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A few days ago, I wrote a column with these lines in it: "Anti-Semitism is completely extinct in our society's respectable mainstream. Canada is probably as close to a post-anti-Semitic society as has ever existed in any nation in Western history — including modern-day Israel." In response, I got a surprisingly large volume of email from readers who thanked me for saying what they'd long been thinking.
But not everyone was applauding. One correspondent sent me this note:
"Mr. Kay: Re your recent article on anti-Semitism (or its absence according to you): Perhaps the communique below will change your mind.
HILLEL OF GREATER TORONTO, CJC ONTARIO REGION CONDEMN HATEFUL GRAFFITI
TORONTO - Hillel of Greater Toronto and Canadian Jewish Congress Ontario Region condemn the hateful, antisemitic graffiti discovered on a York University library desk yesterday. The racist graffiti included a swastika and a number of threats against Jews, including: "Kill da Jew," "Zionist Jews will burn in hell," and "Hitler had the right idea." Hillel @ York promptly alerted Campus Security, requesting an immediate investigation … Eva Zucker, President of Hillel @ York, called on the York Federation of Students, other campus groups and the university administration to join Hillel in condemning this act and instituting a more aggressive anti-racism strategy at York University … 'Sadly, this graffiti clearly shows us that antisemitism has not, as some believe, vanished in Canada, particularly on our campuses," said Fredelle Brief, chair of the community relations committee of Canadian Jewish Congress Ontario Region. 'We have much work to do to ensure hatred finds no home either on campus or in the larger society.' she added. Hillel @ York is pursuing a meeting with the York Federation of Students to ensure any future anti-racism strategy will adequately address the needs of Jewish students on campus."
(The full press release can be found here.)
The note from my correspondent — a certain Sheryl D. — was meant to persuade me that antisemitism is alive and well. But if this is the best she can come up with, doesn't that prove the opposite? The fact that we live in a society where some idiot's bigoted desktop musings can elicit a press release from no less an organization than the Canadian Jewish Congress should tell you all you need to know about the true scale of the problem.
The same goes for anti-black racism. Last year, a Toronto-area store unknowingly sold a piece of furniture whose incompetently anglicized Asian-origin product tag contained the N-word. The Toronto Star deemed this such a major travesty that it played it as a huge news story. They even sent a photographer to take pictures of the distraught victim. In recent days, a certain anti-racist has become so desperate for shock fodder that he's been conducting impromptu investigations of public bathrooms in a search for offensive graffiti to photograph.
Do I wish I lived in a Canada where not a single one of our 33-million people wrote or said anything bigoted? Yeah. But that's not a realistic goal. There will always be a few mentally unbalanced nutbars out there who believe that someone — the Jews, the blacks, the freemasons, the CIA — is plotting against them. And then there are those people who simply like to shock — and since racism is now the ultimate taboo, it provides a conveniently easy shortcut for eliciting that shock. I'd rather put up with these isolated kooks than succumb to the sort of nanny-state censorship rules encoded in Canadian human-rights legislation.
Notice, too, how the racists and anti-racists have lapsed into an unconscious co-dependancy, even as they pose as adversaries. Those adolescent-minded graffiti artists looking to shock mainstream society score a jackpot every time some student federation or community group stages a collective freakout over their doodlings. Note, too, the demands contained in the hyperventilated press release that Sheryl D. sent me, which include " an immediate investigation"; that "authorities … pursue this investigation and subsequent actions in a timely, vigilant manner"; "instituting a more aggressive anti-racism strategy at York University"; and "a meeting … to ensure any future anti-racism strategy will adequately address the needs of Jewish students on campus."
All this because of one insulting message left on a desktop. Does it sound to you like there might be a few folks at the CJC and Hillel who have a lot of time on their hands?
There's an industry at work here — a well-intentioned industry, but an industry no less. Every time an anonymous idiot uses the N-word or praises Hitler, the anti-racists torque it into an excuse for more sensitivity sessions, racism-awareness programming, endless meetings with school officials, and all the rest of the diversity industry's outdated, oversold offerings. A generation ago, when bigotry really was a major social problem, this sort of outrage was reserved for episodes in which people were killed or beaten up because of who they were. Now, all it takes is a few strokes of a pen on a university desk.
It's a blessing that our society has become so tolerant. It's a curse that we have simultaneously become so whiny in the process.
One desk in a University and they want the entire Student Union to "Stop the Presses!"
Do they get this carried away when someone carves "God is Dead" and anti-Christian saying into one desktop?
They need to find something else to do, I suggest working on reducing class sizes so that the Professors can actually interact with their students and they won’t be so bored that they have time to carve desktops.
… The true success of Canada is the degree to which we do not consider ourselves and others divided into groups, but recognised and respected as individuals- despite the best efforts of those who personally profit from furthering these tribal divisions.
Yet another story about your total and complete obsession with the Jewish community and anti-Semitism. In the past couple of weeks I have counted close to 15 stories on this subject. I know its important but between your need to constantly critisize the Canadian Jewish Congress and your focus on trying to prove that anti-Semitism no longer exists one must begin to wonder if the man he doth protest too much. Perhaps it is your latent fear of anti-Semitism that drives you to opine on it three days a week. Can i humbly suggest you take a much needed rest. Perhaps a few days in the sun? Whatever you need to get over this mindset where it seems you are indeed trying to convince yourself that anti-Semitism doesnt exist.
And a word to the wise from a person who has lived through both quiet and active times of bigotry; it never really goes away. Chew on that for a while.
It is hard to see how one can argue that we live in a tolerant society if we tolerate explicit state sponsored religious discrimination (in faith-based education funding) in open violation of binding international human rights law.
The 2007 Ontario election was turned into a referendum on the continuation of such discrimination, and continuing discrimination against small distinctive religious minorities won the referendum hands down.
It appears to me that respect for real diversity is clearly on the decline.
Mr. Foulds writes: "… At this point, Israel could slowly sink into the sea, and it would be more of a relief."
I assume you mean slowly enough that everyone could safely relocate, but the small piece of geography that is so hotly contested would end up deep under water.
Such an "act of god" might even make a believer of an atheist like me!
If the suggestion is that the conflict in the Middle East would somehow be altered from a small piece of geography sinking into the water, then I question that proposition.
There is secular anti-semitism and then there is religious anti-semitism. Religious anti-semitism is probably unextinguishable.
What foments the conflict in the middle east is religious anti-semitism propped up as a land dispute. Although a majority of commentators equivocate on who is to blame, there is one undeniable fact that, were the land issue settled, most Jews could live next door to others who do not share their religion. I cannot believe the same is true of those who oppose them in the region.
*There’s an industry at work here — a well-intentioned industry, but an industry no less.
Every time an anonymous idiot uses the N-word or praises Hitler, the anti-racists torque it into an excuse for more sensitivity sessions, racism-awareness programming, endless meetings with school officials, and all the rest of the diversity industry’s outdated, oversold offerings.*
I’m too certain about how `well-intentioned’ this industry is - an industry it well is, though.
And, it isn’t `every time’ some idiot praises Hitler, that there is a `collective freakout’; it is only when *certain* people praise Nazism that it results in a freakout; *other* people are able to praise Hitler to the skies and yet, there is only collective silence from the usual suspects.
Guess which one is which?
… The great hope is that the Post will put aside it’s small, selfish obsession with it’s own apparent religious grouping, and begin to act in a constructive, universal context in promoting a recognition of each other as individuals- both socially and economically.
… Of course, we would hope that any potential global geographic adjustments would be achieved in a safe, secure, and pleasant manner.

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