has unfailingly ushered them into their positions of power through the pretense of charlatans convincing an electorate that the ballot box is awaiting their choice.

So the freakish little pomp-head that rules North Korea elicits Donald Trump's admiration for his unswerving belligerence and demands, and Trump is willing to acquiesce to a surprising degree. He has engineered a personal rapprochement with the autocratic Vladimir Putin whose designs on his Eastern European neighbours' frantic grasp of sovereignty he is happy to challenge, recalling the bygone days of the USSR, just as Recep Tayyip Erdogan has flaunted his Islamist credentials in preparation of re-installing his version of the Ottoman Empire.

Iron Dome battery near the Syrian border in the Golan Heights (Photos: EPA)

They all envision themselves as exceptionally entitled to flout their nations' term limits to enable them to rule ad infinitum. And while the United States under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump has drawn in its octopus-arms embrace of the world outside its borders, willing to shed its grip on power and influence, it has not hesitated to advance the hegemonic influence of its adversaries, Trump's personal allies, on request.

So delivering the steadfast and loyal Kurdish allies of the United States into the psychotic hands of their fiercest enemy, allowing Turkish President Erdogan to mount a violent offensive while the U.S. politely withdraws the protective barrier of its troops, Trump bellows his pleasure at solving the problems of the Middle East as far as America is concerned, by allowing the adversaries to sort things out as they will, and they will, officiously, brutally, through ethnic-cleansing bloodbaths.

And where then, does that leave America's long-time partners like Israel and the Persian Gulf monarchs so long reliant on American protection? Good question. Trump's spur-of-the-moment decision making, based in his faultless intuition of any given situation governs his impulsive penchant for besmirching U.S. honour and puzzling its Western counterparts, never knowing what next in the ordered world of the Democratic West is to be roiled.

A suicide drone developed by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (AFP)

A hubristic commander-in-chief in Washington has put the entire world on edge, in actual fact. His unpredictability means the United States can no longer be relied upon as a trustworthy partner with common interests in a sane and regulated world order. The brutal Turkish assault on the Syrian Kurds has enabled Erdogan, pace Putin, to take possession of Kurdish heritage territory, threatening the Kurdish military with annihilation.

Just as the U.S. was "locked and loaded" to respond to any provocations from the Islamic Republic of Iran, resulting in nothing much when Iranian missiles targeted Saudi oilfields, Israel now awaits the inevitable; rockets aiming for its sensitive military, geographic-vulnerable cities and nuclear installations with the Republic's new, more efficient and accurate missiles which it has threatened to use for that very purpose -- to destroy the "Zionist entity". So much for daylight between the U.S. and Israel.

Illustrative: Iran says it successfully tested the Hoveizeh cruise missile on February 2, 2019 (Screen grab via Tasnim)

"Iran’s most recent attack on Saudi oil production demonstrates the sophistication and extent of Iranian capabilities. Iran used Ababil 2 drones and Quds-1 cruise missiles to execute the attack. Neither weapon has the needed precision when controlled from a distance, so it is likely that Iranian intelligence infiltrated Saudi Arabia and guided the weapons in their terminal phase. This constitutes one of the great U.S. intelligence failures since 9/11 — a U.S. ally’s oil production crippled due to large-scale sabotage by a hostile power."
"Strategically, only America and Israel can check Iranian ambitions. The U.S. maintains a network of Middle Eastern and European bases from which it can concentrate ground and air forces against any point in the region; a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf or Eastern Mediterranean greatly complicates Iran’s ability to operate freely in Syria and Iraq, or to close the Strait of Hormuz and pressure U.S. allies in Asia. Moreover, U.S. diplomatic, financial and commercial pressure can still strangle the Iranian economy, despite the damage the JCPOA and its aftermath did to the U.S. sanctions regime. Unless Iran can eliminate U.S. presence in the Middle East, its broader campaign will remain constricted."
Seth Cropsey, senior fellow, Hudson Institute, director, Center for American Seapower

Quite The Achievement, Justin Trudeau!

