On Wednesday, just one day before Truth and Reconciliation Day, The Honourable Mr. Justice Favel ruled that the government had failed to prove that decisions made by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunals regarding the treatment of Indigenous children were unreasonable, and that compensation was thus warranted.
Two men from the Greater Toronto Area were arrested Sept. 27 and brought to Manitoba to face charges related to swindling a Thompson woman out of more than $50,000 through an online romance scam.
A fourth person is now facing charges in connection with alleged fraud involving Ontario COVID-19 relief funding.
Ontario Provincial Police say 41-year-old Manish Gambhir of Brampton, Ont., was charged earlier this week with possession of an identity document and possession of property obtained by crime.
Police say Gambhir has been released on bail and is due back in court on Nov. 10.
OPP spokesman Bill Dickson says the arrest is part of the same investigation that led to the arrests of a former bureaucrat, his wife, and a third man earlier this month.
Police have filed criminal charges against Sanjay and Shalini Madhan, as well as Vidhan Singh, in connection with the alleged scheme.
Dickson says the Madhans, Singh and Gambhir have no “direct connection” with each other.
Singh, 54, of Toronto, is charged with fraud over $5,000, money laundering and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. He is due in court Nov. 18.
Sanjay Madan’s lawyer has said his client is charged with two counts of fraud over $5,000 and two counts of breach of trust.
Stephen Hebscher said Madan and Shalini Madan are also charged with laundering the proceeds of crime over $5,000 and possession of the proceeds of crime over $5,000.
The Ontario government has sued the couple and two adult children, alleging they illegally issued and banked cheques under the Support for Families program, which aimed to offset the cost of children learning at home. The province is alleging embezzlement of $11 million.
In addition, Sanjay Madan is accused of taking millions more in kickbacks in an alleged fraud worth more than $30 million.
Madan, his wife and two sons all worked for the province in information technology. He had a senior IT role and helped develop a computer application related to a COVID-19 relief benefit, and was fired in November.
In a statement of defence for the lawsuit, Madan alleges the province had lax security that allowed “widespread misappropriation” of the COVID-19 relief funds.
On August 31, 2021, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi sent a letter to Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah thanking him for his words of congratulations upon Raisi’s election to the presidency and praising Hizbullah and its activity, which, he said, “is no longer confined to Lebanon and Palestine.” In his letter Raisi compared Hizbullah to a tree that produces fruit — young jihad fighters and “the blood of the martyrs of the resistance” — and called Hizbullah “the hope of the entire Islamic nation” and a regional element whose influence is such that “no political, military or security element in the region or the world can ignore it.” He added that Hizbullah “can constitute a unique political model operating according to the religious principles and the directives of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.”[1]
This letter evoked a response from Charles Jabbour, head of the media and communications department of Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces party, known for its opposition to Hizbullah. In an article he published in the Lebanese daily Al-Jumhouriyya, which is identified with the party, he wrote that Raisi’s letter proves once again that Hizbullah receives its orders from Iran’s Supreme Leader, forms an integral part of Iran’s Islamic revolution and acts to promote Iran’s goals, one of which is to transform Lebanon from a civil state into a religious one. Jabbour stressed that this contravenes the Lebanese constitution, which defines Lebanon as a pluralistic civil state. Therefore, he said, there is no way to coexist with Hizbullah and maintain a stable country in its presence. According to Jabbour, Raisi’s letter describes Hizbullah as a tool for establishing the Islamic nation and for confronting Israel. This, he said, belies the claim that Hizbullah has been marketing for years, namely that it is fighting Israel in order to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty, and shows that Hizbullah is actually fighting Israel as part of the great Iranian program.
The European Parliament committee on budgets adopted on Tuesday (28 September) an amendment to the 2022 EU budget to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority (PAà and to UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East, over hateful, violent and antisemitic content in Palestinian school textbooks
Nobel laureates JM Coetzee and Orhan Pamuk are among the signatories to a letter demanding the release from prison of the Iranian writers Baktash Abtin, Keyvan Bajan, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi.
