Footage taken by journalist Samira Mohyeddin (@SMohyeddin on X), of Kahanists parading around the University of Toronto campus. Credit: Samira Mohyeddin, On The Line

Written by: Yves Engler

Israel supporters have become a leading fascist force in Canada. Vigilante patrols at the University of Toronto are the latest sign.

Recently Zionist vigilante and fascist groups descended on the University of Toronto. Members of the little known JFORCE patrolled the campus in protective gear adorned with a JFORCE logo. JFORCE is a private security company that’s focused on protecting Israel events, protests and dignitaries.

There were also members of Magen Herut Canada. Their patch says “Nothing says never again: Like an armed Jew. Jews can shoot. Jews can shoot.”

The organization’s roots are with the pre-state Irgun terror group. In 1948, Albert Einstein and other prominent Jewish intellectuals labeled Herut “a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”

Conservative party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman was at their recent launch in Toronto and has been photographed repeatedly with Herut members.

There were also members of the former Jewish Defence League waving the Kahanist flag. JDL Canada instigated a number of violent incidents and beatings, while in 2011 the RCMP launched an investigation against a number of JDL members who were thought to be plotting to bomb Palestine House in Mississauga. In 2001, the FBI labeled the US branch of the JDL a “right-wing terrorist group” after its members were convicted in a series of violent acts, including the killing of a regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a plot to assassinate a congressman. Kahane Chai, whose flag was waved, is a listed terrorist organization in Canada and outlawed in Israel.

After posts about these groups coming to campus received significant attention on social media the Canadian Jewish News published “Safety patrol teams show up at University of Toronto to protect Jewish students as the school year begins”. The article whitewashed these groups, basically ignoring the intimidatory dimension of their presence.

City TV - Toronto republished the Canadian Jewish News story. After backlash they withdrew the story without comment. Other Canadian media ignored the campus vigilantes until the Muslim Students Association organized a press conference a week later to denounce “the presence of the JDL and Islamophobes on campus.”

For its part, Israeli paper Haaretz published an informative story headlined “Jewish Far-right Extremists Linked to Outlawed Terror Group Show Up at pro-Palestinian Events in Toronto”.

Reportedly, some of the fascists chanted “make Gaza a parking lot” and Islamophobic slogans. Prominent Hindu supremacist and long-time JDL ally Ron Banerjee, who previously called for murdering Muslims and Sikhs, was the principal culprit.

At Toronto’s other main university, Hillel York organized a Krav Maga class. Former Israeli soldier Sergey Baskin taught the Israeli combat method to students.

In another recent example of the anti-democratic, authoritarian, ethos of Zionism, the main Israel lobby groups have been calling to “fire” just re-elected CUPE Ontario President and CUPE National General Vice-President Fred Hahn. They’ve long sought to dismantle democratic organizations that express opposition to Israel’s violence.

At McGill, B’nai Brith is boasting about banning Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights. Their pressure led the university administration to threaten the Student Society of McGill University's entire funding arrangement if SSMU didn't ban the student group opposed to their families being brutalized by Israel. B’nai Brith’s Quebec Regional Director Henry Topas said the suppression “should serve as a precedent for universities across the country.”

B’nai Brith is also openly seeking to criminalize criticism of Zionism at universities. It’s pushing an antisemitism policy that says “opposition to Zionism, when it denies the Jewish people’s right to a homeland, constitutes antisemitism.” It even says calling Palestinians indigenous to Palestine is antisemitic (“claiming that another group, such as those whose ancestors arrived through later conquests, has stronger claims to indigeneity in the land”)!

Honest Reporting Canada recently sent out a fundraising email suggesting it plans to launch a Canadian-focused Canary Mission, which seeks to destroy the careers of university students engaged in Palestine solidarity activism to intimidate others. Honest Reporting Canada’s stated aim with the project is to “restore deterrence and procure consequences against our adversaries.”

In another bid to enforce “consequences against our adversaries”, leading genocide promoters have been celebrating the arrest and beating of protesters. On X, they welcomed the Montreal police applying a criminal harassment charge against a mother whose child was killed in Gaza after she criticized immigration minister Marc Miller at the by-election office of Liberal Party candidate Laura Palestini. Samar Alkhdour spent 24 hours in jail because she refused to accept police conditions that would have blocked her from publicly criticizing Miller whose policies she partly blames for her 13-year-old daughter’s death. Alkhdour has been picketing in front of Palestini’s office for months and is part of a group that launched a daily picket in front of the liberal candidate’s by-election office in mid-August.

Zionists have pushed to make MPs offices — of all places — protected from democratic dissent. Former Liberal justice minister Marco Mendicino also wants “protective zones” around MP offices to stop demonstrations.

More incredibly, they want to outlaw protests at famous downtown Toronto theatres. MP Anthony Housefather criticized a recent rally at Meridian Hall in which he suggested it was a Jewish community building. In response to a protest at the campaign launch of the UJA Federation of Toronto (an important Zionist organization), Holocaust Housefather stated: “The constant targeting of Jewish communities at our own community buildings is beyond sickening. I thank the Toronto Police for being prepared. Nobody should be allowed to use their freedom of speech to deprive another group of their freedom of speech and assembly.”

Since the beginning of the school year the Calgary and Toronto police have been become much more aggressive against protesters. They violently expelled protesters at the University of Toronto Asset Management office on September 8 and arrested a number at the UJA launch three days later. The police then “pepper-sprayed the crowd, punching a woman in the face so hard her jaw was dislocated, elbowing another and putting a third into the hospital”. Seven were detained at the police station, which is well detailed in The Grind’s “Toronto Police ‘Caused a Riot’ Outside 51 Division After Pro-Palestinian Protest of UJA Event”.

As intended, Zionist activists’ and lobby groups’ calls for repression is driving the police towards greater violence against those challenging the Israeli death cult. Zionist groups have also ingratiated themselves with police.

In a recent National Post column Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) head Avi Benlolo suggested a group protesting police violence against Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities with the slogan “pigs off campus” was antisemitic. “At the University of British Columbia,” Avi Benlolo wrote, “students displayed a banner reading ‘pigs off campus,’ complete with a severed pig’s head — a symbol with deep-rooted antisemitic connotations.”

As Benlolo knows full well, the longstanding slogan “pigs off campus” has nothing to do with Jewish people. Benlolo is seeking to ingratiate himself with the police as part of AGPI and the Zionist lobby’s police outreach. “Through our Police Academy we partner with top police agencies including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Police Association, the Ontario Association of Police Chiefs and The International Council of Police Representative Associations”, notes AGPI’s website. Last year, AGPI took the head of the Winnipeg and multiple other police departments on its “Annual mission to Poland and Israel to learn about the Holocaust, Antisemitism and human rights”.

For its part, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center website explains, “Members from police services across Ontario have attended FSWC’s law enforcement training programs to build their understanding of the increasingly complex and diverse environments in which they are working.” The discussion, notes the Zionist lobby group’s site, included “campus and BDS/hate advocacy”.

Police outreach is part of Zionists’ bid to win favour with the repressive arm of the state. They want them to violently repress and intimidate those mobilizing against Canada’s role in enabling Israel’s holocaust in Gaza.

Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

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