Out of the Woodworks and Into Parliament Hill

"Parliament stand [sic] in solidarity with Palestine and call [sic] on the Government of Canada to support the Palestinian people."

"The speakers at the ceremony, including deputies and representatives of associations and civil organizations, affirmed their solidarity with Palestine and their condemnation of the killings that Palestinians are subjected to at the hands of the occupation forces and settlers."

"Member of Parliament Niki Ashton said that Canada can play a better role for peace in the Middle
East and is keen on human rights in the world, especially for the Palestinians."

Arabic-language piece, Meshwar Media website

Nazih Khatatba posted this photo on his Facebook page of MPs at an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People event on Parliament Hill. From left to right: Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, NDP MP Niki Ashton, Bloc Québécois MP Mario Beaulieu, Liberal MP Salma Zahid, NDP MP Blake Desjarlais, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, NDP MP Matthew Green, Bloc Québécois MP Denis Trudel, NDP MP Lindsay Mathyssen. (Nazih Khatatba/Facebook)

 

This was a description published of an event held on November 30 called International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, hosted by Canadian Member of Parliament Selma Zahid, chair of the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group. Present at the meeting was the author and publisher of that write-up, Nazih Khatatba, an invited guest whose newspaper, al-Meshwar claims the Holocaust was a Jewish plot, referring to it as a "holohoax".

"In following up with the Minister's office, they had determined based on the antisemitism they saw in the newspaper, that asking for the money to be returned was warranted, and that happened."

"I'm very disappointed to see that he was here [on Parliament Hill] -- there were members of Parliament there from all parties and I can only hope none of my colleagues there knew who he was and what he stood for."

Liberal Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather

"[Invitations to the reception were] circulated widely [and it was attended by about 150 people]."

"We are not able to research the history of every attendee that responded."

"As chair of the group, I will continue to be a voice for the human rights of the Palestinian people and for a just and fair two-state solution achieved at the negotiating table."

Toronto-area Liberal MP Salma Zahid

"This event was a parliamentary friendship group event that included MPs and members of the Palestinian community from across the country."

"What this individual said is offensive and antisemitic and must be condemned. Minister Alghabra had no contact with this person or even knew that this person was present at this event."

Spokesperson for Transport Minister Omar Alghabra

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra defends attending an event at Parliament in an exchange with Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman.

 

No sooner did the dust settle over an earlier Liberal scandal when a self-described 'anti-racism' trainer -- Laith Marouf -- with a laser-focus on Jews, as a seasoned Palestinian Jew-baiter-and-hater who spewed constant antisemitic sentiments on social media and presented himself as a specialist on racial relations -- hired on contract with the government to conduct anti-racism workshops where he would proceed to lecture on the plight of the Palestinians under the Zionist boot of the Israeli 'occupation'. His reputation as an antisemite was well established, yet two government departments saw fit to accept  his self-styled credentials as an expert on race relations.

Anyone, at any time could have looked online to see any number of the hateful statements he was addicted to, such as this one: “You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they came from, they will return to being low voiced bitches of thier [sic] Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters,” he tweeted on Aug. 10. Now that that is old history up crops another.

Where a federal Liberal cabinet minister, the leader of the Green party and Members of Parliament from other parties were in attendance at the Solidarity with Palestinian People event, organized by elected Muslim MPs in company with sordid antisemites and Holocaust deniers. The unabashed presence of a denialist racist-monger this week on Parliament Hill who publishes articles and opinion pieces celebratory of Jewish deaths at the hands of terrorists highlights the depths to which some elected officials sink.

 

Meshwar Media through its editor-publisher was congratulatory over the Jerusalem bombing attack where a 15-year-old Canadian-Israel student was killed. The al-Meshwar newspaper published an article in 2017 claiming the Holocaust to be a Jewish plot, and that banks associated with the "Zionist movement" funded the rise to power in the 1930s of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. In an interview that same year on a television program Nazih Khatatba instruced Canadians "not believe the fairy tales claiming Jews have suffered oppression".

 

A Jerusalem synagogue massacre was described by Khatatba in an al-Meshwar editorial as "courageous and qualitative", where among other Jews at prayer who were slaughtered, was a Canadian Jew. The NDP's Niki Ashton, present at the event, had this man's endorsement during her bid for her party's leadership. A fundraiser hosted by the Palestine Aid Society saw Ashton and Khatatba in a unity of sentiments and was featured on Khatatba's newspaper's front page, during Ashton's leadership bid. Now she disavows support of his views nor does she "accept support from people who hold such views".

