Since the October 7 massacre, this government has propagated a false moral equivalence between antisemitism and Islamophobia
“Antisemitic mobs take to the street shouting, ‘From Palestine to Lebanon, Israel will soon be gone.’ … Will the government clearly and unequivocally condemn these genocidal chants from hateful mobs on our streets?”
Joly responded by reading the names of hostages whose families she met with and pledged: “To Jewish people, we stand with you, we won’t relent until the last hostage returns home.” But she did not answer Poilievre’s question. So, he asked it again and received a similar non-answer from Justice Minister Arif Virani.
So why has she and her government gaslit Canadians for an entire year? Indeed, since the October 7 massacre, this government has propagated a moral equivalence between antisemitism and Islamophobia. It cannot denounce one without denouncing the other. But they are not the same. And it is important to understand the difference.
Islamophobia literally means “fear of Islam,” and is considered an irrational fear. But Islamic terrorists like Hamas want people to fear them. Their goal is not to live in peace, but to impose their fundamentalist way of thinking across the Middle East — and the West, too.
We don’t see pro-Israel marches terrorizing predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods. We don’t see them picketing Muslim businesses. We don’t see them attempting to sow fear. So why won’t Liberals acknowledge the difference? Why won’t they call out this blatant antisemitism and do something about it?
The answer is votes. Through their moral equivalency, the Liberals want to preserve the electoral support of both the 400,000 Jews and 1.8-million Muslims in this country. Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t worked. Jewish voters in the recent Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection defected to the Conservatives, while Muslim voters are increasingly leaning toward the NDP.
Joly is right about one thing: Canadians don’t need gaslighting. They need politicians willing to shine a light on cold, hard truths, take a stand and say “never again.”
Postmedia Network
Tasha Kheiriddin is Postmedia’s national politics columnist.