The writers began a collective 15-and-a-half-year sentence at Evin Prison in Tehran in September 2020, on what writers’ association PEN America said were “spurious” national security and propaganda charges. Since then, Abtin and Khandan Mahabadi have both contracted Covid-19. Abtin is a poet, screenwriter and film-maker; Bajan is a novelist and journalist; and Khandan Mahabadi is an author and literary critic. According to PEN, their homes were raided and writings confiscated in 2015. They stood trial in 2019 and were sentenced to prison for “propaganda” and “colluding against national security”.
The letter – which is signed by dozens of writers including Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates and Khaled Hosseini, as well as playwrights including Tom Stoppard and Ariel Dorfman – calls on Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi to release the authors, to acquit them of all charges “in the legal case wrongfully brought against them”, and to “cease official retribution against all writers exercising their right to express themselves freely”.
“It is high time the Iranian state respects the free expression rights of Iranian writers, poets, and thinkers and recognises the rich traditions of Iran’s diverse literary community,” says the letter, which was organised by PEN America and which is also signed by the actors Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, the writers Alice Sebold and Colm Tóibín and the cartoonist Art Spiegelman. “We call on you, President Raisi, to end the unjust imprisonments of Baktash Abtin, Keyvan Bajan, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and to release all those jailed in Iran for exercising their freedom to write.”
The three imprisoned writers will be given the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award this October. “[They] have fruitfully contributed to Iran’s rich literary history, writing books, poetry and short stories, and editing multi-volume encyclopedias of Iranian fiction and oral histories of great writers,” says the letter. “Despite the risks, Abtin, Bajan, and Khandan Mahabadi have nevertheless carried on the legacies of late Iranian poets, intellectuals, and dissidents by organising memorials, literary events, newsletters, and other publications – activities that, to the judiciary, amount to serious crimes.”
Amid the jubilation surrounding the release of two Canadians from Chinese prisons, Robert Schellenberg might well be wondering: “What about me?”
If Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had to endure a nightmare of arbitrary captivity over the Meng Wanzhou affair, Schellenberg has stared down an even more chilling fate.
Within a few weeks of Meng’s 2018 arrest in Vancouver, Chinese authorities suddenly and in rapid-fire fashion escalated the B.C. man’s 15-year jail sentence for drug smuggling to execution. Appeals were later denied, none of the hearings imposing and confirming the ultimate punishment lasting more than an hour or two.
But in the wake of a deal that saw the Huawei Technologies executive released and sent back to China, there has been no talk about re-instating Schellenberg’s original jail term. And with all his appeals exhausted, the path toward death is shorter than ever for him.
A College Democrats of America leader is facing pressure to resign after her anti-Semitic tweets resurfaced.
Just one day before Nourhan Mesbah was elected vice president of the College Democrats’ executive board, the national student club’s Jewish Caucus released a screenshot of a 2016 tweet where she blamed Jews for sabotaging Hillary Clinton in a debate against Donald Trump.
Major League Baseball is expanding its partnership with the Chinese Communist Party, coming at the expense of U.S. jobs and growing Chinese influence over America’s pastime.
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
— William F. Buckley
The family of Rhoderie Estrada would probably agree with Buckley’s assessment.
In what has become a common gambit, one of the two intruders who viciously murdered the 41-year-old nurse, mother of two and wife in a sexually frenzied 2018 attack wants to serve their time in a women’s prison.
Yostin Murillo and David Beak were convicted of first-degree murder for Estrada’s slaying and sentenced to life in prison earlier this month. Murillo — who was supposed to have been booted from the country in 2015 — wants easy time.
The Ontario government is now recommending males aged 18 to 24 take Pfizer over Moderna as their COVID-19 vaccination due to the number of young men who have experienced myocarditis after getting the vaccine.
Panama foreign minister Erika Mouynes said during an interview this week that she warned the Biden administration about the Haitian migrant crisis that was headed to the U.S.-Mexico border that caused a humanitarian and national security crisis on the southern border, saying that Panama “sounded the alarm when we should have.”
