WARMINGTON: Indigo books attacks are proof antisemitism now tolerated

Red paint — meant to symbolize blood — was scrawled all over the windows and front door to make it look like a slaughter scene.

Indigo book stores in Canada were targeted, attacked, in some cases occupied — and in Toronto, vandalized once again because the bookstore chain’s owners are Jewish and support Jewish charities. The justice system seems content with allowing Indigo locations across the country to be routinely bullied – backed up by the court withdrawal of most of the earlier charges on the Indigo 11, who were arrested amid similar allegations post-Oct. 7, 2023.

As of Monday — two full days since it happened again Dec. 20 at that same store at Bay and Bloor Sts. in Toronto — there have been no charges announced. Elected political leaders have also not commented like they certainly would have this was a Muslim, Sikh, Hindu or gay community target.

This is what happens when the justice system does not back up the police when they make arrests for alleged hate-related actions directed at the Jewish community. You get more of it.  And you don’t have to be a historian to know where that can lead.

And those who participate in the hate feel emboldened to do whatever they want, to whomever they want, whenever they want. The anti-Israel crowd, some of whom who were before the courts as part of the original Indigo 11, chose this past Saturday — one of the busiest shopping days of the calendar year — to allegedly target the Toronto location.

Is attacking Indigo legal now?

You don’t need to consult a lawyer to know there were laws being violated at Indigo stores. Or is it legal now? It’s murky. There seems to be, however, an unofficial but accepted Canadian policy that it’s OK to aggressively attack Jewish businesses and people at will.

And even with the deadly Hanukah pogrom in Australia and arrest of a planned ISIS terror cell here in the GTA, no number of complaints seems to change that. Hamas, Antifa and the communist movement — when they feel inclined to do so — control the streets here. They decide.

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Blame the cops?

If it was Jewish people doing the same kinds of things to the Muslim community, there would be no blind eye turned. No other community would ever be asked to face what Toronto’s Jews now face.

Blame the police? Easy to do and the public and media certainly do that.

They have made communications mistakes as we have seen recently. But there’s way more to it. And police feel they are being thrown under the bus by the media, politicians and, especially, the bureaucrats who have tied their hands behind their backs.

“We talk to justice officials at all levels of government and present these cases and they say they can’t prosecute them,” said a police source.

Nameless, Faceless power brokers handcuffing police

But those shutting down prosecutions remain nameless and faceless. And the public doesn’t get to scrutinize them because they are anonymous.

If Jewish business owners like Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz are going to be called out publicly for not doing anything wrong, the public should also know the names and backgrounds of every person in the process. Perhaps that would provide some understanding of why police are not pursuing cases where there have been obvious violations.

“We tell them in the justice departments that we have to wear all of this publicly,” said a cop who has been involved in this. “Our hands, really have been tied.”

It’s time to untie them and allow police to enforce the law. But instead of letting the police do their jobs, the secret lawyers behind the scenes run this show.

Former premier calls protesters “thugs”

And everybody can see it. Many are expressing it publicly.

“These thugs are violating multiple laws with impunity while chanting for an ‘intifada revolution,’ i.e. terrorist violence against Jews,” former Alberta premier Jason Kenney posted to X about a sit-in scene at the Indigo in Montreal with a bullhorn, Palestinian flags and protesters buying books and returning them to create a traffic jam at the cash register.

They seem to be able to do it with impunity.

“If the authorities were the least bit serious about ‘zero tolerance’ for antisemitism, they would throw the book at these haters by immediately arresting and charging them,” said Kenney, who called it “Canada’s own Kristallnacht.”

From trespassing to hate speech, the once right-hand man to former prime minister Stephen Harper listed many sections of the Criminal Code that could be used by police.

But it’s going to take more than police to deal with this.

It’s going to have to be the Prime Minister, the premiers and mayors who have to stop worrying about the power of voting blocks and allow cops to be cops.

Officers tell me they want to do it and are getting tired of being babysitters to these incursions which are not protests once they go into a store spouting about intifada; go to Jewish neighbourhoods talking about globalizing the fight against Israel; shoot up schools or synagogues; or steal mezuzahs from front doors.

It is true that you can shoot the messenger to pretend nothing is happening. Or you can use existing laws to say no to those who cross the line from peaceful protest to terrorizing the Jewish community — something that has become a sport in Canada.