Lederman: The Giller Prize was a rare CanLit success story. Now it might become a casualty of a foreign war

2025/07/19 Leave a comment

Sad (hope the authors who won previous Gillers and protested Scotiabank involvement with Israel have some second thoughts):

…Deep-pocketed institutions don’t sponsor culture to get embroiled in controversy. Who wants to pay all that money only to get booed and a PR black eye?

Who would want to sponsor the prize now? As the Giller people are finding out, what organization with that kind of money wants to risk being drawn into this drama? Which financial institution wants people scouring its records for any connection to Israel, followed by angry taunts and tweets? 

So now, the Giller wants the government to rescue it. Ha. In this economy? Ottawa is currently looking to cut spending. The federally funded Canada Council for the Arts already supports the Governor-General’s Literary Awards. And no doubt the Canada Council will also be looking for funding cuts. If Ottawa has more for CanLit, there are some struggling Canadian writers, publishers and independent bookstores that might like a word (and some cash). The arts are struggling right now, period – including the CanLit ecosystem. With fewer book reviews, and festivals under financial pressure, the Giller was a rare success story. 

Maybe the Giller reinvents itself, ditches the splashy gala, the pricey author tours. Maybe the prize money is reduced. Maybe the Giller folds, altogether.

That would be a big loss. And a very sad ending, indeed.

Source: The Giller Prize was a rare CanLit success story. Now it might become a casualty of a foreign war

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Lederman: We need to talk about antisemitism

2025/07/12 Leave a comment

Comments highlight need:

…What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic. But comparisons to the Holocaust are inaccurate, unnecessary and damaging. And, arguably, antisemitic.

Would any of this be okay if it was directed at any other minority group? 

One could argue it’s Zionists being targeted, not Jews. But most Jews are Zionists, believing a State of Israel has a right to exist. Further, too often, “Zionist” is a convenient substitute for “Jew.”

Criticism of the Israeli government is absolutely fair. But veering into antisemitism does nothing for the worthy Palestinian cause. If anything, it taints it. It is distracting, divisive and counterproductive. 

The same “fixed it” social-media crowd might write, about this column, “I’m not reading all that. Free Palestine.”

Yes, Palestinians deserve to be free. And Jews in Canada deserve to feel safe in their own country.

Source: We need to talk about antisemitism

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with

Lederman: Welcome to the slavery memorial. Enjoy the beautiful view

2025/06/21 Leave a comment

Sadly, all too true:

…The placement of these Orwellian signs follows Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” part of the President’s crusade against wokeness. The new signs also encourage visitors to report any information that fails to “emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.” Be complimentary, or else.

Rather than rat out tour guides or wall plaques, visitors are being urged by the NPCA to use their voices to tell the government to stop meddling. And good news: The publication Government Executive reports that almost all of the nearly 200 submissions received in the first few days urged the government not to censor history. 

In Canada, we are learning the value of telling history accurately, in particular the history of Indigenous people. The Truth and Reconciliation process has been bumpy at times, sure, but it has exposed this country’s real history to many Canadians (not just students) who simply didn’t know about the harms of colonialism, including residential schools.

We are seeing this reflected in school curricula, at museums, on the calendar (we mark National Indigenous Peoples Day on Saturday) and, consequently, in the zeitgeist. That’s how it works.

“If our country erases the darker chapters of our history, we will never learn from our mistakes,” said Ms. Pierno in a news release. Exactly.

What if they did this in, say, Germany – where monuments and museums tell the country’s chilling Nazi history, along with tens of thousands of Stolpersteins (literally “stumbling stones”), small brass plates marking places from which people were deported? (Memorials that speak to the despicable actions of past governments of that period are also prominent in Hungary, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and France.)

Imagine if, in an effort by a hypothetical German government to avoid casting shade upon its history, those sites were watered down. What if Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was renamed to play down the murder part? Any thinking person would be outraged – even much of the MAGA set, too. 

Picture Minidoka, currently billed as “An American Concentration Camp,” instead being described as “a unique visiting experience in the scenic Gem State, along the refreshing waters of Clover Creek with its fine fishing?” What an insult to the memory of all who suffered there. What a disservice to any visitor.

This move to sanitize historic sites is a testament to the idiocy of this U.S. administration – as history, one hopes, will show.

