Bill 168 and the Hypocrisy of the Right on Free Speech
Photo Credit: (Independent Jewish Voices Canada / Google Images)
Written by: Daniel Xie
The Ford government has made a significant move in criminalizing pro-Palestinian dissent in pushing forward Bill 168, the Combatting Antisemitism Act. According to the Ontario Legislative Assembly, this bill requires the Government of Ontario to act in accordance with the working definition of antisemitism and what constitutes as examples of antisemitism, as adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) plenary on May 26, 2016. As of October 22, the bill is being considered after two readings.
Originally, the bill was supposed to face public testimonies, which would have given Pro-Palestinian organizations the opportunity to testify about the dangers Bill 168 and the IHRA definition of antisemitism would have on free expression. However, Ford decided to pull the plug on public testimonies, perhaps, according to Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME, because he did not want to face the opposition adopting the IHRA definition would face from the public.
In response to moving Bill 168 forward without the consent of the public, Canadian Justice in the Middle East (CJPME) issued a condemnation of the bill on October 27, 2020. According to CJPME, Bill 168 constitutes an assault on democracy in order to shield Israel from criticism. CJPME notes that the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism conflates genuine antisemitism with criticisms of Israel. Seven of the definitions proposed by the IHRA mention Israel and Zionism.
CJPME lists a broad range of organizations and activists who oppose the IHRA’s broad definition of antisemitism, including the Independent Jewish Voices, the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. In addition 450 academics have also voiced their opposition to the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism.
According to CJPME, the IHRA have previously weaponized their definition of antisemitism to suppress pro-Palestinian voices. The organization has campaigned to fire or disqualify academics from positions at York University and the University of Toronto, solely due to criticism of the Israeli government. CJPME warns that Bill 168 is just another means by the IHRA to suppress pro-Palestinian voices in Ontario, and will face massive resistance if it passes.
Critics of Israeli Apartheid under attack by Bill 168
If Bill 168 passes, it will threaten the freedom for a large number of Canadians in Ontario who have increasing sympathy for Palestinian human rights, especially if they speak up about them. Many Canadians have started to express solidarity with Palestine, according to various surveys conducted by EKOS Research Associates and published by CJPME.
On June 16, 2020, the first part of a three part survey by CJPME and Independent Jewish Voices revealed that 74 per cent of Canadians indicated that Canada should oppose Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank, while 54 per cent of Canadians believe that Canada should not decrease support of human rights of Palestinians with 40 per cent believing that Canada should support even greater human rights for Palestinians.
On September 16, 2020, the second part of the survey revealed that 84 per cent of Canadians would support a hypothetical ICC war crimes investigation into Israeli war crimes, while 86 per cent of Canadians believe that Israel is violating Palestinians’ human rights violations despite being a Canadian ally, and 82 per cent of Canadians do not support the position of the Netanyahu government who say that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.
On October 7, 2020, the final part of this survey found that an overwhelming number of Canadians (80 per cent) say that challenging Israeli Apartheid does not constitute anti-semitism but is rather an legitimate form of political expression.
Given the large amounts of support for Palestine across Canada passing Bill 168 puts a large number of Canadians, particularly those living in Ontario, at risk of punitive actions by the Ford Government simply for standing up for the human rights of Palestinians.
The Hypocrisy of Free Speech Warriors:
The passing of Bill 168 highlights the hypocrisy of the far right’s claims to defend “freedom of speech”, many of whom Doug Ford supports . Despite the fact that the far right makes a big deal about how the “social justice warriors” are trying to destroy free speech to usher in a totalitarian communist dystopia by way of “cancel culture”, they do not bat an eyebrow when pro-Palestinian voices are silenced. While the far right cries foul whenever an event at a university is cancelled due to the speakers facing the consequences of toxic behavior and actions, the cancellation of pro-Palestinian events due to pressure by pro-Israel and Zionist groups receive not one iota of condemnation from free speech warriors.
According to the website Palestine Legal, growing advocacy for Palestinians has have often faced resulted in various silencing tactics. Palestine Legal notes that the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices constitutes an “exception” to norms surrounding free speech in the sense that universities constantly suppress Palestinian and BDS advocacy. Suppression often takes the form of trumped-up accusations of anti-semitic and pro-terrorist discourse, attempts to obstruct academic freedoms for speakers, attempts to bar pro-Palestinian advocates from academic and cultural events, the filing of lawsuits against pro-Palestine advocates, and even efforts to file legislation barring pro-Palestine advocates from speaking in universities.
The censorship of pro-Palestinian voices recently manifested in Ontario universities when the University of Toronto blocked the hiring of a scholar due to her report on Israeli human rights abuses. In August 2020 Valentina Azarova accepted an offer in August of 2020 to be director of UofT’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP), only for UofT to block her hiring process due to pressure by a sitting federal judge, who is also a major donor to the faculty. Law professor Audrey Macklin, who chaired Azarova’s hiring process, as well as hiring committee member Vincent Wong and the IHRP programme’s three-member advisory board (Vincent Chiao, Trudo Lemmens, and Anna Su) resigned in response to the blocking. UofT students called for Azarova’s reinstatement and Dania Majid, president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA), condemned the decision to rescind Azarova’s offer as sending a terrible message to Palestinians and advocates of Palestinian human rights.
Neither far-right free speech advocates nor Doug Ford have complained about this. Neither has the Ford government threatened to defund UofT for infringing on the freedom of expression and freedom of speech of a pro-Palestinian advocate. In fact, Ford has, through Bill 168, made it much harder for pro-BDS activists and advocates of Palestinian human rights to freely express themselves in public.
It is clear that the so-called advocates of classical liberalism and freedom of speech consider efforts to express solidarity with Palestinians are “exceptions” to the norms and rules surrounding Free Speech that are to be denied any attempts to express themselves freely within any public space that could be regulated.
Oppose Bill 168: Defend the right to protest Israeli Apartheid!
Now that Bill 168 has been hidden away from public hearings that would have exposed its deadly implications, it may very well pass into law. That means many Canadians could soon be prosecuted for opposing Israeli apartheid under charges of antisemitism. If Bill 168 becomes law we can expect to see more situations like Valentina Azarova’s, where people are shunned from academia and society and even employment for expressing pro-Palestinian and pro-BDS views.
Bill 168 uses the IHRA’s broad definition of anti-semitism in order to threaten Canadians who oppose Israeli apartheid and stand up and speak out in favour of the human rights of Palestinians. This bill’s passing perfectly demonstrates the hypocrisy of right wing supporters of free speech, Doug Ford included.. “Free speech” advocates like Ford use free speech to erase accountability for toxic discourse, but do not bat an eye to the weaponization of anti-semitism against pro-Palestinian voices. In fact, Bill 168 shows that they are perfectly willing to silence progressive speech. Progressives and activists working within Ontario must resist all efforts to allow Bill 168 to pass or to implement its provisions, and defend the right for all to protest and organize against Israeli Apartheid.
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