Heritage Minister St-Onge won’t condemn antisemitic cartoon

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Canada’s heritage minister declined to condemn a cartoon published Wednesday by a French-language newspaper that was widely denounced as antisemitic and for which the newspaper apologized and has retracted.

When asked on Parliament Hill Wednesday about the editorial cartoon published by La Presse depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a hook-nosed vampire, a frequent antisemitic trope, Pascale St-Onge remarked that she would be “very prudent” on questions concerning the freedom of the press and refused to pass judgement.

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“With everything happening right now in the Middle East and the tension that it’s bringing Canada, as well because communities are feeling this conflict very profoundly, it’s normal that there is critique with such a cartoon,” she told reporters outside of the House of Commons on Wednesday.

She added in French the importance of having respectful and compassionate conversations.

Later in the day, St-Onge posted a tweet on X saying she supported La Presse’s decision to retract the cartoon.

“I am relieved that La Presse has taken down the caricature and has apologized. It was the right thing to do. There is no place for antisemitism in Canada,” she tweeted.

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The Serge Chapleau cartoon, which featured a hook-nosed, pointy-eared Netanyahu, was rendered overtop the famous photo of Court Orlok from the 1922 silent vampire film Nosferatu. The words “Nosfenyahu: On the Route to Rafah” was written in French.

Depicting Jews as vampires is a common antisemitic motif. Jews have been negatively depicted in art and literature as vampires since antiquity, based on ancient prejudices that Jews use the blood of Christians in their religious ceremonies, while Nazi propaganda also used illustrations of vampires to portray Jews as grotesque and savage monstrosities.

In a statement posted online, B’nai Brith Canada said that Pierre-Elliott Levasseur called the organization personally on Wednesday to apologize for the cartoon.

“This cartoon was completely unacceptable,” Levasseur reported told B’nai Brith.

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“We obviously have no excuse for this. We have removed the cartoon and will be publishing an apology later today.”

He told B’nai Brith that the cartoon had “slipped through the cracks” and that the company would be “dealing with” both the cartoonist and editor responsible.

The cartoon was removed from the digital-only newspaper’s website and replaced with an apology from La Presse Editor-in-Chief Stéphanie Grammond.

“The drawing was intended to be a criticism of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies. It targeted the Israeli government, not the Jewish people,” read the apology, published in French.

“It was unfortunate to depict the Prime Minister as Nosferatu the vampire, since this movie character was used in Nazi propaganda during the Second World War, as readers pointed out to us after publication.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later denounced the cartoon, saying “It is unacceptable to bring back antisemitic tropes and allusions like that. It is distasteful and exactly the wrong thing to do — particularly in these times.”

“It was good that (La Presse) apologized, but it never should have happened in the first place,” he said.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre tweeted on Wednesday, “The disgusting cartoon printed in La Presse this morning is a vile and deliberate act of hatred against (J)ews. In a time when antisemitism, the world’s most ugly and enduring form of hatred, is resurfacing, this garbage needs to be condemned clearly and unequivocally by everyone.”

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On social media, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner called out St. Onge for not condemning the cartoon.

“Suggesting that the circumstances/timing of the war between Hamas and Israel makes this permissible is disgusting. Suggesting this is part of a “respectful debate” is disgusting. Do better,” she tweeted.

“It shouldn’t be that hard to condemn anti-Semitism for a minister of the crown.”

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “This La Presse cartoon is vile, explicit antisemitism. Nosferatu was embraced by the Nazis, a depiction of Jews as vermin-like parasites feeding off gentiles. 3 years after Nosferatu’s release, Hitler published Mein Kampf with multiple references to the Jews as vampires.”

National Post

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