Source: Welcome to the slavery memorial. Enjoy the beautiful view

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , , ,

Lederman: When Hollywood’s voice was needed the most, it shied away

2025/03/05 Leave a comment

Didn’t watch but this is a good take:

….Hollywood does not usually shy away from the political – not in the content it creates and not in speeches past. The self-righteousness can be cringey, sure. But right now, it would be useful – a high-profile spotlight to drive some sort of protest movement. Regrettably, on Sunday night, the urgency of the moment was buried under obligatory thank-yous, shiny sequins and fuzzy platitudes.

Source: When Hollywood’s voice was needed the most, it shied away

Filed under Other Tagged with , ,

Lederman: Powerful documentary No Other Land provides important context to Trump’s musings on Gaza 

2025/02/07 Leave a comment

Hopefully will make it to a streaming platform:

…For Palestinians and Muslims, this is a difficult film, documenting their people’s pain. But any viewer with a pulse will feel anguish – including, maybe especially, anyone who cares for and about Israel. In one charged scene, Mr. Abraham challenges the Israeli army for taking the Palestinians’ building tools. A soldier asks the Israeli why he cares. “I care because it’s all done in my name,” Mr. Abraham says.

No Other Land has won many festival prizes and is nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary. But it couldn’t land a North American distribution deal, no doubt because of the subject matter. So the filmmakers are releasing the film independently; it lands in Toronto and Vancouver theatres on Friday.

In the film, Mr. Adra says documenting the destruction may force the U.S. to press Israel to stop the expulsions.

Today, the threat is coming from the would-be saviour.

Mr. Trump called Gaza a “hellhole” as he floated his plan at a news conference Tuesday. What kind of god complex allows for this kind of unilateral, devilish declaration?

No Other Land is a stark reminder that the Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war and now under threat of permanent displacement by Mr. Trump’s ambitions are in fact people. They are not pawns or faceless figures in a geopolitical dust-up. They are people who want to live their lives in peace, and to live those lives at home. And home is Gaza.

Source: Powerful documentary No Other Land provides important context to Trump’s musings on Gaza

Filed under foreign policy Tagged with , , ,

Lederman: At Auschwitz, there was no why

2025/01/28 Leave a comment

Lest we forget:

…Some of those lucky enough to survive Auschwitz not completely broken – many were – emerged with various whys as they sought a reason to go on. Primo Levi needed to tell the world. Elie Wiesel made it his mission to stop such horrors from happening ever again.

My mother’s why was simpler, less grandiose – if no less extraordinary. She met another survivor, they married, had three daughters. My parents, no longer alive, now have 23 descendants walking (or, in one sweet case, still just crawling) the Earth. We are her why.

I keep searching for mine. An obvious lesson of Auschwitz – beyond “do not murder” – could be to show kindness, care and respect for our fellow human beings. (I’ve had my moments, I know. I’m working on it.)

These can be small gestures, or they can be very big ones. But they must trump cruelty. I don’t think I need to explain why.

Source: At Auschwitz, there was no why

Filed under Antisemitism, Holocaust Tagged with

Lederman: What happened in Amsterdam is antisemitism, Regg Cohn: There are no excuses for what happened to Jews in Amsterdam. Period

2024/11/14 Leave a comment

Indeed:

…Of course, the supposed justification for Kristallnacht was a pretext for a highly organized attack. Of course, what happened in Amsterdam was a dark night of extreme antisemitism, fuelled by anger over the war in Gaza. It has continued. On Monday night, rioters set a tram on fire, and yelled about cancerous Jews.

Here’s a hopeful thought: the people who did this are thugs, just as the Nazis were thugs. But on Kristallnacht, they were government-sponsored thugs, organized and supported by the men in charge.

The antisemites running rampant through Amsterdam have been condemned by the city’s mayor, the country’s prime minister and the king of the Netherlands. I’m taking some heart in that. But the gaslighting and victim-blaming – arguing that this was not antisemitism, that the Jews started it and deserved it – that is just heartbreaking.

Source: What happened in Amsterdam is antisemitism

…And so when protesters showed up earlier this year at the opening of the new Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam — home of Anne Frank — they claimed their demonstration was entirely anti-Israeli and utterly anti-Zionist, but couldn’t possibly be antisemitic. Which means the Holocaust is now fair game not merely for deniers but provocateurs.

During the Nazi occupation of Holland, three-quarters of the country’s Jews — 102,000 human beings — were deported to concentration camps. That’s history.

