Doug Ford had the right instinct on enforcing order. Now he must follow through.

I promise to stop writing about the evolving demise of Canada’s long-standing cohesive society (see representative prior posts “My Canada does not include the Hamas flag” Oct. 15-23, “‘Toronto the Good’ bows down to Iran” Apr. 12-24, “Premier Ford speaks for the Silent Majority” May 15-24, and “Is the silent, sane majority ready to re-establish the parameters of ‘Canadian values?’” Sept 9-25) as soon as the joyous day arrives when it’s no longer warranted. Until then….

If you want to see how this week’s Star column ends, buy a print copy, use your Apple News, or subscribe to The Star online via my special discount code: www.thestar.com/informed.

You can’t teach a politician gut instinct.

More than two years ago, Premier Doug Ford astutely observed that “people [were] fed up” with the disruptive anti-Israel protests. The veteran’s memorial in Regina had been defaced and “pro-Palestinian” crowds wouldn’t let an Ottawa Mall Santa have a quiet word with hopeful kids. Several of Canada’s largest universities were awash with illegal encampments, and Ford advised administrators to “remove these people.”

U of T’s leadership paid the Premier no heed, while Toronto Police (TPS) falsely claimed they needed a court order to remove agitators from private campus property. Police leadership seemed more concerned about their own reputations, and currying favour with Olivia Chow — a mayor who has herself dabbled in anti-Israel protest — than enforcing the law.

The problem isn’t just disruption in the name of “freeing Palestine.” Even when some protesters crossed the line into outright antisemitism, targeting Jewish neighbourhoods on countless weekends, TPS stood by and watched. Even as it became ever clearer that Toronto was the proverbial “boiling frog,” with each passing day bringing some new ignominy: Jewish schools shot up, mezuzahs torn down, retail stores with Jewish connections defaced or torched.

On the rare occasion when TPS did arrest protesters for “public mischief,” the perps were invariably released after a few hours: no harm, no foul. When TPS went so far as to charge 11 individuals for plastering an Indigo bookstore with red paint and posters in November 2023, all criminal charges against the “Indigo 11” were either dropped or conditionally discharged.

Not a single NEXUS card was bruised in the process.

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner and Attorney General Doug Downey may have said all of the right things, but none of it translated into concrete action — emboldening the worst elements of the anti-Israel camp.

 According to a new Ottawa-commissioned report, 96 per cent of Jewish students experienced or witnessed antisemitism on Canadian campuses in the past 12 months. A shocking 18 per cent of incidences involved faculty members. Alexa Barett-Taller, a student at Ottawa’s Carleton University, told the story of her professor stating that “the Jewish people were to blame for Oct. 7th.”

When an IDF veteran was invited to speak to a group of Toronto Metropolitan University students last November, masked anti-Israeli activists allegedly tried to storm the event, leading to five arrests. Ever defiant, the TMU branch of Students for Justice in Palestine promised to “continue shutting down any attempt to platform genocidal propaganda. Until liberation and return, long live the student intifada.”

That scary incident gave TMU President Mohamed Lachemi little choice but to commission a second independent study in as many years. This time, he appointed retired Court of Appeal Justice Mary Lou Benotto to review how TMU balances “freedom of expression, campus safety and the orderly functioning of the university.” Having asked one of Canada’s most respected Jurists to weigh-in on the challenge of our times, TMU is now being accused of sitting on Benotto’s findings.

Hit the link to read the rest of the column in The Star.

MRM

(This post is an Opinion Piece)