Stand up to racism, antisemitism, hatred
The annual Victoria International Jewish Film Festival, a project of the Jewish Community Centre of Victoria that ran successfully from Nov. 1 to 6, received an anti-Semitic threat midway through the festival, threatening to cause serious harm to attendees if the festival continued.
We reported the threat to the authorities who responded quickly and effectively to start an investigation and provide us support for the remainder of the festival.
We are grateful for the tremendous support from the VicPD and the protection they provided us at the Vic Theatre to keep the festival attendees safe from any harm.
The officers were highly competent, professional and courteous at all times.
As we approach the commemoration of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) today, we are sadly reminded that anti-Semitism, racism and hatred are still ever-present today.
All of us have a responsibility to respond promptly and loudly at the first appearance of injustices targeting any group. We all must stand up to all forms of prejudice, whether it is anti-Semitism, racism or hatred.
There is no room for anti-Semitism, racism and hatred in our world today.
Shalom.
Larry Gontovnick
President
Jewish Community Centre of Victoria
We must support our Jewish neighbours
I am so sorry that there are still people out there that can’t get through their days without threatening harm to innocent people. Why the Jewish community is, once again, targeted by such small-minded, ignorant people is beyond belief.
Time for us all to stand up and let these idiots know that there is no place in our community, our city or town, our province and country, indeed the world, for this rubbish, now and always.
Our neighbours deserve our support.
Wendy Darbey
Victoria
Comments inspired artist to join synagogue
Regrettably, anti-Semitism is nothing new in dear old Victoria.
The late Victoria artist, Anthony Thorn, was inspired to create religious carvings and gilding work by the rantings of the late lawyer, Doug Christie.
In a NUVO Magazine profile of 2001, Thorn mentioned having joined a Victoria synagogue, motivated in part by Christie’s extreme public comments.
Research interviews for that profile are available on the University of Regina Archives Anthony Thorn pages.
“After serious surgery I felt I had to say my prayers in case I was taken into the next world. And I had to answer Christie,” he added.
“My answer was my work. It said ‘This Jew will be a Jew if he pleases. He will make beautiful things of Hebrew letters if he pleases, and lead a harmless life, and fulfil his destiny and say his prayers.’ ”
A new book on Thorn’s life and work, For the Honour of the Art, has just been printed, co-sponsored by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the MacKenzie Gallery in Regina, where Thorn began his career in the 1950s. The book features several essays and photos of Thorn’s art works along with an assessment of his career by arts critic Robert Amos, and a closing chapter by Garry Gaudet, a writer-broadcaster and friend of Thorn for more than six decades.
Thorn spent his final 34 years of life making art and teaching in Victoria and Oak Bay. He died in July 2014, leaving a major bequest to the Greater Victoria Art Gallery, which has significant holdings of his paintings and carvings.
Garry Gaudet
Lantzville
Monarchy set the way for treaties in Canada
“In line with reconciliation efforts with Indigenous nations,” B.C. Ferries is removing photographs of our reigning monarch: “We believe it’s the right thing to do.”
I can only hope that there was even a minimal attempt to consult with First Nations before coming to this decision and that this move is not just one more example of paternalism under the guise of reconciliation. This is not the first time I have heard my fellow settler descendants suggest that the monarchy serves as a painful reminder to First Nations peoples of the many negatives of colonialism.
More than a few times I have witnessed puzzled looks on the faces of First Nations friends, obviously mystified by what they then tell me is an inaccurate assumption.
It was King George III’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 that recognized First Nations’ rights in Canada and laid the foundation for a treaty-making process.
It was the efforts of the monarchy, unfortunately unheeded by European settlers, that provide the starting point for every single First Nations land claim in British Columbia.
The monarchy is not the convenient scapegoat that some of us might like to imagine it to be.
Roxanne P. Helme, K.C.
Victoria
Removal of monarch is a step too far
Re: “A monarch vanishes from ferries, take a deep breath,” column, Nov. 6.
After having read this sad news, I took several!
The fact is that the monarch, King Charles III, remains the head of state for this country. Until we decide to “dethrone him” it remains so.
I might add, as pointed out by Jack Knox, that B.C. Ferries is not a private corporation but a construct of the provincial government which continues to be funded through the provincial treasury, a.k.a. taxpayer’s scarce financial resources.
I suspect many of these citizens who pay the bills would want to retain the sovereign’s photo on B.C. Ferries and other government-linked services and activities.
I am a firm believer in the implementation of reconciliation steps and measures; however, if we look long and hard enough, we will find a past littered with symbolism that relates to our colonial past and the numerous crimes and tragedies promulgated against our Indigenous people through this period and, tragically too frequently, into this century.
But do we remove them all? Should we retrieve all our currency with images of the late QE II?
Much of Victoria’s charm and robust tourist interest relates to its connection with its early British heritage. The name of our city reflects the scope and breadth of British imperialism at the time (Victoria Queen and Empress of India); should we dump it because it reflects the height of a colonial past?
What about the numerous shops on Government Street whose businesses benefit from our connection to the monarchy? Should we ask them to cease selling royal family memorabilia? Delete “royal” from the Royal B.C. Museum’s identity. What about changing the name of the Empress Hotel to Inner Harbour Resort?
