Canada’s Soul Is At Stake
By Spencer Fernando, Exclusive to the National Citizens Coalition
Most people tend to look back at Nazi Germany and see that horrific regime as something completely alien.
It’s as if Nazi Germany and its adherents existed on another planet, so far removed from our own lives that it would simply be impossible for us to imagine acting in the same way, or standing by as the power of a genocidal regime grew and grew.
Most people are 100% sure they wouldn’t have gone along with the Holocaust. They’re sure they would have hidden their Jewish neighbours when the Nazis started rounding people up.
Most people are sure they wouldn’t have reported their friends and family to the Gestapo, would have made their voice heard in opposition to genocidal rhetoric, and would have stood against the anti-Semitic mobs that roamed the streets intimidating the populace into silence and complicity.
As Canadians, as people of the Western world, we are supremely confident that we are somehow different, and that the horrific crimes of the past are as safely locked away as artifacts of history.
Yet, as we watch a rising tide of virulent, genocidal anti-Semitism spread in this country with almost zero pushback, we need to start asking ourselves some difficult questions.
For years and years, the political class and legacy media have been on the lookout for even the slightest hint of ‘Nazi-style’ rhetoric. People were accused of ‘white-supremacy’ at the drop of a hat. One Nazi flag at the Freedom Convoy was enough for the Prime Minister of Canada to accuse a Jewish Member of Parliament of “standing with those who wave Swastikas.”
Even the tiniest indication that someone was less than 100% onboard with the progressive agenda of the day was treated as a national emergency by Liberal & NDP politicians who made impassioned speeches and emotional statements about how “hate isn’t who we are as Canadians.”
And speaking of national emergencies, we all saw how the Trudeau government was willing to seize the bank accounts of those who protested against draconian vaccine mandates.
Meanwhile, the federal government has been hell-bent on restricting freedom of expression online, seeking to expand government censorship powers, and decrying their definition of hate. Even now, the government is pushing for more expansive hate speech laws.
But now, at a moment when we are seeing the most openly aggressive and virulent hate in decades – open chants for genocide against Jewish People – intimidation of Jewish students, boycotts and threats directed towards Jewish businesses – all of a sudden those most supposedly determined to fight against ‘hate’ are nowhere to be seen.
All of a sudden, the Liberal desire to use state power against protests has disappeared.
Their opposition to hate speech has disappeared.
Their push to ban ‘offensive speech’ has disappeared.
Their effort to stop hate online has disappeared.
Their belief in protecting the rights of vulnerable minorities has disappeared.
Their belief in feminism has disappeared.
Their advocacy for religious freedom has disappeared.
All of it has been replaced by rank cowardice and a disgusting attempt to seek political gain by pandering to vile anti-Semites by trying to ‘both sides’ Israel’s fight against a genocidal terrorist organization.
In a sad and disgusting irony, when faced with the most clear-cut example of hate speech that actually should be restricted (there is no freedom to advocate for listed terrorist organizations, push for genocide, and celebrate terrorist crimes), many progressives have transformed into free speech absolutists – but only when it comes to allowing people to support genocidal terror groups.
Quite an odd time to make an exception, isn’t it…?
Whether those ‘progressive’ politicians are doing this out of fear of losing votes, or because they are so stuck in the ‘colonizer-vs-colonized’ narrative that they actually identify with Hamas, the end result is that we are witnessing scenes that resemble the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany in the 1930s.
The same growing escalation of intimidation.
The same whispers in the Jewish community about having to hide Jewish identity or consider leaving in order to be safe.
The same complacency and complicity by media institutions and politicians.
The same vague hope that it will all just go away without the need for anyone to speak up or challenge it.
Except this time, it’s not happening in some nation across the Atlantic.
It’s not some guy with a funny moustache screaming in a foreign language.
It’s happening here at home.
On our streets.
In our cities.
To our fellow citizens.
Let’s make one thing completely clear. If after the massive suffering of World War Two, all the times we’ve said “never again,” and all the progress we thought we made as a society, we end up acquiescing to aggressive anti-Semites and let Canada become unsafe for our Jewish neighbours, we will have lost our soul as a country.
We will have shown we learned nothing.
We will have proven that we were lying when we said “never again.”
We will have demonstrated that – when actually tested and challenged to live up to our values – we failed the test by being weak, pathetic, and gutless.
That’s what is at stake here.
The safety of Jewish Canadians.
The future of Canada as a nation free from being dragged into the depths of savage, “post-national,” anti-Western tribalism.
The idea of Canada as a nation where our policies are decided by voting – rather than by screaming pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic mobs intimidating people on the streets.
Our soul as a country.
Nobody from the outside is coming to save us.
If we are to save our country, if we are to save our soul, we must be the ones to do it.
Now is the time for every one of us to speak out against anti-Semitism.
Now is the time to speak out against those who glorify terrorism.
Now is the time to speak out against gutless politicians, journalists, and universities who draw a false equivalence between the democratic state of Israel and the genocidal terror organization Hamas.
And now is the time to declare that when we said “never again,” we meant “NEVER AGAIN!”
Spencer Fernando is one of the most popular and prolific political voices in Canada. He is a Campaign Fellow for the National Citizens Coalition. For more from Spencer, visit his website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
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