JCCMontreal@jcc_montreal
Vanier College’s decision to cancel its annual Holocaust memorial is a disgraceful act of capitulation.
Let’s speak plainly. When a Holocaust commemoration is deemed a “security risk,” that is not a reason to cancel the event, it is proof that something has gone deeply wrong. In Montreal. In Quebec. In Canada.
A ceremony to remember the murder of six million Jews should never require a risk assessment. The fact that it now does tells you everything you need to know about the state of our institutions and the failure to confront the hatred that has been allowed to grow.
Instead of addressing that reality, Vanier chose the easier path: cancel the event, silence the moment, and hope the problem disappears.
It won’t.
We also know that a Holocaust survivor was prepared to speak. Think about that. One of the last living witnesses to history was ready to share her testimony, and an institution of higher learning decided that it was safer to cancel her than to stand behind her. Cowardice.
If Vanier believes there are people on campus who pose a threat to a Holocaust memorial, then the question is not whether the event should go ahead. The question is why those individuals are there in the first place, and why they are being accommodated instead of confronted.
A society that treats Holocaust remembrance as dangerous needs to start asking hard questions about who it is admitting, what values it is tolerating, and why basic standards are no longer being enforced.
Cancelling this event sends a clear message: intimidation works, and Jewish history is negotiable.
That is unacceptable.
Vanier College must reverse this decision and proceed with the commemoration. Anything less confirms that the institution is unwilling to defend even the most basic acts of remembrance when it matters.
And if that is where we are as a city, then we are facing a far more serious problem than a single cancelled event.