Meshwar Media had been requested to return a government grant that had been issued during the pandemic, in view of its antisemitic content. After which Meshwar Media's Facebook page angrily denounced the Heritage Minister who had also been involved in the Laith Marouf antisemitic affair. In Arabic in response to the demand of funding to be returned, he wrote they "refuse to apologize" much less stop publishing "articles criticizing Israel that they consider antisemitic".

Predictably, all of those in the public eye and in government now assert that had they known that this notorious antisemite would be present at the affair, they would never themselves have attended. None of them had any idea -- including the event organizer -- that he would be present, nor were they aware of his scorching racist views. Including those who consorted with him outside of the current affair. In the current public and social aura of rampant antisemitism emanating from all quarters; the political arena to the entertainment field, celebrities and social media, Jew-hate is becoming institutionalized.

 

Melissa Lantsman

@MelissaLantsman

·

Follow

The Laith Marouf scandal has shown us that antisemitism is completely normalized & continues with impunity. Empty words from the Liberal government while funding this racist publication with tax dollars and then rolling out the red carpet for them on Parliament Hill. #cdnpoli

Documenting Antisemitism

@AntisemitismCA

Two days ago, Canadian Members of Parliament, including Federal cabinet minister @OmarAlghabra and Green Party Leader @ElizabethMay, met with and hosted a dangerous antisemite and Holocaust denier. #CdnPoli #Antisemitism 1/8

10:13 AM · Dec 1, 2022

"Each and every parliamentarian, regardless of their particular perspective on the Middle East, owes a duty to Canadians not to be seen as condoning antisemitism or any other form of racism through their public association with a discredited and hateful news source."

"Zahid owes it to the public to better explain through what channels Khatatba gained access to the event on Parliament Hill. Zahid must commit her Friendship Group to end all association with those who distort the Holocaust and pursue antisemitic agendas. If Zahid is unable to do the bare minimum and disavow Holocaust-distorting media attending her Friendship Group events, we consider her unqualified to serve as Chair."

B/nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn

NDP MP Niki Ashton (left) came under fire in 2017 after she was photographed at one of her fundraising events with Nazih Khatatba (right). (Facebook/B'nai Brith)

Broadcasting Hate

"Holocaust distortion trails world events and shifts in form depending on current affairs, areas of deep public concern and the evolving news agenda."

"[Holocaust distortion in 2021 was often linked to anti-lockdown protests, including antisemitic] associations of Jews with disease."

"[Telegram social media platform] does not have a policy to take action on Holocaust denial or distortion, creating a safe haven for those who wish to deny or distort the genocide."

UNESCO Study

"Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made misinformation the problem that it is today by promoting sensational posts with their algorithmic feeds."

"This is far less relevant on Telegram where people get only the content they explicitly subscribe to."

"[Telegram is] a platform for free speech, including that we do not agree with. That said, we must ensure our apps remain accessible on all platforms in order for everyone to peacefully express opinions."

"Posts that glorify or encourage violence are explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and are removed by our moderators through a combination of proactive moderation in public spaces and user reports."

Remi Vaughan, spokesperson. Telegram

"We can clearly see that we have a major problem of lawless zones -- of networks that ensure privileged platforms for haters."

"And it's a violence that circulates sometimes without any regulation or moderation by Telegram. And we must not let that take hold."

"[There is] a fragile equilibrium [between responsibility and freedom of expression -- but it's always fragile in democratic societies]."

Audrey Azoulay, director general, UNESCO

Arolsen Archives

A new study led by the United Nations' cultural arm UNESCO, published in partnership with the World Jewish Congress, based on a review of nearly 4,000 Holocaust-related posts out of Facebook, Instagram Telegram, TikTok and Twitter elicited the impression that "a certain rapprochement exists between conspiracy COVID-skeptical but also racist and antisemitic theories" which had been seen to emerge in recent years.

It was the messaging platform Telegram, however -- a major source of news and information in Russia along with much of the world -- that was recognized as singularly rife with Holocaust denial and distortion, to the extent that close to half of public content users fall into these categories in greater portion than what appears on other platforms. Those posting such scurrilous content have ways to evade moderation with the use of inside jokes, memes and references mocking or glorifying genocide.

