The Jewish Canary in the Quebec Coal Mine

[jbg]

The profoundly sad article about the Montreal Jewish community (link) highlights the perils and indeed tragedy of cultural and linguistic segregation. Read and weep.

Comments?

The Jewish Canaries Of Quebec Thursday, April 19, 2007

Mario Dumont, leader of the Official Opposition in Quebec, wants to reopen the Constitutional Talks with the rest of Canada, which will allow Quebec to finally sign-onto this document that defines what Canada is as a nation.

*snip*

Quebec defines itself as a nation. So, what does a nation need with its signature upon a document that would join it to another nation?

To best understand the problems of Quebec, it is important to understand the consequences associated with the movement of the Jewish community, which has always been a “social canary”.

Where Jews thrive, so does the area where they live. The contrary is no less true.

Because of ethnocentric nationalism and Quebec’s hysterical drive to eliminate the English language and culture from its midst, Quebec has done itself enormous damage in ways that cannot be fixed.

*snip*

I grew up in a time (and just a bit before I was born) when officially sanctioned anti-Semitism was rampant within Quebec, when a French Quebec Priest, Lionel Groulx, who was held in extraordinarily high regard by French Quebec’s political and social elites made it an excommunicable offense to do business with Jews.

Quebec’s leading French newspapers of the day wrote articles about Jews that would have made the Nazis’ propaganda newspaper Der Strümer proud.

For my very public efforts to insist that all people living within Quebec must be treated as culturally and linguistic equals, I was targeted in Montreal’s most respected French Language newspapers (1996) for being an “Anglo-Juif” (an English Jew).

Remarkably though, prior to Quebec’s notorious Bill 101 language law (1977), all of this anti-Semitism from the highest levels within Quebec’s “polite” society didn’t have as much of a negative effect as one might imagine, mostly because Montreal Jews were free to do as we wanted, and that our community grew and prospered.

We prospered. They prospered. Everyone was happy. But all of that dramatically changed when far too many French Quebecers started pointing fingers at others (Anglos and the Jews) for their own failures.

Montreal was home to some of the most successful Jews and Jewish companies on the planet.

*snip*

At one time, Jewish entrepreneurs owned Montreal’s most important television and radio media (CFCF).

But not any more.

It’s mostly all gone now. The pillars of Montreal’s Jewish community and their children have taken their enormous wealth, education and entrepreneurial spirit elsewhere.

Montreal’s former Jewish community has moved to Toronto, Miami, New York City, Los Angeles and anywhere else where they don’t have to feel second-class, and where they are free to be visible, and are not punished for being successful.

*snip*

And when I visit the Montreal Jewish General Hospital where I was born in 1950, I can hardly recognize it as being a Jewish hospital, since the patients it now treats are no longer in the majority Jewish.

A few years ago, a Jewish public school was firebombed, leaving its library totally destroyed. They caught those responsible for this act of hatred, but Quebec refused to charge them with a hate-crime.

Also just a few years ago, former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to speak at Montreal’s Concordia University by Hillel (a Jewish students’ group), but his speech was cancelled because the Montreal police sent too few officers to control an extremely hostile Arab/Moslem mob.

Jews who were in attendance to hear Netanyahu speak at this open forum were jostled, punched, kicked and spat upon while the police looked on. And after being criticized for doing nothing to prepare for, or deal with this foreseeable violence, Montreal’s Mayor, Gerald Tremblay called the Jews out on the carpet for making their criticism public.

During the second Sedar of this year’s Passover (2007), two thugs set off an explosion at a building at Montreal’s Jewish Campus. They’ve been caught. But like the others who attacked Jewish property and Jewish people, they too will not be charged with a hate-crime by Quebec.

*snip*

The Montreal Jewish General Hospital (JGH) was built with Jewish money, and has been maintained from its inception with many millions of dollars annually, donated through legacies and trusts from the Jewish community who have long since died.

But there are many Jews who still reside in Montreal, or who have family living in Montreal, or people like Anne and myself who live outside of Quebec but still use the hospital, who contribute to the JGH every year.

It’s no secret that the province of Quebec, especially amongst the French community, is the least generous in terms of charitable donations in all of Canada. Therefore, it takes no great imagination to figure out that the JGH receives virtually nothing from the non Jewish French speaking community.

With that said; Montreal’s French speaking community is not shy to use all of the services of the JGH, and demand that they be treated and spoken to in the French language.

