Canada/Tarek Fatah: Quebec law would stifle free speech 203/Trudeau fundraiser picketed by Jewish group over Liberals’ support for Iran nuclear deal

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Quebec law would stifle free speech 203
Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun/August 27, 2015

While the rest of Canada is being force-fed the Duffy Senate “scandal”, in Quebec a proposed law that will label any criticism of Islam or Islamism as “hate speech” is being quietly pushed through the National Assembly. Bill 59 will permit Muslims to make complaints to the Quebec Human Rights Commission (QHRC) against anyone critiquing Islam or Islamism, triggering lawsuits for hate speech. As if that wasn’t enough of an attempt to silence Muslims like me, who have struggled all of our adult lives to expose the perils of Islamism, Article 6 of Bill 59 would, “give the QHRC the power to initiate legal proceedings before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal without having to wait for complaints from the public.”While this serious encroachment on freedom of expression and speech is being pushed through the legislative process in Quebec, none of the leaders of Canada’s political parties have uttered a word on the issue.

 Not Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who still has not disclosed what he discussed in his recent closed-door meeting with Islamic leaders in Regina,. Not NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, whose party has a strong base in Quebec and who has acted as if the implications of Bill 59 are of no concern to him. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has identified Islamism as a threat to Canada, has so far kept mum on the proposed law. Muslims in Quebec are divided on its merits, with some in favour and some against.

 But ironically, some Islamist-promoting organizations and mosques have welcomed Bill 59, notwithstanding the fact they violate it every week when they start their Friday prayers with a ritual invocation that asks, “Allah to give Muslims victory over the ‘kufaar’ (Christians, Jews and Hindus).”The hypocrisy of Islamists invoking victimhood when it comes to hate speech is laughable. Multiple times every day, Islamists have no problem depicting Jews as “those who have earned Allah’s anger”, and Christians as “those who have gone astray” in their prayers, both at home and in the mosque. Then they cry foul when their man-made sharia laws written in the eighth and ninth centuries are critiqued, sometimes by their fellow Muslims. Here is how the online Islamic site “SunnahOnLine” explains the opening verse of the Qur’an that is part of the mandatory Islamic prayers in mosques across Quebec and Canada, and which define the characteristics of Christians and Jews as essentially untrustworthy.

Sunnah OnLine (The practice of the Prophet) quotes the 14th century Islamic scholar At-Tirmidhi explaining the opening verse of the Qur’an this way: “The Jews and the Christians even though both of them are misguided and both of them have Allah’s Anger on them — the Anger is specified to the Jews, even though the Christians share this with them, because the Jews knew the truth and rejected it and deliberately came with falsehood  It seems the Islamists want to have their halal cake and eat it too. The trouble for them is that Canada still has Muslims who have the courage to expose their double standards. Let me assure them, we will do everything we can to make sure Quebec’s Bill 59 does not pass. But if it does become law, the first complaint to the QHRC will be against Islamist mosques for spreading hatred against Jews and Christians.

Justin Trudeau fundraiser picketed by Jewish group over Liberals’ support for Iran nuclear deal
Jake Edmiston | August 26, 2015 9:37 /National Post

TORONTO — A Toronto Jewish group made the rare move of protesting one of its own community leaders on Wednesday evening, staging a picket outside billionaire Barry Sherman’s house during his cocktail fundraiser for the Liberal party.  About 30 protesters from the Jewish Defence League lined the street out front of Sherman’s lavish north Toronto home, holding Israeli and Canadian flags. “Enjoy the food,” a man holding an Israeli flag yelled as guests walked up the driveway, past a line of valets. Tickets for the party and opportunity to meet leader Justin Trudeau reportedly went for $1,500 each. One guest stopped and smiled at a protester in the picket line. “Joel? What are you doing here?” The protester, Joel Goldman, said he was there because he didn’t support the Liberals’ position on the Iran nuclear deal. “They’re just coming to see Mick Jagger tonight,” Goldman said after his friend went inside. “They’re coming to see a rock star.”J.P. Moczulski for NP. J.P. Moczulski for NPProtesters with the Jewish Defence League picket a Justin Trudeau fundraiser in Toronto, Aug. 26, 2015.

 Defence League leader Meir Weinstein, who organized the protest, emphasized that his group wasn’t “looking to get into any shouting matches or anything like that.”But the disruption nonetheless “unnerved” some of his counterparts, as he put it. “We don’t picket Jewish leaders in our community,” Weinstein said. But “when it comes to Iran, that’s the red line.”The Liberals have pledged to reopen diplomatic ties with Iran and have welcomed the new Iranian nuclear deal. “If there was disagreement (on the Iran deal), that would be one thing. But there is unanimity: The deal is horrible for Israel.”But Michael Levitt, Liberal candidate in York Centre who attended the fundraiser, said his party has been “adamant that we’re going to take a wait-and-see approach and make sure the actions match the words.”

 Ahead of the protest, the Liberals issued a statement from foreign affairs critic Marc Garneau, saying, “Iran must comply with the terms of this agreement and match its words with concrete deeds.”As Trudeau pulled up in a black van at about 7:15 p.m., the crowd started chanting, “No Iran deal.” Trudeau stopped on the stoop of Sherman’s house for a moment, then slipped inside. Sherman, CEO of Canadian pharmaceutical giant Apotex, is hailed as a major philanthropist in the Toronto Jewish community. Last year, Canadian Business listed him as the 14th richest person in Canada. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs defended Sherman and his wife, Honey. The centre’s chief executive Shimon Fogel scolded the Defence League for “disparaging, personal attacks.”“We do not support the JDL’s decision,” Fogel told the Post in an email. “We raised the issue with them directly and are deeply disappointed that they chose not to heed our counsel.”Weinstein said he had a “respectful” conversation on the phone with Sherman Wednesday, and apologized for any inconvenience.But he said he wasn’t trying to “win a popularity contest.”On a Facebook page for the protest, organizers posted one invitee’s emailed response to Sherman. In the email, Gabriel Erem told Sherman he was “tragically misinformed, and perhaps misguided regarding the political agenda of the handsome young man whom you will be toasting.”

 http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/justin-trudeau-fundraiser-picketed-by-jewish-group-over-liberals-support-for-iran-nuclear-deal