However, the Jewish Tribune reports there were two other incidents of heavy-handed police tactics aimed counter-demonstrators as well. High school teacher Stefan Santamaria was also threatened with arrest for inciting violence because he was wearing an Israel Defense Forces t-shirt and carrying an Israeli flag. He further alleged that police kept close tabs on him, and that one officer yelled at him, calling him a “s**t disturber.” Santamaria, who like Einstoss, claimed he was not part of any organized group, illuminated the reason he came to the demonstration. “More than just supporting Israel, I’m here because I’d like to oppose the message I hear from these people: it’s one of hate, it’s very un-Canadian and it’s very scary,” he said.
Just as scary is the second incident revealed by the Tribune. The paper notes that a video posted online “shows police stopping a Christian minister from speaking at Queen’s Park and physically removing him from the scene.” For perspective’s sake, there are no reports of any Muslims being removed from the rally, despite a plethora anti-Semitic diatribes.
Einstoss noted the ultimate irony of such a blatant double-standard. “Queen’s Park is the seat of the Ontario legislature and our war memorial,” he said, adding that the memorial is a symbol honoring the people who made the ultimate sacrifice “defending the rights taken away from me that day.”
While Einstoss remained steadfast in his belief that even anti-Semites are entitled to express their views, other Canadians disagree. “Canadians are upset that a major public space is going to be used by an organization about which they have no information,” said Frank Dimant, CEO, B’nai Brith Canada, five days prior to the event. “We have been given no assurances that due diligence was done and that this is not being run by a front group for Hezbollah or Hamas. The Al-Quds commemoration was a directive of the Iranian regime, so the possibility of a link exists. We want to know that Canada’s public places are not being misused by organizations that have no right being in this country.”
Environment Minister Peter Kent also expressed his displeasure, noting that videos of last year’s Al-Quds rally “document hate speech, racism, antisemitism [sic] and support for listed organizations that clearly exceed the limits of Canadian freedoms of free assembly and free speech.” Kent is accurate. Video of last year’s protest shows speakers describing Israel as “the Zionist parasitical state,” and a country with a “Zionist regime that sucks the resources, the blood and everything that belongs to the people…all across the world.”
Yet the Sergeant-at-Arms, the senior official of the Canadian House of Commons, contended that such footage was insufficient evidence to deny the Al-Quds organizers a permit. Thus, the demonstration ensued, with Toronto Police and Ontario Provincial Police separating Israeli supporters and members of the Jewish Defense League from Quds Day organizers and attendees, using their bicycles as barriers–and apparently threatening people only on the non-Muslim side of the divide who dared to express their free speech rights.
Einstoss told Front Page that if he does pursue legal action, it won’t be about money. He simply wants a public inquiry regarding his detainment. What seemed to concern him the most is an alleged exchange he had with the officers while he remained in custody. “Cops said to me they ‘know who I am,’ so if I attend another event, there’s history on me,” he contended.
Such a threat is unseemly. Furthermore, there’s a lot more history regarding the anti-Semitism, intolerance and outright violence practiced by Islamists and their supporters in Canada and other Western nations. And far too often, a blatant double-standard masquerading itself as “tolerance” allows for unfettered demonstrations of hate, even as those who oppose that hate are harassed for daring to exercise their opposition.
Canadian police practicing selective law enforcement is bad enough. Maintaining the peace while sacrificing democratic principles — which is nothing less than the essence of appeasement — goes right to the bottom of the barrel. Canadian police not only capitulated to the beliefs of a hateful mob, they aided and abetted the mob’s intolerant worldview. The not-so-subtle message is clear: Muslim mobs can demand–and receive–tolerance, but the Canadian police apparently believe that no one should be able to demand reciprocal levels of tolerance from them. Here’s hoping Einstoss pursues his day in court.
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