Pay for nothing. Ask for everything. The Quebec way.

The JGH was built by the Jewish community for several reasons:

1 – Because of anti-Semitism, Jewish medical graduates couldn’t practice or intern in most of Montreal’s Christian hospitals. So, they left to become doctors in other cities and countries, many went to the USA, most of whom never come back.

Losing all of these bright, talented and needed young people was out of the question. So, the Jewish community built their own hospital.

2 – At the time when the JGH was built, the Montreal Jewish community was quite observant and ate Kosher foods which weren’t available at any hospital in Montreal. Also, to Jews, many of whom who had just survived the Holocaust, sleeping in a bed under a Crucifix was extremely unsettling.

So, in addition to creating a hospital to keep their children at home, they also created a hospital that would cater to their Jewish dietary and religious needs.

In no time at all, the Montreal Jewish General Hospital became one of the best hospitals in the world. I don’t exaggerate. The JGH is really that good.

A short while ago, two French speaking ambulance drivers went to eat their lunch in the Kosher cafeteria of the JGH. There are signs everywhere in French that say this is a Kosher area.

But, when asked to take their food out of the cafeteria because it was not Kosher, they refused. And then they were shown the door.

As a result, the ambulance drivers went to the Quebec Human Rights Commission and filed a complaint for discrimination.

THE JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL WAS FINED $10,000.

*snip*

Just as Jews abandoned other areas of the world where they were made to feel unwelcome, they have, and are continuing to abandon Montreal (Quebec).

And just as others have followed Jewish migration in the past, others will follow today as well.

If the Jewish canary is to be taken seriously, Quebec has far bigger problems to deal with then adding their signature to a Constitution Quebec has already made irrelevant.

My belief is that the powers that be within Quebec, are far too ignorant of other people’s cultures and the long-term damning effect their racist language laws will have on the province as a whole.

The Jewish canaries are singing to deaf ears. And for Quebec, the melody is not good.

[leonardcohen]

This article just reinforces my belief

that a significant amount of French speaking

people in Quebec are actively anti-semitic.

What is surprising,to me at least, is that it emanates

from the highest levels

of government and institutions.

The anti semitism that originates from the ignorant

has always been there,

what is unexpected is the seemingly entrenched

attitudes of those you would have expected to have

enlightened views regarding the benefits of welcoming

those people who contribute to a society,economically

and culturally.

It is troubling indeed to see this coming from police

and government

as it encourages those who foster intolerance

that they have official sanction,

talk about willful hatred.

The Jewish community

have,

however committed the cardinal sin,

never be more successful than the people

who came before you, into whose communities

they see as their own.

[B. Max]

The profoundly sad article about the Montreal Jewish community (link) highlights the perils and indeed tragedy of cultural and linguistic segregation. Read and weep.

Comments?

I think a lot of us would be interested in trading Quebec for Alaska.

[ScottSA]

The profoundly sad article about the Montreal Jewish community (link) highlights the perils and indeed tragedy of cultural and linguistic segregation. Read and weep.

Comments?

I think a lot of us would be interested in trading Quebec for Alaska.

:lol: Indeed.

As one of the loudest supporters of Israel and Jews on this forum, I have to say that the sort of attitude displayed in this article shows why some Jews can be their people's own worst enemy. Sure there are historical oppressions to Jews, but there are historical oppressions in the histories of most Canadians or we wouldn't be here in Canada in the first place. My own savage sheepshagging Scottish forebearers were rounded up and shipped here very much against their will (although it has recently come to my attention that I have a significant amount of Irish blood, but for some reason the family likes to not talk about that). Indians, Irish, Chinese, Ukrainians, Scottish, Blacks and certainly Armenians...just about everyone has a tale of woe if they choose to recount it, but for some reason only some do. Blacks and Indians to excuse their failures and Jews to excuse, it seems, their successes.

For decades a certain very vocal segment of western Jews have bemoaned and wailed loudly about anti-semitism that existed during the last half of the 20th century at best peripherally in western society, and pretty well pissed off everyone else. They have even managed to make it a crime in some countries to disagree with elements of the holocaust myth (I use the term 'myth' to describe the status the holocaust has achieved in western discourse). Criminalizing contrary discourse on an historical event is ridiculous. It's almost criminal. And it's stupid, because it achieves precisely the opposite of it's intended effect.

