This article originally appeared in the National Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Barbara Kay, January 13, 2025
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Homage must also be paid to the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), an independent public policy think-tank that focuses on all issues that fall under the federal government’s jurisdiction. Its true leadership emerged in the form of The Promised Land Project, initiated by founder and Managing Director Brian Crowley.
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The Promised Land Project has partnered with organizations such as Secure Canada, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Muslims Facing Tomorrow and the International Legal Forum, amongst others who share their objectives, with the aim of tackling a “vacuum of moral and intellectual leadership” following 10/7. Their goal is “to address critical gaps in Canadian understanding of Israel and the Middle East, combat growing antisemitism, and counter extremism.”
To this end, Crowley and multi-faith MLI researchers have published op-eds in newspapers and substacks, hosted webinars and podcasts, and mounted special events at the MLI offices with such notables as former Australian PM Tony Abbott, public intellectual Douglas Murray and Israeli foreign policy expert Einat Wilf. As evidence for their impact, MLI claims significant influence in the finally successful branding of Samidoun as a terrorist organization. (MLI’s interest in terrorism predates 10/7; its 2019 report, “Canadian Terrorists by the numbers,” explored the phenomenon of Canadians who join and support Islamist terror groups.)
In an email exchange, I asked Crowley about his motivation to stick MLI’s head above the parapet of neutrality on this issue. Some outtakes from Crowley’s response: “I knew immediately on 7 October 2023 that an event of world significance had occurred and that how we in the West understood and interpreted that event would matter enormously … yes, the statement was unique in the history of MLI in the sense that traditionally the Institute does not take positions, (but) I felt the events of 7 October were so epoch-making …that we needed to get our own thinking clear, to commit ourselves to an understanding of those events in the context of all Canadians, and not just the Jewish community, as well as the interests of the West as a whole.”
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