Meanwhile, back in Canada....

I'd love to see a joint statement from Dalton McGuinty and Stephen Harper....

Last week, word broke that Jewish students were verbally accosted by anti-Israel protesters at York University. An eyewitness account of the melee, published here, described a hostage-like situation, where in Orwellian fashion, the Jewish victims of the campus intimidation were punished and asked by security to stop their event -- ostensibly for their own safety.

In response to the events, the organized Jewish community of Canada is reacting with an eerie silence. The Canadian Jewish Congress’ last press release is from January 30th protesting the reinstatement of anti-Semitic Bishop Richard Williamson. There is a January 27th release commemorating the UN’s Holocaust memorial day. Yet the anti-Semitism page has no recent updates, and no mention of York University. The Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal was just slightly more pro-active, issuing a press release which, no doubt simultaneously reassured the nerve-wrecked Jewish students at York and simultaneously terrified the anti-Israel hooligans. The Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto on its web site says it wants to assure parents of Jewish students at York that they are “dealing with the atmosphere at York on several levels in order to ensure the safety of students who study there” and that they are in ongoing contact with York University President Shoukri, York University students and the media on this matter”. Wow, that’s reassuring.

More can be done, and it should be done loudly -- not in hushed whispers between Jewish presidents and executive directors of all stripes at the office of York University’s President. Where does Mayor David Miller stand on the issue? Where is Dalton McGuinty’s voice on the matter? Ontario universities are provincially funded and regulated. Universities and cities have a symbiotic relationship -- student campus populations are economic boons to any city, and university campuses have a significant economic impact on a city’s well-being. Our political leadership -- not just Jewish leaders -- should be the first ones to condemn the atmosphere of intimidation and fear in our institutes of higher education. When is the last time any of them was on a university campus or in front of the Israeli consulate in real time, watching demonstrators face real hatred, instead of getting post-facto reports from the field over coffee somewhere on Bathurst Street in Toronto?