Way back when Ezra Levant was just a yappy student instead of a yappy loose cannon careening across the deck of the right, and Jews were just another section of the population, he observed that the whining by some western Jewish "justice" organizations was in effect a monkey riding on a tiger's back and screaming for the tiger to stop biting it. He suggested at the time that if it kept up with inane accusations of imaginary anti-semitism, sooner or later the tiger will turn around and bite it. There are obvious parallels to the Boy who cried "Wolf" too.

Now the scent of real wolf is in the air in the form of the trendy new anti-semitism of the left, which disguises itself as "anti-Zionism", egged on by a relatively new segment of the population we could do well without: Muslims. Ezra was right: the tiger is threatening to bite, and it's due at least peripherally to the resentment that loud snivelling from some quarters has produced.

I'm not familiar with Quebec's history, and hope never to be, but unfortunately few people are actually listening to the cries of "wolf" anymore. It's too bad.

[buffycat]

Great post ScottSA, though we have disagreed in other venues the point you raise here is a very good one - and sadly lost on many.

Buffy

[sharkman]

So, the Jews are to blame for the anti-semitism in Quebec?

It may be so, but I remain unconvinced. In a society where no anti-semitism existed, whining about it would not create this racism, it was already there.

[buffycat]

So, the Jews are to blame for the anti-semitism in Quebec?

It may be so, but I remain unconvinced. In a society where no anti-semitism existed, whining about it would not create this racism, it was already there.

I don't think anyone said that specifically.

You say that where no bigottry exists that whining about would not bring it on? Think about that for a moment - think about it in this way:

Some chick, who has been hard done by decides it's fine to slag all men in general. Now, fine perhaps the dude she is slagging deserves it - but if she continues to carry on and on and whine and whine while going through a bunch of boyfriends only to whine there too - who is crying wolf? Is anyone going to believe her anymore wrt men? Or perhaps this young lady should take a good hard look in the mirror?

So, remain unconvinced - but I still don't see where the game of 'boo hoo' has won any REAL points anywhere.

[sharkman]

So, remain unconvinced - but I still don't see where the game of 'boo hoo' has won any REAL points anywhere.

To characterize a culture expressing their concern about racism as boo hooing shows a simple minded perspective at the least. There has been no game, and racism is not a game. There is no one keeping a point score.

To blame the 'whiner' is the same as blaming the woman who got raped for dressing like a tart.

[jbg]

*snip*

They have even managed to make it a crime in some countries to disagree with elements of the holocaust myth (I use the term 'myth' to describe the status the holocaust has achieved in western discourse). Criminalizing contrary discourse on an historical event is ridiculous. It's almost criminal. And it's stupid, because it achieves precisely the opposite of it's intended effect.

*snip*

There are obvious parallels to the Boy who cried "Wolf" too.

Now the scent of real wolf is in the air in the form of the trendy new anti-semitism of the left, which disguises itself as "anti-Zionism", egged on by a relatively new segment of the population we could do well without: Muslims. Ezra was right: the tiger is threatening to bite, and it's due at least peripherally to the resentment that loud snivelling from some quarters has produced.

I'm not familiar with Quebec's history, and hope never to be, but unfortunately few people are actually listening to the cries of "wolf" anymore. It's too bad.

I am normally a supporter of your posts but this one leaves me mystified and saddened.

First, I agree with you that "Holocaust denial" laws should be unconstitutional everywhere. I believe that even as hateful a person as Ahenekaw (sp) deserves to be allowed to spew his hate and nonesense. Democracy was never a system designed for cowards, and I prefer to have a full airing of all arguments, especially bad and rotten ones. It is only that way that evil can be defeated.

From there, though, you and I part company. In 1972, I was a camper at Camp Lincoln Farm (link), and one of my counselours or slightly older campers was a Jewish person, first name "Mark" (in case he's on this board), from Montreal. I asked him about Montreal's Jewish community. He described a community every bit as vibrant as New York City's Jewish community.

From my current knowledge of the state of affairs in Montreal, it's Jewish community is in serious trouble. Almost immediately after the 1976 elections in Quebec, Jews became decamping en masse from Quebec. With their lovely bi-lingual tolerant city being made more French than Paris, it was time to go.

This article is not the whine of Jews "playing victim". This is reality, and it is tragic.

[jdobbin]

From my current knowledge of the state of affairs in Montreal, it's Jewish community is in serious trouble. Almost immediately after the 1976 elections in Quebec, Jews became decamping en masse from Quebec. With their lovely bi-lingual tolerant city being made more French than Paris, it was time to go.

