He’s 88. And still fighting antisemitism

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CALGARY — “It’s worse now than I’ve ever seen it,” Ron Ghitter, a Jewish businessman and life-long human rights champion, says about antisemitism in Canada.

It’s been 80 years since the Holocaust. We teach school kids about Jewish history and fund Holocaust museums. We pass laws to punish hate crimes and launch human rights commissions to deter bigotry. And yet, this 88-year-old fellow Calgarian reports, disturbing anti-Jewish sentiments have revealed themselves following Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel.

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Anti-Israeli mobs block access to Jewish places of worship and public events. Post-secondary institutions struggle with demonstrations and encampments, and the potent implications for Jewish students. And there’s the vandalism of politicians’ offices: the Montreal constituency offices of federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller were recently defaced with an inverted red triangle, which suggests the vandals’ support for anti-Israel violence.

“It’s been with us for 2,000 years,” Ron says. “It’s never left. And you know, it’s always under the surface…. and when difficult times occur, then you need a scapegoat or something like that. It’s a good place to point your animosity,” he concludes.

“Some issues in life are just irresolvable,” he adds, with a penetrating look, “and the Middle East and antisemitism sadly fall into that category.”

Ron is a quintessential success story. He’s a real-estate lawyer who morphed into a developer; for years, he was a senior executive with Trizec Corporation and then co-founded Certus, a property development company. When we meet at his well-appointed corner office in a contemporary building just south of Calgary’s downtown, he’s keen to point out his latest construction projects across the street —“there’s the site of a new vet clinic, a new restaurant.”

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Immaculately dressed in a grey shirt and pants, he walks a wee bit more slowly than the last time we met, and he’s picked up a nasty cough on a recent trip to Iceland. But those twinkling eyes that miss nothing remain unchanged.

Alberta premier Peter Lougheed twisted Ron’s arm to run as an MLA, for two terms, and he became part of the Progressive Conservative wave, five decades ago, that swept out the long-standing Social Credit party. Among Ron’s proudest memories is the Lougheed government’s prioritization of the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Individual Rights Protection Act — these were the first two bills tabled by the PC government.

But these new laws — and the launch of a human rights commission in Alberta — didn’t put an end to hate crimes, Ron recounts. In 1983, following revelations that Jim Keegstra, a schoolteacher in Eckville, Alta., was teaching students antisemitic propaganda, there was a lot of pressure on the Lougheed government to do something. Somewhat surprisingly, Ron strongly advised Lougheed not to take the case to the courts.

(Antisemitism) has been with us for 2,000 years. It’s never left. And you know, it’s always under the surface

“First of all, I didn’t know if we could prove it. It’s a criminal charge and you need criminal intent,” Ron explains. “If Keegstra says I believe there was no Holocaust … that’s a good defence.”

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“Secondly,” he continues, “I remember going up and talking to Peter (Lougheed) about this … you are going to make him a martyr.”

Against Ron’s advice, the Lougheed government did charge Keegstra with the wilful promotion of hate and a legal circus ensued, ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court in 1996 with a conviction establishing the constitutionality of Canada’s hate speech legislation. As Ron predicted, the lawsuit emboldened Keegstra, giving him a national platform.

Ron is grateful Lougheed appointed him to head a committee to investigate issues of “tolerance and understanding” within Alberta’s education system. For 18 months, the committee travelled to every corner of the province, visiting schools and hosting public hearings to talk about racism and the duty of citizens to deal with hate-mongers; their 1984 report is still read by educators, Ron reports.

Ron’s preference, still, is to encourage citizens to deal with the issue of antisemitism in their day-to-day lives. Frustrated by politicians’ tentativeness, he’s launched a foundation, Dignity Forum, to respond to the dramatic rise in discrimination and hate crimes in Alberta. The group brought together 165 teachers in Calgary, to talk about how to deal with diversity in their classrooms, and a similar event is being organized for teachers in Edmonton.

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Ron’s not the kind of guy who waits around for government to fix the problem. And he has zero time for wasting time. In 1993, he was appointed to the Senate but retired ahead of schedule in 2000.

“I’m a great believer in the Senate if it’s structured properly,” he shares. “But it’s tokenism. That’s why I left early. You do some really good work in committee. There are some really good discussions. And there are some really honourable people. But when push comes to shove, you go through all that work and then the decision is made in the Langevin Block in the PM’s office.”

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather to advise the federal government’s efforts to “combat antisemitism and ensure Jewish Canadians are able to live with vibrancy, security and dignity.”

It’s largely cosmetic, Ron shrugs: “The Liberal government had Irwin Cotler, a brilliant man, very devoted,” he reflects. “He was a senior cabinet official and wasn’t really able to accomplish that much. And he tried.”

These issues are difficult, especially now, and Canadian institutions often seem unable to properly address them.

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Administrators at the University of Windsor recently agreed to a truce with anti-Israel protesters. The long list of concessions includes boycotting institutional partnerships with Israel universities until the “right of Palestinian self-determination has been realized” and disclosing public fund investments and better screening of where investments are made.

“They totally capitulated to the Palestinian position,” Ron declares. “If I was the minister of post-secondary education in the province of Ontario, I’d say ‘Hold on, you’ve gone too far, you exceeded your mandate.’ There are boundaries and there are red lines.”

Despite his exhortations — don’t rely on politicians, judges, human rights commissioners, university administrators or the police to stop hate — Ron has not given up on the potential of dialogue and understanding to counter antisemitism.

“It’s no easy route,” he says, “to bring people together. But I start off by saying, ‘You’re not born a bigot.’”

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