The frontline of political conflict in Canada has shifted from the shouting matches of the street to the sanitized, surgical reality of Asymmetric Lawfare. In this segment on 610 CKTB with Gene Valaitis, I pull back the curtain on a coordinated “Regulatory Red Wedding” targeting Jewish summer camps—a quiet, bureaucratic siege where anti-Israel bigots have traded bullhorns for briefcases. By weaponizing the mundane machinery of government accreditation and charitable audits, these bad-faith actors are attempting a clinical financial execution on the few safe spaces left for Jewish children. This isn’t grassroots advocacy; it’s a targeted hijacking of our neutral institutions to settle international scores, representing a terminal threat to the core promise of Canadian democracy.
The evidence of this siege is found in the ledger, not just the headlines. From a staggering 14% “Antisemitism Tax” required just to maintain insurance and physical security, to the absurd “botanical erasure” of Jewish identity at the dining hall, the message is unmistakable. We are witnessing the systematic purging of Jewish civic infrastructure from the public square, forcing a community to defend its right to exist in the quietest, most innocent corners of Canadian life. This is the canary in the coal mine for neutral governance in Canada, and it’s time we call it what it is: a coordinated effort to erase Jewish life, one audit and one accreditation at a time.
Transcript (Generated by Gemini)
Gene Valaitis: He’s like the warning on a jigsaw puzzle box: Not for beginners. It’s Gene Valaitis on 610 CKTB, Niagara’s news and talk. Right now, on Tuesdays, we’re joined by our good friend Jon Liedtke. He’s a publisher, a journalist, a broadcaster, and he always has the best stories. Good morning, Jon.
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: You know, when I was introducing the piece, I was saying how geopolitical warfare is striking summer camps, and it all has to do with antisemitism. And Jon, when I think of summer camps, I think of A) learning how to canoe, B) arts and crafts, a bonfire, s’mores, and laughing and having a good time. Tell us this incredible story. Quite frankly, I can’t believe it, but it’s happening, and I know you’re angry because you are an advocate for the Jewish community in Ontario.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, I’m spitting fire mad about this one, Gene, but before we look at the specifics of these camps and this campaign, we have to recognize the frontline of political conflict in Canada has shifted. We’re not seeing protests against Israel or, you know, what’s going on in the Middle East outside of synagogues or Jewish community centers or Jewish neighborhoods anymore, as vile as that was. We’re now seeing administrative quiet coordinated seizures of civic infrastructure.
It’s 2026, and the rules of the game are being rewritten. It is this asymmetric warfare. The anti-Israel protesters, activists, bigots if you want to call them that, have stopped shouting at the gates, and they’re weaponizing the mundane machinery of accrediting organizations and government itself. They’re betting that Canadians aren’t paying attention to these administrative filings, and that’s where this regulatory red wedding is taking place. The neutrality of our institutions is being betrayed to settle international scores thousands of miles away, rooted thousands of years in the past.
We’ve traded capture the flag and friendship bracelets, or canoeing like you said, for geopolitical warfare, and campfire stories for coordinated ideological hit jobs. History is screaming at us, and we’re just acting like it’s a paperwork error.
Gene Valaitis: Okay, explain it. Explain what’s going on to me like I’m a twelve-year-old. What exactly, specifically, what is happening?
Jon Liedtke: Sure. So, this is lawfare in its purest form. There’s a coordinated group, it’s Just Peace Advocates. They’re targeting 17 Jewish summer camps, and they’re flooding the Ontario Camp Association. This is the accrediting organization with demands to revoke accreditation from Jewish summer camps because of their connections to Israel. They have brought in Israelis, they’ve brought in former IDF members, they have a direct connection to Israel because these are Jewish summer camps, and these organizations take offense to that.
They’re trying to get the executive directors of camps fired for being pro-Israel, or one would say, you know, potentially just Jewish because 90% of Canadian Jews recognize that Jews have a right to live in their ancestral homeland, that is Israel. So, they’re not trying to win debates here. They’re trying to perform financial executions on community institutions.
And the most insidious part is the administrative gaslighting. When these camps are being targeted, the response from our backbone of jellyfish leaders is just to investigate all of this. But by even entertaining complaints about camps that are serving hummus or za’atar, which are actually some of the things that they listed as issues, these institutions are legitimizing this lunacy, and they’re effectively saying that Jewish existence is a policy debate that needs two sides.