This article is not the whine of Jews "playing victim". This is reality, and it is tragic.

It is sad that the Jewish community of Montreal has been moving in large numbers to Toronto and now Calgary for work opportunities in Canada and the chance to be accepted for who they are.

I think any community would kill for the type of hospital that Jewish fundraising produced in Montreal.

[jbg]

I think any community would kill for the type of hospital that Jewish fundraising produced in Montreal.

I understand the Jewish community has at least some role in Winnipeg and Edmonton beyond supplying mayors.

[jdobbin]

I understand the Jewish community has at least some role in Winnipeg and Edmonton beyond supplying mayors.

I don't know what is happening in Edmonton but in Winnipeg, the Aspers lead several Jewish families in fundraising for things like the Human Rights Museum. The largest synagogue in western Canada is in Winnipeg and the largest Jewish community campus in Canada are in Winnipeg.

[ScottSA]

From my current knowledge of the state of affairs in Montreal, it's Jewish community is in serious trouble. Almost immediately after the 1976 elections in Quebec, Jews became decamping en masse from Quebec. With their lovely bi-lingual tolerant city being made more French than Paris, it was time to go.

This article is not the whine of Jews "playing victim". This is reality, and it is tragic.

Again, I have no idea about the specifics of the jewish community in Quebec. I only know about the general cacophany set up by some ("some") Jewish organizations in the west over the past few decades, seeking, apparently, to politically capitalize on the holocaust by cowing everyone into acquiesence. They were not, to be sure, the only ones: feminists, homosexuals and a host of other allegedly downtrodden groups were right beside them moaning about past injustice and demanding redress and vigilance against anything that remotely smacked of "injustice". But it seems unfortunate that Jews, who are among the most successful of any social group anywhere and always, are subject to the minstrations of loudly whining organizations claiming to represent them, and at the same time putting them in the crosshairs of hegemonic society.

[jbg]

But it seems unfortunate that Jews, who are among the most successful of any social group anywhere and always, are subject to the minstrations of loudly whining organizations claiming to represent them, and at the same time putting them in the crosshairs of hegemonic society.

I reject some of these organizations' "ministrations". That being said, we're about 0.2% of the world's population (about 14 million Jewis, over 6 billion world population), and about 1.9% of the US's and Canada's population. We are not reproducing our population by birth or conversion.

Our position is always terribly vulnerable, despite our obvious successes. Maybe, in part, because of them. It is too much to ask that we drop our guard.

[marcinmoka]

I might add, 14 million is not bad out of 12 tribes, especially considering the rough treatment many, many members of the community had over the course of the past few thousand years.

As per Scott, I think you will appreciate this : SAD...but true.

[ScottSA]

Our position is always terribly vulnerable, despite our obvious successes. Maybe, in part, because of them. It is too much to ask that we drop our guard.

Yes it is, which is why I defend Israel's actions against the Muslims savages all around it, including the Palestinians, Hezbollah and its supporters in Lebanon, and anyone else who attacks this island of civilization in a region of savagery. And why I attack nimrods who use euphemisms like "Zionism" to flaunt their barely concealed anti-semitism.

But I would as quickly spurn whiney "Scottish rights" groups as I do the CJC if they spent their time making noise about non-existent issues. Perhaps it's because I just don't have time for victim politics in general, or perhaps it's because it is counterproductive to expend goodwill on non-issues instead of picking battles carefully.

I remember when I lived in Winnipeg, every now and then a Jewish cemetary would have a few headstones turned over and the CJC would be right up front bemoaning an alleged epidemic of anti-semitism, even though the incident almost always turned out to be the same drunken teenagers who hit a Christian cemetary the week before. Yet every time it happened, people got a little more tired of hearing it, and a little more innoculated against it. Now, when anti-semitism really IS coming back into vogue, via Islamic immigrants and the new left, no one pays any attention anymore. Now, it will take a real incident to get people's attention. Jewish lobby groups haven't caused anti-semitism, but they certainly are not helping the situation any.

[jbg]

Yes it is, which is why I defend Israel's actions against the Muslims savages all around it, including the Palestinians, Hezbollah and its supporters in Lebanon, and anyone else who attacks this island of civilization in a region of savagery. And why I attack nimrods who use euphemisms like "Zionism" to flaunt their barely concealed anti-semitism.