"If the frustration and alienation in Alberta continues to mount, it will pose a very serious challenge to national unity."
"This relationship needs some good faith from Ottawa, and if it doesn't get that I feel that alienation is going to go in a very problematic direction."
"We're not going to get one inch closer to a pipeline by closing in on ourselves as a landlocked jurisdiction."
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

"The path our federal government has been on the last four years has divided our nation."
"Last night's[Monday, October 21] election results showed the sense of frustration and alienation in
Saskatchewan is now greater than it has been at any point in my lifetime."
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

"Canadians woke up this morning to a more divided country."
"Tonight, Conservatives have put Justin Trudeau on notice, and Mr. Trudeau, when your government falls, Conservatives will be there and we will win."
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Andrew Scheer

"I've heard your frustration and I want to be there to support you."
"To those who did not vote for us, know that we will work every single day for you, we will govern for everyone."
"Regardless of how you cast your ballot, ours is a team that will fight for all Canadians ... To Canadians in Alberta and Saskatchewan know that you are an essential part of our great country."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking in Ottawa Wednesday

"I want to congratulate the prime minister on his re-election."

"Our government hopes the federal government will join us in making life easier and more affordable for Ontarians and Canadians alike."

"Ontarians need and expect our governments to work with our municipal partners to build new and needed hospital infrastructure, create long-term care beds for our aging population, address gridlock and congestion on our roads and to build affordable housing for young people and families."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

The Ontario Premier was the principal dragon that Justin Trudeau repeatedly invoked on the campaign trail, whipping out his blunt-edged sword to slay the man in his promises to the voters of Ontario that he would save them from -- the services-cutting slashes of the provincial Conservative government. Premier Ford distinguished himself with the grace of his congratulatory message to the returning prime minister, after having absented himself during the course of the campaign, not wishing to distract from the potential fortunes of the federal Conservative Party which Trudeau repeatedly linked to Premier Ford's.

In stark contrast, the man whose warped policies and vapid, continual invocations of Conservative malice against the electorate, distinguished himself yet again, as a master of deception and ill manners when he deliberately upstaged second-place Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party of Canada, during Mr. Scheer's concession speech, a gracious yet stern message of acceptance. Just as Mr. Scheer began his opening remarks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched into his victory speech, belying honourable tradition, another first of its kind in Canada.

This was, in any event, a first-ever federal election in Canada, its 43th, and nastiest on record for the low level of its efforts to discredit opposition. Although the Liberals managed to save themselves by achieving a minority government, after losing 27 seats of their previous majority government, it was the Conservatives who actually won the popular vote, not the Liberals. The Conservative Party of Canada swept the western provinces, while the Liberals took major cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

After four years in office, an inauspicious time for Canada internally and globally, Justin Trudeau, teetering on the bare edge of a minority government has suddenly sobered, stating that regardless of how any Canadians vote, he's their man, he'll look to their interests, he has respect for all Canadians irrespective of their political allegiance though they were the objects of his sneering contempt for four years. This isn't quite 'sunny ways' Trudeau who had four years to demonstrate to all of Canada that he administered the affairs of the country with equal regard to all its component parts, and who failed miserably, and not because he made the attempt.

With an overall turnout vote among the electorate of around 60 percent, one in five Canadians eligible to vote decided to give the Liberal Party and its leader a second four-year mandate. If the second time around even barely resembles the first, a complete shambles in every metric that counts, there will be nothing left of this country to govern, its confederated cohesiveness lost to history. He heard the nation's frustrations loud and clear the past four years, and did nothing to mediate or remediate. His agenda failed to respect the population's concerns.

Now that the West is grumbling about a possible 'Wexit' and expressing its frustration over federal efforts to contain its natural resource aspirations through a slow death due to neglect and pretense, and petty, harmful legislation, and Quebec is once again flirting with the separatist Bloc Quebecois, the country after the most wretched election campaign in its history is shattered. An Angus Reid poll found 72 percent of Western Canadians back in January believe they are not "treated fairly" by Ottawa, and that belief is well grounded.

