(via The Comics Reporter)
A round-up and reprint, wondering at the non-response in traditional Canadian media to the publication of a trio of anti-semitic editorial cartoons from 3 Quebec papers, by Toronto journalist Rondi Adamson:
In fact, this is quite a touchy subject in Canada. Quebec-s nationalist movement has long been tainted with anti-Semitism. And Quebec is, without question, the most anti-Israeli and most anti-American of the Canadian provinces, earning it the nickname “Quebecistan.” The anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonne, for example, is hugely popular in Quebec (far more so than in France), invited to mainstream comedy festivals and onto publicly-funded radio, where he receives a sympathetic welcome.
This is not to say there is no anti-Semitism elsewhere in Canada. But were such cartoons to appear in the Globe and Mail (a national paper out of Toronto) or the Calgary Herald or Vancouver Sun, all hell would break loose.
More intellectually lazy still, some have tried to draw a parallel with the Danish Mohammed cartoons, stating that if one encouraged their publication, one should rejoice at these cartoons. I am not suggesting that these cartoons should not have run. Personally, I find them over the line, but each editorial page should decide such things for themselves. It should also be noted that Le Devoir was, to its credit, the only mainstream publication in Canada to run (one of) the Danish cartoons. I did believe the Danish cartoons should be published — but I took no delight in the cartoons themselves, or the reaction they engendered. And that is where a more accurate comparison can be made.
So far, no one in Quebec’s Jewish community — or any Jewish community anywhere – has rioted, burned any embassies, threatened beheadings or caused the cartoonists in question to go into perpetual hiding.
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previous entries about anti-Semitic cartoons at Sequential: