OP-ED: I confronted Olivia Chow face-to-face over her anti-Semitism

Sue-Ann Levy writes, "With a few others witnessing my comments, I called her an anti-Semite. I was passionate but not threatening in the slightest."

Source: Sue-Ann Levy

Author: Sue-Ann Levy

This past Saturday my wife and I ventured to a car show in our neighbourhood.

We arrived just as Mayor Olivia Chow was giving remarks about the automotive industry and her schtick about Canada not becoming the 51st state.

It’s a yearly event but I’m told this is the first time she’s graced Midtown with her presence.

She should have known she was turning up to a community where many Jewish people live, although it is lefty St. Paul’s.

I waited patiently until she was done and had left the stage before going over to her.

I reminded her of who I was, not that I look much different from the days I covered her at City Hall as a columnist for the Toronto Sun.

With a few others witnessing my comments, I called her an anti-Semite.

I was passionate but not threatening in the slightest.

Instead of engaging with me, she tried to beat a hasty retreat down the street.

I followed behind at a distance, shouting this time because she was trying to get away from me that she has ruined this city and that she’s the worst mayor ever.

When I got halfway down Eglinton, a menacing-looking man pushed me away and warned me not to get near her, even though I was nowhere near her and she was busy glad-handing and taking pictures with anyone who’d fawn over her.

To repeat, I was not threatening. I merely wanted to tell her to her face how vulnerable Jews like me in Toronto feel.

Instead of engaging, she ran away like the coward she is.

I asked the man who stopped me who he was. When he responded that he was a cop, I asked him three times for his badge number since he was dressed in plainclothes.

He would not say.

I later found out that he is PC Amir Elias, who was on the Sunshine list last year, making $145,000.

Moonlighting as Chow’s security is a well-paying gig.

And that was that until I got home and posted my encounter both on Twitter and on a private Jewish group on Facebook.

The FB post blew up, with more than 400 people thanking me and responding that they wished they’d done the same. A few said they’d encountered her at the Beaches Jazz Festival a day earlier and told her what they thought of her anti-Semitism as well.

Those following my Twitter feed helped identify the cop.

Here’s the thing. I have no regrets about saying what I did.

Anti-Semitic acts are out of control in Toronto and because Chow, her Hamas caucus on council and the police under weak chief Myron Demkiw (who blocked me on X for calling him weak) allow it to continue virtually unchecked, stories are now surfacing of people being called out by strangers for being Jewish.

My wife and I had the unsettling experience of trying to get into a Jewish fundraiser at Casa Loma at the end of May when masked protesters banged on my car and people screamed at us that we’re “baby killers” as we accessed the facility.

The police, as always, stood there watching.

Because there are no consequences for such bad behaviour and our feckless leaders have remained silent — Doug Ford included — while PM Mark Carney has chosen to play footsie with Hamas, it’s open season on Jews.

Trust me, it is no longer (and likely never was) about Gazans.

The Hamas-Israel conflict has given all the closeted (and not so closeted) anti-Semites license to come out of the woodwork.

In Valencia Spain, 50 Jewish children and their camp director were thrown off a plane to France for the terrible crime of being Jewish. There is footage of the camp director being abused and handcuffed by local police for refusing to delete the footage of the children being removed.

In Vienna a few days ago, three Israeli musicians were told to leave a restaurant after a waiter heard them speaking Hebrew.

Yes, the highly offensive act of speaking Hebrew.

Trust me, it won’t be long before these unspeakable acts occur in Canada.

I thought it grossly ironic that Chow had a menace-looking cop guarding her at taxpayers' expense while we Jews have had to deal with masked idiots threatening and intimidating us in Jewish areas and in downtown Toronto.

Never mind the security that each synagogue and Jewish organization has to now pay for whenever they hold an event.

It’s not just that.

It has become almost de rigueur that politicians, particularly the Liberal left, surround themselves with security and sycophants and ban those who criticize them on social media.

The legacy media ably assist them in their efforts.

They also use ridiculous rules, threats and even lawfare to quell dissent, but only from those of us with right-of-centre views.

Last I looked we’re not in Soviet Russia, at least not yet.

That is precisely why I spoke up on Saturday.

I wish more people would do the same.