American journalists are increasingly struggling to cope with the on-the-job stress and trauma of reporting the news and posting about it on Twitter. “I crawled in bed and cried for our pre-pandemic lives,” CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote in April 2020.”Tears that had been waiting a month to escape.”
Fortunately, the Poynter Institute has developed a course for traumatized professional journalists that includes a long list of “self-care” strategies to alleviate the stress of having to cover, for example, the brutal “whipping” of Haitian migrants at the southern border—whether or not it actually happened. (The Poynter Institute’s fact-checking website, PolitiFact, was unwilling to issue a verdict.)
“Take time to be sexual—with yourself, [or] with a partner,” reads one item of the list of suggested coping strategies. Perhaps Stelter could learn a thing or two from his colleague, disgraced CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who is an experienced practitioner of this particular form of self-care. Poynter does not, however, recommend forcing your colleagues to watch.
Soon after The Daily Wire published an investigation that was unflattering to Democratic politician Terry McAuliffe and the Fairfax County Public Schools, FCPS filed legal action against the story’s source: the mother of a special-ed parent who relayed records that the school system provided to her under public records laws.
It also sued another mother of a special-needs student who runs a blog that published portions of the records. The documents are billing records showing how FCPS paid Hunton Andrews Kurth, a law firm that hired now-Virginia gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe as a top advisor, to do much of what parents say is the school system’s dirty work, including seeking to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by special-ed parents who allege that their children were systematically physically abused by educators.
Related: McAuliffe-Linked Law Firm Billed $700 An Hour Fighting Parents Of Special-Needs Children
The school system said it “mistakenly” released the records, and claimed they contained information that could violate federal law. Ironically, one of the services Hunton provided to FCPS is reviewing FOIAs, and these materials were largely Hunton’s own billing records.
Many people have observed that the COVID-19 pandemic is changing everything. It is possible that one of the most important changes that COVID will bring is that it will end the lies Canadians have been telling themselves about our health care.
That could be profound and likely self-image shattering as we finally acknowledge that we have a limited, flawed, and possibly insufficient, health system.
For decades now Canadians have self-righteously told themselves, each other, and anyone else in the world who would listen, that Canada’s single-payer public health system is something to envy and something that distinguishes us from those uncivilized Americans. We have convinced ourselves that we do health care as well as the Yanks, and that we do it for free — never mind the actual cost to taxpayers.
COVID is bringing to light the hubris in this point of view.As I write this, Alberta, Canada’s richest province, the one that spends the most per capita on health care, is watching its provincewide system be brought to the edge of collapse. The intensive care units of Alberta’s hospitals (all of them) are currently filled with almost twice the number of ICU patients Alberta has ever had. The Alberta Medical Association says the province is facing a “life and death” situation.
The highly contagious Delta variant has created an intense and largest-yet fourth wave of COVID in Alberta. For readers outside Alberta, don’t be smug; it could happen in your province in the next few weeks or months, too.
COVID-19 has put about 24 people per 100,000 Albertans in hospital over the past week or so. Roughly a quarter are in an intensive care unit bed. Now this isn’t 24 people per 1,000. It is a very sparse 24 people per 100,000 and it is overwhelming Alberta’s hospitals and causing the province’s centrally run health system to pull every lever possible to increase ICU capacity. It likely won’t be enough.
Some time in the next week or so Alberta may have to go to ICU triage protocols. Doctors may have to start following pre-set rules that determine whether someone with very severe COVID or someone injured in a serious motor vehicle accident can get an ICU bed. Already this week, Dr. Verna Yu, the CEO of Alberta’s health system, declared that the only reason the system has not collapsed yet is that enough ICU beds are being freed up by patients who are dying every day.
Twenty-four people per 100,000 in hospital would put Alberta in the bottom half of U.S. states by COVID hospitalization rate. The New York Times tracks this information by state, and as of Tuesday Montana was at 41 per 100,000, Alabama at 39, Texas at 40, Arizona at 25, and Colorado at 18. None of them are anywhere near a hospital crisis.In the past six weeks or so, hospitals in some U.S. states have approached 70 to 80 per cent capacity, but they can handle these numbers. Pre-pandemic data from 2018 showed that all U.S. states except Hawaii and Vermont had an ICU capacity of 18 per 100,000 or better — that’s not hospital capacity, that is ICU capacity and those numbers have likely increased since COVID. Alberta’s expanded ICU capacity is 370 beds, or about eight per 100,000.
