February 4, 2019: Antisemitic Toronto ‘newspaper’ convicted of spreading hate

By Michael Regenstreif

January 24 was a good day in the fight against hatred in Canada.

That day, James Sears, the editor and principal writer of a free-distribution “newspaper” in Toronto called Your Ward News (YWN), and LeRoy St. Germane, its publisher, were convicted in the Ontario Court of Justice of relentlessly and criminally promoting hatred against women and Jews in the pages of YWN.

I put the word newspaper within quotation marks in the preceding paragraph because YWN – which has published for more than a decade and claims to distribute more than 305,000 copies of each issue – is not a real newspaper. The editions of YWN that I’ve ever looked at are simply and purely hate literature. In rendering his judgement, Justice Richard Blouin, who examined 22 issues of YWN published between 2015 and 2018, said, “YWN repeatedly and consistently dehumanized Jews and women. Both men were fully aware of the unrelenting promotion of hate.”

Jews and women, as per the conviction, are the most frequent targets of YWN’s hatred but others include virtually all peoples of colour, the LGBTQ community, non-white immigrants, anti-racism activists, and mainstream politicians. Politicians like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, YWN says, are under the domination and control of rich Zionists and Jewish groups. Holocaust denial, Hitler-glorification and the promotion of raping women are also hallmarks of YWN.

Since 2016, Canada Post has not permitted our mail system to deliver YWN.

So, too, are not-so-veiled threats of violence. After anti-racism activists Warren and Lisa Kinsella helped raise awareness about YWN, Sears wrote, “there was the chance that some hothead who cares deeply about me and my family would lose it and do something illegal, like bludgeon the Kinsella’s to death (sic).” In a separate court case, Justice Dan Moore found Sears not guilty of threatening the Kinsellas.

Sears refers to himself in the pages of YWN as “Dr. James Sears.” However, the College of Physicians and Surgeons stripped Sears of his licence to practice medicine in 1992 after he was convicted of sexually assaulting three of his patients. In the years since, Sears has adopted a persona of “Dimitri the Lover” under which he claims he can teach men how to seduce any woman.

Sears has also been a perennial fringe candidate for political office. In the 2018 mayoralty election in Toronto, he received 680 votes – about 479,000 less than John Tory, who won re-election). Also last year, he ran to be the MPP here in Ottawa Centre – a riding he apparently chose because incumbent Yasir Naqvi was then the attorney general of Ontario – receiving just 92 of the 64,403 votes cast.

On being found guilty, Sears likened his conviction to that of Jesus in the New Testament and said he expected to be crucified for his principles. In reality, though, the conviction of Sears and St. Germane reinforces the concept that free speech does not extend to hate speech.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) released a statement from Noah Shack, CIJA’s Toronto vice-president, applauding the conviction “which sends a clear message that those who promote hate will be held accountable. For years, YWN has been peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories, misogyny, homophobia, and racism. We … hope that this ruling will mark the end of YWN.”

CIJA further pointed out that YWN is also published online and called on the federal government to launch a national strategy to combat online hate. “We can preserve free speech while protecting Canadians from those who demonize and slander entire communities.”

While some free-speech absolutists have decried the conviction, we have too often seen the resulting actions of individuals and groups who buy into the kind of extreme hatred preached by YWN. Hate speech should never be seen as free speech.

June 25, 2018: Winds of change in Ontario politics

By Michael Regenstreif

Less than six months ago, Doug Ford, who served one term as a Toronto city councillor between 2010 and 2014, was planning to run for mayor of that city.

Now Ford is a few days away from being sworn in as premier of Ontario after leading the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party to a majority government in the June 7 provincial election. The New Democratic Party (NDP) became the official opposition, and the Green Party – which had never held a seat before – elected its first MPP.

A huge story was the utter collapse of the Liberal Party of Ontario. After winning four elections since 2003, they struck out and were reduced to just seven seats, not quite enough for official party status in the legislature.

I attended the meetings the Jewish Federation of Ottawa held with local candidates from the three major parties and offer here a few observations and opinions beyond the reporting I did on the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin website before the election.

All Ottawa-area candidates for each of the three parties were invited to the meetings, which were scheduled to suit the parties. Each party was asked the same set of main questions provided to them in advance. These questions on combatting antisemitism, support for the vulnerable, community security, Ontario-Israel ties, and preventing genetic discrimination, were drawn from the Ontario election guide prepared by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. A question about funding for faith-based schools was also asked at each of the meetings.

The Liberals sent four candidates – all incumbent MPPs, three of them cabinet ministers: Bob Chiarelli (Ottawa West-Nepean), Natalie Des Rosiers (Ottawa Vanier), John Fraser (Ottawa South) and Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre).

As experienced MPPs, the Liberal candidates were well versed on the issues and offered full or qualified support to Jewish community positions or requests on the main questions. It was only on the issue of funding for faith-based schools that the Liberal candidates diverged from the community. While they would not pledge support for changing the status quo (in which Roman Catholic schools are fully funded while all other faith-based schools receive no funding), the candidates did say they would personally be open to future discussion on the issue.

Des Rosiers and Fraser were among the seven Liberals across Ontario to retain their seats and Fraser became interim Liberal leader following the resignation of Kathleen Wynne.

The NDP was represented by two candidates: Eleanor Fast (Ottawa South) and Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West Nepean).

Fast and Pasma did seem engaged on some of the issues and unfamiliar with others. Neither offered any promise that an NDP government would revisit the issue of funding for faith-based schools.

The white elephant in the room during the NDP meeting was Ottawa Centre candidate Joel Harden and his support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Although the meeting took place at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre, which is located in Ottawa Centre, Harden did not attend.

Fast and Pasma – neither of whom was elected – pointed out that BDS was rejected by the federal NDP and is not a policy of the provincial party, and both said they had voted against BDS resolutions at policy conventions or in their riding associations.

Harden, though, was elected in Ottawa Centre and it now remains to be seen what kind of relationship he will develop with the Jewish community. Clearly, outgoing Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi, who was supportive of many community initiatives, will be missed.

The PCs were represented by just one candidate, Colleen McCleery (Ottawa Centre). While she was friendly enough, McCleery seemed unprepared for the discussion and was largely unaware of the issues, including school funding. Clearly, the PCs would have benefited from the presence of more serious candidates like Lisa MacLeod (Nepean) or Jeremy Roberts (Ottawa West-Nepean).

Despite the slimmest of platforms, Ford’s key to winning power was the collapse of Liberal support after 15 years in government, and a populist message. Winning, this time, was seemingly easy. Now he’ll have to govern – and that will be a lot harder.