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.