No American state could imagine implementing ICU triage protocols at only 24 hospitalizations per 100,000, but the richest province in Canada is facing this.
The truth is our health system may be free, but it is rationed. Making the system public and free means we can only afford for it to be large enough to handle normal traffic. That means it is much too small to handle a pandemic.
The U.S. system, for all its flaws and unfairness, creates capacity we have never seen in Canada. The poorest U.S. states have more ICU beds per capita than any province in Canada.
Too often during the pandemic, iconoclast thinkers have asked why no Canadian province has taken the approach to COVID taken by Texas or Florida, which have had few COVID restrictions.
The truth is that no Canadian province could absorb the hospitalization crush needed to lift restrictions while pursuing herd immunity. Alberta, which has been much better vaccinated than most places in the U.S., is being overwhelmed by the Delta variant. Any attempt at a Florida-type strategy would have had large numbers of Albertans dying from the normal accidental misfortunes of life, because there would have been no hospital beds in which to care for them.
When Canadians emerge from the other side of COVID, we are going to have to examine what type of health system we want and are prepared to pay for. COVID, and our expectations of world-class health care, could bankrupt our provinces — unlike the federal government they can’t print money to pay for their health spending deficits.
This will be an important national debate that will likely redefine this issue and our self image as Canadians.Vitor Marciano is an advocacy professional and a former senior adviser to two Alberta Leaders of the Opposition.
The escape of 6 Palestinian terrorists from an Israeli prison earlier this month was cause for great celebration in the PA, and the PA utilized the escape to reinforce what Palestinian children are taught daily: That terrorists and murderers of Israelis are heroes. The following images and texts published by PA schools, Abbas’ Fatah Movement, and the official PA daily, show that Palestinian school kids are being taught to honor all terrorists, with focus on the escapees (who were all recaptured within 2 weeks):
The Toronto Police Service Hold Up Squad would like to make the public aware of the results of Project Heavy Bag, a million-dollar retail robbery investigation that resulted in multiple arrests and firearms seizures.
It is alleged that:
– on Thursday, April 1, 2021, at a retail location in the area of Carlingview Drive and Dixon Road, two men forced an employee at gunpoint to give them access
– the two men assaulted a second victim and forced them to open the safes
– the victims were ordered to the ground
– the two men loaded garbage bags with a substantial amount of money, in excess of one million dollars, prior to fleeing in an awaiting vehicle.
– armed suspects attempted to gain entry into a unit
– they did not gain entry and fled prior to police arrival
– a sum of money, identified to have been obtained during the robbery on April 1, 2021, was found within the unit.
As a result of the investigation, members of the Toronto Police Holdup Squad were able to identify four suspects involved in the robbery.
On Thursday, September 9, 2021, a man and a woman were located and arrested. A fully loaded 9mm Glock handgun and a quantity of ammunition were seized from the vehicle.
Devante Virgo, 23, of Toronto, has been charged with:
1. Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence 2. Robbery with a firearm 3. Disguise with intent 4. Occupy motor vehicle with a firearm 5. Unauthorized possession of a firearm 6. Two counts of Unauthorized possession of a prohibited device 7. Possession of a firearm knowing its possession is Unauthorized 8. Possession of a Prohibited firearm with ammunition 9. Possession of a firearm while prohibited 10. Three counts of Fail to Comply Probation
Courtni Martin, 22, of Toronto, has been charged with:
1. Occupy motor vehicle with firearm 2. Two counts of Unauthorized possession of a firearm 3. Two counts of Unauthorized possession of a prohibited device 4. Possession of a firearm knowing its possession is Unauthorized 5. Possession of a prohibited firearm with ammunition
Both appeared for a bail hearing on Friday, September 10, 2021, at 10 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 206.