He can now say "Let's work hard to keep our country together", but what is it worth? It's a reiteration of the very same statement heard in 2015. Canada is at yet another crossroads, one where Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has made it clear that his party is interested in only one thing: Quebec. The rest of Canada is entirely irrelevant to their interests other than that they will not tolerate an oil pipeline bringing Alberta crude through the province. 

"If what is proposed is good for Quebec, you can count on us". But if not, "the Bloc will stand in the way"; presumably of any other province asserting an advantage not shared by Quebec, while Quebec continues to placidly feel entitled to vacuum up the major share of the federal taxation distribution system of "equalization" payments, primarily provided through tax transfers emanating from Alberta. As far as cynicism goes, the Bloc is now the third leading party in Parliament, an alienated separatist enclave, for whom Confederation is a trivial thing to be dismissed. 

Rewarding Gross Incompetence, Immorality, Egotism

"Now I have just spoken with Prime Minister Trudeau to congratulate him on winning the most seats —and my message tonight is that the strength of our democracy is not only measured by the ballots we cast, but also by how we move forward after their counting."

"And while tonight’s result isn’t what we wanted, I am also incredibly proud. Proud of our team, proud of our campaign, and proud of the bigger and stronger Conservative team that we will send to Ottawa. Now, there are still a number of really close races, so we don’t know for sure how many more Conservatives Canadians will send to Ottawa tonight, but what we do know is that after the 2015 election, when Justin Trudeau looked unstoppable, when all the pundits and experts said it was the beginning of another Trudeau dynasty, that he would have eight or even 12 years in power. But tonight, Conservatives have put Justin Trudeau on notice. And Mr. Trudeau, when your government falls, Conservatives will be ready and we will win."
Andrew Sheer, Leader, Official Opposition, Conservative Party of Canada, Parliament of Canada


So, it's over. And Canada's 43rd Parliament is slated to begin, returning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to his second term, reduced from his 2015 election's majority to the current 2019's minority government. To people who voted in a majority Liberal government in 2015, viewing Justin Trudeau as a breath of fresh air, who just incidentally was telegenic, charismatic, youthful, inherited a famous name in Canadian politics and promised electoral reform, along with a more open government prepared to do the business of administering Canada fairly and honourably, and to bring civility to Parliament, he was their man.

During the 2015-6 honeymoon period they lavished love on their champion of women's rights, of LGBTQ2 rights, workers' rights, whose flashy style they just adored. Many may have been disappointed when Trudeau decided to ditch the electoral reform promise, and they shrugged when the enquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women went nowhere, and they lauded him when he made public apologies for episodes in Canadian history that occurred a century ago. They did a double take when theatrical-adoring Trudeau out-dressed Indians on the sub-continent when he visited and welcomed a convicted Sikh separatist who had attempted to murder a visiting Indian minister in Canada.

Revelations of his having groped a female news reporter in Vancouver before he entered politics was dismissed by him as people experiencing things 'differently', depending on gender, and ain't that just so? Who knew that this man had a streak of mean vengeance in him, other than former Admiral Mark Norman who was put through hell on Earth though he was second-in-command of the Canadian Armed Forces, when Trudeau decided he would ruin the man, charging him with having betrayed 'national secrets' by embarrassing Trudeau, with respect to commissioning a Naval supply ship Trudeau wanted to contract out to a rival shipyard.

But the revelations that the PMO under Trudeau's direction harassing and continually interfering with the decision of Jody Wilson-Raybould  with respect to the Prosecutor General refusing to give SNC Lavalin, an influential, Liberal-friendly Montreal engineering company, a free pass on charges relating to corrupt activities, removing her as Canada's Minister of Justice and Solicitor General for insubordination when he and his acolytes unethically interfered in the administration of justice, which was found by Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion to be illegal should have been grounds to voluntarily step down from office.

