After spending months promoting supremacist violence Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism is now openly stoking racism against Canadian Arabs and Muslims. In fact, Deborah Lyons’ recent statement highlights Zionism’s role in stirring Islamophobia and racism.
An advocate of Israel’s holocaust in Gaza, Lyons recently participated in Toronto’s Walk for Israel, an Israel flag raising ceremony and celebrated a military operation that killed 270 Palestinians to free four Israelis. Lyons has also called for state forces to repress peoples’ right to gather, smeared protests against Canada’s complicity in Israel’s violence and lent government credibility to what turned into the most publicized incident of anti-Palestinian racism in Canadian history.
But Lyons recently crossed a (domestic racism) threshold when she blamed “demographics” and “diversity” for opposition to Israel’s genocide. In a front-page National Post article headlined “Antisemitism Czar ponders role of demographics”, a Justin Trudeau appointee supposedly fighting discrimination stated:
“One of the things, again, as somebody who’s travelled a lot internationally, is, why is Canada having this unprecedented surge in antisemitism right now? What is it about the make-up of our society? What is it about our push for diversity and inclusivity? And what is it about our demographics? What is it about our country that is seeing such a level that has actually caused other countries, to say ‘What’s going on in Canada? We wouldn’t have expected this from Canada.’”
In defending the indefensible in Gaza, liberal Zionists have increasingly echoed racist talking points. On Friday Globe and Mail columnist Robyn Urback claimed a recent homophobic attack in Halifax didn’t receive national media attention because the alleged perpetrators were “middle eastern” while the head of the Windsor Jewish Federation told the Canadian Jewish News that the University of Windsor agreed to all the anti-genocide student encampment’s demands except for “sharia law”. Self-declared anti-racist Warren Kinsella is openly blaming “multiculturalism” for anti-genocide protests and uber Zionist Hampstead mayor Jeremy Levi regularly posts anti-immigrant messages. At the June 9 Walk for Israel in Toronto a group calling itself Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses had a van with digital advertising promoting anti-Palestinian and Muslim racism. It read “Is this Lebanon? Is this Yemen? Is this Syria? Is this Iraq?” The vehicle then displayed Muslims praying and protesting in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square with Palestinian flags. The ad then says, “No. This is Canada. Wake up Canada. You are under siege.”
Rebel News assisted the “Wake up Canada” message. Led by former Canada-Israel Committee board member Ezra Levant, the hard-right media outlet seems to tag most of their posts with the (ambiguously racist) slogan “Deport Hamas” and helped stoke the recent white supremacist, anti-Muslim, riots in the UK.
In June Rebel News sponsored a tour of Canada for lead riot instigator Tommy Robinson who has long partnered with a media outlet organizing an upcoming “solidarity mission” to Israel. In 2017 US tech billionaire Robert Shillman, a director of Friends of the IDF, financed a $10,000 per month Rebel News fellowship for Robinson. (In 2011 Robinson spoke via video to a Jewish Defence League crowd at the Toronto Zionist Centre). Calling Palestine “a shithole full of inbred Islamist parasites and terrorists”, Robinson wears IOF shirts and labels himself a Zionist. Many brought Israeli flags to a large July 27 “patriotic” rally Robinson led in London that Rebel News promoted and covered extensively. Hinting at Robinson’s Zionist sponsorship, CBC’s The National aired an interview last week with a representative of the US-based Middle East Forum, which funded a legal battle for Robinson. The Middle East Forum was established by arch Zionist Daniel Pipes.
The weight Zionist funders play in promoting Robinson and other anti-Muslim forces in the UK is up for debate. But many self-described anti-racist commentators and organizations ignore and sometimes seek to actively suppress links between Zionism, Islamophobia and the far right. Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Anti-Racist Canada and Canadian Race Relations Foundation rarely discuss it and have thus far ignored Lyons’ recent Islamophobic and anti-Arab comments. They either support the racist colonial Zionist movement or have ties to Jewish supremacist groups and individuals like United Jewish Appeal of Toronto or Bernie Farber.
In a sign of the pass given to Zionist racism, Canada’s liberal anti racist organizations and officials have stayed mum on one of the most significant anti-racist victories in recent Canadian history. Practising racist land use policies criminalised in Canada seven decades ago, the Jewish National Fund (JNF)’s Canadian chapter recently had its charitable status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency. While the UN, US State Department, Israeli Supreme Court and activists have documented JNF racism for decades, Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Anti-Racist Canada and Canadian Race Relations Foundation have ignored it. They aren’t unaware. In 2019 I contacted these groups for an article on their failure to support a challenge of the explicitly racist organization headlined “Anti-racist organizations remain silent on the JNF”. In the years before that I wrote “Why Does Ontario Anti-Racism Subcommittee Include Individuals Tied to Racist Organization?” and “Strange bedfellows at ‘anti-racism’” forum”, which discussed self-declared anti-racists’ ties to the JNF.
As liberal Zionists take up far right racist messaging anti-racist groups’ failure to push back against Zionist racism becomes more dangerous. Could UK style Islamophobic, white supremacist race riots take place in Canada? If so, what role would Zionism play?
Fortunately, there has been some pushback to Lyons’ recent comments. The National Council of Canadian Muslims and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) condemned them. Two months ago CJPME published “Defaming the Pro-Palestine Movement: Looking at the Public Commentary of Canada’s Special Envoy Deborah Lyons”, which called for her removal.
Far more pushback is needed. Anti-racist activists must demand the abolition of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. Established by Irwin Cotler to defend apartheid, Deborah Lyons is using the position to reinforce Canadian flag obsessed, anti-Muslim far right forces. Even for the Liberal Party this should be too much. Why should Canadian taxpayers pay the salary of someone working hand in hand with far-right Conservative supporters to promote Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism?
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