They are next scheduled to appear in court on October 7, 2021, at 9 a.m. (for Courtni Martin) and 11 a.m. (for Devante Virgo), at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 202.
Further to this investigation, on Thursday, September 9, and Friday, September 10, 2021, with the assistance of the Emergency Task Force, 11, 22 and 23 Division Major Crime Units and Forensic Identification Services, members of the Hold Up Squad executed four Criminal Code search warrants at various addresses and on two vehicles.
As a result, clothing, seven additional handguns (6 Glock pistols and a Luger firearm), high-capacity firearm magazines, numerous rounds of ammunition, body armor, a large quantity of cocaine and cash were seized.
Andrew Parsons, 22, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:
1. Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence 2. Robbery with a firearm
He is next scheduled to appear in court on November 18, 2021, at 9 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 202.
Phillip Nkrumah, 36, of Caledon, was arrested and charged with:
1. Seven counts of Careless storage of a firearm 2. Seven counts of Unauthorized possession of a firearm 3. Possession of a prohibited firearm with ammunition 4. Tampering with serial number 5. Careless storage ammunition 6. Three counts of Possession of a prohibited device 7. Possession of a firearm while prohibited 8. Two counts of Possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine 9. Possession of proceeds of crime over $5000 10. Fail to comply Recognizance 11. Fail to comply Probation
He is next scheduled to appear in court on September 29, 2021, at 9 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 201.
Gabrielle Belsito, 26, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:
1. Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence 2. Obstruct peace officer
She is next scheduled to appear in court on October 20, 2021, at 9 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 201.
Michelle Belsito, 26, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with:
1. Two counts of Possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine 2. Possession of proceeds of crime over $5000
She is next scheduled to appear in court on October 26, 2021, at 9 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 202.
Stephanie Nkrumah, 37, of Caledon, was arrested and charged with:
1. Seven counts of Careless storage of a firearm 2. Seven counts of Unauthorized possession of a firearm 3. Possession of a prohibited firearm with ammunition 4. Tampering with serial number 5. Careless storage ammunition 6. Three counts of Possession of a prohibited device 7. Possession of a firearm while prohibited C.C. 117.01
She is next scheduled to appear in court on October 26, 2021, at 9 a.m., at Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West, in Room 202.
Emmanuel Rawson, 22, of Toronto, remains outstanding. He is wanted for:
1. Robbery with a firearm 2. Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence 3. Disguise with intent 4. Possession of property obtained by crime over $5000
He is described as 5’7”, 190 lbs., and should be considered armed and dangerous. If seen, do not approach and call 9-1-1. His photograph is being released.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7350, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, online on our Facebook Leave a Tip page, or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637). Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes or Google Play.
The TTC initially announced its intention to introduce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in August, shortly after the City of Toronto announced it would implement one of its own for its roughly 30,000 employees.
Details of the plan on were released on Sept. 7. The policy requires that employees receive two doses of vaccine by no later than Oct. 30. Employees who refuse to disclose their status will need to undergo mandatory education sessions. It allows for some exemptions, but also says that being fully vaccinated is a precondition for employment.
The transit agency had set a disclosure deadline of Sept. 20. In its application to the labour board, the TTC noted that by Sept. 19, only about 31.5 per cent of ATU Local 113 members had done so.
A few days later, on Sept. 23, the disclosure rate stood at about 38 per cent.
“These disclosure rates clearly demonstrate concerted effort amongst ATU members, as a result of the ATU communications, not to disclose their vaccination status to the TTC in violation of its policy,” the TTC said in its filing to the board.
The TTC has extended its deadline for disclosure to Sept. 30.
In his statement, Santos said that most of the union’s members are vaccinated and that the union supports vaccinations for members and the general public. Some members, however, “are also deeply concerned that their employer is seeking to force workers to undergo a medical procedure under duress,” he said.
Union leadership has previously alleged that TTC management is “unwilling to provide details about whether members will be fired or disciplined for not disclosing vaccination status.”
Santos added that some members’ have chosen not be vaccinated against COVID-19 because of “legitimate social and historical reasons for distrusting the Canadian medical system” and others due to their “personal and religious belief systems.”
