Majed El Shafie, founder and president of the Canadian nonprofit One Free World International, didn’t mince words when he spoke about Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, at a “Rally for Humanity” at the Toronto-area synagogue Sephardic Kehila Centre on Sunday evening.
“Let me not sugarcoat it. We have an idiot of a prime minister. The only prime minister who didn’t go to Israel of the G7,” said Shafie, whose nonprofit supports persecuted religious minorities.
“The only one who refused to take a stand and failed us,” he added, “and could not protect his country.”
He told the 1,000 or so attendees at the event, which organizers said was timed for Canada’s Remembrance Day and the November anniversary of Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”), that those who point fingers only at Israel are selectively outraged.
“Where have you been with the Taliban’s failing human rights? Or China with the Uyghurs? Or Assad killing his own people in Syria?” he told the audience. “You don’t care about human rights. You are simply antisemitic.”
Shafie, who was born in Egypt, told the audience that in the African country, “everyone taught you to hate Jews.” He added that he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured severely in Egypt due to his conversion to Christianity and his human rights advocacy.
To avoid the death penalty, he stole a jet ski and rode it to freedom from the Sinai Peninsula to Eilat. “God used Israel to save my life,” he told attendees.
One Global Voice organized the gathering with several partners, including the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism. Among the other speakers were journalist Warren Kinsella, the non-Jewish student and Hong Kong native Justin Chow, Coalition of Hindus in North America president Rishabh Sarswat and Janice LaForme, a leader in the indigenous community.
Several of the speakers who addressed the audience expressed outrage and their government representatives, who they said have been silent in the face of hate.
“There are some playing the politics of appeasement, and some won’t even mark the Oct. 7 anniversary,” said the Pakistani-Canadian writer Raheel Raza. “They have buried their heads in the sandbox, to realize it is actually a litter box.” (Olivia Chow, the Toronto mayor, has skipped major Jewish events in the city.)
“What we have to do is lobby our elected officials and tell them that antisemitism is a disease that cannot be solved by taking two Tylenol,” said Raza, who is president of Muslims Facing Tomorrow and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
Safety is a ‘top priority’
Anita Bromberg is president of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, one of the groups that organized the rally. “It has been said that antisemitism is not a Jewish problem, rather it is a pernicious hatred eating away at the very fabric of our society that requires the determination of every one of us to solve,” she told JNS.
“I hope the rally will spark determination that will spur on our leaders to act,” she added.
At the event, a proclamation “of unity against antisemitism” was displayed with signatures of speakers and grassroots leaders. The declaration will be presented to City Hall on Nov. 13.
Among the declarations are to “ensure the safety of Jewish individuals from hate speech, harassment, abuse and violence,” “ensuring that the police and judiciary carry out their duties to arrest, charge and prosecute all criminal acts and charge antisemitic acts as hate crimes” and “protecting our schools and communities to keep them safe, inclusive and free from harassment, threats and intimidation, fostering a Canada where every child and citizen feels a sense of proud belonging.”
Eynat Katz, another attendee, told JNS that the rally was “not only a call to action but also an expression of unity, showing that we will not allow hate and intolerance to overshadow the strength and compassion that define us as a nation.”
“We send a clear message that the safety of Jewish Canadians and all minority communities is a top priority,” Katz said.