And we’ve already seen this red wedding of Jewish charities. In 2024, JNF Canada and the Ne’eman Foundation were both revoked. And then in 2025, Herut Canada and the Amunim Fund were both revoked. This is a regulatory nightmare where these organizations have been fundraising for decades in full compliance, but something changed, Gene, after October the 7th, and these complaints started to come in. It’s insidious.
Gene Valaitis: Oh, here we go. Is this the old genocide routine?
Jon Liedtke: Oh, you’re absolutely right. It is the old genocide routine. It’s the baby-eating routine. What they’re doing is they’re trying to frame Zionism as a fringe extremist belief, but that’s not the case. 94% of Canadian Jews believe in the right to self-determination. That’s the global standard across the G7 and the EU as well.
These activists, they’re applying a bigoted litmus test to nine out of ten—nine out of every ten Jews globally, for the most part. And if you don’t pass that test, you don’t belong to be in a Canadian summer camp.
And the audit community is exhausted, Gene. We’re exhausted. Jews are exhausted.
Gene Valaitis: Well, correct me if I’m wrong here, but Israel did not initiate the attack on the 7th of October, but they did defend themselves, and they have the right to defend themselves. So now this organization, interestingly enough, with Peace in its name, is going to destroy summer camp for little kids who just want to do what they do at summer camp?
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, and you know, it’s like when people start bringing out the most ridiculous of arguments, you know that they’re going off the rails with this, and it’s really absurd. They’re actually claiming that serving za’atar or hummus is cultural appropriation.
Gene Valaitis: What?
Jon Liedtke: They’re attempting botanical erasure of Jewish history, Gene. They ignore that Jews have used the chickpea and the hyssop plant during the era of the Old Testament when it was daily news back then. They’re trying to regulate what kids eat in lunch to prove a political point 9,000 kilometers away.
They’re labeling ancient Jewish staples as stolen. They’re attempting the normalization of the exclusion of Jewish life. They’re trying to make Jewish identity controversial in the dining hall. And if they do that, they win the propaganda war without even having to have a debate. Quite frankly, it’s a level of micromanagement that makes the Seinfeld Soup Nazi look as Zen as a yoga instructor.
But it goes even further. They’re even upset about using Arabic loan words like yalla or sababa in Israeli culture. They ignore that there’s 2 million Arabs who live in Israel and have lived in Israel since its founding in 1948. It’s obscene.
Gene Valaitis: So because a Jewish camp is serving hummus, they want to destroy a 12-year-old’s ability to learn how to canoe?
Jon Liedtke: Well, because they view the 12-year-olds as complicit, Gene, in the machinery of the war. And they think that by protesting to strip children’s summer camps of legal standing, that they’re going to win.
But quite frankly, they’re crossing the line from activism into administrative lawfare. I mean, these Jewish institutions right now are paying a 14% what’s being called an antisemitism tax, because they’re having to pay for increased security costs just to keep themselves and their members safe. That is reflecting into insurance costs which are going up with their premiums because of a heightened security environment.
We’ve always talked about how Jews are the canary in the coal mine, and the canary is screaming right now. If we allow our administrative systems to be hijacked as proxies for foreign conflicts, then our neutral governance is dead.
But let this sink in. This is where it’s really, really insidious. Jewish Canadians only comprise 1% of the population, but we’re 68% of all religiously motivated hate crimes. Think about that. A Jewish Canadian is 25 times more likely to experience a hate crime than any other citizen in Canada.
So if the government stands by while this is happening, it’s not just failing Jewish children, it’s failing the core promise of Canada itself. We cannot solve this targeted siege by both-siding the definition of the attack. We have to call this out for what it is. It’s a coordinated effort to erase Jewish life and Jews from the Canadian public square, one audit and one accreditation at a time, and we all have to stand up against it, Jewish or not.
Gene Valaitis: Jon, you always bring the best stories to the table. Thanks to you for making us aware of this. I appreciate it.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you so very much, Gene, for the opportunity to discuss it.
Gene Valaitis: All right, there he goes, Jon Liedtke. Man, he has the best stories, doesn’t he? I had no idea this was going on. Wrecking a summer camp because you’re serving hummus. Oh man. Religion. It’s so comforting, isn’t it?
This aired on 610 CKTB
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