Erin O’Toole: Parliament must push back on the insidious boycott, divest and sanction movement (msn.com)
In 2016, the House of Commons voted to “reject” and “condemn” the boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement after a debate on BDS and how it was fomenting division in our society. While there was disagreement between MPs on the appropriateness of condemning a protest movement, there was near unanimous, multi-partisan support for the view that the BDS movement was intolerant.
Two years later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out BDS directly during his apology for the MS St. Louis incident of 1939, during which Canada refused to accept Jewish refugees due to the antisemitism of the day. In an eerie foreshadowing of the paralysis on our university campuses this spring, the prime minister excoriated the “BDS-related intimidation” Jewish students face on campuses in his speech as a modern example of the antisemitism that still exists in Canada.
In 2016, the House of Commons voted to “reject” and “condemn” the boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement after a debate on BDS and how it was fomenting division in our society. While there was disagreement between MPs on the appropriateness of condemning a protest movement, there was near unanimous, multi-partisan support for the view that the BDS movement was intolerant.
Two years later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out BDS directly during his apology for the MS St. Louis incident of 1939, during which Canada refused to accept Jewish refugees due to the antisemitism of the day. In an eerie foreshadowing of the paralysis on our university campuses this spring, the prime minister excoriated the “BDS-related intimidation” Jewish students face on campuses in his speech as a modern example of the antisemitism that still exists in Canada.