Maybe KATU used their day of “stress” and “trauma” to find out who the wimps are.
But who’s going to tell the story about the 16 shootings over the weekend? Who’s going to confront Ted Wheeler over the mistreatment of the cops and the willful destruction of the rule of law there?
Project Veritas released its third video regarding the COVID vaccine rollout, this time with two Johnson and Johnson employees who didn’t realize they were surreptitiously being videotaped.
In the first video, we saw federally employed doctors and nurses discussing how no one is reporting patients who have negative reactions to the vaccine.
In the second video, we saw an FDA employee repeatedly talk about how to vaccinate those who don’t want the jab (he kept suggesting using blow-darts).
In the third (but not final) video, one worker claims the vaccine isn’t necessary for kids. He also states that the media should never be trusted.
“Kids shouldn’t get a f*cking [COVID] vaccine,” said Johnson & Johnson Regional Business Lead Brandon Schadt. “It’s a kid, you just don’t do that, you know? Not something that’s so unknown in terms of repercussions down the road, you know?”
“It’s a kid, it’s a fcking kid, you know? They shouldn’t have to get a fcking [COVID] vaccine, you know?” he added.
The Karaj nuclear site in northern Iran houses the regime’s main centrifuge manufacturing facility. In late June, an unidentified drone attack severely damaged the site. Tehran initially blamed Israel for the attack.
The regime tried to downplay the extent of the destruction, but later satellite images showed evidence of a significant fire or an expulsion at the site. The damage to the facility was a notable setback for Iran as the centrifuges from the factory were being deployed to produce near-weapons-grade uranium.
“Although President Biden has been in office for only 251 days, the number of encounters at the Southwest border has skyrocketed from 78,000 in January 2021 to more than 212,000 in July 2021.The171% increase is alarming and is the highest in more than 20 years,” the statement said. “Additionally, the number of illegal aliens who were apprehended and subsequently released by the Border Patrol in July alone was a staggering 60,607, a massive increase from the 1,324 in this category who were released in January.By contrast, in the last full month of the Trump Administration, only 17 aliens in this category were released.”
The Manitoba Métis Federation has withdrawn from the Métis National Council amid an ongoing rift over citizenship and identity that has been brewing for years.
In a letter sent Tuesday, MMF president David Chartrand informed MNC president Clément Chartier that the national council has “abandoned” the Manitoba leadership and “the true Métis nation” by allowing provincial Métis leaders to welcome members who Chartrand claims are not Métis.
“We at the MMF have long been the wall protecting our Nation from eastern invasion,” Chartrand writes, “and never expected to be attacked from the west — from those who one would expect better.”
The move comes just one day before the national council is set to hold a special sitting of its general assembly — its first in nearly three years — and two days before the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day, a new federal holiday.
The RCMP’s union says it supports the “right” of RCMP officers to refuse to get vaccinated and will back up any member who refuses vaccination once the mandatory vaccination policy for the federal public service is in place.
“The [National Police Federation] supports a member’s right to choose to be vaccinated or not,” says a Sept. 23 email to members, obtained by CBC News.
In what can only be described as an epic self-own, Toronto activist Desmond Cole took to Twitter incensed by suggestions that the slogan ‘Free Palestine’ is a call for the destruction of Israel. He demanded proof or what he thought was a baseless accusation, his own followers obliged.
There is something about most Jews that few non-Jews know: We Jews often ask ourselves if a non-Jew in our lives would hide us in the event of a Nazi-like outbreak.
I don’t know if young Jews think about this, but nearly all Jews who grew up in the decades following the Holocaust often wondered: Would this non-Jew hide me?
I have thought about this all my life because the question, “Who hid Jews?” is one of the most important questions anyone — Jew or non-Jew — needs to think about. That question is far more important than “Who didn’t hide Jews?” because great goodness is rarer than great evil and even rarer than simple moral cowardice. Yet, a vast number of books have been written attempting to understand evil, while relatively few have been written attempting to explain good.
