Explaining Modern Antisemitism to Winnipeg Mayoral Candidates and The Media  

At the Mayoral forum on October 3rd, only one candidate specifically named the threat posed to Jewish safety in the diaspora from the far-left. As the column by our publisher Ron East explained, “Only Jenny Motkaluk denounced BDS and left-wing antisemitism.”

At a campaign event earlier that same day, she had spoken of her opposition to woke culture, which had intimidated our downtown national historic site The Forks into canceling the July 1 Canada Day celebrations. She was asked at the forum that evening, “As mayor how would you best combat the rise of antisemitic incidents in Winnipeg?” Jenny, who grew up across the street from the Rosh Pina synagogue in Winnipeg’s North End, replied:

“Effective policing is a very important element of public safety for everybody, including the Jewish members of Winnipeg’s community. But my greater concern is that some of the antisemitic tendencies and some of the antisemitic narrative that we’re hearing is given rise to, through things like equity policies and critical race theory (CRT) – and I reject those things because they are nothing more than a disguise for discrimination.”

She added, “We need to make sure that our city administration is not infected with critical race theory or other equity policies.”

As a result of holding and expressing traditional values to the media and the Jewish community – that she would stand against antisemitism – the woke mob descended on Jenny Motkaluk again. But this time, many showed their unhinged ‘progressive’ anti-Israel politics. They couldn’t wait to denounce her for exposing the Jew-hating undercurrents of their Marxist beliefs. On the other hand were woke mobbers accusing her of being antisemitic (!) for saying to the Jews of Winnipeg they have a reason to fear their BDS and equity agendas taking root in our city.

And local media simply had no clue how to report on a subject that so contradicts their world view.

In my opinion, this combination was going to increase antisemitism in Winnipeg since there was no pushback from the Jewish Federation or any other organization on behalf of someone defending our community. No surprise, since they never defend grassroots Zionists when they’re attacked either. So, I decided to combine my (secular) election podcast coverage with the issues we report on here at TheJ.ca and explain modern antisemitism to the candidates and the newsrooms.