An interview with the great David B. Harris:
Consider what emerged in 2010 when our premiere police force in Canada, the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), were in the midst of a community outreach program that was established a few years after 9/11. This program features, among any number of other things, “roundtables”, ethno cultural and religious community groups for adults and for youth. (…)
The invitation was to a so-called peace conference that was to be held at the Government Conference Center in Ottawa. When one examined the agenda that was then available a number of things struck the careful observer.(…)
The agenda listed as a moderator an Imam who was serving as Executive Director of the radical Canadian Islamic Congress. Also listed, were fairly significant academics from Iran, people who had presumably won the pleasure of the Islamic dictatorship running that unfortunate country. There was an individual from Iran who represented what was described as a peace organization. Alas, RCMP outreachers did not appear to notice what a quick internet search revealed: this dignitary’s “peace organization” had posted upon its website a gross caricature of an Orthodox Jew, complete with hook-nose and a top hat incorporating skulls.
A full-fledged community member of Ottawa’s RCMP outreach committee, had given the Conference invitation, agenda and poster to the officer, requesting that the latter distribute it. The community member? None other than a gentleman originally from Iran who had identified himself as heading an Iranian cultural organization. This organization had, as it happens, the same address as the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa. (…)
In the end, it was left to a federal minister to publicly order from the heights of the House of Commons of Canada that RCMP officers would, in future, not be permitted to attend hate meetings. It is remarkable to consider that this would have been necessary, but it is perhaps a sign of the times.
