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National Post

Letters: Throw Hockey Canada in the penalty box

Article content Next, the article only touched indirectly on the fact that an estimated 30,000 Canadians voluntarily joined the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam. Sure, some were just looking for excitement, but most Canadian Vietnam vets I've met believed they had to help stop the spread of communism. Article content One such Canadian returned and joined the Canadian Forces and passed on valuable lessons about the warrior profession. He was my Course Officer in training and was highly respected. Another was the son of Gen. Jacques Dextraze, Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff from 1972 to 1975. Richard Paul Dextraze, who volunteered for the U.S. Marines and was killed in action in Vietnam, was the posthumous recipient of the Gold Star, the Silver Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Article content Did the draft dodgers affect Canada? I am sure they did. They were generally left-leaning and many stayed in Canada and took jobs in education and local government — thus infecting a generation of impressionable Canadians. Although I had a draft-dodger teacher in high school whom I liked, I certainly did not agree with his politics. Article content Article content I've asked this question of many Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of this great country of Canada. To quote the '80s pop band The Clash: 'Should I stay or should I go now? If I go, there will be trouble. And if I stay, it will be double …' Article content Many Canadians and all of its Jews have been put into the situation of making the difficult decision precisely for the reasons Michael Sachs outlined in his column. Article content Like many other Jewish Canadians, I, too, feel betrayed by the social contract breakdown. There has been an obvious lack of agency by law enforcement, policy-makers and legislators to shut down the hate. The result has been both an overt display of shameless pro-terror demonstrations and a malignant subversive antisemitic bias that is seeding deeply into the far corners of public and corporate services. I need not look further than the continued allowance of online incitement for violence against Israeli Defence Forces soldiers from Canada. Article content I lived in the U.S. for a brief time and left because I did not want my children growing up with what I found to be a self-centred 'me-first' American ideology. So I am not sure that the United States will offer the respite Mr. Sachs is after. Article content The problem we face is that the Marxist-rooted Liberal wokeism in Canada has teamed up with global jihadism, with the common goal of Jew hate. Losing to another Liberal term was a big step backward into the abyss. Article content Canada is one of the best versions of democracy I have known and with it comes the opportunity to speak up, get involved and fight the beast that threatens our safety and future. Hopefully we are not too late to reverse the rhetoric and noise of hate and stupidity. It is time for the silent majority to speak up and challenge the status quo. Once again we can become proud Canadians, but not without the will to find our voices. Please get involved in the political process, no matter how demoralizing it has become. Article content In our extreme leftist-dominated public school system, the social justice warriors have had the power to decide which students and staff are the true victims deserving of protection. Our public school system does not treat all students equally and promotes a tribal politics that is teaching our children that antisemitism can be justified and excused. Article content We have all been awakened from our slumber. The federal survey confirms what we already know and experience as Jews living in Canada today. The progressives in power are not concerned about antisemitism because of their illiberal, anti-western ideology. As long as they remain in charge of our public school system, the double standards will continue. Article content In 1970, a KGB agent named Yuri Bezmenov defected to the United States, eventually settling in Canada. In interviews and lectures, Bezmenov described the process of ideological subversion that the then-Soviet Union was conducting in the West, a process that takes many years to take root. The four stages of ideological subversion, according to Bezmenov, are demoralization, destabilization, crisis and normalization. Article content One of the key targets of ideological subversion is education. If we were to apply Bezmenov's four stages to education, we have seen demoralization taking root over the past several years. As Ari Blaff's article indicated, we are now at the destabilization stage and fast approaching crisis. The recent decision by the Ontario government to take over several boards of education is indicative of a system in crisis. Article content Our public school system long ago lost its way. Merit has been replaced by identity, teaching has given way to propagandizing and indoctrinating. Political correctness now determines curriculum decisions, and the purveyors of 'anti-racism' are enriching themselves on the public purse, sometimes with tragic results. Popular narratives have replaced historical facts. Moral clarity has been upended by moral relativism. Article content Jewish children are harassed and assaulted on their way to school. Administrators, fearing a backlash from students and the community, allow other students to drape themselves in keffiyehs, buying into the fiction that these are a 'cultural' symbol, rather than emblems of terrorism popularized by the late, unlamented Yasser Arafat. Article content Article content As a former teacher and teacher-educator, I am often asked by parents and grandparents about the advisability of sending their children and grandchildren to the local public school. My response is to seriously consider Jewish or private schools, if they can afford it. Students will receive a better education and will be safe, emotionally and physically, something that is increasingly rare in the public schools. Article content Article content Article content