"Now, by the time these Whittington and Caddell pieces were published, Israel had in this crisis killed more than twice as many Palestinian civilians as Palestinians had killed Israeli civilians. Facts are what they are. Whittington does not reflect them when he exclusively reserves harsh adjectives (“murderous,” “terrorist”) for Palestinians, while treating the Israeli killing of Palestinians in gentler tones."
October 18, 2023
Dear editors of the Hill Times,
A full page of this week’s Wednesday Hill Times was devoted to the pro-Israel commentaries of Whittington and Caddell. Both express the “old-stock” anglophone positions that have a British Crown stamped on Ontario license plates and Saint George’s cross emblazoned across the Alberta flag. Ethnic diaspora politics are brazen at this country's old core.
In his final election run, Stephen Harper drew a distinction between the diaspora politics of “new and existing and old-stock Canadians,” and Harper was not alone in demonstrating how Canadians of “old stock” – those Kipling lionized in his poem, “The Stranger” – stand with Israel in ways new Canadians often do not.
Now, by the time these Whittington and Caddell pieces were published, Israel had in this crisis killed more than twice as many Palestinian civilians as Palestinians had killed Israeli civilians. Facts are what they are. Whittington does not reflect them when he exclusively reserves harsh adjectives (“murderous,” “terrorist”) for Palestinians, while treating the Israeli killing of Palestinians in gentler tones. Caddell, meanwhile, denies facts and history altogether with the adjectival creativity that would have us believe that Palestinians have been “unprovoked.”
The days of “old-stock” anglo-normativity in Canada are over: researchers and journalists can agree on this much. Yet new Canadians have been unfairly attacked all week in the press for expressing mainstream international positions that dominant Canadian ethnic groups tend to reject in Israel’s favour. It is that narrow-minded, ethnically cloistered bias that now threatens to tear at the national fabric.
Sincerely yours,
Dan Freeman-Maloy