Key words were selected by researchers meant to include a diversity of ways enabling people to discuss the Holocaust online. Generic words inclusive of "Holocaust", along with other commonly used words and phrases relating to antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Content in English, French, German and Spanish were examined. Percentages of Holocaust denial content was found to vary by language and platform. Some 49 percent of content on public Telegram channels mentioning the Holocaust denies or distorts its history.

 

The Telegraph app running on a computer  Associated Press

Roughly half of the posts in French and English deny or distort history, whereas in German, that number rises to a whopping 80 percent. The very country that gave rise to the most virulently horrendous persecution of Jews, making an art form of predatory, defamatory slander, paving the way for the organized, industrialized institution of the Final Solution, has bred the most egregious numbers of Holocaust-denying citizenry.

On the other hand, 19 percent of all public Holocaust=related content on Twitter either denies or more commonly, distorts historical facts, according to the study. As does 17 percent on TikTok, eight percent on Facebook, and three percent on Instagram. Holocaust distortion is defined in the study as the significant and deliberate misrepresentation of historical facts which can include deflecting responsibility for the Holocaust toward its victims. Efforts to minimize the Holocaust's impact or the role of those complicit in carrying out the Final Solution as well as "smearing" victims or "celebrating" perpetrators.

Claims that the genocide of Jews ever in actual reality took place, or that call into question the means or intention of the genocide are considered core Holocaust denialism. UNESCO states that it has joined with the World Jewish Congress to "work in partnership" with Facebook and Tiktok for the purpose of redirecting users searching for terms related to the Holocaust, to websites dedicated to facts relating to the roots, processes and consequences of the Holocaust.

People at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. Photo by Julie Oliver/Postmedia 

Canada Making Holocaust Denial A Criminal Offence

"There is no place for antisemitism and Holocaust denial in Canada."

"That's why we've pledged to prohibit the wilful promotion of antisemitism through condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust."

"The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. We must preserve its memory, combat contemporary antisemitism and be unequivocal when we say: never again."

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino 

 

"Jewish Canadians comprise one percent of the Canadian population yet are the target of 62 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes."

"We live in a time of rising antisemitism."

Richard Marceau, vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada

 

"Holocaust denial and distortion constitute a cruel assault on memory, truth, and justice -- an antisemitic libel to cover up the worst crime in history."

"And thereby a cruel and mocking rebuke to Holocaust survivors and their legacy."

Irwin Cotler, special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, Canada

The National Holocaust Monument is seen before the official opening ceremony in Ottawa, Wednesday, September 27, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

 Saskatchewan Conservative Member of Parliament Kevin Waugh brought a private member's bill prohibiting Holocaust denial to parliament earlier in this year. It was his private initiative to move forward on the issue, given the rising incidence of antisemitism in Canada. He pointed out that the proposal for a new law just put forward by the government as its own move was "word for word" in copying his own bill. He was happy to leave the issue to the government to see it become law since represented a "Win for everybody. There is no place for racism in this country".

This is, just incidentally, the same government of Justin Trudeau's Liberals that inherited a Conservative government move to help build the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau the complex was completed and officially opened. At the opening day ceremonies, Jewish attendees were amazed to discover that the dedication plaque made no mention of Jews whatever, instead speaking of men, women and children who were slaughtered. 

Outlawing Holocaust denial has been brought to the stage of necessity in the reality of an atmosphere of rising anti-Semitism, an issue that Members of Parliament and anti-hate groups have emphasized. When this criminalizing of Holocaust denial is passed into law Canada will stand among a number of European countries that includes Germany, Greece, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic which have themselves long since prohibited Holocaust denial.

 

 

The memorializing of the six million Jews systematically killed in Nazi-occupied Europe is one way the world can recall the depths to which hatred and propaganda geared to justify the murder of people based on their ethnic and cultural and religious origins -- downplaying their humanity, portraying them as unworthy of life as a menace to others -- can cause a genocide. 

 

Despite the government's move to take charge of the issue, in essence neutralizing MP Waugh's bill, he chose not to withdraw it. Despite the government override, MP Kevin Waugh expects his bill to have its second reading debate at month's end in the House of Commons. The reason for which is that he wants to ensure the change to the Criminal Code is enacted sooner rather than later. 

