This article originally appeared in the Hill Times.
By Dan Pujdak, March 26, 2024
Last week, the Trudeau government amplified a message it’s been sending to the Jewish community for years: we don’t matter.
The Liberals collaborated with the NDP to pass a non-binding motion widely perceived by the Jewish community to reward antisemitic terrorism. The motion, which changes nothing in the Middle East, had only one plausible objective: to respond to the growing risk of violence domestically in Canada. Meanwhile, things that might actually be impactful—like forcefully denouncing antisemitism—don’t seem to be happening. Thank you for trying to keep us safe, I guess.
The downstream effect of incomprehensible Liberal policy has been—and likely will once again be—more hateful protests leaving Jewish communities feeling unsafe. Those who believe they are merely peaceful anti-Zionists will not be satisfied. We can expect more protests targeting Jewish community centres and synagogues. Mission accomplished?
The truly scary thing is the Liberal Party doesn’t seem terribly concerned about the growing—and very public—Jew hatred here at home. In fact, they’ve been signalling it’s increasingly acceptable for quite some time.
The March 18 vote comes after a photo-op by Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly with Mahmoud Abbas, the lead of the Palestinian Authority, who has said some dubious things about the Holocaust and Jews. Fine, diplomacy requires photos, I get it. She’s joined by her Jewish colleague, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Ya’ara Saks, whose portfolio has nothing to do with Israel-Palestine affairs. It would be a cynical ploy for the government to use a Jewish, Israeli woman as a prop alongside a Holocaust denier for no discernible diplomatic reason. What was the reason, exactly?
The message I fear Saks sent to the Liberal caucus and Canadians is—at best—that it’s OK to associate with antisemites.
Signalling the acceptability of antisemitism isn’t new for the Liberal Party, it’s just more noticeable now. For evidence, look at the promotions Trudeau has handed out to those who starred in controversies.
In 2017, Joly unveiled a Holocaust memorial plaque paid for by her then-department that neglected to acknowledge Jews as the target of Nazi genocide. She’s been promoted, and now leads Canada’s response to the war in Gaza.
In 2021, the Liberals recruited Jenica Atwin from the Green Party after it became seemingly untenable for her to continue working with the party, which then had a Jewish leader, after internal issues about antisemitism and the party’s stance on Israel became public. Atwin is now a parliamentary secretary in the Trudeau government.
Ahmed Hussen was the minister of diversity and inclusion. His department hired Laith Marouf for anti-racism seminars. Hussen purportedly was aware that Marouf made antisemitic statements a month before the scandal broke publicly. Hussen apologized and is now minister of international development where his mandate includes making decisions about aid money in the current conflict.
In 2018, Iqra Khalid gave an award to the head of an organization defunded by the government for “a pattern of support for extremism.” She had previously awarded this individual at an event attended by a Palestinian archbishop who had purportedly expressed support for suicide bombings. Khalid apologized, and is now a parliamentary secretary.
To be fair, the party has made some course corrections, but those examples are hardly paragons of moral fortitude.
In 2019, the party pulled a star candidate who peddled antisemitic tropes online. The candidate’s defence: the party was aware of his statements when they approved his candidacy. Oops.
In 2022, Omar Alghabra, then transport minister, attended a “solidarity event” by a parliamentary committee chaired by Liberal MP Salma Zahid. The guest list included a Holocaust denier who claimed Judaism is a terrorist religion. Both apologized, but that didn’t stop Alghabra from posting an offensive statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year.
The prime minister has tried to spin recent antisemitic behaviour within his caucus as “difficult conversations” over differences of opinion related to a foreign war. The pattern says something different. The difficult conversation Trudeau needs to have now is about Liberal antisemitism.
I’ve heard the Trudeau government’s message and want to ask them a question in return: do you honestly believe Jewish communities should trust you to keep them safe? And if not, do you really deserve to be in government?
Dan Pujdak is a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute and the chief strategy officer at Blackbird Strategies. He served as an adviser to then-Liberal cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett from 2016-2019.
