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GOLDSTEIN: Al-Quds Day shows how Canada tolerates intolerance

Once a society tolerates intolerance, it’s impossible to contain it, even if our governments had the political will to do so

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A society that tolerates intolerance – as we now do – can pass as many laws as it likes against “hate” but it won’t reduce hate-motivated crimes.

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We have never had as many laws against hate as exist today in Canada and yet we have never seen more hatred on our streets – as illustrated yet again by Saturday’s annual hate-fest known as the Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto outside the U.S. consulate, which was recently shot up.

GOLDSTEIN: Al-Quds Day shows how Canada tolerates intolerance Back to video

That’s why the federal government’s promises of ever more legislation against hate are as meaningless as the politicians who keep insisting that expressions of hatred in Canada today and, more important, actual criminal offences motivated by hate, are “not who we are.”

That’s exactly who we are – or, more accurately, what we’ve become.

We already have all sorts of laws against hate and, more importantly, all sorts of severe sentences on the books for such crimes as assault, uttering threats and mischief, regardless of the motive of the person convicted of the offence.

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For that matter, we also have plenty of lesser and non-criminal offences such as trespassing, impeding the flow of traffic and shutting down streets without authorization that can be used to control public demonstrations of hate.

GOLDSTEIN: Lack of political will made antisemitism exactly who we are

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KINSELLA: Attacks on Jews show antisemitism exploding globally

More laws won’t stop proliferation of hate

But if these laws aren’t enforced – either because the police are told not to enforce them or lay charges, or the courts dismiss them, or if those convicted are given a slap on the wrist rather than prison time, or those given prison time are soon back on the street because of parole – then their effectiveness in countering hatred is non-existent.

More fundamentally, it becomes impossible to stop the proliferation of hate by passing more laws against hatred.

It’s also not the job of the police to determine what level of hatred society will tolerate.

Our governments decide that – and the governments we have elected, with rare exceptions, have decided in our name that we have a high level of tolerance for intolerance, no matter how many new laws they pass or how many police officers are hired, ostensibly to enforce our laws against those who commit crimes motivated by hate.

Hands-off approach to law-breaking pro-Palestinian protesters

Think back to the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to shut down the Freedom Convoy — which the Federal Court of Appeal earlier this year ruled was unreasonable and violated Charter rights — to the hands-off approach in Canada when it comes to law-breaking by “pro-Palestinian” protesters that has been going on ever since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

The fact antisemitism is now at its highest level in Canada since the 1930s with both governments and police reporting dramatic increases in hate crimes didn’t happen by accident.

It happened because of our growing tolerance for intolerance and the not-so-subtle acceptance of the fact by our governments that Jews in Canada deserve to be the targets of intolerance and hatred, because of the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza and now Iran.

By contrast, no government in Canada would, or should, tolerate hatred against Muslims in this country motivated by blaming them for the global terrorism of Iran and its terrorist proxies such as Hamas.

That’s the double standard that exists in Canada today.

Once a society tolerates intolerance, it’s impossible to contain it, even if our governments had the political will to do so, which in Canada they do not, where the latest government “solution” is to hire more security guards for the synagogues.

lgoldstein@postmedia.com

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