Jon Liedtke joined The Gene Valaitis Show on Niagara’s 610 CKTB discussed the resignation of Regional Chair Bob Gale following his purchase of an autographed 1924 copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Valaitis, the son of a Holocaust survivor, condemned the text as a hate manifesto, while Liedtke criticized Gale for omitting its title from his resignation letter.
They also discussed a $10 million federal security grant for the Jewish community, which Liedtke called “too little too late” amid a 124% spike in anti-Semitism. He noted that while Jewish Canadians comprise only 1% of the population, they face roughly 70% of religiously motivated hate crimes. Finally, both condemned Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow for attending a polar bear plunge instead of a press conference addressing recent shootings at three local synagogues.
Transcript (Generated by Gemini AI)
Gene Valaitis: Well here we are on Thursday morning and the big shocker, yeah they got it last night or this morning, and that is regional chair after 84 days Bob Gale has resigned after it was revealed that he purchased a copy of Mein Kampf which was written by Hitler back in 1924 when he was in jail, and it is an autographed copy of Mein Kampf. Many texts is coming in from the 905, “Good riddance Bob Gale.” Well that says it all for that person. Also from the Peace lady in St. Catharines, “Gene, I can understand wanting to read the book, but to purchase it, that is giving money to ugly.” Well you know what, I have to reiterate my position on this at least, you may agree or disagree, I respect your opinion. This is not a book. It’s not a book. It is a manifesto of hate which laid the groundwork for the Holocaust where millions of Jews were put into ovens and incinerated. My dad is a Holocaust survivor. I think the only reason he survived and he went to his grave thinking this as well was because he was a doctor and he could treat German troops in the concentration camp. When the Americans liberated his camp, he was basically a skeleton with skin and he just about died. So maybe if he hadn’t been a doctor, I wouldn’t even be here talking to you and my sister wouldn’t be alive either. So when I heard this news, I just said to myself, you really have no other choice but to resign. Now, you know if you take a look at his resignation letter, he hasn’t apologized, nor has he admitted that he actually owns the book. And a lot of the resignation letter if you read in between the lines, he’s saying that, you know, somebody did this because councilors want to keep their jobs and they were against amalgamation. That’s at least what I read in between the lines. So, you know it’s interesting that we have our good friend Jon Liedtke back on this morning. Hey Jon, are you there?
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: Listen, we were gonna talk about this government $10 million announcement, it’s called the Canada Community Security Program, and it will give the Jewish community about $10 million to help out with anti-semitism. Now, you know in 2024 B’nai Brith, of which you are a member and you do advocacy work for them, reported a 124% spike from 2022 in anti-semitism. And we were gonna talk about this program which you call “too little too late,” but then all of a sudden Gale resigns amid this controversy about having this manifesto signed by Hitler. So first, your reaction to the resignation?
Jon Liedtke: Well, you know, we’ve got regional leaders playing Antiques Roadshow with genocidal title manifestos while our community, the Jewish community, is literally under fire. Bullets are flying at synagogues. This is a dumpster fire, Gene. I am glad that he is resigning. I find it very interesting that he would not even note what the book’s name was in his resignation letter as if it was, you know, just some obscure thing that no one might know about. This guy knew it was wrong, that’s why he’s not even talking about it publicly right now and naming it, so I find it very positive that he decided to resign as quickly as possible.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah, it’s a, you know if, if you go to https://www.google.com/search?q=cktb.com and read Bonnie Heslop our news director’s really great reporting on this story, we have all the documents right there. And I suggest to our listeners, as Jon just pointed out, read the resignation letter because there’s more in between the lines than there is about the resignation itself. So Jon, let’s get to this Canada Community Security Program. Your impression, I mean you advocate for Jewish groups right across Canada. You say too little too late, explain.
Jon Liedtke: Well, I mean $10 million, great, but we’ve been two and a half years into regular hate marches throughout cities. We have seen synagogues, community centers, day schools and day camps targeted, some of them with just violent rhetoric or online postings, others to acts of physical violence, to firebombings, to shootings. It’s been absolutely terrible. So yeah, $10 million, thanks for it, but are you gonna actually do something about it? Still have the Mayor of Toronto refusing to show up at events or to really talk publicly about what’s affecting the Jewish community. So we do know as you mentioned that 124% increase in anti-semitism or Jew hate between 22 and 24, and right now we know that last year Jews became 25 times more likely to be targeted by hate crimes in Canada than any other group, religiously motivated hate crimes. Despite being only 1% of the population in Canada, Jews are the targets of roughly 70% of religiously motivated hate crimes across the country. We have that happening right now from Ottawa handing the money down recognizing that this issue is one that they do want to talk about, although tepidly it seems for some reason, to now shifting focus to your region in Niagara with this resignation, and the question is, what is going on in Canada right now, Gene?
Gene Valaitis: Well it’s shocking.
Jon Liedtke: It is. It is truly shocking, because one would think that after one firebombing, one shooting, one instance of actual, you know, just throwing rocks through a synagogue or something, it would be dealt with with a unified party by party basis. But we’re actually dealing with situations here where we have political party leaders, we have elected officials, we have community leaders who are refusing to stand in solidarity, stand with support, and instead in some cases actually coming out and saying, “Hey, maybe this is your fault.”
Gene Valaitis: Well, you know I found it shocking that the mayor of the largest city in Canada, Olivia Chow, did not attend that news conference to speak to the three synagogues that were shot up in the greater Toronto area last week, but instead chose to go to a polar bear plunge at the Metro Zoo.
Jon Liedtke: Show me your budget and I’ll show you your priorities, show me where you want to go for optics and I’ll show you what you actually care about. Olivia Chow made a choice. She made a very clear choice, and she decided to tell the GTA Jewish community, “You don’t matter, a polar plunge does.” That’s what my priority is. When your buildings get shot up, I’m gonna go do some PR optics that make me look good because if I think I’m gonna come stand next to you, I’m probably gonna look bad, so I don’t want to take that hit because I want to win reelection. This is cynical politics and it’s absolute worst. I thought we were better than this in Canada, but that was a couple years ago. When people say to me, you know, “This isn’t Canada, we can’t stand for this.” BS. This is Canada. This is exactly who we are now. We have allowed this to happen, it’s been two and a half years plus of this on our streets, we have allowed for this to create, to grow, to diverge into sectors that I think people weren’t even expecting. So, you know, it’s, this is offensive, I’m angry, I’m hurt by all of this, but this is the new normal. So we can fix it or it can get worse.
Gene Valaitis: Jon, always appreciate your point of view on the show and especially on a morning like today.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: There he goes, Jon Liedtke. You hear him regularly on my show, he’s a great storyteller and the story we wanted to talk about, which he got in a little bit of, that was going to be our main gist this morning, but after the resignation of Chair Gale that changed everything and we tried to tie the two together.
This aired on 610 CKTB
Follow Gene on Twitter or LinkedIn
Leave a Reply