October 7 marks the third anniversary of the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
asserted
October → mark → Holocaust
Yet across Canada and around the world, anti-Israel rallies and events are once again being planned for that very day.
asserted
rallies → plan → day
In Toronto, several anti-Israel student groups planned an October 7 event at the University of Toronto under the banner “Honouring Our Martyrs” — on the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in which approximately 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were brutally slaughtered and 251 were taken hostage.
asserted
251 → plan → which
The university subsequently announced that the event could not proceed as planned, citing “significant safety and operational concerns” — not illegality.
uncertain
event → announce → concerns
In Montreal, at least two anti-Israel rallies remain planned.
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rallies → remain → Montreal
An afternoon student rally beginning at McGill’s Roddick Gates is promoted by student groups representing five Montreal colleges and universities, including Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR).
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rally → begin → Honour
SPHR McGill recently supported a successful undergraduate motion calling on the Students’ Society of McGill University to push McGill to end its exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, celebrating the vote in an Instagram post declaring, “Long live the student intifada.”
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intifada → support → post
A second rally, scheduled for the evening on Sherbrooke Street West, is organized by Montreal4Palestine, a group that describes itself on X as fighting for the “total liberation of Palestine.”
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that → schedule → Palestine
There is something profoundly disturbing about holding such rallies on the anniversary of a massacre — a day on which families remember loved ones who were brutally slaughtered, raped, burned alive and taken hostage.
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who → be → hostage
The language surrounding these events compounds the obscenity: in Toronto, “Honouring Our Martyrs”; in Montreal, masked, keffiyeh-clad figures beneath the words “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance.”
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language → surround → Resistance
Invoking “martyrs” and “resistance” on October 7 appears to glorify the barbaric violence that the families of those murdered and taken hostage that day are mourning.
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families → invoke → those
Orwell couldn’t have scripted the irony better.
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Orwell → script → irony
So where does the law draw the line?
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law → draw → line
Freedom of expression may protect speech that many of us find deeply offensive.
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many → protect → us
But Canadian law does have limits.
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law → have → limits
Publicly inciting hatred against an identifiable group, where that incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace, can constitute a criminal offence.
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incitement → incite → offence
And the question of when antisemitic rhetoric crosses that line is hardly theoretical at a time when Jewish institutions, synagogues and Jewish people themselves have been targets of threats, vandalism and violence.
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institutions → cross → threats
Not everything hateful, inflammatory or morally repugnant will meet it.
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everything → meet → it
Nor should criminal law become the arbiter of every offensive idea.
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law → become → idea
But the fact that the state cannot — or should not — prohibit something does not require our institutions or political leaders to remain morally neutral about it.
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state → prohibit → it
Condemnation is not censorship, and tolerance under the law need not mean acceptance by society.
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tolerance → mean → society
Where laws are broken, they must be enforced.
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they → break → ?
But where conduct remains lawful, where are the voices of our political leaders willing to condemn what the law cannot prohibit?
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law → remain → what
When demonstrations cross the line into intimidation, obstruction or unlawful conduct, authorities should act.
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authorities → cross → intimidation
And when they do not cross that line, our leaders can still draw a moral one.
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leaders → cross → one
That responsibility becomes even more urgent against the backdrop of attacks and threats directed at Jewish institutions and individuals.
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responsibility → become → institutions
Tolerance of escalating behaviour does not occur in a vacuum.
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Tolerance → escalate → vacuum
What authorities repeatedly permit can eventually come to be regarded as permissible.
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permit → permit → What
And if rallies held on October 7 glorify or celebrate the atrocities of that day without crossing the criminal threshold, that does not make them morally defensible.
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them → hold → threshold
No society can sustain itself by law alone.
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society → sustain → law
There is a vast territory between what is criminal and what is morally acceptable.
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what → be → ?
When a society begins to treat everything that is technically lawful as therefore tolerable, something fundamental begins to erode.
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something → begin → everything
The law establishes the minimum standard of conduct a society is prepared to enforce; it was never meant to define the limits of our conscience.
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it → establish → conscience
A functioning society depends just as much on the norms and moral judgment that exist beyond the reach of the law.
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that → function → law
Maintaining those boundaries requires our institutions, universities, political leaders and ordinary citizens to be willing to say that some things may fall short of criminality and still deserve unequivocal condemnation.
uncertain
things → maintain → condemnation
When we become afraid even to make that distinction, we don’t become more tolerant.
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we → become → distinction
We become morally indifferent.
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We → become → ?
And perhaps that is the greater danger: not simply that hatred becomes louder, but that society gradually becomes accustomed to it.
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society → become → it
What once would have shocked the conscience becomes normalized, then excused and eventually defended as merely another form of expression.
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shocked → shock → expression
A society loses its moral bearings not all at once, but one boundary at a time.
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society → lose → time
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
