A hypothetical siuation: What would people say if on the day following a suicide bombing, a group of smiling young arabs in Islamic Jihad tshirts proudly waved Hamas flags in the faces of grieving relatives?
In this photo, a woman sporting a tshirt and hat emblazoned with Israeli military logos demonstrates at a pro-war rally in front of the Israeli consulate in Montreal. The blue flag in the background is the flag of the Israeli Air Force (IAF). Just across the street are a group of anti-war demonstrators, many of whom are Lebanese Canadians with family in Lebanon. Some of their families have seen tragic loss at the hands of Israeli pilots in the past two weeks.
It is fair to say that if things were the other way around, the incident would likely make the front page of the Globe and Mail, their neoconservative pundits taking xenophobic jabs at the inhumanity of these “Canadian-born Muslims”. It is interesting to note that the equivalent term “Canadian-born Jew” has yet to enter the Globe’s vernacular.
Is what we are seeing a double standard? I liken it to what Noam Chomsky has dubbed the single standard — the pursuit of power interests with little concern for human consequences. And with the Canadian media becoming more concentrated by the day, their power interests gain strength through consolidation.
The bottom line? The odds of seeing a photo such as this in your local paper are fast becoming slim to none.