In its time of crisis unmatched since the 30s, the fear is that, when we most need her, she is on the other team.
asserted
she → need → team
We judge politicians by their words, their actions, the causes they champion, the people whose approval they seek, those they are willing to offend and, most importantly, what they do when “doing the right thing” carries political costs.
asserted
doing → judge → costs
And if I am wrong, she has made my conclusion difficult to rebut.
asserted
conclusion → make → ?
Look at what happened this week.
asserted
what → look → ?
Toronto’s mayor was invited to a mayoral debate about antisemitism and the safety of her city’s Jewish community.
asserted
mayor → invite → community
She refused to attend.
asserted
She → refuse → ?
Her explanation was that she does not participate in candidate events before her campaign officially launched on Sept. 9.
asserted
campaign → participate → Sept.
It also belies common sense.
asserted
It → belie → sense
The organizers had been communicating with Chow’s campaign for weeks without her providing that excuse.
asserted
her → communicate → excuse
They offered to change the date, but she still refused to attend.
asserted
she → offer → date
Her opponents were attending.
asserted
opponents → attend → ?
But Chow did not.
asserted
Chow → do → ?
Can you imagine her not attending?
asserted
her → imagine → ?
Toronto’s Jewish community is facing extraordinary violence and hostility.
asserted
community → face → violence
Jewish schools, synagogues and community institutions are being shot at, bombed and require security.
asserted
schools → shoot → security
Jewish businesses attacked.
asserted
businesses → attack → ?
Many Jews are concealing any visible identity to avoid becoming a target.
asserted
Jews → conceal → identity
They are fearful in many cases of walking our streets.
asserted
They → walk → streets
This is a public safety crisis involving one of the communities the mayor is sworn to represent.
asserted
mayor → involve → communities
A debate devoted to that crisis offered Chow the opportunity to stand before Jewish Torontonians and answer difficult questions.
asserted
debate → devote → questions
Her defenders will point out that Chow has condemned antisemitism and expressed support for Toronto’s Jewish community and its necessary security measures
Put those statements in the record.
asserted
Chow → point → record
The relevant question is not whether Olivia Chow has ever said something supportive of Jews.
asserted
Chow → say → Jews
The question is what her record as a whole reveals.
asserted
record → reveal → whole
Last November, speaking at a fundraising gala for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, to applause, Chow said: “The genocide in Gaza impacts us all.”
Genocide is the deliberate attempt to annihilate a people and where large percentages of them are exterminated.
asserted
percentages → speak → them
It is one of the most consequential accusations that can be made against a state.
asserted
that → make → state
Chow is obviously entitled to criticize Israel, condemn its government, oppose its military campaign and express upset over Palestinian civilian deaths.
asserted
Chow → criticize → deaths
But there is a profound difference between criticizing a government and adopting rhetoric that demonizes the world’s only Jewish state, one reborn as a direct result of an actual genocide the large majority were slaughtered in the most heinous ways
That distinction becomes particularly important when the politician using that rhetoric is the mayor of a city with a Jewish community in crisis.
asserted
politician → be → crisis
Chow, with decades in public life, knows the power of political language.
asserted
Chow → know → language
She knows that a mayor’s words do not disappear when the speech ends.
asserted
speech → know → ?
Her words signal whose suffering she recognizes.
asserted
she → signal → suffering
Whose claims she considers legitimate.
uncertain
she → consider → ?
Whose political concerns she is prepared to take seriously.
asserted
she → take → ?
And whose she is obviously prepared to ignore
asserted
she → ignore → ?
It is not one sentence or missed debate but her cumulative record.
asserted
It → miss → ?
The audiences she chooses to address, political causes she embraces and the people she is not willing to confront
Chow appears perfectly comfortable using the most inflammatory language before audiences deeply engaged by the Palestinian cause.
asserted
she → choose → cause
Yet when Toronto’s Jewish community asks her to discuss the hatred directed at Jews in the city she leads, she finds a procedural reason not to appear.
asserted
she → ask → reason
A politician does not have to personally be politically opposed to the Jewish communities interest to make herself useful to people who are.
asserted
who → have → people
She only has to decide that confronting them is politically inconvenient.
asserted
confronting → have → them
That is how prejudice becomes normalized.
asserted
prejudice → normalize → ?
The politician does not have to utter a slur.
asserted
politician → have → slur
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
