Anti-racism commissioner faces a call to resign
The city’s anti-racism commissioner, Bochra Manaï, is facing a demand to resign from a Jewish group that is not happy she hasn’t done more condemnation of antisemitism.
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AMF 22:38 on 2023-11-14 Permalink
Yikes. Not only has she been conspicuously absent, late, and mealy-mouthed in her condemnation of antisemitism, those posts are inflammatory and irresponsible, and she sounds completely unrepentant. This is a real Corbyn moment for Projet Montreal. I’ve been a member since the beginning but if this doesn’t get addressed decisively and quickly, I’m out.
Kate 22:55 on 2023-11-14 Permalink
I would’ve thought that, if you were an anti-racism commissioner, that your position against any form of racism was implied by your role. The mayor has spoken up against antisemitism and other forms of racism recently. How many city officials have to follow suit?
jeather 08:33 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
I feel that specifically the anti-racism commissioner needs to follow suit, and “well my job isn’t to deal with the public” is a poor response. It isn’t entirely clear to me what she actively supported/posted on facebook, but I don’t think going to a demonstration is necessarily a problem.
Kate 09:42 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
Bochra’s an academic and I’m pretty sure her role was mostly meant to be internal, not a PR‑type public‑facing exercise, although I can’t find chapter and verse on what she’s meant to do.
Granted, even if she didn’t feel it was her part to make a statement, someone could have given her a nudge – but then she would have to make a statement every time a news story involved implications of race, so’s not to show bias. It’s the kind of job that risks causing offense at every turn.
Joey 09:54 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
This molehill is being treated like a mountain. It’s pretty clear the underlying assumption is that she has ‘picked sides’ in this conflict and is, let’s say, unenthusiastic in her condemnation of attacks against the city’s Jewish institutions. One of her alleged facebook posts is a little too close to the “Israeli aggression justifies violence against Montreal’s Jews” – it’s not quite there, but it’s probably not what you would expect your anti-racism commissioner to be arguing: “Islamophobic and antisemitic reactions are strong, exacerbated by daily life in Palestine over the past 30 days. If the violence in Montreal must be condemned without any ambiguity, it is right here and now to call for an end to the offensive on Gaza.”
A more pertinent question: where is our darling new police chief in all of this? You’d think he would be all over the news, condemning these attacks, etc. Maybe he’s on a junket with the OCPM.
Chris 11:13 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
>…it’s probably not what you would expect your anti-racism commissioner…
It’s what I’d expect. “anti-racism” these days is often code for the type of person very into identity politics and intersectionality. And in that paradigm Israel is the rich white bad guy and Palestine is the poor brown guy. And therefore you must be on the side of the latter. (I’m not arguing for/against that worldview, I’m saying it exists. And that it’s exactly what I’d expect of an “anti-racism” commissioner.)
jeather 12:19 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
She didn’t need to talk about the war, that’s well out of her remit. However, after Jewish schools here have been shot, she should have made a comment just straight denouncing antisemitism here and not “well it’s pretty terrible in Palestine, too”. (It is! It’s worse there. But her job is not about international relations.)
Meezly 14:08 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
Manaï is Tunisian-Algerian and is also human. She clearly has a bias but is trying to maintain some neutrality, as she is the anti-racism commissioner after all! You can call her out for it, but calling for her resignation seems… not very constructive. Why not start a dialog with her instead of being so inflammatory and reactionary?
steph 18:06 on 2023-11-15 Permalink
If we start allowing groups of enormously diverse geographic origins and physical appearances to be races, next we`ll have the brotherhood knocking for recognition – and we don`t want that.