In late October, the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver (JFGV) urged Vancouver’s Langara College in the province of British Columbia to fire English instructor Natalie Knight for praising the savage October 7 attacks. According to CTV News, “Knight called the October 7 attacks by Hamas that left 1,400 Israelis dead and hundreds more kidnapped, ‘the amazing, brilliant offensive waged on October 7.’”
The CEO of the JFGV, Ezra Shanken, noted that “it’s a criminal offence to glorify terrorism in Canada, and believes authorities should act.” Langara College put Knight on leave, but apparently (in hindsight) only in order to calm the public outrage.
Fast forward to January 23: Langara College’s student newspaper, The Voice, “reported that the college would be reinstating Natalie Knight.” Knight then boasted:
“I’ve been reinstated as an instructor with no disciplinary actions, which means we won.”
As Dennis Prager recently noted about campuses:
Universities have become society’s primary breeding ground for hatred of Israel. This hatred is often so intense that the college campus has become a haven for people who use anti-Zionism to mask their anti-Semitism.
In Knight’s case, her antisemitism was blatant, yet Langara College is sending the message that antisemitism, even to a level that breaches the criminal code, is perfectly acceptable.
Aside from the Langara’s reprehensible embrace of Knight, she has also escaped accountability for her breach of Canada’s hate laws, at least for now, as well as for “glorifying terrorism in Canada” — a country that insists that it has zero tolerance for hate.
“Vancouver Jewish Community Concerned by Possible Reinstatement of Langara College Instructor,” Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, January 24, 2024:
Vancouver, B.C. – January 24, 2024 – Yesterday, Langara College’s student newspaper, The Voice reported that the college would be reinstating Natalie Knight, who, at an October 28 rally, referred to the October 7 terrorist attacks committed by Hamas as “amazing, brilliant.”
Knight had been on leave since October 31, 2023, while the college conducted an investigation. According to The Voice, Knight spoke at a protest yesterday (January 23) claiming “I’ve been reinstated as an instructor with no disciplinary actions, which means we won.”
In response, Nico Slobinsky, Vice President Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said:
“Should Knight’s claim of reinstatement be true, it would be profoundly disappointing. This decision would send the very concerning message to Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff that antisemitism is tolerated at Langara College.
“As an instructor, Knight has a responsibility to create a safe environment for all students, as does the college. Her actions at the October 28 rally, where she referred to the October 7 terrorist attacks committed by Hamas – the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust – as “brilliant, amazing” compromised the safety of Langara’s Jewish community.
“Comments like the one made by Knight are not innocuous. Antisemitic rhetoric often results in real threats to the Jewish community in Vancouver. According to the Vancouver Police Department, police-reported antisemitic hate incidents increased by 62 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.
Also responding, Ezra Shanken, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, said:
“Langara College’s decision, if true, is very upsetting for our community and for all Canadians who stand against terrorism…
Hoi Polloi says
Now charge her according to the laws she broke.
Not A Muslim says
But Zionists control everything!
I AM THE INFIDEL YOUR ALLAH WARNED YOU ABOUT says
How? Please explain? Or is it from fake information you acquired from the internet?
Just curious
Ben says
Hamas supporting trash deserves to be taken out.
Walter Sieruk says
That collage teacher who said that awful statement must, without, doubt, must be ,at heart , a terrible lawless women. for in any way speaking in admiration for those evil malicious death inflecting Muslims terrorists of Hamas who invaded Israel on October 7th. 2023 and committed mass murder and butchery on the peaceful Jewish citizens of the State of Israel.
The only good thing about that day was that troops of the Israel Defense Forces came to fight against those Muslims savages of Hamas. It would have been best if the IDF came sooner , butt nevertheless, they did come to strongly apposed ,with military might, those cruel vile and murderous jihadists of Hamas.
As all this is a reflection of what is printed in the Bible in Proverbs 28:4 which reads “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked , but such as keep the law contend with them.” [N.K.J.V.]
Mind watch says
She hasn’t won anything except first prize for the biggest disgrace to the human race She is, of course, deluded and seemingly a self-serving, self-indulgent half-wit who has joined the tribe of lefty, apologetic, do-gooder baboons. She’s a simpleton. Perhaps if this imbecilic sheep were put in a room for a while with the Israel parents of children who were raped, beheaded and burnt alive, she may acquire a little common sense, insight, and above all, decency – also taken down a few pegs.
I would imagine her scorn is borne of a hate of Israeli / Jewish people, for their treatment of Jewish people over the years. Most probably she is victim of propaganda, and ‘mentally’ swayed through her union with social media.
As mentioned so many times, Palestinian’s current circumstances are the cumulative effect of their particular character traits and every choice they have made over the decades in interacting with all the players in their region. Though I do believe there may have been some questionable Israeli area expansion over time, by and large Palestinians have reaped what they have themselves sown. Israel is certainly not responsible for their current predicament.
And what other factors have brought about Palestinian suffering?. For starters, Hamas mis-management (non-management), greed, self-preservation and theft of money and resources meant for Palestinian welfare, schools, housing and hospitals. Secondly, strict adherence to Islamic law and codes of conduct
and banning of anything that brings joy. Moreover as this vile religion (1.devoid of any valid divine verification 2. an expression of ‘earth-bound’ narcissistic, obsessional, mania character traits rendered in written text 3. punishes, subjugates and kills in the name of a myth) which pervades and permeates every aspect of one’s life, stifles any societal efforts to achieve prosperity.
So Natalie, before you open your gob, please try and think. By the way, though you did not commit the atrocities yourself, you are of the same mind as Hamas, and as such carry around a life-violating cruel intent. ‘Life-abides’ One day, somewhere at some time, ‘the pendulum will swing the other way’.
tim gallagher says
How evil would you have to be to praise the atrocities committed by hamas back in early October. People like this really deserve to be the victims of the same treatment that they are praising the scum of the earth from hamas for carrying out. Being raped, tortured and beheaded seems somehow appropriate for this woman since she thinks such behaviour is “amazing and brilliant”. Morally her mind must be a sewer to believe such stuff.
James Lincoln says
Canada seems to be falling faster than Biden’s poll numbers.
Billy Corr says
Natalie Knight will almost certainly land on her feet somewhere or other. She now has an indelible stain on her CV, however.
Viewed cold-bloodedly, the October 7th attack actually was both amazing and brilliant.
Amazing, in that the Hamas murderers, and those who directed them, thought that any good could come from it. Right now, over 25,000 Palestinians are dead and many more are bereaved, injured and maimed for life.
Brilliant, in that it instantly united the people of Israel as they have never been united except in times of existential threat.
Without Netanyahu’s folly in attempting to impose an ill-considered judicial reset – “reform” is a value-laden word which is wholly inappropriate – the Hamas gangsters would not have taken this fateful and disastrous step.
Netanyahu and his government seem to have assumed that Hamas and its allies could be appeased with increased amounts of work permits and relaxed border security.
Incredibly and incomprehensibly, Netanyahu’s government had even taken long guns away from the border communities in order to bestow them on the crass and uncouth settlers in Judea and Samaria, the people currently bullying local shepherding family and callously destroying olive groves.
Imagine if the twenty-plus border communities attacked had each had an armed guard of fifty or more, well-integrated with the local community. So far as I know, only a tiny handful of the communities attacked were in a position to defend themselves effectively.