OP-ED: How Canada’s activism turned Iran’s slaughter into a non-story

Dotan Rousso writes, "The recent horrific events in Iran have exposed a deep and uncomfortable hypocrisy at the heart of the Western left, including here in Canada."

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Author: Dotan Rousso

The recent horrific events in Iran have exposed a deep and uncomfortable hypocrisy at the heart of the Western left, including here in Canada. For nearly two years, Canadian cities such as Montreal and Toronto have seen constant demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza and in open condemnation of Israel. Streets have filled with marches. Social media has overflowed with posts describing Israel as pure evil and calling for the end of the “Zionist entity.” Universities, unions, and activist groups have mobilized with moral certainty and relentless intensity.

Yet over the past two weeks, while ordinary Iranians poured into the streets of Iran, risking everything to demand liberation from one of the most brutal regimes on earth, those same voices were largely silent. As protesters were beaten, arrested, and killed by the regime, there was no comparable wave of demonstrations, no sustained outrage, no mass mobilization in Canadian streets. The silence was deafening.

This indifference is striking given the scale of the violence. In just over a week, estimates suggest that between 3,000 and 12,000 Iranian civilians were killed by their own government. Thousands more were injured. Many thousands were arrested and now face extreme punishments, including torture and execution. This was not a war. It was a deliberate slaughter of citizens by a regime determined to crush dissent.

The contrast reveals something important about the true motivations behind many of the demonstrations we have seen in Canada over the past two years. If this were genuinely about human rights, about solidarity with oppressed peoples, Iran should have triggered an explosion of outrage. Instead, it triggered almost nothing. That tells us this is not primarily about caring for others. It is about selective attention, driven less by compassion than by hostility toward Israel and, in many cases, hostility toward Jews.

For many of these activists, suffering only seems to matter when Jews can be blamed. If Jews cannot be cast as villains, the story loses its appeal. No Jews, no news.

This hypocrisy becomes even clearer when we compare the contexts. What is happening in Iran is an intentional massacre by a regime against its own people. By contrast, the war in Gaza was not initiated by Israel. It began on October 7, when Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza since its election in 2006, launched a deliberate and public declaration of war. In a single day, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250, including babies, toddlers, and elderly civilians.

According to Hamas’s own figures, roughly 70,000 people have been killed over nearly two years of war. Israeli intelligence estimates that nearly half of those casualties were Hamas fighters. These facts do not absolve Israel of all responsibility, but they matter. Yet for many Western activists, including in Canada, facts seem irrelevant. Context is ignored. Proportionality is dismissed. Moral judgment is pre-determined.

Meanwhile, the Iranian people are slaughtered in silence. Even worse, some activists go further, excusing or even implicitly supporting the Iranian regime because it positions itself as an enemy of Israel. As long as Israeli interests are damaged, the suffering of Iranians becomes an acceptable price.

Canadians should take a hard look at these demonstrations and ask what they really represent. What we are witnessing is not a moral compass. It is a moral failure. One that deserves to be exposed, challenged, and condemned.

For comments: dotanrousso@yahoo.com