Agreed and appreciated. A lot of this appeasement ideology started with the so-called "oil embargo" of October 1973, and represented a barely concealed desire for $0.40 USD/gallon gasoline. Of course, the so-called embargo (it really wasn't an embargo) was an effort by the OPEC nations to frighten the price of oil higher, in part just for more money and in part to make up for a late-January 1973 collapse of the dollar.

But I would as quickly spurn whiney "Scottish rights" groups as I do the CJC if they spent their time making noise about non-existent issues. Perhaps it's because I just don't have time for victim politics in general, or perhaps it's because it is counterproductive to expend goodwill on non-issues instead of picking battles carefully.

I remember when I lived in Winnipeg, every now and then a Jewish cemetary would have a few headstones turned over and the CJC would be right up front bemoaning an alleged epidemic of anti-semitism, even though the incident almost always turned out to be the same drunken teenagers who hit a Christian cemetary the week before. Yet every time it happened, people got a little more tired of hearing it, and a little more innoculated against it. Now, when anti-semitism really IS coming back into vogue, via Islamic immigrants and the new left, no one pays any attention anymore. Now, it will take a real incident to get people's attention. Jewish lobby groups haven't caused anti-semitism, but they certainly are not helping the situation any.

Fully agreed on victim politics. The problem the Jews have is that they cannot afford to be wrong again, as they were about the German Nazis. Remember, the Nazis followed a period where there had been many similar anti-Semitic rulers who, in private, were far more accomodating to the Jews. Hitler was one of the few who meant it and, with 20th Century technology and communications at his disposal, could act on his demented views. We cannot take the chance of ignoring threats again. Perhaps setting up a full battle cry is a bad idea in response to a few drunken teenagers; the civic fathers of Montreal are a good deal more of a threat, I would think.

[August1991]

The blind lead the blind. Or, let's discuss the Singhalese treatment of the Jaffna Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. IOW, let's discuss something no one here knows much about.

Blaming French Quebec society for their supposed ill treatment of Jews may seem enlightened but it is just a pointless exercise in Quebec-bashing.

For starters, I would not quote Howard Galganov if I were serious about this issue. Galganov is a self-described agitator. I'd describe him as a blowhard. He now lives in Ontario. Rather, I suggest you take a look at Esther Delisle.

Returning to Galganov though, I'd take a look at William Johnson and his record as leader of Alliance Quebec. Now, I never followed the high school politics of Alliance Quebec much but IIRC, Galganov and Johnson more or less killed that organization. Nevertheless, Johnson is a good journalist and he certainly knows Quebec history.

IMHO, there is no anti-semitism in Quebec except the general insularity of French Quebec - a small island that has survived for several centuries in an ocean of English. Quebecers are an island people - open to the world but rightly proud of their distinctiveness. Johnson calls it anglophobia:

The idea of Johnson as anti-Quebec or anti-French is ultimately misguided; anti-nationalist would be more accurate. Throughout his distinguished 30-year career as a journalist and commentator, as well as in his more recent activist forays, the 66-year-old Johnson has been a staunch defender of francophone minorities outside Quebec. But, having been raised in Quebec, Johnson's focus has been on minority rights here. His 1992 book, Anglophobie: Made in Québec, argued that French Quebec's literary and intellectual traditions were characterized by anglophobia, an ingrained fear and mistrust of English-speaking people, which he says still lies at the root of the sovereignty movement. Over time, he says, he "realized there was such a thing as a two-front war: a war against anglo bigotry and a war against anglophobia."

Link

[jbg]

Someone sent me this article belatedly. That's what led me to resurrect this dormant thread, which is still an interesting topic.

Blaming French Quebec society for their supposed ill treatment of Jews may seem enlightened but it is just a pointless exercise in Quebec-bashing.

For starters, I would not quote Howard Galganov if I were serious about this issue. Galganov is a self-described agitator. I'd describe him as a blowhard. He now lives in Ontario. Rather, I suggest you take a look at Esther Delisle.

Good link and interesting point. But I don't see the difference, since in a top-down society such as Quebec the elite, not the grassroots set thet tone.

IMHO, there is no anti-semitism in Quebec except the general insularity of French Quebec - a small island that has survived for several centuries in an ocean of English. Quebecers are an island people - open to the world but rightly proud of their distinctiveness. Johnson calls it anglophobia:Link

How "open to the world", really? Can you say, "Bill 101" or the variouss sign, education laws? (I know there's some overlap there).