The Belfry Theatre in Victoria this month cancelled the award-winning and critically acclaimed play The Runner after anti-Israel protesters turned a community dialogue on the play into chaos, using bullhorns to drown out the discussion with hateful chants. The building was subsequently vandalized.
“[W]e believe that presenting The Runner at this particular time does not ensure the well-being of all segments of our community,” the theatre said in announcing the decision.
No one can blame the theatre, a small, community organization. The threat of political violence is real, as seen by the rage of the activists and the damage done to the physical property.
Nevertheless, the incident – and hundreds of similar acts of intimidation, threats, vandalism and violence across Canada by anti-Israel activists in recent weeks – is a sign of a serious rupture in Canada’s social fabric.
When radical extremists can achieve their ends through violence – or threats of violence – democratic values go out the window.
The issues at hand, to some extent, cease to matter. A conflict half a world away is tragic and Canadians of goodwill are rightly concerned about it.
But importing that conflict through hate speech, vandalism and violence sabotages Canadian norms of peaceful dialogue. Efforts, however misguided, at ensuring peace and human rights abroad have the effect of harming coexistence, multiculturalism and free expression here at home.
That is something all Canadians should be protesting – peacefully.
Pat Johnson, director
Upstanders Canada
