YCL Canada Responds to National Post Slander, Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Editor, National Post

The continued slanderous disinformation campaign labeling anti-Semitic all those who condemn Zionism and Israeli’s occupation of Palestine is wearing thin.

Last week, the National Post newspaper targeted the brave students and educators at Toronto’s alternative Student School who have launched High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. The Post even steeped to red-baiting, saying that school coordinator Mr John Morton “refused interview requests from the National Post, but he outlined the school's continued support for such programs in a letter to the Web site Rebel Youth Magazine, a blog published by the Young Communist League of Canada.” (National Post, April 6th)

If The Post had done its homework, writer Dave Bowden would have found Mr. Morton’s supposed letter was simply an email widely circulated among the broad progressive majority in solidarity with the sovereign people of Palestine and outraged by Israel’s racist and brutal occupation, backed by US and Canadian foreign policy.

But then lack of fact-checking has never stopped The National Post from zealously churning-out Harper Tory capitalist drivel – attacking workers, women, youth and students, Aboriginal peoples, Quebequois, people of colour, Muslims and Arabs, people with disabilities, artists, you name it. The Post continually worships the market, while failing to make a profit from its own sales.

The Post’s inflammatory articles against the Student School have prompted an investigation into its coordinator. Youth today are widely condemned for not voting, and then publicly chastised when we do engage in politics. Teachers who try to encourage discussion in class rooms are singled out for special scrutiny. This does not foster an educational environment, it deliberately creates an atmosphere of fear aimed at stifling free speech.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. The shrill claims to the contrary do not cut ice in Canada, nor around the world. The Young Communist League of Canada warmly applauds and expresses our full solidarity with the Student School, which has also recently banned police from its corridors, and High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. Justice is on your side, as it is on the side of the Palestinian people.



Johan Boyden,
General Secretary,
Young Communist League of Canada
290A Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4K 1N6
416-964-3894
www.ycl-ljc.ca