During the election campaign there were revelations, complete with incriminating photographs that Justin Trudeau relished the challenge of posing himself as other than what he is; a privileged-by-birth white elite, by dressing up in blackface at festive, celebratory events on at least three occasions. He excused his penchant for mockery and racism by blaming his privileged upbringing, and ceding that he had no idea at the time -- when he was 29 years old -- that what he was doing was racist, pure and simple.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is shown in a 2001 photo published in the yearbook of West Point Grey Academy, a private school where Trudeau was teaching at the time. (Time.com)

Anyone else would have paid the consequences for these and too many other acts of malfeasance that would have sunk anyone else. In fact, anyone else, would have been genuinely embarrassed by their own demonstrated stupidity and arrogance, apologized without reservation, and stepped aside from public office. Mr. Trudeau believes he can do no wrong, that anything he does that might be of questionable taste bordering on immoral or unethical or even worse, is to be overlooked in favour of acknowledging his exceptionality.

So exceptional that he saw fit to exclude church groups from submitting applications for summer employment for interns through a federal government summer grant-hiring program, if the groups in question would not, or could not attest that they would support a woman's right to abortion. This is the same man who took disallowed/illegal under parliamentary rules, gifts from wealthy patrons known to lobby government for special considerations and project funding. And was duly censored for so doing by the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner.

This man has single-handedly alienated Western Canada, thanks to his commitment to his version of responsible environmentalism, where it is perfectly sane to import Saudi Arabian oil to Canada, a country that has its own vast oil resources, in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. A vital oil industry resource is being forcibly neglected due to the disinterest of the Liberal government in opening up the oil fields to full extraction and refining, and shipping fossil fuels by pipeline to eastern Canada and to tidewater to be shipped abroad as a valuable and saleable resource.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, Champion of Zionism

"A few days ago, I found in my mailbox an invitation that was probably sent to me by mistake. The President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, and the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, are ‘honored’ to invite me to a festive dinner on the occasion of Her Excellency the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel receiving the Theodor Herzl Award."
"Why is Merkel being given the Theodor Herzl Award? Because her representative at the United Nations abstains in anti-Israel resolutions — and thereby de facto supports them? The same official who equates Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians with Israel’s demolition of the homes of Palestinian terrorists? For not relocating the German embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as the United States did, and also warning other countries against taking such a step? For all this, she gets the Theodor Herzl Award?"                                   German political commentator Henryk Broder

"The Zionist Organization of America opposes the World Jewish Congress’s decision to honor German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the Herzl Award. The ZOA firmly believes that a foreign leader who continues to support the disastrously flawed 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which will enable the Iranian regime in time to become a nuclear weapons state, is a singularly inappropriate recipient of the WJC’s most prestigious award."                                                               “By any reasonable yardstick, Chancellor Merkel has done little if anything to justify the bestowal of this award and a great deal that should disqualify her as a candidate for this award."                                                                                                            "Which policy she has pursued does the WJC believe distinguishes Chancellor Merkel as a worthy recipient of this award? Her refusal to close down the operations in Germany of the vicious blood-soaked terrorist group Hezbollah? Her opposition to recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? Her stubborn support for the Iran nuclear deal that is opposed on bipartisan basis in Israel? Her unabashed claim that Iran is not anti-Semitic, despite its repeated calls for the Jewish State’s destruction."                                                                    "Whatever else may be said of Chancellor Merkel, she is an entirely inappropriate recipient of an award adorned with the name of the founding father of Political Zionism."                                                                                                 Morton Klein, President, Zionist Organization of America

(Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

"It seems paradoxical that Germany — as a country that is said to have learned from its horrendous past and which has a strong commitment to fighting antisemitism — is one of the strongest economic partners of a regime [The Islamic Republic of Iran] that blatantly denies the Holocaust and commits human rights abuses on a daily basis. Germany has included Israel’s security as a part of its raison d’être. As a matter of course this should exclude doing business with a fanatic dictatorship that is calling for Israel’s destruction, pursuing nuclear weapons and financing terror organizations around the world."
Dr. Josef Schuster, President, Central Council of Jews, Germany

Just about unanimous, the response of major Jewish organizations to the decision of the World Jewish Congress to honour German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the presentation of its prestigious Theodor Herzl Award for Zionism. Frau Merkel is beloved by her German subjects, and perhaps many Jews are among them, but it is her policies and that of her political ruling party that has made life for German Jews untenable in Germany. She and her party have expressed their deep shame and regret at Germany's Nazi past and its hugely successful efforts to annihilate European Jewry.

