I hate to say I told you so

I am no expert on world affairs but I recently mentioned in a post on my other blog (www.thevidaloco.blogspot.com) that Canada is starting to feel like Germany in the early 1930s. Not that I know exactly what that felt like, but from what I have read, the descriptions seem eerily familiar. And now I feel totally vindicated because Irwin Cotler, previously the Justice Minister and Attorney General in the Canadian Parliament and a man with more human rights credentials than I have space to list, is saying the same thing. And he actually does know what he is talking about.

So here is the link to a transcript of a speech he recently delivered: /network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/02/21/irwin-cotler-the-global-reawakening-of-anti-sematism.aspx

Now I don't actually expect anyone to do anything. The people I know who are or were inclined to do something have already done it -- they left Canada. I don't want to sound like someone with great foresight vis-a-vis leaving Canada. As I have said many times in previous posts on my blogs, I came to Israel reluctantly. My husband is the one with all the foresight. Of course, his parents survived the Holocaust and he was hellbent on not ignoring the signs this time around.

I am not suggesting that there is another Hitler on the way. I really don't think there is. But I do believe that there are subtle but growing changes in the Canadian social environment. Irwin Cotler thinks so too.


Oh, here, I stumbled across another interesting piece -- this time from a Canadian Muslim Arab. See, I am trying to be balanced here. Read this: network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/02/20/tarek-fatah-stop-funding-fundamentalism.aspx