Western Standard - December 14, 2023


The shameful and hateful behaviour of Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

195.09132

Word count

1,036

Sentence count

70

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Mayor Jodi Gondek boycotted a Hanukkah menorah lighting in Calgary because of a poster with the words "Support Israel" on it. She tried to distance herself from the event, but it was too late.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 What is the special role of a mayor?
00:00:03.200 Well, the role of being a mayor is to speak for the city or town represented.
00:00:07.260 They're the representative of the people.
00:00:09.380 While the mayor is political by nature, of course, they're elected there,
00:00:12.480 and they're going to hold political views,
00:00:14.140 they're expected to set the personal politics aside
00:00:16.860 when they're at functions representing constituents.
00:00:20.440 Calgary Mayor Yodi Gondek threw all that out the window
00:00:23.860 when she allowed her anti-Semitic views to dominate her actions 0.89
00:00:27.400 and boycotted a menorah lighting in Calgary.
00:00:30.620 Now, the lighting of the menorah has been a tradition in Calgary's city hall for 35 years.
00:00:36.060 Mayors of multiple faiths have diligently attended
00:00:38.640 and respectfully taken part in the joyous Jewish tradition
00:00:41.740 of celebrating light over darkness with the lighting of a menorah.
00:00:45.540 It kicks off the observance of Hanukkah 0.96
00:00:47.480 and offers a bonding event for Jews and non-Jews alike.
00:00:51.740 But Gondek went and cast darkness over the tradition
00:00:54.100 as she misrepresented what it was about
00:00:56.360 and then boycotted it as publicly as she could. 0.63
00:00:59.160 She brought shame to the office of mayor 1.00
00:01:00.900 and by extension to the city of Calgary.
00:01:04.020 Gondek's snub of Calgary's Jewish citizens
00:01:06.140 had the opposite effect she hoped for, though.
00:01:08.300 The event enjoyed record attendance
00:01:10.440 as the city hall atrium was packed
00:01:12.260 and overflowed into the hallways of the building.
00:01:15.740 The only complaint I have of the event,
00:01:17.080 I went there myself,
00:01:17.860 was how the uncomfortable heat was generated
00:01:19.680 with a room jammed with so many people.
00:01:22.160 And for those who've never attended one,
00:01:23.700 just imagine a menorah lighting is something like a Christmas concert.
00:01:26.840 Most, you know, Canadians have been to one of those.
00:01:28.640 Yeah, there's a bit of a religious element.
00:01:30.480 Most of the affair is focused on community bonding
00:01:32.480 and having a good time.
00:01:33.900 There was music, dancing, food,
00:01:35.860 and children's choirs sang traditional songs.
00:01:39.180 It wasn't politicized,
00:01:40.380 and it certainly wasn't a rally or a hateful event.
00:01:43.100 So, why did Gondek go out of her way to discredit herself
00:01:47.400 and embarrass the entire city of Calgary
00:01:49.480 with her attack on the event?
00:01:51.460 Well, there was a poster that came out days before the event,
00:01:54.320 and it had the words,
00:01:55.440 Support Israel on it. 0.82
00:01:57.340 Yes, Jews were supporting their traditional homeland
00:02:00.480 of thousands of years.
00:02:02.280 Neither the poster or the event spoke of supporting the war
00:02:05.200 or supporting the government of Israel.
00:02:07.380 Those are different things.
00:02:08.240 It was simply a statement of support for a country
00:02:10.200 that the vast majority of Canadians agree has the right to exist.
00:02:14.120 In trying to call that statement controversial,
00:02:17.340 Gondek's mask vanished.
00:02:18.860 She's among those extremists who feel Israel shouldn't exist.
00:02:22.460 She feels Jews shouldn't be able to even express the desire
00:02:25.640 of wanting to maintain the nation of Israel.
00:02:28.580 Supporters of Gondek's vile stance
00:02:30.480 have also been falsely claiming that war bonds were sold at the event.
00:02:34.040 They're purposely misrepresenting the practice of giving out two Israel bonds.
00:02:38.780 These are savings bonds.
00:02:39.720 It's like you can get a Canada Savings Bond
00:02:41.120 to children at the event in a raffle.
00:02:43.920 It happens every year.
00:02:45.880 It has for years and years.
00:02:47.120 It had nothing to do with the war.
00:02:48.520 It doesn't matter.
00:02:49.320 Gondek keeps doubling down.
00:02:50.560 She keeps talking about this.
00:02:52.540 When Gondek snidely told organizers she wouldn't attend,
00:02:55.340 they did at least ask.
00:02:56.740 They tried negotiating.
00:02:57.660 They said,
00:02:57.980 could you quietly step out of the role?
00:02:59.860 She said,
00:03:00.300 no,
00:03:01.200 no.
00:03:01.800 She wants to make noise about it. 0.80
00:03:03.060 They said,
00:03:03.320 well,
00:03:03.460 if you're going to put out a press release,
00:03:04.820 will you show it to us?
00:03:06.240 So we can respond.
00:03:07.200 And she said,
00:03:07.600 no.
00:03:08.300 And she put out a charged release full of misinformation about the event.
00:03:11.560 Now,
00:03:11.740 condemnation of Gondek's move was immediate.
00:03:13.860 And aside from among some extremists,
00:03:15.660 it was universal.
00:03:17.720 Veteran Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid began a column with the words,
00:03:21.360 Jody Gondek is not fit to be the mayor of Calgary.
00:03:25.180 Braid's usually restrained.
00:03:26.740 I mean,
00:03:26.940 he can certainly be cutting with his columns,
00:03:28.560 but he was clearly outraged by Gondek's repugnant actions.
00:03:31.760 And he's right.
00:03:32.680 Gondek isn't fit to be mayor.
00:03:34.660 Sadly,
00:03:35.080 it's going to be two years before Calgarians can do anything about that.
00:03:38.440 The day after the menorah lighting,
00:03:39.780 Gondek went on the Calgary radio show,
00:03:41.280 and while she was drawing condemnation and ire across the entire country over this by now,
00:03:45.740 rather than just showing a bit of contrition,
00:03:47.800 or even just going to carpet,
00:03:49.380 she doubled down. 1.00
00:03:50.480 She implied those sneaky Jews had pulled the wool over her eyes with the issuing of that poster. 0.99
00:03:55.240 The poster was issued well before Gondek's boycott.
00:03:58.640 And it was the same notion as nature as posters from years gone by.
00:04:02.800 Gondek has been roundly called out by several columnists and others
00:04:06.220 for spreading the old anti-Semitic trope about these sneaky Jews.
00:04:10.700 She remains defiant, though,
00:04:11.800 and unapologetic despite having offended Calgary's entire Jewish community,
00:04:15.020 and of course many people outside of the community,
00:04:16.900 during what are very challenging times.
00:04:19.120 All Gondek would have had to have done
00:04:20.680 is show up, smile, say some nice words, and move on.
00:04:25.980 But her loathing in the Jewish community just wouldn't let her.
00:04:29.000 Jews represent less than 2% of Canada's population,
00:04:31.680 yet nearly 70% of the reported hate crimes in Canada are against Jews.
00:04:36.000 As due to the sort of divisive, hateful leadership shown by people such as Jody Gondek,
00:04:40.840 along with the extreme union leaders and academics that have been out there spreading their garbage.
00:04:46.160 There's only one way to hold Gondek accountable, though.
00:04:48.380 It is up to voters.
00:04:49.780 She has to be fired in the next election, and it has to be done decisively. 0.56
00:04:52.900 Regardless, decisively, Calgarians are terribly apathetic when it comes to civic elections,
00:04:57.420 and the price of that indifference represents itself in mayors like Gondek.
00:05:01.260 Gondek's unfit to be Calgary's mayor.
00:05:03.600 Calgarians have to come out in force to let the rest of the nation know she doesn't represent them. 0.94
00:05:08.520 That means taking part in the next municipal election, and in force next time.
00:05:12.840 Calgary deserves better.
00:05:13.780 I mean, she's actually made me miss the head and inchie, and that's saying a lot.