The reason for this is simple: Since the Enlightenment, i.e., since the decline of Judeo-Christian thought, most secular people have believed, and nearly all secular thought has been predicated on, the reality-denying idea that human nature is essentially good. As a result, scholars regard good as the norm and evil as the aberration. So, they study evil far more than good.
That is why the question, “Who rescued Jews?” should be of overwhelming importance to humanity as a whole. If people are interested in increasing good and in decreasing evil, what question could be more important?
A lifetime of study of this question has led me to the following answers:
No. 1: Sam and Pearl Oliner, two professors of sociology at California State University at Humboldt, were the authors of one of the most highly regarded works on altruism, “The Altruistic Personality.” The book was the product of the Oliners’ lifetime of study of non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. They themselves had been hidden by non-Jews in Poland, and I had the privilege of interviewing them.
I asked Sam Oliner, “Knowing all you now know about who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, if you had to return as a Jew to Poland and you could knock on the door of only one person in the hope that they would rescue you, would you knock on the door of a Polish lawyer, a Polish doctor, a Polish artist or a Polish priest?”
Without hesitation, he responded, “Polish priest.” And his wife immediately added, “I would prefer a Polish nun.”
I should note that neither had a religious agenda, as both were secular Jews.
Of course, most Christians in Europe failed the moral test of the Holocaust, but so did nearly all secular intellectuals. And few Christians today deny this. But any honest person would still bet on a priest before a doctor, artist, lawyer or professor. It is one reason I believe that the decline of Judeo-Christian religions is a calamity: We will produce fewer people who will do great good.
No. 2: Another study of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust offered four characteristics of rescuers. I read this book about 40 years ago and I do not remember the name of the book or three of the four characteristics. But I remember one of them because it struck me as an original insight and because it made so much sense. According to this study, individuals who were considered “eccentric” prior to the war were disproportionately represented among those who hid Jews.
Now, why would that be? Why would people regarded as eccentric be more likely to risk torture and death to hide a member of a persecuted group they weren’t part of?
The answer is obvious: Eccentrics are, by definition, people who march to the beat of their own drummer, who are nonconformists, and who don’t seek social approval.
That should give us some major insights into who would save Jews — or any other group targeted for death (such as landowners in communist countries) — if our society were taken over by Nazis or communists.
If this theory about eccentrics is correct, it should give us pause.
When I observe Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and, for that matter, the citizens of most countries at this time, this observation about who would risk their lives to hide a Jew leaves me pessimistic with regard to how any of these groups would act under a Nazi or communist regime.
We have seen herdlike behavior and an unquestioning obedience to authority that few expected to witness in previously free countries such as the English-speaking ones. Worse, we have seen unquestioning obedience to irrational authority.
Wearing masks outdoors is irrational. Yet a vast number of Americans have, sheeplike, obeyed irrational government demands to wear them. Telling people who have had COVID-19 to take a vaccine against COVID-19, when natural antibodies are longer lasting and more effective, not to mention safer, than a vaccine is irrational. Telling people who have been vaccinated or had COVID-19 to wear masks is irrational. Prolonged lockdowns of healthy people are irrational.
Yet tens of millions of Americans are unquestioningly obeying irrational orders and castigating those resisting or even questioning them.
It was “eccentric” Christian pastors who kept their churches open and an “eccentric” Catholic priest who sued the state of California for denying him his constitutional right to minister to his flock — and who prevailed against the state. Except for these clergymen and a handful of eccentric restaurant owners, almost all other Americans obeyed the state’s irrational orders.
That is frightening because people who obey irrational orders and despise those who do not are precisely the type of people who didn’t hide Jews.
So, then, here are two questions for American Jews to ponder:
If a Nazi-like doctrine took over America, and you could knock on the door of someone who obeyed all government orders regarding masks, regardless of their rationality, or someone who questioned government authority and obeyed few or none of its mask orders — on whose door would you knock? If you were given the choice between knocking on the door of an atheist professor and the door of an Evangelical pastor or a Catholic priest — on whose door would knock?
Five Feet of Fury
Sassy Wire 