 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Antisemitism is being 'shrugged off' despite record surge in incidents, Jewish activists say | | |  | Antisemitic graffiti is seen on the sign for the provincial courthouse in Ottawa in November last year. Some Jewish community members say the non-Jewish community has been too silent regarding antisemitism. (Simon Lasalle/CBC) | | | When Kanye West launched his antisemitic Twitter rant back in October — threatening to go "death con 3" on Jews — comedian Sarah Silverman, who is Jewish, lamented over what she perceived as the lack of reaction from the non-Jewish community. "Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud," she tweeted.
Just weeks earlier, Michael Levitt, a former Toronto Liberal MP who is now head of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, had expressed similar frustration over the muted reaction from his former colleagues about Laith Marouf. Marouf had been hired by the federal government to consult on anti-racism initiatives, only to have been discovered to have made antisemitic remarks on social media.
Levitt told CBC News he felt the Marouf incident was "representative of what we're seeing in so many other places where this absolutely unequivocal, vile racism somehow was being kind of a shrugged off to a corner because it was targeting Jews."
Silverman and Levitt are among a number of Jewish community members who say the non-Jewish community has been too silent regarding antisemitic incidents. And that tepid response, particularly from progressive groups, some suggest, comes from a misguided view that Jews are part of the white privilege and should not be seen as oppressed.
The anti-Jewish outburst from West, now known as Ye, and the meeting between him, white nationalist Nick Fuentes and former U.S. president Donald Trump has put antisemitism in the spotlight. There have been record levels of antisemitism in both the U.S. and Canada, according to the Anti-Defamation League and B'nai Brith.
B'nai Brith recorded 2,799 anti-Jewish hate crimes in Canada last year, including beatings, vandalism of synagogues and swastikas in schools.
Yet Levitt and others say there seems to be an acceptance or allowance for these crimes, in part, because of how Jews are viewed in society. "I think to a certain extent it's because there's this myth of Jewish power," Levitt said, whether it's wealth or political power or something else. Jews are therefore seen as outside the circle of racism and discrimination that people will take a stand against, he says.
Meanwhile, Levitt's organization has just called on the University of Toronto Termerity Faculty of Medicine (TFOM) to launch an independent inquiry following the publication of an article in the Canadian Medical Education Journal by associate professor Dr. Ayelet Kuper, who served as the faculty's senior adviser on antisemitism between June 2021 and June 2022.
Kuper wrote about the antisemitism and discrimination she says she experienced as a faculty member, and about reports of antisemitism being repeatedly dismissed. She writes that she overheard faculty colleagues complain about "those Jews who think their Holocaust means they know something about oppression." | | | | | It's beginning to look a lot — like, a LOT — like Christmas | | |  | (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images) | | | | A house is decorated with Christmas lights and ornaments in the Dyker Heights neighbourhood of New York City on Thursday. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | The RCMP has suspended a procurement contract that had raised security concerns among experts. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed yesterday that the RCMP has suspended a contract with Sinclair Technologies for radio frequency (RF) equipment. Sinclair's parent company, Norsat International, has been owned by Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera since 2017. The Chinese government owns around 10 per cent of Hytera through an investment fund. "As of this moment, the RCMP have suspended the contract with Sinclair, and they are in the process of both reviewing the manner in which this contract was awarded, as well as mitigating against any risks," Mendicino said. Sinclair declined comment, citing "client confidentiality." An RCMP spokesperson previously told Radio-Canada that installation work for the RF system had started in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Mendicino didn't directly answer a question about whether the equipment, which is designed in part to secure the RCMP's radio communications, will be removed. Read more here.
The agency that regulates the real estate industry in Ontario is failing to adequately protect consumers, a recent report from the provincial auditor general says. Bonnie Lysyk's value-for-money audit examined the effectiveness of the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) and the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, which oversees Ontario's multibillion-dollar real estate industry. The critical report, released last week, cited concerns about RECO including a failure to systematically track and analyze complaints, a lack of regular brokerage inspections, and the absence of any process to monitor if investigations are completed or followed up on. "It is a serious document, and they have to really reinvent themselves, the way I read this report," said Murtaza Haider, a professor of data science and real estate management at Toronto Metropolitan University. "And it is not that they are without resources; they are bringing in millions of dollars of revenue." RECO's registrar, Joseph Richer, said that many of the recommendations in the auditor general's report align with their own strategy. "We are considering these as we develop a new brokerage inspection program, which will launch in 2023," he said in an email. Read more here.
Change the Constitution or get ready for an Alberta independence referendum, an architect of the controversial Sovereignty Act says. Barry Cooper is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary and one of the authors of a policy paper called the Free Alberta Strategy, seen as the unofficial blueprint for the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act. "I want the Constitution to be changed, or we'll have another referendum," said Barry Cooper, referring to independence referendums in Quebec in the 1980s and 1990s. Speaking on CBC Radio's The Current, Cooper said that Canada is a federation, but has never acted as such. "It's time to change it, to turn it into a federation," he said. "If Canada doesn't want to do that, then the only alternative we have — in order to defend our interests — is to make sure that Canada does negotiate. And that means the threat of leaving." Read more here.
Many artists are speaking out about the dangers of theft by AI-generated art as the technology becomes more precise, accessible and popular. These AIs are often trained on datasets, or collections, of millions of images scraped from the internet, including ones that are copyrighted or watermarked. But the artists who created them never consented for their work to be used — and they don't get a cut of the profit. "We could say that, ethically, it's stealing," said Greg Rutkowski, a fantasy artist based in Poland whose name is one of the most common prompts on the AI art generator Stable Diffusion. Sometimes the art generated by the AI even has Rutkowski's signature on it. "I was really confused for people that were searching or exploring art and then came across images that weren't mine, but were signed by my name," he told As It Happens. Some artists are losing work over the AI, and it's not clear what if any legal recourse artists have whose work is being used. Read more here.
Now here's some good news to start your Friday: Throughout the month of December, CBC stations across the country invite you to help Make the Season Kind as we celebrate the kindness of others with special programming and coming together in support of local charities. Not everyone can provide money, so CBC Calgary asked people to send in acts of kindness they've given or received. Here's one from Suzanne Smith: "After getting their first summer job, my teenager felt they should be contributing to the community. They decided to make care packages to give out to homeless people asking for help. They ... made bags with socks, Band-Aids, snack bars, hand warmers, mini toiletry items and extra Ziploc bags to keep items dry. My husband and I carried them in our cars and gave them out around town to people asking for assistance. The packages were very well received and we now make them as a family and distribute them regularly.... We are grateful to our teenager for thinking of this idea." Read more acts of kindness here. | | |  | Germany's alleged Day X coup plot explained | | German authorities arrested 25 people this week for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. Today, we look at what this latest incident says about the state of right-wing extremism in Germany. Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: Dec. 9 | | | 1960: The first episode of Coronation Street airs in Britain.
1999: Scientists at the University of Ottawa Eye Institute of the Ottawa Hospital announce that for the first time they have grown functioning human corneas.
2004: The Supreme Court of Canada says that the power to change the definition of marriage lay exclusively with the federal government, not the provinces, and that a proposed bill to legalize same-sex marriage is constitutional.
2020: Health Canada approves national use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way for the delivery of up to 249,000 doses in December. Canada purchased 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires people to receive two doses each, and had the option to buy 56 million more. The announcement made Canada the third country in the world to approve the vaccine. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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