With an eye on that shared history, Dutch King Willem-Alexander publicly apologized for the latest antisemitic outburst: “Our history has taught us how intimidation goes from bad to worse.”

Prime Minister Dick Schoof described the violence as “unadulterated antisemitism,” but went one step further for the benefit of those trying to explain and excuse:

“Nothing is an excuse for hunting Jews.”

Nothing.

Source: Regg Cohn | There are no excuses for what happened to Jews in Amsterdam. Period

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Lederman: Trump’s MSG rally was a horror show on its own – no Nazi comparisons necessary

2024/10/31 Leave a comment

Hard to understand support for this invective and hatred among so many speakers and tolerated, if not shared, by Trump supporters:

…While comparisons are unhelpful, the lessons of that Nazi rally should be heeded. As A Night at the Garden filmmaker Marshall Curry said, the 1939 rally “made clear how the tactics of demagogues have been the same throughout the ages. They attack the press, using sarcasm and humour. They tell their followers that they are the true Americans … And they encourage their followers to “take their country back” from whatever minority group is ruining it.” Sound familiar?

Even if it was unsurprising by MAGA standards, perhaps this rally will turn out to be the October surprise that pundits have been waiting for – a last-minute event that has a big effect on the election result. Perhaps some voters can still be swayed from Mr. Trump’s odious message, even if he and his ever-changing team have shown us again and again who and what they are. What happened on Sunday should matter.

The former wrestler Hulk Hogan, one of the esteemed speakers at the Trump event, looked out at the crowd and declared “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis.”

Call them what you will (or won’t), but the stench is palpable. A little, one might say, like foul, reeking garbage.

Source: Trump’s MSG rally was a horror show on its own – no Nazi comparisons necessary

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Lederman: Russians at War is an exceptional documentary and needs to be seen

2024/09/14 Leave a comment

Of note, joins the genre of movies such as Das Boot, Los Chicos de la Guerra, and All Quiet on the Western Front, albeit all of these were made after the wars ended, not during hostilities. Interesting question, will this film be shown in Russia or not?:

…The feature film All Quiet on the Western Front, which also humanized the “wrong” side of the First World War with its devastating portrayal of a young German soldier’s experiences, won four Academy Awards last year, including best international feature film.

Russians at War, which dispels the myth that there is any glory involved in war whatsoever, deserves similar recognition. It certainly deserves a chance to be seen.

Of course, Russians is much more sensitive. It is a documentary to begin with, but also because this catastrophe is happening right now. It is bringing agony to Ukrainians at this very moment. Nobody should have to experience what Ukrainians are suffering through at the hands of Russia.

This film in no way discounts that. If anything, it emphasizes it.

It does not disregard the inhumanity of war to humanize the low-level members of the aggressor’s army: Russian soldiers and medics as young as 20 who are sent to the front lines along with their hopes and dreams – and their not-quite-yet-fully-developed prefrontal cortexes. The opposite, in fact.

Russian fighters – some drafted, some indoctrinated, some there to keep their families fed back home or a friend company at the front, some there because they don’t know why – are also victims of this war. As one notes in the film, they are at war with themselves. “Slavs against Slavs.”

Thousands and thousands of people, Ukrainian and Russian, have been ripped from their lives to further a madman’s dream.

And a talented filmmaker, without an official posting or even a press pass, followed them almost all the way to the front so that we could know about it. And be outraged. Not at the film; at the war.

Censoring art is never a good idea. But keeping this film under wraps is denying the public of more than the experience of seeing an excellent movie. It is restricting access to a vital message: an unforgiving indictment of war.

Peace.

Source: Russians at War is an exceptional documentary and needs to be seen

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

Lederman: How attitudes to immigration have evolved in The Globe through the generations

2024/07/03 Leave a comment

Good historical overview, highlighting how the Globe overall reflected public attitudes of the time:

….As The Globe marks its 180th anniversary, questions around immigration continue to populate its pages. Who gets in, who doesn’t. On what criteria. Deafening in its absence for many years: discussion of who was displaced by settlers as Canada formed and evolved. From the Chinese head tax to Roxham Road, a trip through the pages of The Globe offers the real story in black and white. Canada – if it opened its gates at all – has often been inhospitable, even hostile, to newcomers….

Source: How attitudes to immigration have evolved in The Globe through the generations

Filed under Immigration Tagged with

← Older posts

Newer posts →