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September 11, 2009
Fighting racism worldwide
BBC hosts a townhall in Vancouver on anti-Semitism.
BAILA LAZARUS
Anti-Semitism was top of the agenda for B'nai Brith Canada's recent townhall meeting at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue.
More than 100 people gathered Sept. 6 to hear Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism; John de Hass, a Vancouver Police Department (VPD) inspector; and Salomon Rayek, member of the board of governors and B.C. chair for B'nai Brith Canada (BBC).
"This is an awakening," said de Hass in his opening remarks. "It's how people come to recognize the importance of topics in Canada. It's about being vigilant and smart."
De Hass manages the diversity and aboriginal policing section of the VPD. "It's a move forward in terms of a police department ... and what we're attempting to do is look at populations in the city of Vancouver that have safety issues and what the strategies are that we can use in collaboration with those communities to make them safer."
The team looks at victimization rates, under-reporting rates, perception of fear and safety, engagement in crime-prevention programs and other measurable results. As well, the Hate Crimes Unit, which is under his purview, investigates reports of bias, prejudice or hate incidents.
The key aspect of these crimes, said de Hass, is that, when such a crime is perpetrated, an entire community is victimized. Specifically within Vancouver, the number of such crimes against the Jewish community was 12 last year and 12 the year before, de Hass said.
To deal with such incidents, de Hass said the police look at how people are influenced by their learning and exposure.
"What is a growing concern to us is what we see around the world, where you have home-grown radicalism," said de Hass, mentioning places like Toronto's Muslim community, where locals might be influenced by radical ideologies. "If it's possible in Toronto, why wouldn't it be possible here?" de Hass asked, rhetorically. "So how do we prepare ourselves for that?"
De Hass' team meets with Muslim leaders in the community to talk about their thoughts on radicalization. If they are aware of anything, said de Hass, what do they do about it?
De Hass, whose mother is Jewish and whose grandparents and uncle died in the Holocaust, said he understands the fear of identifying oneself as Jewish.
"I was very attuned at a young age to the impact of anti-Semitic comments," he said.
As a call to action, de Hass said the community has to be realistic, enabled and positive, adding that while the possibility of a serious anti-Semitic incident might be remote, it's possible. It means "target-hardening" facilities and preparing staff to know what to do when something happens. We must stand up for these principles, said de Hass. "If we're silent on those, we have an issue."
After de Hass spoke about local issues, Kenney focused on international concerns. His experience growing up was the prevalent view that Israel was perpetrating unfair human rights violations against a poor underdog. In 2000, he began to look more closely at the issue and attended a presentation by Palestinian Media Watch, which he described as an organization that deserves support. He saw Palestinian Authority-approved sermons given by imams, television programs and music videos approved for children and "all manner of propaganda that was viciously and irredeemably anti-Semitic."
"Suddenly the scales fell off my eyes," Kenney said.
These people, he realized, were interested only in the complete destruction of the Jewish state.
"The message is hammered home to schoolchildren," he said. "All we have to do is listen to it.... These are not the voices of people interested in a rational solution."
Recently, Kenney visited Babi Yar, near Kiev, to mark the mass murder of Jews there in 1940.
"This brought to my mind a different dimension of the evil of the Holocaust and the enduring and pernicious form of hatred that is anti-Semitism," said Kenney. Later on, visiting Mumbai after the terrorist attacks on the Jewish centre in 2008, Kenney was struck by the connection.
"It suddenly occurred to me that the hatred that had inspired those soldiers who stood at the top of the ravine at Babi Yar was the same hatred 65 years later and thousands of miles away that inspired the terrorists that entered Mumbai."
He stressed, "There's a tendency for us to fall into naiveté that these things aren't possible in Canada."
When Kenney withdrew Canada from Durban II in 2008, he took a lot of flack, but "Canada was right to pull out," he said. "Our government has decided to take a zero-tolerance approach to these manifestations."
Among policies that Kenney has instituted was the refusal of Canada to supply public funds to groups that promote hatred, violence or terrorism of any kind.
"It's one of the proudest thing I've done in public life," he said to a round of applause. He called Canada "the world leader" defending Israel's right to exist.
In discussing strategies to combat such anti-Semitism, Kenney said he didn't feel you can "lecture someone out of hatred."
"My focus has been ... on building bridges of understanding between communities," he said, citing a Jewish-Somali mentorship program that has started in Toronto, where Somali families are twinned with businesses owned by Jewish entrepreneurs. "I think the best way to combat racism is to promote actual real understanding on an individual basis."
Completing the afternoon session, Rayek focused on the work of BBC on behalf of Canadian Jewish communities since 1875 and its work in British Columbia, where the organization will soon have a board of directors. He focused on the examples of exposing pro-Hamas teaching in a Richmond elementary school and stopping anti-Israel resolutions by the United Church of Canada.
"We know that even more challenging times lay ahead," said Rayek. "It's important that we fight for our democratic values and freedom and against bigotry and racism in B.C."
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, painter and photographer. Her work can be seen at orchiddesigns.net.
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