Historians aren’t going to believe this happened. All Canadians are paying a special envoy to lobby the police to exempt genocidaires from Canadian law.
On Thursday Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism Deborah Lyons posted:
Yesterday I spoke to the RCMP and confirmed that there is no investigation into Israeli Canadians. Over the next few months, a portal will be opened for Canadians to submit information related to allegations of war crimes related to the Israel-Hamas war as is standard procedure by the RCMP for any conflict around the world. We will follow closely the scope and process, as appropriate.
I would like to extend our appreciation for the RCMP’s continued dedication to upholding the safety and security of Canadians. Their work protects Canadians from terrorism by conducting investigations and working with domestic and international partners to prevent terrorist acts.
We commend the RCMP’s commitment to work in coordination with international partners, while respecting the jurisdiction and acknowledging the importance of the Rule of Law for democratic nations such as Israel. This principled approach reinforces Canada’s role as a responsible global actor and a steadfast defender of democratic values.
Lyons’ statement was a response to reports that the RCMP instigated an investigation into Canadians and/or Israelis in Canada responsible for war crimes in Gaza. It is stunning that a government funded envoy, supposedly combating discrimination, would press the police against applying the law towards genocidaires.
Over the past twenty months Lyons has gone ever further down the path of open holocaust promotion.
A year ago, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East published “Defaming the Pro-Palestine Movement: Looking at the Public Commentary of Canada’s Special Envoy Deborah Lyons”. It details some of her smears against those protesting Canadian complicity in Israel’s violence. Lyons lent government credibility to what turned into the most publicized incident of anti-Palestinian racism in Canadian history and blamed “demographics” and “diversity” for opposition to genocide. She called for state forces to repress peoples’ right to gather and promoted billionaire power couple Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz’s right to fund a genocidal military without criticism. Lyons also participated in Toronto’s Walk for Israel, an Israel flag raising ceremony and celebrated a military operation that killed 270 Palestinians to free four Israelis.
But announcing that you leveraged your government position to press the police to exempt genocidaires from Canada’s War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act is still shocking. It’s generally considered unacceptable for a government official to directly involve themselves in an active police investigation.
When the Jewish supremacist colonial outpost disappears in a decade or a century few will believe all Canadians paid for such a position. But Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism is part of an ever more elaborate genocide enabling ‘antisemitism industrial complex’.
In 2024 Justin Trudeau appointed supremacist fanatic Liberal MP Anthony Housefather Special Advisor on Jewish Community Relations and Antisemitism. The Treasury Board and other ministries also have a “Senior Policy Advisor on Jewish Community Relations and Antisemitism”.
Ottawa has hosted or instigated a slew of initiatives to insulate Israel from criticism. Canada is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). In February Lyons launched the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and in March the government hosted a National Forum on Combatting Antisemitism. They’ve also released many statements on “Combatting Antisemitism” and “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”.
The government has taken up the call of Jewish organizations and activists who’ve been devoting ever more resources to use accusations of ‘antisemitism’ to deflect criticism of Israel. The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism and Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism all seek to protect Israel regardless of how many times it breaks international law. In the legal field, there’s Lawyers Combating Antisemitism and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has a Legal Task Force “using legal strategies to combat antisemitism, hate, and discrimination in Canada.” CIJA also has a pro bono legal initiative with United Jewish Appeal Toronto called the “Combatting Antisemitism in Schools Project.” They are backed in this effort by the Jewish Educators and Families Association.
In the health sector the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario and Quebec Jewish Physicians Associations also seek to insulate Israel from criticism. In the bureaucracy there’s the Jewish Public Servants’ Network while numerous groups and envoys have been established in academia. The Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism supports the Antisemitism Studies journal and Canada’s Human Rights Program, “which highlights specific chapters on the Holocaust and antisemitism”. Initially established by non-Jewish corporate figures, Fighting Anti-Semitism Together is now part of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism.
In 2023 CIJA and the federations hosted a large conference of apartheid promoters called “Antisemitism: Face It, Fight It”. (One of the speakers, Arsen Ostrovsky, recently threatened Greta Thunberg.) B’nai Brith Canada’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents has been a linchpin in the antisemitism industry since it began decades after legal and institutional discrimination against Jews was vanquished in Canada.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Education plays a major role in this network. They promote educating kids on Germany’s historic crimes against European Jewry. In recent years, most Canadian provinces have mandated Nazi holocaust education in their curriculums.
They are assisted by the Atlantic Canada Holocaust Education Foundation, Foundation for Genocide Education, National Holocaust Monument, Montreal Holocaust Museum, Toronto Holocaust Museum, Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Edmonton Holocaust Memorial, Winnipeg Holocaust Memorial and Canadian Society for Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
Wealthy donors underwrite the ‘antisemitism industrial complex’. The Azrieli Foundation, Asper Foundation, Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation are some of its major sponsors.
Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism is Irwin Cotler’s creation. He convinced Justin Trudeau to establish it and then selected Deborah Lyons as his replacement. Cotler began bemoaning the “new anti-Semitism” of those who support Palestinian rights several decades ago.
One reason for the success of the ‘antisemitism industrial complex’ is you’ll be labeled “antisemitic” if you criticize the special envoy and associated initiatives. It’s remarkable how little pushback there’s been to Lyons amidst Israel’s horrors in Gaza.
Internationalists and humanists must demand the abolition of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and insist on rethinking public funding for organizations that defend Israel’s war crimes, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity in the name of anti-racism.
The post Public Funding of “Antisemitism Industrial Complex” Must End first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Yves Engler.