O, Canada

As a Canadian, I am reporting the following CBC story with great shame and revulsion.

The story concerns a planned speech by Benjamin Netanyahu, which was to have been delivered this afternoon (September 9, 2002); the story reads as follows:

Montreal

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a speech at Concordia University in Montreal after several hundred demonstrators managed to get into a university building.

The demonstrators, who called Netanyahu anti-Palestinian and a terrorist, threw chairs and newspaper boxes at police, who were trying to evacuate the building where Netanyahu was supposed to speak.

Police responded with pepper spray or tear gas, and made at least one arrest.

Netanyahu was not present. Police and his assistants said he would not give his speech in the circumstances.

There was a long standoff between the pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the students who had come to hear Netanyahu speak. The demonstrators were pleased they had stopped him talking.

Reading this news, the scenes of Nazi supporters silencing the opposition in Germany during the 1930's flashed before my eyes. And then there is the Mufti’s terror, silencing his opposition in Palestine in the 1930's (see my article, “ Musings...", dated September 6, 2002 or here too.).

If you find the events in Montreal as appalling as I do, please write to Canada's prime minister, Jean Chretien, pm@pm.gc.ca. While you’re writing, you may wish to protest Canada’s disgraceful position on Iraq and the so called “International Criminal Court”, ICC.

Contributed by Joseph Alexander Norland