If you won't be brave, at least be honest
Moncton, New Brunswick, caves to extremists and insults our intelligence in the process.
When a municipal council near London (not the city of London itself, as I’ve seen reported on social media, because social media) announced it wouldn’t put up a Hannukah display this year, I knew it was inevitable that a city in Canada would follow its lead.
I didn’t realize that it would be a city right here in Atlantic Canada.
But I did expect that, whichever city it was, they’d use some weasel-word excuse to say why they’re doing it instead of admitting they were intimidated into doing it:
For the first time in 20 years, the menorah will not be displayed outside Moncton city hall during Hanukkah.
Francis Weil, president of the Moncton Jewish Community, says the city's decision not to allow the menorah is a profound "hurt" to the people he represents.
Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold conveyed the decision to Weil on Monday.
At the meeting, the mayor said "city hall should be neutral as far as religion is concerned," Weil said.
He said the decision was further discussed Thursday, when Arnold met with Weil and other members of the community.
Weil followed this up with a news release, saying that in making the city's case, Arnold cited a 2015 Supreme Court ruling against municipal councils opening their meetings with prayer.
Weil called the court ruling about council meetings a "pretext."
Despite numerous efforts to speak to Arnold and city spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc throughout the day Friday, CBC News was unable to confirm the menorah decision or the rationale for it. There was no response at all.
Meanwhile, Christmas symbols, including angels with trumpets, are on display outside Moncton city hall. In light of the menorah decision, Weil called this "an indicator of discrimination."
"On the ground of city hall, there will remain a large Christmas tree, and there will remain angels flying around city hall," Weil said.
"We have absolutely nothing against the Christmas tree. We feel it is beautiful to have the Christmas tree, and we have nothing against the angels. But how can you justify having religious symbol from one religion and banning something from another region?
I know the wheels of government turn excruciatingly slowly, but it sure is a coincidence that Moncton only got around to this the same time Jewish symbols, institutions and individuals are being targeted to a degree we haven’t seen in many years.
That’s because this decision has nothing to do with any court rulings. It’s all about fear that a menorah display - and the city hall hosting it - will be vandalized and council members protested and threatened.
Which is a movie I’ve seen many times before, to an extent that it’s worn out its welcome even worse than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When controversy erupts over images of Mohammed or cartoons which devout Muslims find offensive, as with Jyllands-Posten in Denmark and Charlie Hebdo in France, some major media outlets haul out some excuse about not wanting to cause offence to its readers and viewers for not showing what the fuss is all about.
Which might be acceptable if that standard was ever applied in other situations, such as the firestorm over Piss Christ.1 Sadly, that hasn’t just made these media outlets look like cowardly hypocrites, but also provided an opening for extreme-right outlets to publish them instead, and to point out that the “lamestream media” is too cowardly to do so.
Worst of all, with a handful of exceptions, most of them wouldn’t admit it. That’s why I found it striking when one journalist I saw interviewed - sadly, the link has faded from my memory with time - chuckled that he wouldn’t post the Mohammed cartoons because he didn’t want his house or office firebombed.
As with that lonely reporter, at least the council in Havering, London, had enough decency to admit it, sort of:
The council said the event may risk “inflaming tensions within our communities” and will instead mark the beginning of the religious festival with a temporary installation.
The thing is, Havering underestimated the degree to which people would be outraged by so blatantly pandering to extremists. The council has reversed its decision:
Havering council has u-turned on its decision to scrap the installation of a menorah for Hanukkah after sparking fury among locals.
The council had scrapped plans to put up the menorah outside the town hall in Romford on December 12, blaming "an increase in the number of hate crimes in Havering, both towards the Jewish and Muslim community".
Havering said installing the menorah "could risk further inflaming tensions within our communities", with a spokesperson also saying the council was concerned about vandalism.
But it has since u-turned on the decision, saying it was "delighted" to announce its intention to proceed with the "permanent installation of the menorah as originally planned".
The candle lighting ceremony will also go ahead as first intended on December 12, the council said.
It’s not too late to shame Moncton into reversing its decision, either. I’m skeptical of online petitions, but I nevertheless hope you’ll join me in signing this one directed at Moncton City Council,
If I recall correctly, it was The New York Times which refused to publish images of Mohammed and instead illustrated one of its stories about the controversy with - you guess it - Piss Christ!
This crap is amazing. I have never seen such a small band of far left extremists be so successful - the events you describe here are amazing, as were the events in the Bay Area here in California. None of the nutbags were this successful back in the 60s. And that's not good news.
Seems there's a post-Covid virus floating around out there that infects and then weakens and often totally destroys the human spine.