Like these examples, and there are numerous others, removing our head of state’s image or identity from government-funded institutions and services, including Crown corporations, is going a step too far!
John Stevenson
Victoria
Maybe ferries should lose the Canadian flags
The announcement that B.C. Ferries will not hang a picture of the Canadian head of state in their ships due to Indigenous sensitivities over truth and reconciliation leaves me perplexed.
If one followed that logic to its end, the ships should not be flying Canadian flags either when they sail.
David Collins
Victoria
Is Canada the next big box store?
The removal of the Queen’s portrait from B.C. Ferries is yet another step toward Canada becoming a big box store, where we simply remove products off the shelf when they are no longer popular or expire.
This populist wave sets a dangerous precedent.
There is a reason why history repeats itself, because society has a nasty habit of forgetting what is out of sight and out of mind.
Therefore, why are we teaching the young generation to simply delete anything or anyone who upsets them?
It certainly doesn’t inspire a nation of diversity to abandon all roots and tradition.
Reconciliation is a delicate subject, but killing one culture in favour of another is a hypocritical step. Why can we not engage in more affirmative action such as a greater presence of Indigenous icons, interpretive signage, education, story telling, and the opportunity for cultural exchange?
It was ignorance that got us here. Can we not use building understanding to heal the cultural wounds of the past?
We should face our symbols of oppression to serve as a reminder of why we should never repeat that chapter in history.
It is a sign of emotional maturity as a culture, rather than an effort to worship atrocities of the past. We should not be teaching the youth to run or cancel anytime they face adversity.
If we want to grow together as a nation, we need to understand each other — not cancel one another out.
Darryl Wilson
Victoria
Ferry decision is good news for King Charles
Like Jack Knox I, too, am an avowed monarchist. And I don’t see how continually denigrating our current head of state really has anything to do with advancing Indigenous reconciliation. Like Prince Philip once said, if we no longer wish to have a monarchy, just end it. Don’t subject it to death by a thousand cuts.
That being said, however, in this instance perhaps B.C. Ferries has done King Charles a service.
After all, would he really want to be identified as the titular owner of our once proud ferry system with what it’s become today?
Hours on end in the parking lot, waiting for the boat? Missed sailings for want of a crew? Vessels that are too overweight to service the routes they were supposedly designed for?
Mechanical breakdowns galore, often ones necessitating cannibalizing parts off other foreign-made vessels until replacements can be sourced from the lowest-bidder builder in Europe?
An on-board food service that resembles the worst examples of oversized cattle feed lots — and at prices that make your cream-of-bilgewater soup imitate a gourmet meal?
Not to mention fuel surcharges, and a reservation system that’s hardly a guarantee of on-time passage.
If I were His Majesty, and I’m glad I’m not, I’d hardly want to be portrayed on a bunch of rust-buckets that I’m supposed to own, or at least be the trustee for the people of B.C. who do own them, either.
Joe Thomson
Courtenay
Crown is crucial to Indigenous peoples
To remove the photo of the Sovereign from B.C. Ferries in the cause of reconciliation is the wrong reason. Reconciliation depends upon “The Honour of the Crown.”
In the government’s own words:
“Indigenous peoples have a special constitutional relationship with the Crown.
“This relationship, including existing Aboriginal and treaty rights, is recognized and affirmed in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Section 35 contains a full box of rights, and holds the promise that Indigenous nations will become partners in Confederation on the basis of a fair and just reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the Crown.
“The honour of the Crown guides the conduct of the Crown in all government dealings with Indigenous peoples. The Government recognizes that it must uphold the honour of the Crown, which requires the government and its departments, agencies, and officials to act with honour, integrity, good faith, and fairness in all of its dealings with Indigenous peoples.
“The honour of the Crown gives rise to different legal duties in different circumstances, including fiduciary obligations and diligence. The overarching aim is to ensure that Indigenous peoples are treated with respect and as full partners in Confederation.”
Furthermore, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendation No. 45 calls for a Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation to be issued by the Crown based on the 1763 proclamation and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764.
Gerald W. Pash
Victoria
Adjust building plans to save more trees
Re: “Trees are where they need to be, so leave them alone,” commentary, Nov. 5.
How silly it is of B.C. Housing to remove mature Garry oaks on Discovery Street to provide “amenity space in the form of outdoor seating, landscaping and shade.”
We are now abundantly aware of the immense value of a mature forest canopy; its ongoing carbon absorption, its cooling effect in heat domes, its moderating effect on torrential rainfall events. It is life-giving.
It is time that we adjust zoning bylaws to reflect the health and physical advantages an established forest canopy gives Victoria.
Much of the remaining mature tree coverage of Victoria is located along individual property lines. A simple measure would be to adjust the Victoria tree protection bylaw to state that all mature trees within the prescribed setbacks must be retained; that the building footprint must be adjusted to protect the tree and not the current approach which allows the tree to be removed to accommodate the whims of the designer/builder.
This approach would minimize the impacts of tree retention with little and perhaps no impact on buildable density or building cost.
Let’s not be smug about the 60 football fields of expansion to our city tree canopy. Lidar studies have shown this is primarily because of our expanding existing mature tree canopy and not the result of city direction and replantings.
Bob June
Victoria
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