 

There is no information of any penalty to be served should a conviction of Holocaust denial occur. A penalty of up to two years in prison is linked to MP Waugh's bill. Once the government's move is brought into law the MP's bill prohibiting Holocaust denial will be rendered redundant. It will be interesting to see in the near future how the law will handle such cases. 

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters run from police following a demonstration in Montreal after attacking pro-Israel counter-demonstrators with rocks. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Given the fact that rising antisemitism can be seen in a linkage to rising immigration from the Middle East, including refugees. Which has resulted in BDS campaigns, and Palestinian influences in public displays of antisemitism in Palestinian flags, along with those of the terrorist group Hamas flown on the streets of Canada's cities while Jews are excoriated with libelous slurs in antisemitic, anti-Israel campaigns.

Toronto police separated pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at Nathan Phillips Square. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

And So, Does Higher Education Cure Anti-Semitism?

"Contemporary antisemitism focuses obsessively on the alleged misdoings of ‘Zionism’, seeking to separate Zionism from its Jewish context. The ‘Zionism’ which these antisemites seek to malign and oppose has little in common with actual Zionism."

"We would never suggest that criticism of Israel is antisemitic. This argument is simply a strawman. However, when Israel’s very existence is delegitimized and threatened, when Israelis and Jews are excluded because of their association with the Jewish state, and when antisemitic conspiracies and tropes flourish under the guise of anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism, we recognize that this is antisemitism."

"We are incredulous at the suggestion that the adoption of the IHRA definition and the commitment to rooting out antisemitism is somehow opposed to the wider struggle against racism and oppression."

Open Letter of support of the IHRA definition by 350 academics

 

According to the IHRA definition, which has been adopted by 31 governments world wide ... "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

"Criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic [while acknowledging that manifestations of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity."

 

Infamously, it is in the world of Academia, where learned professors encourage their students to regard Israel as an aggressor and a military occupier of land that is claimed by Palestinians as their own, both historically and traditionally, anti-Semitism has blossomed. It has become an educational tool used by 'woke' left-wing academic progressives to smear Israel and lead to greater instances of overt anti-Semitism. It has helped to launch the BDS movement popularized by Palestinian expatriates and their supporters.

 

Where gratuitous hate-mongering has thrived and impressionable university students have absorbed messages that Jews are loathsome people, contriving to control every level of society from communications to finances, entertainment to business enterprises the work in progress carries on. The Jewish drive to command the world economy and gain control of everything that matters represents a world threat; no level of slander is too absurd or too scathing that it cannot be adopted by academia and circulated among exploitable minds.

 

Those who sympathize with the plight of the Jewish community, struck time and again by manifestations of society's mistrust and suspicion of the Jews in their communities, and the Jews themselves pin their hopes on combating anti-Semitism through the medium of education. With education comes rational thought and an examining mind that seeks the truth, as a tool to dispel vicious innuendos and claims blackening the reputation of Jews on the international stage.

Recently, three researchers headed a survey designed to determine whether anti-Semitism is indeed associated with low education levels. Their takeaway from the survey is not encouraging, leaving the impression that higher education leads to greater anti-Semitic sentiments. 

"We found that respondents with higher education levels are markedly more likely than those with lower education levels to apply a double standard unfavourable toward Jews ... subjects with college degrees were five percent more likely to apply a principle harshly to Jews than non-Jews ... among those with advanced degrees, subjects were 15 percent more unfavourable toward Jewish than non-Jewish examples."

Professors Jay P.Greene, Albert Cheng and Ian Kingsbury appeared in a feature article recently published in Tablet magazine. They burst the bubble of widespread belief that education would solve the human rights abuses that Jews face in their daily lives, verbal and physical violence and Holocaust denial that sullies human rights and historical facts. The result of this survey established that placing faith in the mind-liberating and cerebral focusing on facts and realities has been sadly misplaced. 

The trio revealed that they "discovered that more highly-educated people in the United States tend to have greater antipathy toward Jews than less-educated people do. Contrary to previous claims, education appears to provide no protection against anti-Semitism, and may in fact serve to license it -- in part by providing people with more sophisticated and socially acceptable ways to couch it."

