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Terry Newman: Caving to anti-Zionists, Vanier College abruptly cancels Holocaust ceremony

The college appears to have been intimidated into calling off a commemoration for six-million murdered Jews it has held annually for 33 years

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Vanier College, in the Montreal borough of Saint Laurent, abruptly cancelled its Holocaust commemoration on Wednesday because it didn’t think it could keep guests and the college community safe.

Terry Newman: Caving to anti-Zionists, Vanier College abruptly cancels Holocaust ceremony Back to video

A statement released by the college says it is “currently reviewing the format of its annual Holocaust commemoration ceremony,” and that the “important event holds a significant place in our institutional history,” as it “brings together a number of external guests and dignitaries, students, staff and members of the general public.”

Just not this year. The hour-and-a-half-long event was scheduled to include speeches from Christian Wagner, consul general of Germany, Eliaz Luf, consul general of Israel, Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor, and two Vanier students. The agenda also included memorial prayers and a candle-lighting ceremony.

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The commemoration was one of 17 events taking place during the college’s 34th Annual Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide running from March 23-27.

The statement goes on to explain what appears to be the reason for the cancellation: “In light of the current volatile geopolitical climate and given the high-profile nature of the dignitaries scheduled to attend, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the commemoration as originally planned. Ensuring the safety of all our guests and the college community remains our priority.”

Vanier’s statement concluded by saying, “We are working to develop an alternative that honours the significance of this historical event that aligns with our values of education, remembrance and community well-being.”

There is a non-zero chance that Vanier’s administration will decide to move the memorial for six-million murdered Jews off campus. This would mean a memorial that, in a time of rising antisemitism and questionable Holocaust knowledge among youth, should be witnessed by more college students, not less, will have been effectively intimidated off campus.

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I was at Vanier the day before to attend a talk given by Natasha Pein called “Unmasking the Anti-Zionist Era: A New Face of an Old Hate.” I was met by a security guard sitting at a table who vetted me with the organizer. The guard was later accompanied by two others, one of whom wore what appeared to be a bulletproof vest.

He remained inside the classroom during the talk, standing with his back up against the wall, appearing to monitor the door and audience for any sign of disruption. It was a tense environment, to say the least. Certainly not one most people would expect to see in a Quebec college.

Pein is co-founder of Stop Antizionism, which focuses on confronting anti-Zionism as a contemporary manifestation of antisemitism.

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Growing up in the Soviet Union, she was exposed state-sponsored anti-Zionist propaganda, which she argues was the blueprint for today’s Islamist anti-Zionism.

Libels and conspiracies about Jews have always been used to further anti-Zionist propaganda, Pein said, with the goal of convincing the public that opposing Zionism is a form of social justice. This, she said, comes straight from the playbook of Soviet Communists.

Pein explained communism to the classroom, telling them that if they worked really hard to get an A+ and others in their class didn’t work hard and got Ds, communism would give them all a B-, based on the virtue of equality. This levelling currently exists in education, presented as DEI initiatives and social justice, she argued.

As it happens, Vanier’s campus is filled with communist posters. One that regularly appears on neighbourhood poles features Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of an American health insurance company, in 2024. The Marxist poster portrays Mangione as a folk hero. It reads, “Revolution against the billionaires,” and asks readers to “join the communists.”

Earlier this month, I attended a day dedicated to anti-Zionist Palestine talks at an International Women’s Week event at the same college. There was no table with a security guard outside of those events, and I don’t recall any security officers with armoured vests.

I did, however, notice some cringes in the audience when one of the student speakers told them that they couldn’t “understate the way that the Israeli entity (later referred to as the Zionist entity) has sunk its claws into our country and our universities.”

The student speakers and many teachers in the audience who came to support them looked like they felt safe and well-protected by the administration.

I spoke to the classroom guard about security at Vanier symposiums in general. He told me that security is around for all events, but that this one is a “bit higher security.”

It’s obvious that this security guard was not scanning the room to protect attendees from some kind of abstract “violent geopolitical environment,” as stated by the announcement of the Holocaust commemoration’s cancellation.

National PostTwitter.com/TLNewmanMTL tnewman@postmedia.com

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