BACKGROUND
Joanna Berry is a Canadian immigration and refugee lawyer in Ontario, Canada. On October 2, two Niagara Police Officers, one of them a sergeant detective, paid her a visit to her home. They told her they were there on behalf of the Ottawa Police Department because of her “personal social media.” They begin to tell her that “10 lawyers who are of the Jewish faith” have filed a complaint with the police about her social media. As you can tell from the video, Joanna Berry, is outraged by the visit and clearly distraught. I reached out to the Niagara Regional Police for comment but they did not respond to my inquiry. I spoke with Joanna Berry also and she gave OTL Media permission to publish the video. She told us that she wants Canadians to see it and for the video to be a warning.
“This is very Orwellian”
On The Line Media is run by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.
It is hyperbolic to say that this incident proves that the nation or country of Canada is suppressing Israeli criticism. You heard of an incident that occurred in Canada. Don’t lose touch. There is not a cabal of “ten jewish lawyers” controlling Canada.
Please don’t conflate plain, basic criticism with antisemitism. Nobody said anything about a “Jewish cabal controlling Canada”. It is fair to question the extent to which some nations support Israel for their own geopolitical reasons.
I’m not saying the government of Canada itself is pushing down a narrative, or the Premier. I understand no such cabal of Jewish zionists exists.
However, when the institutions that protect Canada, such as the Police, are involved in this quasi Zeitgeist around several democratic countries to suppress criticism against Israel, that is just something that i believe we should be unwilling to accept for ourselves.
Whether it is motivated by historical guilt, zionist influence of key members of society, Israeli back door lobbying to protect its interests, anti muslim sentiment, terrorism fear or even just a misunderstood political correctness, it matters not. It is present between us and it is alarming. Many of Israeli actions go against our fundamental values and they should never be above criticism.