If Canada were a Christian state

Someone once told me that Canada is a Christian state, because the major Christian holidays are legal holidays. I said that if Israel were a Jewish state in that sense, I’d have no problem with it. What would Canada be like if it were a Christian state in the same sense that Israel is a Jewish state? (I am ignoring the Green Line. Israel doesn’t put it on maps, so why should I?)

Well, for one thing, I would be very limited in where I could live, because almost all the land would be reserved for the use of Christians only. If I owned my own home and land, and had the documents to prove it, I might have to go to court over and over again to maintain my right to keep it. If a Christian wanted to buy my house, but I didn’t want to sell, armed Christians might just barge in, take it over, and force me out on the street. The government won’t stop them; in fact, it encourages them. It will send in soldiers to protect them.

Let’s say I have children, now grown up and wanting to get married. Could I build an extension on my house for them? Build another house on land I own? Not a chance. I’d never get a building permit. Christians get building permits with ease. Not me. If I built without a permit, my home could be demolished. Even worse, I could be ordered to demolish it myself. At any time the military could declare my land to be a closed military zone and kick me out. After three years it will become property of the state, at which point it will be handed over to Christians to build a subdivision. The army wants to take over my house and use it for a military post? No problem. Not for them, anyway. How about water? My house is not connected to the city water supply. Dig a well? Not allowed. I have a water tank on the roof. I have to buy water to fill it. And I’m lucky if someone hasn’t shot it full of holes.

If I had a garden, to grow vegetables for my family and perhaps to sell at a farmers market, I would not be allowed to grow anything that might compete with Christian farmers. The government might describe eggplants as a threat to national security.

I live in Toronto, but I want to go to university in another city. Or I am offered a job that requires me to travel. I have to get permission from the government, which is extremely unlikely to grant it. If I do travel, I will probably be strip-searched at the airport, a search which includes body cavities. This includes children and babies. Christians can travel with no problem.

I’ve met someone from another city. We want to get married and live in Toronto. I have to apply for status for him. This can take years, even decades, if it ever happens. I must also apply for status for my children. Unless and until they get it, they are not entitled to any government services, including health care and school.

Jews who don’t live or work in Toronto, but would like to go there from time to time, to shop or go to a concert or a show, can’t do it–not without a special permit anyway, which they are extremely unlikely to get.

Christians get the full range of government services: water at full volume 24/7, garbage pickup, mail delivery, street repair. Jews don’t, even though we pay the same taxes. And the Christians sneer at us for living in squalor.

There would be many jobs I wouldn’t be allowed to do. (This was true in Canada in the past, though not legally enforced. I delivered Meals on Wheels for many years, and one client was an elderly Jewish man who told me that in the 1920s, with a BA in chemistry–not common at the time!–he applied for a job that required him to state his religion. He was told sorry, they couldn’t hire him. He went to work in the garment industry, which was heavily Jewish.)

Christians are all drafted into the armed forces. Jews aren’t, and they aren’t allowed to join voluntarily. This is a serious matter, because there are jobs, government services, and even bank loans that you won’t get unless you are a veteran.

Schools are segregated by religion. Christian schools get several times the amount of funding as Jewish (or any other) schools. In fact, there are thousands of Jewish children who can’t go to school – there’s no room for them. The government controls the curriculum, and the police vet the teachers, principals, even the janitors for their political views. They recruit children to report on their teachers. In some places schoolchildren, even kindergarteners, have to go through checkpoints on their way to and from school. In others they are regularly attacked by Christians on the way to school. The army is supposed to protect them. Sometimes soldiers show up, sometimes they don’t.

Just about anywhere I go, even in Jewish areas, I have to go through checkpoints. I might be let through or I might not. I might be held there for hours. I might be treated with contempt–in fact, I probably will be–or even beaten up. Christians sail through. I can’t drive on the Queen Elizabeth Way or the 401, or any of the 400 highways–the major, fast, limited-access highways–or their equivalents in other provinces. Christians have one color license plate, non-Christians have another, so the cops can tell. I can’t even ride on them as a passenger. This is also true of certain city streets. This means, of course, that what should be a short journey turns into a long, roundabout, expensive one. It sheds a certain light on Canada’s boast about being “green.”

If I don’t keep my mouth shut, I could be arrested and imprisoned indefinitely, without being charged, let alone tried (or convicted). In fact, I could lose my citizenship for a “breach of loyalty.” Offences include saying or writing, even as a Facebook post, anything the government deems disloyal. Jews have been imprisoned for writing poems. They also include participating in unarmed protests, which are regularly met with violence, sometimes lethal violence, from the army and the police.

Come to that, they could shoot me, for any reason or none, with no consequences to them. Neither are there any consequences for the Christians who regularly invade Jewish neighborhoods looking for people to beat up. Especially on major Christian holidays.

Jews, including children, can be tortured in prison. The Supreme Court has outlawed torture, except in “cases of necessity,” and has left it to the government–in practice, to the military–to decide when it is necessary.

I once found myself in the involuntary audience of a man on a street corner who was inveighing against immigrants. Also among the listeners was an indigenous man who just chuckled and said, “except for me, you’re all immigrants.”

Jews in a Christian Canada would be regarded as permanent immigrants (or perhaps “infiltrators,” as Israel called Palestinians expelled in 1948 when they tried to return to their homes), and subject to expulsion, deportation, or worse. In this Christian state, Jews like me live on sufferance, which can be withdrawn at any time, for any reason or none. To borrow the words of the Dred Scott decision, as a Jew I have no rights that any Christian is bound to respect.