"We found that respondents with higher education levels are markedly more likely than those with lower education levels to apply a double standard unfavourable toward Jews ... subjects with college degrees were five percent more likely to apply a principle harshly to Jews than non-Jews ... among those with advanced degrees subjects were 15 percent more unfavourable toward Jewish than non-Jewish examples."

So, should the fact that a group of over 350 academics representing institutions world-wide signing a letter supporting the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, be happily viewed as encouraging, for the purpose of supporting the “urgent need” to fight prejudice against Jews and to “speak up” when Israelis and Jews worldwide are threatened?

Signed by academics, diplomats and intellectuals from the US, Europe, Australia, Israel and United Arab Emirates, the letter acknowledged the IHRA definition of antisemitism as "an invaluable tool that recognizes the various manifestations and garbs of contemporary antisemitism". That sounds good, really good, and is entirely appreciated for its level-headed deliberation, appearing to refute the findings of the three professors whose study concludes that individuals at that level of academia are anything but open-minded and reject anti-Semitism for the racial slur that it is.

Except that those who signed that letter, representing an elite echelon of academics, diplomats and intellectuals abroad are not representative of the aggregate in their exalted fields. They are, each and every one, supporters of Israel, Jews themselves or non-Jews who empathize with the Jewish community and who accept Israel as a legitimate state safeguarding the interests and security of Jews worldwide, when the world itself rejected that role, treating Jews differently than all others.

"Just as anti-Semitism on campuses cloaked itself as anti-Zionism in the 1970s and 1980s, Holocaust denial now serves as a campus vehicle for spreading hatred of Jews. By presenting their thesis as an academic question deserving debate, the deniers have found fertile ground among campus newspaper editors eager to demonstrate their commitment to free speech and the airing of controversial ideas. And through the student editors, Holocaust deniers have found an inexpensive method of reaching thousands of impressionable young adults who often have limited knowledge of the Holocaust and are in the process of forming their perceptions of world history."

Anti-Defamation League

Supporters of the 'BDS', Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement protest for lifting the Gaza blockade and to boycott the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, outside the venue where the contest is to take place in Tel Aviv

 

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

Wrongly Accused?

"We ask you both to do everything you can to save Monika Schaefer from her ongoing unjust and immoral imprisonment in Germany."
"Every day that Canada refuses to act or acts ineffectively is a day that Ms. Schaefer spends in a foreign jail."
"Therefore, we express the required urgency."
Joseph Hickey, executive director, Ontario Civil Liberties Association

Monika Schaefer was arrested in Germany in January for a series of online videos denying the Holocaust ever happened. (Emilio Avalos)

The government of Canada is being  urgently bidden to extend its good offices to diplomatically inform Germany that its anti-Holocaust-denial laws are beyond the pale, fail to exercise good state judgement and explicitly victimize people who simply express their honest opinion. In so doing their viewing as a criminal act justifiably requiring the punishment of incarceration is depriving German Canadian Monika Schaefer of the courtesy of her due human rights entitlements.

The Ontario Civil Liberties Association finds it deplorable that Canada is not exercised over the uncivil treatment of a woman whose right to free speech places Germany in a rather awkward position. The German state knows it cannot make amends for a previous, Nazi iteration of their government having taken the world to war and in the best tradition of barbaric tyranny exercised great effort and determination to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

They succeeded to a remarkable degree starting with a sinister, foreboding campaign to dehumanize Jews, portraying them as sub-human predators on the world stage, seeking to conquer every index of civilizational development through an agenda to acquire power in banking, news, governmental access and the acquisition of properties with the intention of impoverishing nations and accessing their wealth in a notorious global conspiracy. In stopping this agenda, Nazi Germany saved the world.

Democratic Germany, however, cringes with horror at the very mention of the Final Solution and its eventual toll. To this day, 70 years later, the world's Jews have been unable to replace the six million which Nazi carnage destroyed. Even so, passionate Holocaust-deniers spend their lives 'proving' that the death of six million Jews simply never occurred. Look around you; they, the Jews, are everywhere, flourishing and still plotting.

And this woman who finds common cause with the Islamic Republic of Iran and all other Jew-haters is described by the Ontario Civil Liberties Association as a Canadian "political prisoner" in a German prison, charged with a German criminal law of which Canada has no counterpart and is, according to their reasoning, contrary to international law. All this and more unequivocally stated in a letter made public and addressed to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, urging them to act immediately on behalf of this beleaguered woman.

