Opinion | All Chow needed to do was show up just once for the Jewish community - Toronto Star

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Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to reporters in Ottawa on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Chow’s debate no-show speaks volumes, Sept. 9

Perhaps Mayor Olivia Chow failed Jewish Torontonians by not showing up for the debate on antisemitism. But her most serious failure is not standing with the Jewish community as pro-Palestinian and antisemitic protesters descend every weekend on a corner at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, the heart of the largest Jewish neighbourhood in Canada. This siege and intimidation of the Jewish community has been going on for nearly three years.

All Mayor Chow had to do, if only once, was to show up and be with local Jewish residents who hold on to a corner opposite the protesters, protecting their neighbourhood and asserting their right to be anywhere in Toronto. That would be an authentic demonstration of solidarity with an ethnic community under attack. 

Reading Rosie DiManno’s latest column is disappointing because antisemitism is too important a subject to be clouded by unsupported innuendo. Her claim that Mayor Olivia Chow is personally enabling antisemitism in Toronto rests not on evidence but on the vague suggestion that “Some elected officials even see votes in the mob.”

By leaping from disagreement over protests to the charge that Chow abets hatred of Jews, DiManno abandons the very standards of reasoning she claims to defend. She treats the mayor not as an individual with a record and positions, but as a stand-in for “the mob.” The irony is rich: collective reasoning that reduces individuals to a despised group is precisely the flaw that fuels antisemitic rhetoric.

Her flawed logical shortcuts are numerous. “Nobody believes you. Not even Torontonians …” is a textbook appeal to popularity. Truth does not require a majority vote. “Many in the Jewish community sure as hell don’t believe you” invokes an entire community as a single political actor, ignoring the diversity of Jewish Torontonians on Israel, Gaza and City Hall. And suggesting that anything short of public solidarity in a prescribed form amounts to indifference to antisemitism is a false dichotomy. One can reject the politics or framing of an event and still oppose antisemitism without qualification.

Defending Toronto’s Jews against real antisemitic hatred is serious and necessary. But that cause is not advanced by ad hominem innuendo dressed up as moral clarity, especially when directed at a mayor facing an imminent election. Readers should insist on both the presumption of innocence and evidence.

It would be tempting to call DiManno’s column a political stunt benefiting Chow’s rivals. But that would repeat the very error being criticized: attributing motive without evidence. The stronger criticism is that, whatever its intention, the column functions like an attack ad. It asks readers to infer guilt from association rather than judge Chow on evidence.

DiManno’s case against Chow would be more believable, using DiManno’s standard, if she practised proof over prejudice.

Ontario teachers have to order school supplies from a Staples portal. They found cheaper prices on Staples’ regular website, Sept. 2

Ontario teachers are receiving $750 from the Ontario government to buy teaching supplies for their classrooms. Prominent amongst the strings attached is “Buy American.” The $750 must be spent at Staples … an American company.

Doug Ford has waged a Trump-like war on bike lanes. Here’s how Toronto can fight back, Sept. 5

I understand that the provincial government believes it has a “mandate” to remove bike lanes in Toronto despite the fact that Torontians showed at the ballot box (both municipally and provincially) that they do not want these bike lanes removed (including voting out the conservative candidate in Etobicoke Lakeshore who ran an anti-bike lane campaign). Nevertheless, the government has a very easy win-win if it simply works with the city to reconfigure the Bloor West bike lanes in Etobicoke to re-add lanes of traffic while keeping the bike lanes intact. This already happened last December in Etobicoke, so why not take this win rather than pick a fight with Toronto in the middle of a trade war?

How Howard Lutnick became Donald Trump’s ‘ultimate disrupter’ in Canada’s trade war, Sept. 6

Kindly stop the puff pieces depicting Howard Lutnick as a seasoned Wall Street operator who came in at the eleventh hour to exercise his slick, hard-edged negotiating skills during the Canada-U.S. trade negotiations. With the Trump administration, there is only one key “negotiator” — Trump himself. Yes men like Lutnick are merely messengers doing what they are told to do. U.S. President Donald Trump wanted the deal killed and his willing sycophant was happy to do it. The entire Trump cabinet fits this description: each member quivering in fear of a sideways glance from the emperor, happy to get up on his or her hind legs to seek Dear Leader’s approval. Your recent articles attributing independent thought to the likes of Lutnick insult your readers’ intelligence.

Premier Doug Ford’s advertising budget is always higher than his actions. We have a short growing season; only some fruits and vegetables can be grown in greenhouses. Frozen foods in grocery stores are from around the world with few or non-existent Canadian options. What tax incentive is Ford offering Canadian businesses to increase their ability to freeze and preserve Canadian produce? And what is he doing to force grocery stores to stock Canadian produce?

I was barely awake at 5:30 a.m. when I sensed a car had entered our driveway. When it soon departed I realized what had happened. Our Toronto Star was being delivered. This happens every day, seven days a week.

What to me is extraordinary about this is the way it is done. The paper did not end up on the driveway or the lawn but on our very doorstep. At 87, I appreciate not having to venture outside to fetch it — especially in inclement weather. But this is not the end of my story. Although I have only seen my deliveryman on a couple of occasions I recognize that he is a new Canadian who has come to do a job in the best way he can. I am so appreciative.

I am already looking forward to the Christmas season because I have found a way to show my appreciation by attaching an envelope to a post outside our door. This year I plan to be extra generous. Perhaps other readers will find their own way to thank our delivery people.

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Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details