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.
Her employees will be harassed and threatened by protesters. Her customers turned away in droves. Expensive security measures will have to be put in place. The result of it all will be Ms. Reisman’s business materially damaged and the harmless pastime of looking for that great next book to read ruined for thousands of people. All for one simple reason: Ms. Reisman is a prominent member of the Jewish community who decided to create a foundation to provide scholarships to former IDF soldiers.
How did we get here? Where is our decency? Or respect for each other and our differences? Instead, too many of us are content to gorge on slick antisemitic campaigns like “Indigo Kills Kids” while cosplaying free speech warriors and righteous protestors. We revel at the prospect of protesting in the hundreds (let’s just call it what is: a mob) in front of a Jewish-owned business that sells books (not bombs), accusing its Jewish CEO of the preposterous crime of “complicity in genocide.” We are plumbing new lows in post-October 7 Canada where antisemitism isn’t simply tolerated, it’s encouraged and valourized.
Caption: A vandalized Toronto bus shelter featuring ads for the “Indigo Kills Kids” campaign. Photo credit: @DrJacobsRad
And where frankly is the counter-outrage about the tolerance of blatantly antisemitic acts like today’s “Indigo Kills Kids” protests? What politicians will be showing their support for Indigo Books by going to a local store, braving the protests, and buying a book to support a business that is being targeted and materially harmed solely because its owner is Jewish? I expect they will be few and far between. The same goes for Ms. Reisman’s fellow Canadian CEOs who likewise have remained all too quiet in the face of rising antisemitism and to a one have not publicly condemned this latest vile attack on Indigo Books.
I wonder about the books our fiction writers will pen about us in the years to come. What will they say about these increasingly hate-filled moments in our history? What will we see in these works of fiction? Will they be stories of courage, compassion, and humanity? Or will future Canadian bestsellers be something closer to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road? I fear the latter. The fact is our action (or inaction) today in the face of rising antisemitism isn’t simply a verdict on present-day Canada, it is a struggle for how we will see ourselves for years to come.
If you are out and about today, drop by your local Indigo. Show your support for a business that is the primary means for most of us to enjoy reading books and tap into a part of our collective culture that remains enriching, substantive, and something other than completely crazy. Do it not because the owner happens to be Jewish but because this isn’t a factor in how a decent society thinks and acts. It is time to start pushing back. The cause of Indigo and Heather Reisman is a worthy one. Go buy a book.
Rudyard Griffiths is the Chair of the Munk Debates, moderator of the 2015 Munk Debate on Foreign Policy, and publisher of The Hub. ...
