The tragedy of October 7, 2023 is not only personal with the murder and kidnapping of my parents and friends. It is also a warning that underlines the urgency of fighting terrorism to protect democratic and secular values of which Quebec is an example.
On that fateful day, my parents, Judi Weinstein and Gadi Haggai, and my friends from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where peace, equality and secularism are fundamental values, woke up on what seemed like an ordinary Saturday.
At 6:50 a.m., that peace was shattered when my mother texted that they were going to take cover from “hundreds of rockets.” I asked her to let me know when she was safe. That was the last time I heard from him.
My mother, Judi, was not only a mother and grandmother, but also a teacher and poet who helped children and adolescents traumatized by Hamas bombings overcome their anxieties. My father, Gadi, a jazz musician and chef, always stood for justice and unity. They built a life of love, peace and compassion — the values that Quebec defends.
My parents and friends were, on October 7, 2023, among the 1,200 people killed and more than 250 innocent hostages kidnapped. One in four people on my kibbutz have been murdered or kidnapped, including women, children and the elderly.
For months we didn’t know what happened to them. After 83 days, we received the inhumane confirmation that they had been murdered and their bodies were being held as bargaining chips by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
My 8-year-old son, their first grandchild, keeps asking, “Mom, if they are dead, why is there no grave I can visit?” »
No mother should have to answer such an inhumane question, and no child should have to ask it.
Bringing our shared values home
Terrorism and extremism are global threats that attack the very fabric of democratic societies. It is distressing that people with radical ideas like Charlotte Kates, one of the leaders of Samidoun — an organization newly included on the Canadian list of terrorist organizations — are moving freely across Montreal to preach chaos these days.
The presence of Charlotte Kates also upset the special rapporteur of the United Nations (UN), Francesca Albanese, who decided to cancel a speech she was to give at a joint conference on Saturday, in order to avoid unnecessary controversy.
Our government must act by holding accountable those who allow such ideas to circulate. We cannot allow terrorist groups to operate here, or extremist ideologies to infiltrate our communities.
To ignore these threats is to erode the very freedoms we claim to protect.
By opposing terrorism, we defend the memory of those who lost their lives and the freedoms we hold dear. By opposing terrorism, we honor the lives of my parents and those still held in captivity.
We cannot rest until all the hostages, living and dead, have been freed and we cannot allow fundamentalists and the entryism they promote to reshape the Quebec we love.
Let’s come together to demand accountability and bring the body of my Canadian mother, Judi Weinstein, home.
It’s not just a call. Bring them home “. It is also a call to safeguard our common values.
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