a week after the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Ontario) unanimously passed a resolution calling for a boycott of "Israeli apartheid", union president Sid Ryan made his usual Friday appearance on the Christian Televison Network's Michael Coren Show. Despite the loving Skipper/Gilligan relationship that exists between Coren and Ryan, Coren went on the offensive, attacking his little buddy over CUPE Ontario's unanimous resolution, the largest one sided vote since the last election of Saddam Hussein. Ryan, who was described in one media account as "an intellectual wannabe" was no match for the bombastic Coren who is an intelligent and well-read man; an historian by profession. When confronted by certain facts, Ryan's response was to go into a hysterical hissy fit in the same manner that a 5-year-old little girl would. Whenever Coren confronted him with facts, all Ryan could do was accuse the show's host of "cherry picking".
after the resolution was passed, Sid Ryan made the obligatory comment that the resolution was not an attack on the Jewish people. Yet he went on to tell Coren that CUPE Ontario had received a few threats from people who described themselves as Jewish. Ryan blamed these threats on "the Jewish lobby", seeing nothing wrong with essentially blaming "the Jews" for what may or may not have been the acts of a very few members of the Jewish community.
In a country where it seems that half of the population works for the government and the other half spends their days lobbying, it appears that the fact that the Jews have a lobby to promote and defend their interests is illegitimate in the eyes of CUPE Ontario and its president; something fully consistent with the notion that Jews and Canada are, or should be, second class citizens in the land of tolerance and diversity.
When it was pointed out to Ryan that there were several groups, most notably in the West Bank and Gaza, that are seeking to destroy Israel through the use of violence aimed at the civilian Jewish population, Ryan refused to say a bad word about any of these groups or their terrorist actions. His retort, another generality, was to say that all Israelis think that all Palestinians are terrorists. Ryan's only concession was to tell Coren that CUPE Ontario has passed anti-terrorism resolutions in the past. It's hard to believe that even the grey matter-challenged Ryan doesn't know that everyone in the entire world abhors is against terrorism; people just disagree about who these terrorists are. Clearly blowing up Jew babies is not worthy of the type of condemnation by Ryan and his union reserve for the tiny country of Israel.
Ryan also didn't seem to think that it was a particularly a big deal that the CUPE Ontario vote was held on a Saturday morning when CUPE members who were observant Jews would not be in attendance. Ryan's answer was simply that the motion to single out Israel was introduced by a Jewish (and presumably Sid's proverbial best friend) member. No other ethnic, religious or minority group would be treated in such cavalier fashion by a left wing Canadian organization like CUPE Ontario as its Jewish members were.
Writing in the Globe and Mail, former Soviet prisoner and current member of Israel's Knesset (that's a parliament for you CUPE members), Natan Sharansky, described the CUPE Ontario resolution as un-Canadian and inconsistent with Canada's stand on human rights issues.
Mr. Sharansky is wrong.
The concepts of tolerance and diversity that in essence define this country were never meant to apply to Jews, any more than they are meant to apply to americans. In the eyes of the country's left, the penalty for describing americans as "bastards" as former MP Carolyn Parrish did was to get to go on a comedy show and repeat it to get howls of applause. anyone who thinks that saying "Damn Jamaicans — I hate those bastards" would be so idolized as Parrish was is obviously living on another planet.
and for committed lefties like Sid and his brothers and sisters, it is perfectly acceptable to blame "the Jewish bobby" or the entire Jewish community for what is at most, the acts of a very few members of that community. and it is perfectly acceptable to say that "all" Israelis think that all Palestinians are terrorists. CUPE Ontario members are no doubt helping to drive the price of Kleenex up by crying over the fact that the entire Muslim community might be blamed for the recent terrorism arrests. But attributing acts and thoughts to the Jewish lobby or the "all Israelis" is perfectly acceptable behaviour in their Canada.
The Jews that live in the land of tolerance and diversity should be a little nervous about what is considered acceptable behaviour by groups like CUPE Ontario.
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