Canada excels as a creator of books, particularly fiction writing. Our authors are read around the world and loved by their publics. Canadian works of fiction show us to ourselves and, for the most part, are shorn of cultural hyperbole, political correctness, and many of the other things that make our current popular discourse seem vapid, nasty, and serially disappointing. In sum, there is much to be genuinely proud of when it comes to Canadian books and fiction writing. It is one of the few areas of our common culture we haven’t screwed up—until now.
Today, Canadians are being encouraged to join a “DAY OF ACTION” against the country’s largest bookseller, Indigo Books, and its CEO owner Heather Reisman. It is part of an ongoing and sophisticated intimidation campaign called “Indigo Kills Kids.” The campaign site has already been ordered to blocked once, after a court injunction. Its proponents—the usual mix of social media agitprop types, BDS campaigners, and so-called “peace” activists—charge Ms. Reisman is involved in “the oppression of Palestinians and…complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Her indelible sin is to provide scholarships to former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF soldiers) who have no family support in Israel. The same foundation aids the Druze and Ethiopian communities—orphans and widows of terrorist attacks. All of these activities are charitable under our laws and admirable in their support for noncombatants and groups clearly in need.
Yet, as we know in post-October 7th Canada, no good deed that even has a hint of a connection to Israel can not go unpunished. Here Ms. Reisman is alas no stranger to antisemitic invective. Her flagship bookstore on Bay Street in Toronto was vandalized last November with red paint (e.g. a blood libel) and posters accusing her of “Funding Genocide.” It was, as the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies president, Michael Levitt, correctly identified at the time, “a vile antisemitic attack.” Toronto police initially charged 11 people with “hate-motivated” mischief and seven of the accused are now awaiting trial.
Today, once again, likely dozens of Ms. Reisman’s stores, normally places of book browsing, author talks and quiet coffees, will be sites of antisemitic hate and intimidation.