Oddly enough, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland's Ukrainian grandfather was a Nazi-supporting anti-Semite, an editor of a newspaper aligned with the Third Reich that vilified Jews and supported the Final Solution. This woman, Monika Schaefer, ran as a political candidate for Canada's Green party in the Yellowhead riding of Alberta, until the party set her candidacy aside with the revelation of her commitment to Holocaust denial.

In 2016 a You Tube video denying the Holocaust produced by Ms. Schaefer and featuring her as the star informant was released. It was released in Germany, by her approving brother, Alfred Schaefer who uploaded it to the Internet. Her brother has also been arrested and incarcerated. What a tragedy.

This photo provided by Paris’ Holocaust Memorial shows a German soldier shooting a Ukrainian Jew during a mass execution in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, sometime between 1941 and 1943. This image is titled “The last Jew in Vinnitsa”, the text that was written on the back of the photograph, which was found in a photo album belonging to a German soldier

Speaking Ill of The Departed

"Following a request I made to consider the cancellation of this event, I was informed that the library has received legal advice that it cannot reject this room booking request."
"My office will be asking the library board to review its room rental policies in the wake of this event."
Toronto Mayor John Tory

"[The book Did Six Million Really Die by Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel] ensures that both sides of this ethnic dispute are at least available to the general reader."
"[Zundel's departure from Canada to the U.S. represents part of a] brain drain."
Barbara Kulaszka, Polish-Canadian lawyer

Barbara Kulaszka, seen here in 1990 at Imre Finta's trial. She acted as co-counsel for Finta, who was found not guilty of war crimes. Kulaszka died in June. (CBC)

"[As a lawyer defending fascist racists Kulaszka realized many successes] to the detriment of Canadian society."
"Any contact I had with her was always negative, there was no humour in it. There was nothing. It was clear to me that she embraced the philosophy of the people she represented, and she did this for a very long time."
Bernie Farber, former  head, Canadian Jewish Congress

It is telling that Barbara Kulaszka, dead at age 64 from cancer, spoke of an "ethnic dispute" possibly at the heart of her legal defence of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites over the years. She posed as a legal professional whose morals in defence of justice  and the rights attendant on free speech extended to any kind of speech or the printed word denigrating to others in society, going so far as to incite to violence on the basis of racial bigotry, aided by slanderous depictions of Jews, reminiscent of the racist propaganda of the Third Reich.

She edited the publication written by the infamous Ernst Zundel, fascist extraordinaire, Did Six Million Really Die? and in her claims that the book made available "both sides of this ethnic dispute" clearly refers to the unapologetic assistance given by Poles and Ukrainians in the general population where anti-Semitism was rife and deadly, to the Final Solution plans of the German occupation during the Second World War when Germany led its Axis partners against the response by the Allies in conflict, while taking the time and using stretched resources and personnel to achieve genocide.

She and her ilk brought through their emigration to Canada the traditional viral enmity against Jews to Canada, and while integrating into Canadian society continued to nurse that aggravating animus, in the process minimizing the extent and ferocity of the deadly horrors we know as the Holocaust. A public outcry has been occasioned by her death; there is no public remorse or compassion for the miserable death she suffered, but there is a reaction by those she affronted to plans for a memorial in her honour.

The organizer of Wednesday night's memorial, Paul Fromm, says he and all attendees are taxpayers of the city of Toronto, and that they paid for the library. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)

Simply because that memorial event was scheduled to take place in a public library of the Toronto Public Library group, which rented out accommodation to those wishing to honour her memory. This woman was a colleague of the notorious Doug Christie who took it upon himself to represent the interests in criminal trials of inciting to hatred and violence of a series of neo-Nazis in Canada, as well as a member of the Hungarian WWII military, Imre Finta, who had rounded up Jews for deportation to Nazi death camps.

She herself honoured Christie on the occasion of his death by asserting how unfair it was to assume he made common cause with his clients. She claimed that his defence of his clients reflected the principles of law "which in the end protect all of us from the power of the state. That type of courage is very rare". Obviously, then, she considered  herself courageous for her support of fascist denial and hate-mongering. While she herself defended the speech of Holocaust denial itself, as much as the freedom to air it.

Aside from editing the Zundel publication she wrote an essay defending Holocaust revisionism. While those she defended will mourn her passing and will miss their champion, the world is a better place for her absence.