EDITORIAL: Finger pointing won’t end hate-filled protests

Canada’s inability to deal with ongoing issues of antisemitism is like a game of pass the parcel. When the music stops, the person holding the package is responsible — or not — for administering this country’s laws.

Police point the finger at politicians or the justice system. Or ineffective hate laws. Municipal politicians point their fingers at provinces. Provinces push the problem upstairs to the federal government.

In between all this parcel-passing, real people in real communities are being intimidated and bullied. Jewish-owned businesses are vandalized; Jewish schools have been riddled with bullets; neighbourhoods have been threatened.

Jewish groups are responding with outrage after Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne London-Weinstein handed former City of Ottawa lawyer Iain Aspenlieder a suspended sentence for defacing the Holocaust memorial with red paint and the words “Feed me.”

Not hate? You deface a memorial sacred to the memory of six million Jews who died horrifically in the Second World War and it’s not motivated by hate? Go figure.

Recently, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner fired off a letter to police, demanding they do more to get the protests under control.

Last week, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw gave an exclusive interview to Postmedia reporter Bryan Passifiume, in which he said he needs more tools to deal with the antisemitic violence that’s overtaken the streets. He and Police Services Board Chair Shelley Carroll fired off a letter in response to Kerzner, saying the resources they’ve been given aren’t enough.

“Our communities are frustrated and so are Toronto Police Service members who require your government’s support to be successful,” they said. Far from not enforcing the law, cops say they’ve made more than 460 arrests and laid more than 1,000 charges since the protests started.

Demkiw would like to see specialized prosecutors with expertise in hate crimes. The federal government is proposing changes to the Criminal Code that would better define hate laws. Municipalities are looking at “bubble zones” around religious and cultural targets.

Meanwhile, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which was supposed to protect religious minorities such as Canada’s Jewish population, has been weaponized against them.

Enough is enough. Stop passing the parcel of blame and start enforcing the laws we already have.