By Howie Silbiger, Editor-in-Chief
What happened in Ottawa was not a mistake, not a misunderstanding, and not some innocent booking error. The Senate of Canada knowingly handed over its space to a tribunal that existed for one purpose: to smear Israel, rewrite October seventh, and pump out some of the most hateful, dishonest garbage I have ever seen presented inside a Canadian institution. And no one stopped it. Not one person stood up and said, enough, this is not happening here. That silence is the part that should make every Canadian angry.
Inside a Senate room, speakers calmly accused Israel of genocide while a ceasefire has been in effect. They glorified terrorism as resistance. They justified the slaughter of Jewish families as if it were a noble act. One speaker even claimed that Israeli dogs raped Palestinians. Dogs. Raped. Palestinians. In the Senate of Canada. That alone should have triggered outrage from every corner of government. Instead, it rolled on. Business as usual.
The tribunal wrapped itself in the language of seriousness. Panels. Chairs. Witnesses. A timetable. All the procedural decoration in the world does not change what it really was: a political stunt designed to delegitimize Israel and brand Canada as a co conspirator. The conclusions were already written. The testimony was just window dressing. Every institution in this country was portrayed as complicit. Universities. Charities. Media. Immigration. Even arms regulations. According to this tribunal, everything Canada touches is part of some imagined anti Palestinian machine. It was absurd, but they delivered it with straight faces because they knew no one in the building would push back.
The lineup of speakers was predictable. Activists who treat every Israeli action as an atrocity. Former UN officials who have built entire careers out of singling out Israel while ignoring every actual dictatorship on the planet. Lawyers who arrive with prepackaged talking points about Zionist crimes. Student activists who walk into a Senate room and act like they are the moral authorities of the country. And then there were the ones demanding Canada pay reparations. As if this country somehow owes money for defending a democratic ally from terror.
And yes, this is where it becomes even more disturbing. Two panelists have documented links to groups that Canada itself has labeled as tied to terrorism. Yet here they were, comfortably seated in a Senate venue, giving moral lectures. A former UN rapporteur with a long history of pushing antisemitic narratives took the microphone over and over again. He had been questioned at the border before entering Canada, and the tribunal spun it into a dramatic story about government intimidation. Give me a break. Every country screens people at the border. The only reason it became a narrative is because the tribunal needed a villain.
Jewish community leaders did exactly what the Senate itself should have done. They called it out. They said the obvious truth. The Senate gave legitimacy to people who excuse the torture, rape and murder of Jews. That is not activism. That is not academic discourse. That is hate, packaged for polite Canadian audiences. And the fact that it happened in a parliamentary building should terrify anyone who still believes this country has red lines.
The Senate has said nothing. No explanation. No apology. No recognition that they allowed a platform for some of the ugliest rhetoric this country has seen in years. The message is clear. There are no guardrails anymore. If you frame it as a human rights event, you can say anything you want about Jews and no one in Ottawa will blink.
Clips from the tribunal are already being shared online. Look at the setting, they brag. Look where we held this. The Senate of Canada. This is exactly what they wanted. They wanted the optics. They wanted the veneer of legitimacy. And the Senate gave it to them without a fight.
This is not about Israel’s policies. This is not about debate. This is about the Canadian Senate handing its space to people who defend the worst attack on Jews in modern times. If that does not make Canadians furious, then we have a much bigger problem than a single tribunal. It means we have forgotten what hate looks like when it dresses itself up and walks through the front doors of Parliament.
Howie Silbiger is the host of The Howie Silbiger Show on Truetalkradio.com and Political Hitman on Israel Newstalkradio.com. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Montreal Jewish News.
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