Image from Enough T.O.’s Instagram page at a Toronto City Hall event which unveiled their ‘anti-hate’ painting, on May 24, 2024. Source: Enough T.O./Instagram

Written by: Jack Dempster

Canadian capitalism has a long history of weaponizing identity politics and “anti-hate” rhetoric in service of reaction. For instance, ever since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Israel’s fanatical escalation of its genocide against Palestine, Canadian bourgeois politicians, Zionists and the capitalist police have united against pro-Palestinian protestors, whom they have labelled as “anti-semites” who spread “hate.”

In this newfound political moment, a mysterious new organization known as Enough T.O is here. Presenting itself as a “grassroots movement committed to restoring all that is good about Toronto,” Enough T.O. has a glossy website with much liberal poetry about fighting “hate” and spreading “empathy.”

On their website, Enough T.O. says the following (writer’s emphasis):

“Our mission is to get Torontonians to remember who we once were: a city revered around the world for its values of inclusivity, tolerance, civility, empathy for others and respect toward our neighbours. A safe haven for people of every race, religion, sexuality, gender and political stripe. A mosaic of cultures free from hate.

We envision a Toronto where citizens are free to speak their minds but without using intimidation or hateful speech; where diversity of opinion is welcome but does not involve targeted harassment, disruption of key services or damage to property. A Toronto that embraces the same simple rules of conduct that we teach our children: don’t yell, don’t break things, and treat others the way you want to be treated.

We want to bring back peaceful dialogue and make Toronto a city where everyone can once again feel safe.

Enough is enough.”

Now, what inspired Enough T.O. to pen this moral lecture?

All this flowery prose is but a patina for the most reactionary Zionist sentiments. To glean just how insidious this rhetoric is, it is necessary to understand how there are two major strains of Zionist supremacism in Israel and abroad. On the one hand, you have the goose-stepping Zionism of Benjamin Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir and the hard-right Kahanists and other fascists. On the other, you have “liberal” Zionism, which covers for the fascists with lots of rhetoric about “peace” and “tolerance” – while defending Israel’s supposed “right to exist” as an apartheid regime.

In Canada, “Liberal Zionism” is epitomized by politicians such as Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, and Olivia Chow, who simultaneously defend Israel’s “right” to defend itself against “terrorism,” while also throwing a few scraps to the Palestinians, promising some humanitarian aid and an eventual “two-state solution.”

The logic of Enough TO’s message is as follows: once upon a time, in the olden days, Toronto was a shining city on the hill, a multicultural garden of “tolerance” and “civility,” “free of hate.” But since then, something happened. Now, mysterious forces are working to intimidate citizens, harass them, disrupt key services, and damage property. Now, Enough TO wants to nullify these strange forces, and return Toronto to “a city where everyone can once again feel safe.”

This rhetoric is obviously aimed at the Palestinians who, in the midst of the genocide of their own people, are constantly told to sit down, protest peacefully, and be “civil.”

Israel’s escalation of the ongoing genocide against Palestine, the slaughter of women and children, the carpet bombing of Gaza, have inspired a radical wave of protests within the Canadian state. From mass demonstrations to railroad blockades, from student encampments to weapons factory pickets, workers and youth have been stepping up with militant direct action in defense of Gaza and the rest of Palestine. Like it or not, a new generation of radical youth are determined to take action in defense of Palestine – “civility” be damned.

These protests have elicited venomous racist vitriol from the National Post, Toronto Sun, capitalist politicians and the Zionist lobby. The message emanating from all factions of the bourgeoisie and their hired pens is that anti-genocide protestors must sit down, shut up, and stop disrupting business as usual. This is exactly what Enough T.O. has in mind when it infantilizes protestors and instructs them to “don’t yell, don’t break things, and treat others the way you want to be treated.”

Enough T.O., not the underdog it claims to be

Enough T.O. has a GoFundMe to raise money for such activities as a sticker campaign, video outreach, digital and print advertising, and a public event launch. One wonders why Enough T.O. needs to raise money when the organization is obviously connected to wealthy and powerful sources.

On Wednesday, May 24, Enough T.O. held a public event at City Hall, where a painting of dubious artistic merit was unveiled to “foster civility andunity.” A number of prominent Torontonians attended the event, including Mayor Olivia Chow, the Federation of Black Canadians, and several Zionist City Councillors including James Pasternak and Brad Bradford.

Sharon Zohar, a “Digital Product entrepreneur,” made an appearance as a spokesperson for Enough T.O. On her LinkedIn page, Zohar has shared and liked many Zionist articles, including a post mourning the death of “600 IDF soldiers killed since October 7th” – soldiers who happen to be members of an invading occupying army. Zohar has also made the childish liberal argument that:

“Disrupting events, silencing dissenters, threatening society — this isn’t the model of civil disobedience and non-violent struggle that we learned from MLK or Gandhi. It’s the recipe for confrontation + conflict pioneered by the likes of Mao and Khomeini…antisemitism is unacceptable, and extremism is indefensible.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress made an appearance at the May 24 “anti-hate” event. The Canada Files has gone into depth about the UCC’s roots in the Ukraine fascism of Stepan Bandera. One wonders just what followers of the vicious antisemite and Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera, know about fighting “hate.”

In modern-day Canada, of course, Russians are excluded from the Canadian cultural mosaic, with anti-Russian chauvinism common especially amongst liberals and the petit-bourgeoise. The worst elements of Ukrainian nationalism, meanwhile, have been backed and glorified by the Canadian ruling class, over anti-fascist elements such as the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians.

Notably, Enough T.O. has direct links to the armed state forces of Canadian capitalism, in the form of the Toronto Police. In the same Instagram post, Enough T.O. also hails the Tafsik Organization. Tafsik is a reactionary Zionist organization which is affiliated with such figures as the Iranian monarchist MPP Goldie Ghamari, the British chauvinist Douglas Murray, as well as a whole host of other Zionists.

The “Liberal Zionist” charade, Enough T.O., claiming to focus on opposing hate, is in fact a vehicle to implicitly condemn pro-Palestine protests in Canada, in service of the capitalist rulers and police in Toronto.

Enough T.O. stands exposed as a craven vehicle for the Zionist lobby and the Canadian capitalists who support Israel to the hilt.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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Jack Dempster is a socialist trade unionist and writer based in Toronto, Ontario.

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