"I'd do this Again in a New York Minute"
By: DAN VERBIN
Published: March 17th 2010
?It?s remarkable,? Shurman told Shalom Life. He said that obscure blogs he has never heard of before are ?calling me every name under the sun.?
?The premise of the resolution was that your freedom of speech can never trump mine. That?s the essence of our country.? he said. ?When you say Israeli Apartheid Week, you curtail my ability to speak to that because you?ve already decided. That?s what (my resolution) was talking about. I could not debate the peace process in 12 minutes. I think I successfully debated an issue that effects publicly funded campuses in Ontario.? He said that security at Queen?s Park has vetted the emails to make sure that he is not in danger.
?I?ve received support from all my colleagues in the PC caucus, including today,? he said, noting that the rest of the Legislature is also supportive of him.
?The fact that she?s the one who?s apparently getting the death threats speaks to people who feel that her NDP affiliation has somehow been betrayed by the positions she took. I think nothing could be further from the truth,? said Shurman.
?DiNovo?s debate to the resolution was from all points of view quite benign,? Shurman said. ?What she talked about was trying to find a way for us all to live in peace with each other even though we have opposing views. She tried to address the central theme of the resolution which was if we sit down and talk about our differences in a respectful way then maybe we can find some resolutions.?
"I'd do this Again in a New York Minute"
By: DAN VERBIN
Published: March 17th 2010
After his motion denouncing Israeli Apartheid Week was unanimously passed by the Ontario Legislature, Thornhill Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman expected that haters and anti-Semites might crawl out of the woodwork.
What he did not expect was to be on the receiving end of the biggest barrage of hate he has so far received in his more than two years in office. Responses after the February 25 voice vote that condemned Israeli Apartheid Week, a controversial two-week long campus event that is highly critical of Israel?s treatment of the Palestinians, have been mostly negative. And while some of the correspondence has been of a supportive nature, a large number of the emails been hateful and anti-Semitic. Besides receiving multiple form letters from interest groups supporting Israeli Apartheid Week, Sherman has been addressed as the ?Minister of Kikes?, ?The Nazi? and called other terms using ?four-letter language? that he said he would rather not repeat.
With the Legislature?s unanimous denouncement of Israeli Apartheid Week featured in US, Europe, and Middle Eastern media and on many blogs, hate mail has come from all over the world, something that Shurman called ?unexpected? ? discussion of his resolution lasted only ?twelve little minutes.?
?It?s remarkable,? Shurman told Shalom Life. He said that obscure blogs he has never heard of before are ?calling me every name under the sun.?
Shurman, a former CFRB talk radio host, said that the intent behind his motion was to challenge the perception that Israeli Apartheid Week, on its sixth year, is an intelligent discussion. He said that the event centres on a false premise ? that Israel is an Apartheid state ? in an attempt to stifle free discussion of the Middle East.
?The premise of the resolution was that your freedom of speech can never trump mine. That?s the essence of our country.? he said. ?When you say Israeli Apartheid Week, you curtail my ability to speak to that because you?ve already decided. That?s what (my resolution) was talking about. I could not debate the peace process in 12 minutes. I think I successfully debated an issue that effects publicly funded campuses in Ontario.? He said that security at Queen?s Park has vetted the emails to make sure that he is not in danger.
?I?ve received support from all my colleagues in the PC caucus, including today,? he said, noting that the rest of the Legislature is also supportive of him.
Shurman is not the only Ontario MPP experiencing a hateful reaction to the Legislature?s vote. Several Liberal MPPS have also received hate emails.
Shurman noted that he is especially concerned about the reaction that MPP Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park) has received after she spoke in favour of his resolution in the Legislature. While Shurman has so far not received any death threats, the NDP MPP who is out of the country this week has received numerous threats, describing the backlash in a Toronto Star interview as ?unbearable.?
?The fact that she?s the one who?s apparently getting the death threats speaks to people who feel that her NDP affiliation has somehow been betrayed by the positions she took. I think nothing could be further from the truth,? said Shurman.
DiNovo, a United Church Minister, was accused on Facebook of brandishing the ?Zionist Playbook.? A discussion on website rabble.ca wondered if the MPP had ?self-destructed? or ?gone over the deep end.?
?DiNovo?s debate to the resolution was from all points of view quite benign,? Shurman said. ?What she talked about was trying to find a way for us all to live in peace with each other even though we have opposing views. She tried to address the central theme of the resolution which was if we sit down and talk about our differences in a respectful way then maybe we can find some resolutions.?
Shurman said that the volume of hate he has received is by far the biggest since he was elected, even outnumbering the emails he received after putting forward a resolution to end the contentious strike at York University a year and a half ago.
Given that many of the emails he has received contain ?appalling? hate speech, Shurman refuses to back down. He would not hesitate to put forward a similar resolution next year.
?I?d do it again in a New York minute,? he said. ?It was time that somebody shoved this stuff down the throats of the haters and I?m happy to have been an instrument of that.?