Commentary
The “war on Christmas” debate is an oldie but a goodie. It’s become something of an annual tradition to ask whether such a war is in fact going on or not. It’s usually reignited by a news story about a school replacing their Christmas concert with a “holiday concert” or a town that decides to stop putting up a Christmas tree.
This year though, the Israel-Gaza war has brought a troubling twist to the war on Christmas. Pro-Palestine protesters have decided to target malls in Canada during this busiest shopping season of the year.
They’re promoting Dec. 23, a Saturday, as their “No Christmas as Usual” day. The planned location is Yonge-Dundas Square—shopping central for downtown Toronto and directly across from the Eaton Centre.
These sorts of tactics are clearly an attempt to disrupt the holiday season itself. This was how people rightly interpreted a viral video of a protest that took place at Ottawa’s Bayshore Mall. Last Friday, protesters chanted “while you’re shopping, bombs are dropping” immediately beside the spot where Santa was visiting with small children.
This is a special time for families. They’re not going to take kindly to a political disruption. That was the mall where we took our first child for his first visit with Santa 10 years ago.
I have good memories of that spot. I would not have wanted them sullied by such antics. These tactics are surely losing them more supporters rather than winning people over.
Chris Selley put it well in the National Post, writing of the protests: “It’s like anti-PR for the Palestinian cause—the intellectual equivalent of the cretins who ruin paintings and ask why we’re worried about them instead of climate change. It’s spectacular self-sabotage.”
The self-sabotage wasn’t limited to that Ottawa mall. There have been several protests in Toronto malls that have mostly taken place in front of the fashion chain Zara, which has become one of the targets for the protests.
It was in front of the Eaton Centre’s Zara that the now infamous “six feet deep” incident happened. A protester who received some negative feedback from an onlooker is seen shouting, “I’ll put you six feet deep … if you’re a man, come touch me.”
The police are reportedly probing the incident, as that’s a clear death threat. The man also made the threat in the direction of where police officers were standing, although it’s unclear if he was threatening the officers directly.
As if the threat wasn’t damaging enough, the man was masked—looking and behaving more like a militant combatant than a peaceful protester. Again, good luck winning supporters with that guy as your poster boy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in excerpts from a year-end interview with Global News that’s to be fully released on Christmas Day, criticized the mall protesters and said they shouldn’t be allowed to be there and indicated support for their arrest, if required. These are strong words coming from Trudeau, as he’s been criticized for not being firm enough on the more threatening elements of these protests.
It shows how little tolerance people have for these mall disruptions and for this war on Christmas, Hamas-style.
The other evening, I was driving across my east-end neighbourhood and was struck by just how many homes had placed holiday lights and elaborate ornaments. There’s also now an unspoken competition to feature increasingly elaborate blow-up displays. One house had an inflatable nutcracker statue that was over two storeys tall. It was an impressive display.
While people may begrudgingly accept how companies and public institutions are opting for neutral “holiday” events over loud and proud Merry Christmas celebrations, they aren’t holding back when it comes to their own homes. The Christmas spirit is alive and well.
These are the same families who are heading to the mall for holiday shopping and some Christmas cheer. It’s a huge miscalculation on the part of pro-Palestinian protesters to think their mall disruptions are a good idea.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
