What Toronto’s Jewish Voters Should Know About George Smitherman

Today, George Smitherman publicly boasted of his recent endorsement by the Canadian Arab Federation.

Among other things, this group has:
•    Distributed flyers encouraging delegates to the Liberal leadership convention to vote against Bob Rae because his wife is Jewish
•    Stated that Mr. Rae’s wife “supports ethnic cleansing”
•    Stated that they “don’t want another Zionist as Prime Minister”
•    Called for Hamas and Hezbollah to be removed from Canada’s list of banned terrorist organizations
•    Called terrorist organization Hezbollah a “symbol of the struggle against Israeli injustice and oppression”
•    Supported the call for a boycott of all Israeli goods
•    Called for the repeal of the $1B per year Israel-Canada Free Trade Agreement
•    Publicly attacked Mayor David Miller for participating in the UJA Walk for Israel fundraiser
•    Called moderate Muslim leader Tarek Fatah a “house negro” who “serves Zionist masters”
•    Called immigration minister Jason Kenney a “professional whore” after he revoked their funding following their numerous hateful anti-Israel comments
•    Sponsored an essay competition in Toronto high schools on the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine”

Additionally, a VP of the group was forced to resign after declaring July 1st to be “Fuck Canada Day” and stating that he “couldn’t be more ashamed to be Canadian.”

Their current VP was also recorded physically assaulting a blogger who was filming him while he led a protest against a visit to Toronto by Israel PM Netanyahu.
As if accepting this endorsement and publicly boasting of it were not enough, Mr. Smitherman today attended a debate sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, of all places, where candidates were asked about the inclusion of the group “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid” which participated in the taxpayer-funded Pride Parade. While candidates Rob Ford and Rocco Rossi stated that city funding should be revoked if this group is again permitted to participate, Mr. Smitherman refused to join in this call.

Given Mr. Smitherman’s willingness to embrace organizations plainly hostile and hateful towards our community, before we vote, we need to ask ourselves how our community would be affected if, G-d forbid, he were ever to become mayor of Toronto.