On February 17, Ron Banerjee, Eric Brazau, Sandra Solomon, and other Islamophobes protested in front of a mosque in Toronto. As of Saturday the Toronto Police Service claimed to be investigating the protest as a possible hate crime.
And despite the efforts of reasonable Conservative such as Michael Chong and rather valiant efforts by some media outlets such as the CBC, "Globe and Mail," "The National Post," and Global to inform the Canadian public as to what M-103 is and what it is not, the folks who are inclined to believe Muslims are hiding under their beds and in their closets ready to jump out one day to dress their women up in niqabs and force feed them kabobs are having none of this rational discussion and have fully embraced the crazy:
And since Banerjee was kind enough to provide video of the event, this writer decided to provide our readers with the pertinent excerpts interspersed with Banerjee's tweets and screen shots from the Facebook profiles of some to the other participants.
Yep, this writer made a video:
Yeah, it isn't great; poor production value, editing, and all that (including a rather unfortunate lapse in memory regarding the year that we are currently residing, as the first text page has the date that the rally took place as 2016 rather than 2017 UPDATE: fixed). It's my first time so cut me a little slack. But we think it provides our readers with the general tone of the protest as well as the bigotry of at least some of those involved in the protest:
Meir Weinstein and Ezra Levant, unsurprisingly, thought the protest was supper kool:
Though they wouldn't have needed the excuse be hateful towards Muslims, Banerjee and co. were reacting to M-103, a private members motion condemning Islamophobia.
Actually, lets, post the full text of the motion:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should: (a) recognize the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear; (b) condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it; and (c) request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertake a study on how the government could (i) develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia, in Canada, while ensuring a community-centered focus with a holistic response through evidence-based policy-making, (ii) collect data to contextualize hate crime reports and to conduct needs assessments for impacted communities, and that the Committee should present its findings and recommendations to the House no later than 240 calendar days from the adoption of this motion, provided that in its report, the Committee should make recommendations that the government may use to better reflect the enshrined rights and freedoms in the Constitution Acts, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
That's it. And it is similar to the wording of another Liberal motion condemning the rise in antisemitism around the world:
a) there has been, in the words of the Joint Statement issued following the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on January 22, 2015, “an alarming increase in Antisemitism worldwide,” including the firebombing of synagogues and community centres, the vandalizing of Jewish memorials and cemeteries, incendiary calls for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, and anti-Jewish terror;
b) this global anti-Semitism constitutes not only a threat to Jews but an assault on our shared democratic values and our common humanity;
Therefore the House:
a) declares its categorical condemnation of anti-Semitism;
b) reaffirms the importance of the Ottawa Protocol on Combating anti-Semitism as a model for domestic and international implementation;
c) reaffirms, in the words of the Ottawa Protocol, that, “Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium – let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction – is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest;”
And the House further calls upon the government to:
a) continue advancing the combating of anti-Semitism as a domestic and international priority;
b) expand engagement with civil society, community groups, educators, and other levels of government to combat anti-Semitism and to promote respect, tolerance, and mutual understanding.
That motion condemning antisemitism was, rightfully, adopted unanimously.
So it would make sense that M-103 would be similarly accepted. I mean, given that this motion will be voted on in the aftermath of what appears to be a likely Islamophobic mass shooting resulting in the death of six men as well as numerous assaults on Muslims and vandalism of their places of worship, who could possibly have a problem this this non-binding motion?
Right?
Nope. People are losing their shit. Or to be more specific, demagogues such as Kelly Leitch and some other Conservative Party leadership candidates as well as Ezra Levant and his merry band at "The Rebel" are ginning up fear that this, I once again stress, non-binding motion will take away people's free speech, become an anti-blasphemy law, and impose sharia on Canadians:
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| Except this happened in 2015. |
And despite the efforts of reasonable Conservative such as Michael Chong and rather valiant efforts by some media outlets such as the CBC, "Globe and Mail," "The National Post," and Global to inform the Canadian public as to what M-103 is and what it is not, the folks who are inclined to believe Muslims are hiding under their beds and in their closets ready to jump out one day to dress their women up in niqabs and force feed them kabobs are having none of this rational discussion and have fully embraced the crazy:
In the meantime, Liberal MP Iqra Khalid who tabled the motion spoke about the death threats she has received ("The Star" also covers these threats and sexually demeaning insults) as a result of her motion as a reason why she would not remove the word "Islamophobia" from the motion as requested by the Conservative Party. She has since been offered police protection.
You know, threats (as well as other lovely comments) like these posted yesterday:
It certainly is a good thing that Islamophobia isn't a problem. M-103 is obviously completely unreasonable. /sarc
On a related note, we will be publishing an article on posts made by folks on PEGIDA Canada and other Islamophobic Facebook pages many of which were posted AFTER it was learned the alleged perpetrator was an "alt-right" Trump fan who hated Muslims. Here's a a preview:
They are all charming mofos.
UPDATE: So if anyone is interested in any of the images and screen shots that we used in the video, including those that we edited and those that were not included, we've decided to post them below.
Many of them are quite enlightening:
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