A Big Newspaper Seemed to Menace Avi Lewis. Then, Media Crickets

Two weeks ago, one of Canada’s largest newspapers published what read a whole lot like an incitement to violence against NDP Leader Avi Lewis, prompting widespread condemnation.

Yet for some reason, there continues to be all but radio silence from mainstream Canadian media.

I searched all major news outlets’ websites and found that while all of them, aside from Global News, covered pro-Israel backlash to Lewis’s remarks about the genocide in Gaza (some with multiple op-eds), just four of those outlets published a six-sentence story that mentioned the threatening column published in the National Post, days after the initial threat, and not even mentioning Lewis in the headline.

Instead, that headline read: “After Arson Attack, Liberal MP Warns Violent Rhetoric Puts All MPs at Risk.”

Given the National Post op-ed has been online since Sept. 29, I feel pretty safe in voicing concern about the ongoing lack of coverage.

What did the opinion piece say?

The op-ed in question, titled “Yoni Goldstein: Jewish Law Tells Us How to Deal with Avi Lewis,” opens with a story that the author says is a “stark lesson in how Jews think about internal dissent.”

The lesson, Goldstein writes, is that “when a Jew endangers the Jewish community, the community is obligated to stop them.” In the story he tells, that stoppage took the form of the dissenter and his entire family being “swallowed alive” by the earth, and all his supporters being “consumed by fire.”

Yes, this was actually published in one of the largest publications in Canada. It gets worse, too.

Later in the piece — after coyly saying it’s “not clear you can draw a straight line” between Lewis’s comment about the genocide in Gaza and a shooting that a reportedly far-right, anti-vaccine antisemite committed at a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, that same day — Goldstein adds: “But, on their own merit, Lewis’ comments endanger Jews everywhere in Canada.”

The op-ed argues that when a Jewish person “presents a clear and present danger to the Jewish community,” “private” and “honest” discussions are no longer enough.

“When that happens, Jewish thought is much more forceful: you must prevent the perpetrator from causing harm,” Goldstein wrote.

Lest there be any misunderstanding about precisely what he meant, Goldstein then explains that when a Jew is a “rodef,” or “actively pursuing another with the intent to harm or kill them,” the law is clear that “a Jew is duty-bound to step in.”

The implication, to me, appears to be that Lewis is this “rodef.” That’s the same label that was lobbed at former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin during the Oslo Accords negotiations of the 1990s, repeatedly, until an extremist used the term to justify assassinating Rabin.

What did Avi Lewis say?

So what did the NDP leader dare to say to deserve this fate for himself, his family and all his supporters? Well, on Yom Kippur — a day of atonement for the Jewish community — Lewis posted his personal reflections, as a Jewish man.

“Tonight Yom Kippur begins, the most sombre moment of the Jewish calendar. It’s a time of atonement — a time to grieve those who have been lost, a time to acknowledge and take responsibility for harms we have caused, individually and collectively,” he wrote on X.

“For Jewish people, the personal has always been political and the political always personal. This year I'm reflecting on the fact that we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name. There are many other fronts where I have to do the work of repair. But nothing on this scale.”

The backlash was swift. Op-eds and tweets from pro-Israel voices quickly claimed he was collectively blaming Jewish people for the genocide in Gaza — a wilful misreading of what Lewis said.

He explicitly said “our part,” implying everyone has a part to do. He highlighted that the genocide is being committed in the name of his community and lamented that he and his community — like everyone else — failed to do their part to stop it.

Lest there be any confusion, Lewis clarified his statement in response to reporters’ questions.

“I did not blame Jews for the actions of the Israeli government, that’s simply untrue. Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel is antisemitic. I’ve never done it. I think it’s dangerous, and that’s absolutely not what I did,” he told journalists on Sept. 21.

“I spoke as a Jewish Canadian from a place of profound sadness on the day of atonement and a day of the deepest and most solemn reflection in our calendar, and said what many, many Jews feel, and many Jews have said: that we have not done enough as Jewish people among a family of faiths and communities around the world. Humanity has not done enough to stop an ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

Lewis added that he’s “not going to police how other people reflect on Yom Kippur.”

“I think it’s pretty ugly to see... this occasion being used to score partisan points. That, I won’t be doing that. That was a personal reflection that I know is shared by many people.”

The backlash and the silence

While Lewis’s tweet seems pretty cut and dried to me, especially given his later explanation, Canadian media latched on to the story and wouldn’t let go.

The Toronto Star, CBC News, CTV News and the Canadian Press all published stories on the criticism Lewis faced for his Yom Kippur reflections. The Globe and Mail published two op-eds and an editorial board reflection, all linking Lewis’s comments to the Belleville shooting, despite no evidence that the shooter was motivated by opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza but plenty of evidence he held far-right beliefs. In that leading national paper, Robyn Urback argued Lewis’s comments “should be disqualifying.”

Meanwhile, the National Post has published no fewer than four separate pieces on Lewis’s comment, including Goldstein’s.

All this coverage of Lewis being “criticized” for his Yom Kippur post focused on just two critical tweets. Both were from Liberal MPs.

Interestingly, multiple MPs have also criticized the National Post op-ed. Liberal MP Salma Zahid said it’s “hard to believe such an article was published,” adding that the “article should be withdrawn and [the National Post] should apologize.” NDP MP Don Davies called the piece “appalling, irresponsible and likely criminal.”

On top of that, seven major non-profits, including Independent Jewish Voices and Jewish Voice for Peace, have called for the federal government to stop subsidizing Postmedia if the National Post doesn’t take accountability for the article.

Despite all this, as of this past weekend, I still have found not one article published about this criticism in the Globe and Mail or the National Post. CBC did run this Canadian Press story on Oct. 2.

Most major media outlets wrote about the bad-faith outrage that followed Lewis’s Yom Kippur message. Few wrote a word about the target placed on his back by one of the largest outlets in the country — and those that did hid it behind an extremely vague headline.

Yes, it is dangerous and wrong to conflate Israel and Judaism.

That’s why it feels so incredibly backwards to see all the headlines about Lewis’s statement. We allow Israel to make this conflation but viciously attack a Jewish man for considering, on a deeply personal day, what more he could have done to say “not in my name.”

When criticizing Israel, even when one chooses one’s words carefully as I would suggest Lewis did in his statement, those words can be twisted to mean something damning. When those words, in their twisted form, are then used to threaten the life of the speaker and their family, suddenly those supposedly so concerned about language fall all but silent.

Canadian media must do better.