While expressing themselves as champions of Israel and good friends of the Jewish State, Germany also appears to subscribe to the much-mooted theory that good friends are permitted to be critical of the values and/or policies of their closest friends because they feel it is in the very best interests of friends to genuinely express opinions reflecting their perspectives for the greater goal of guiding them toward preferred options. Germany prefers two states side by side, an Israeli next to a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority, on the merits of its decision making in the past, turning down one goodwill offer after another to negotiate with Israel, and appears to favour a one-state policy; the obliteration of Israel, with the Jews being absorbed into a Palestinian state. This, from the PA which has already repeatedly stated unequivocally that no Jews would be permitted to live within a Palestinian State; so the take-home solution is a Juden-rein, one-state dedicated to the Palestinians alone, thank you very much.

Somewhat reminiscent of Nazi Germany which had resolved to initiate and carry through to fruition a Juden-rein Germany, to be followed by a Juden-rein Europe, and once the Thousand-year Reich was achieved, presumably, a Juden-rein world community. What Nazi Germany failed to fully accomplish, it seems that the German Democratic Republic has put into motion in Germany once again. The six million European-Jewish lives that were lost in the Holocaust have now been replaced by the presence in Germany of six million Muslims who have brought with them their own brand of viral anti-Semitism.

Germany had, over the past post-war years, absorbed a Turkish expatriate population that had come to the country as temporary foreign workers and eventually achieved citizenship, to be joined eventually by others from the Middle East. When Chancellor Merkel decided Germany would generously open its borders to a million irregular arrivals, migrants and refugees, they  joined the already-present five million Muslim German citizens. Jews who had lived in Germany for hundreds of years began to once again suffer a rising tide of anti-Semitism and violence.

Germany financially and philosophically supports various groups that promote Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment programs. Germany approved a UN resolution in May of 2016 -- at the annual assembly of the World Health Organization -- co-sponsored by the Arab League and the Palestinian delegation, singling Israel out as the world’s nonsensical sole violator of "mental, physical and environmental health". Unsurprisingly, and ironically, the German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), labelled a "far-right" group that wants to halt Muslim immigration to Germany, has attracted the attention of German Jews

A 69-year-old German Jew, Emanuel Bernhard Krauskopf, joined the AfD in 2013, founding an offshoot, Juden in der AfD (Jews in the AfD, or JAfD). This was in reaction to Germany’s mainstream parties' inattention to anti-Semitism. "Every Jew who has been murdered in Europe since 2000 has been killed by Islamofascists", stated Mr. Krauskopf, who lost 50 family members in Nazi concentration camps. Many Jews in both eastern and western Germany were embracing the AfD , believing that continued mass migration poses a threat to the future of Jews in Germany. His detractors accuse him of being a "Jewish Nazi".

Demonstrators carry a banner that reads “Against any kind of anti-Semitism” during a rally against the annual al-Quds Day march in Berlin, July 11, 2015. Anti-Israel rallies are held annually on the day. (Gregor Fischer/picture alliance via Getty Images)

"Look, when the media tells you that the AfD is a Nazi party, and when the media looks for some Nazis [in AfD], which we have – like ALL the parties in Germany – this is nothing special about the AfD. The Left consists of Jew-haters, not all of them. Yes, we have some [‘Jew-haters’]. We try to get rid of them. It's not so easy because we have free speech."
"To import Jew haters into Germany while knowing it is an anti-Jewish act that's not just you know, some memorial. This is reducing our security in Germany by the chancellor of Germany herself."
"They [Berlin] are playing it down [the threat from Muslim immigration]. They're lying. No other word. They are lying about it. So, there are lots of excuses and the situation gets worse every day. Because the government has lost control. Jew-haters have been imported."
"[The German government knows] these are Jew-haters, so now you have no excuse like the normal excuse was after World War Two: ‘Yeah, but we didn’t know that this would happen, we didn‘t know...’ You know it now."
Bernhard Kraukopf