The speech Canada needs to hear now
Hatred running riot on our streets is not a policing failure: it's a failure of leadership
Violence on our streets. Hatred in our neighbourhoods. The events of Oct. 7, 2023 have exposed the very worst parts of who many Canadians are. It’s also made plain the woeful lack of leadership among our political class, all of whom are too busy managing the political calculus of “how many votes will this cost me?” to step up and do the right thing.
This is the speech Canadians should have heard over a year ago. It’s the speech Canadians deserve to hear now. Is there a single political leader with the balls to give it?
Friends and neighbours, pray listen to me for a moment, because our world – your world – is at risk and only you can save it.
Look around Canada for a moment and see the visceral hatred filling our streets and sidewalks, our public squares and private spaces, places of business and places of worship, business districts and residential neighbourhoods. Hear the screams of anger. Listen to the calls for violence and retribution. Heed the warning in those words.
We are in peril. It’s time to end this madness.
The time for counting votes and political calculus is over. The time for leadership and action is now. It has been that time for too long. Better now to catch up, than never.
Canada has always been a nation of immigrants. From the very first people who arrived in this land over 10,000 years ago – seeking better forage, richer hunting and safer lands on which to live and prosper. To modern refugees fleeing oppression, torture, death and destruction in foreign homelands today. And immigrants of all eras seeing in our nation an opportunity for a brighter, safer, richer future for themselves and their children. Our families all came here seeking the promise of brighter tomorrows.
We left behind our troubled past and came together to build a common future in fertile new pastures. Our ancestors, our parents, even we may have been foes in foreign lands. But, in Canada, we come together as friends and neighbours. We build communities together. We build families together. We do not bring our past battles to the Canadian streets we share with friends.
We must always remember our common thread. And our common cause.
We must, today, especially remember this.
The events of October 7, 2023 shocked the world. For many of us, it shredded our peaceful lives. Many of us have family in the region. Many of us have history in the Middle East. For all of us, scenes of violence on October 7th – and afterwards – are horrifying.
For those of us, this is a deeply personal, extremely visceral, horror. Soldiers in a foxhole during battle do not question why the enemy is attacking them, or wonder about the enemy’s life before the battle. They shoot back and fight for their lives. It is kill or be killed. There is no grey zone. It is life or death.
For Canadians with family, friends and history in the war zone, the terror is just as visceral. It is deeply personal. Fathers have been killed. Mothers have been raped. Daughters have been captured. Sons have been lost in the rubble. We do not receive this information through the calm, cool lens of logic and reason. We are overwhelmed by the distorting prism of emotion. Terror. Rage. We are compelled to action. We seek vengeance.
We react like soldiers in battle. As humans exposed to existential terror. Our emotions are understandably intense. Our reactions are predictably uncontrolled.
But we must remember that the war is there. It is not here. It must never be brought here.
No matter who your family is or how much you are hurting, you must not bring the war home. Whether you hate the tactics of Hamas or detest the action of Israel, those tactics, those actions are happening there, not here. They are happening by the hands of people there, not Canadians here.
Canadians are Jews, not Israelis. Canadians are Muslims, not terrorists. Jews and Muslims in Canada are our neighbours, our coworkers, our friends and our family. They are not responsible for anything happening elsewhere. They must not become the target of our hatred.
No one in Canada pulled a trigger overseas. No one here issued an order. No one here crafted a policy. No one hear hurt or threatened your family abroad. You must not apply your hatred for others there onto our neighbours here. Our friends and neighbours came here for the same reason you and I did. We here are all innocent of the events there that horrify us so.
As Canadians, we cherish the right of free speech. But free speech is not intimidation. It is not harassment. It is not threats. Those are crimes. We value the right to protest. And the freedom to associate with one another and to enjoy our right to life and security of our person. We despise the incitement of hatred, the denial of freedoms and rights of others.
No Canadian – or visitor to Canada – has the right to intimidate or harass. No one has the right to threaten the safety and security of others. No one may impede the lawful use and enjoyment of property, private or public.
No one in Canada has the right to commit violence against another.
Yet that is happening almost daily on our streets. It must stop. Now.
Our police agencies, Crown prosecutors and courts understand the terrible pain many Canadians are suffering. They have been immensely tolerant of protest. Too tolerant of intimidation, harassment, threats and violence. It is time for the tolerance of criminality to end.
The fabric of our society has been stretched and torn. It can bear little more damage. It is time to protect what has made our country a magnet for generations of peace-loving people.
If you are a visitor to Canada and you seek to destroy our society, you must leave. Leave now or be removed. If you are a citizen of Canada and you violate our law, you will be prosecuted and held accountable for your crimes against our society.
All governments in Canada, at every level, were elected, above all, to protect the beauty and magic of this society we have, each and every one of us, built together over generations. We must act, together, now to defend it.
Canada is too great a success story to allow its destruction by misplaced hatred and unbridled violence.
If you are protesting in front of your neighbour’s house. If you are vandalizing your neighbour’s place of business. If you are blocking your neighbour’s squares and shopping places. If you are disrupting your neighbour’s worship. If you are using violence against your neighbour’s school. Be ashamed. Hang your head in silence and go home. Leave our streets, our neighbourhoods in peace.
The aim of your hatred is misplaced. You are not exercising your rights and freedoms. You are not a hero. You are not helping friends and family abroad. You are committing crimes in Canada against Canadians. And you will be held accountable.
If you cannot abide by the social covenant that is this great Canadian experience, then there is no place for you in this nation. Seek your fortune and spread your hatred someplace else.
No you have not. It is not politically correct to bring this to light. Shame on our elected officials for not standing firm on this matter. While we wait - we continue to fall into chaos. It is high time we adopted a form of the American immigration model - be a Canadian first and foremost.
Very well written Mark.I just wish people could see the whole picture and how fragile this balance should be.