If Canadians don't smarten up soon, we could lose the winter holiday for good
It’s fair to say that, for many of us, Christmas felt a bit different this year.
Playing out amidst a national affordability crisis, with war still raging in the Holy Land, a time of year that’s usually marked by festive cheer instead took on a foreboding air, a mood that certainly wasn’t lifted by a federal government whose idea of spreading cheer to all was posting food bank photo ops to social media — as if wanting to remind Canadians of the immiseration created by eight years of Liberal economic policies.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Don't have an account? Create Account
But any lingering semblance of Christmas spirit was snuffed out entirely by unruly pro-Palestinian mobs who, like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, resolved to steal the Yuletide holiday out from under the rest of us.
This motley crew of thuggish rabble-rousers and enabling do-gooders first made their intentions known at the height of holiday shopping season, staging a series of raucous demonstrations at major shopping malls. In one head-scratching exchange in Toronto, protesters bombarded a mall Santa and startled two young children sitting on his lap with the chant of “Jesus was a Palestinian.” A masked, keffiyeh-clad demonstrator was caught on camera the same day threatening to put a mall patron “six-feet deep” within earshot of police officers at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.
A subsequent “No xmas as usual” rally, appropriately taking place on Festivus (Dec. 23), saw chants of “long live the intifada” and “there is only one solution” ringing through the streets of downtown Toronto. (Fans of the classic sitcom “Seinfeld” will recognize the “airing of grievances” as a long-standing Festivus tradition.)
The scene was concerning enough for antisemitism envoy Deborah Lyons to interrupt her Christmas break. “Chanting for intifada (uprisings against Israel and Jews, including acts of violence and terror) in the streets … is a clear tactic of intimidation,” Lyons tweeted on Christmas Eve. “The police must ensure that our streets are safe from hate, incitement and threats of violence.”
The discord continued straight through the Christmas long weekend. On Dec. 24, a group of demonstrators waving Palestinian flags assembled on an overpass above Highway 401, where they were met by pro-Israel counter-protesters. The situation, unfolding in the immediate vicinity of Canada’s busiest highway, posed a serious enough threat to public safety to elicit a statement from Ward 6 Councillor James Pasternak.
“People come here to escape hate and violence from world conflict zones,” Pasternak wrote in the signed press release. “The vast majority of residents of Toronto do not want them recreated here.”
The pro-Palestine mob returned to the shopping malls on Boxing Day, this time pestering Montreal-area shoppers. A video shared on social media captured protesters chanting “shame on you” at patrons and staff at a Montreal Zara. (The Spain-based retail giant became the target of boycott calls earlier this month when web sleuths connected imagery from one of its recent ad campaigns to scenes from Gaza.) Area police reported arresting one man for unlawful assembly and assaulting an officer.
While the public is, undoubtedly, still digesting the holiday mayhem, I wouldn’t hold out hope for Canadians to follow in the festive footsteps of the townsfolk of Dr. Seuss’s Whoville. After years of being told by our own cultural elites that Christmas is a racist artifact of our colonialist history, we appear to have little will to wrest the holiday back from its would-be bandits.
Outside of a few noise citations meted out in Ottawa, the “cancel Christmas” brigade has gotten off virtually scot-free, with police turning a deaf ear to chants inciting religious hatred and outright death threats. While the instinct to avoid adding to an already tense atmosphere is understandable, the general inaction of authorities in the face of such brazen disorder sends a regrettable message that Canadians will continue to tolerate the desecration of even our most cherished civic traditions.
Pro-Palestinian protesters set out to steal Christmas this year and they were successful in that endeavour. Part of the blame, however, lies with everyday Canadians for leaving Christmas out for the taking. If we don’t smarten up soon, we could well lose the winter holiday for good, along with the few other remaining hallmarks of our collective identity.
National Post
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
To wrap things up for 2023, I’ve put together a short list of some of my favourite makeup looks that were trending this year.
Our guide to the most lightweight, ergonomic and maneuverable cordless vacuums
Three buzzed-about beauty products we tried this week.
Boll & Branch, Dyson, Good American and Sephora, to name a few
Prepare your home for a snowy winter
Rahim Mohamed: How pro-Palestinian protesters stole Christmas
8
0
30.12.2023
If Canadians don't smarten up soon, we could lose the winter holiday for good
It’s fair to say that, for many of us, Christmas felt a bit different this year.
Playing out amidst a national affordability crisis, with war still raging in the Holy Land, a time of year that’s usually marked by festive cheer instead took on a foreboding air, a mood that certainly wasn’t lifted by a federal government whose idea of spreading cheer to all was posting food bank photo ops to social media — as if wanting to remind Canadians of the immiseration created by eight years of Liberal economic policies.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Don't have an account? Create Account
But any lingering semblance of Christmas spirit was snuffed out entirely by unruly pro-Palestinian mobs who, like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, resolved to steal the Yuletide holiday out from under the rest of us.
This motley crew of thuggish rabble-rousers and enabling do-gooders first made their intentions known at the height of holiday shopping season, staging a series of raucous demonstrations at major shopping malls. In one head-scratching exchange in Toronto, protesters bombarded a mall Santa and startled two young children sitting on his lap with the chant of “Jesus was a........
© National Post
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Abbas Juma
Michael Kwet
