'They’d rather the country burn.'

An important guest post today. Also, yes, I'm on the 'Paul Chiang' story, which is a minor event in a much bigger story. Stand by for that.

Subscribers will know that every once in a while there are periods of radio silence in the frequencies where I’m ordinarily found at the National Post and here on Substack. The Paul Chiang story, which has just now inconvenienced the Liberal Party’s leadership succession and resumption of Parliamentary control, brings what I’ve been working on in recent days into sharp relief.

So, serendipity. I expect to have a full page in the National Post midweek on a matter my subscribers here will be familiar with, as in National Security in a “Post-National” State, and my National Post & Ottawa Citizen readers will be familiar with, as in Trudeau's Chinese collaboration has been in broad daylight all along and other such examples going back more than a decade, as in Canada doesn’t know how to protect its interests.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Speaking of which:

Last December, an intermittent silence of several weeks ended with this: The neighbour you thought you knew. That was the background to a 6,300-word investigation report for Bari Weiss’ Free Press, written mostly for and American audience: The Explosion of Jew-Hate in Trudeau’s Canada.

Which brings us to our guest post (no paywall today, but you really should subscribe). It’s by my friend Casey Babb, a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and an International Fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, among other things.

You will find this disturbing. Or you should, anyway.

This can’t go on any longer. Enough is enough.

by Casey Babb

A line has been crossed, and things need to be said.

On Saturday, five minutes away from my house in Ottawa, a masked protester was seen wearing a Hamas bandana. It’s bad enough to vocalize your support for terrorism with chants of “Jews, go back to Europe,” and “intifada revolution, there is only one solution,” but dressing up like those who have raped, killed, and kidnapped us is a new low – one that I’m not willing to accept.

To make matters worse, it wasn’t just the Hamas outfit, it was the fact that no other protester was seen confronting him for his actions. Not one person stepped up and said, “Hey, not here, not on our watch.” In fact, many were seen protecting him, even cheering him on as he set off smoke grenades downtown. In addition, the Ottawa police force was there protecting him and other protesters, as if they were the ones who needed protecting.

It's also the selective outrage, and the fact that so few across the country seem to care about this. If this were a guy waving a Nazi flag dressed up like Heinrich Himmler it would be on the national news. The Prime Minister would be asked about it. There would be counter-protests and calls for his arrest. In fact, he probably would have been arrested and charged for breaking one of the many laws in Canada’s Criminal Code – laws which don’t seem to apply to certain groups of people of certain ethnicities and religions.

Make no mistake. This sort of selective outrage and selective application of our country’s laws will embolden these people, leading not just to more terrorism but to more insidious actions over time designed to change the very fabric of our nation. Yet I find myself watching these videos, asking, Does no one care?

Several years ago, when I worked for Public Safety Canada – our equivalent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – I asked to meet with the former Associate Deputy Minister regarding my concerns about surging antisemitism. She looked at me square in the face and said “I’m surprised by this – I didn’t think that was a thing anymore.” This was a woman who helped set up the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) housed at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

On another occasion, when I spoke with a manager at Global Affairs Canada - our equivalent to the U.S. State Department – about someone on his team who was posting antisemitic content online. He told me I was the problem. He went on to be promoted, serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Algeria.

Am I crazy to expect more from our government officials? And what about our academic community? Our country’s leading “expert” on the Middle East has said nothing about any of this. His wife, a career bureaucrat working at ITAC, of course. Several others, who left our intelligence community to become “terrorism experts,” appear oblivious to our surging extremism crisis, only interested in discussing terrorist threats so long as they’re “far right.”

This is because they’ve learned over time that the most important thing for their scholarly careers is to play it safe, to not offend, and to not go against the herd. If there’s one thing these people fear, it’s being labelled something like “Islamophobic,” “intolerant,” or “racist.” They’d rather the country burn than say anything truthful in their classrooms – spaces which look more like indoctrination centres than they do rooms of higher learning.

How about our politicians. Where are they?

This video was filmed directly in front of the main courthouse in Ottawa, steps from our Parliament:

In 2020, the Prime Minister took a knee at the George Floyd protests – protests which were completely warranted given egregious police brutality. Yet, Jewish people – decent people – have been subjected to this madness for over 500 days – and where has he been? Where’s his successor? Would calling out support for terrorism offend certain constituents? If so – that’s a bigger issue that needs to be addressed – isn’t it?

I lived through the Trucker Convoy a few years ago. It was a terrible nuisance and there were certainly shameful things that took place during that time, but to invoke the Emergencies Act and then remain silent while protesters across our country pledge allegiance to an actual terrorist organization is unforgivable.

All told, this can’t go on any longer. If you think it’s just been a few bad apples, you need to give your bloody head a shake. This country has an extremism crisis on its hands, and entire communities have been given a pass, and for what?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to have my children walk past grown men dressed as Hamas members.

Enough is enough. This ends now.