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RIP Soufi's
Oct. 8th, 2019 05:57 pmThis is some bullshit.
For those outside of Toronto, Soufi's was a really awesome restaurant run by Syrian refugees and activists. It was almost a cliché Canadian success story. Also, their food was fucking great. Thanks to them, I got to try vegan knafeh for the first time. I just ate there last Saturday, in fact.
Last week, there was a demo in Hamilton against Maxime Bernier, leader of the fascist People's Party of Canada. Now, this is not a guy who should be given a platform to speak. Among the people who paid $75 to hear him rail about immigrants was an 81-year-old lady with a walker. Antifa yelled at the people going in, including this lady. She was not touched or otherwise harmed.
While it is bad strategy to yell at disabled old people, an 81-year-old woman would have grown up in the shadow of WWII, in which people who believed what Bernier believes in murdered 12 million Jews, Roma, queers, Communists, trade unionists, disabled people, and anyone they disagreed with. An 81-year-old woman lived through the Civil Rights era. Anyone who pays $75 to see a fascist speak is not some senile pensioner but someone who knows exactly what they're signing up for and has the disposable income to sign up for it. And thus deserves to get yelled at (but shouldn't because the optics are bad). By the way, we deport Nazi war criminals who are older than that, and they stand trial, and some of them use walkers.
What does this have to do with a nice Syrian restaurant? Well, the owner's son is also an activist and a person of conscience, and he happened to be at the rally and was standing next to the woman, unmasked, when people yelled at her. For this, he and his father have been doxxed, harassed, and sent death threats, even though the owner apologized for both of them. I have been in contact with the son all week and the threats are very serious and scary, from people who know where they live and who have a history of racist violence.
Today they announced that they were closing for the safety of themselves and their workers.
The media has been complicit, sensationalizing the whole incident. Now they're bemoaning the loss of a beloved restaurant as if they didn't help spread lies about the people who run it.
The racists have learned that their tactics win. While the PPC is unlikely to win a seat in the election, they and their brownshirts have been emboldened by a successful attack against hardworking, kind refugees.
Welcome to Toronto in 2019.
For those outside of Toronto, Soufi's was a really awesome restaurant run by Syrian refugees and activists. It was almost a cliché Canadian success story. Also, their food was fucking great. Thanks to them, I got to try vegan knafeh for the first time. I just ate there last Saturday, in fact.
Last week, there was a demo in Hamilton against Maxime Bernier, leader of the fascist People's Party of Canada. Now, this is not a guy who should be given a platform to speak. Among the people who paid $75 to hear him rail about immigrants was an 81-year-old lady with a walker. Antifa yelled at the people going in, including this lady. She was not touched or otherwise harmed.
While it is bad strategy to yell at disabled old people, an 81-year-old woman would have grown up in the shadow of WWII, in which people who believed what Bernier believes in murdered 12 million Jews, Roma, queers, Communists, trade unionists, disabled people, and anyone they disagreed with. An 81-year-old woman lived through the Civil Rights era. Anyone who pays $75 to see a fascist speak is not some senile pensioner but someone who knows exactly what they're signing up for and has the disposable income to sign up for it. And thus deserves to get yelled at (but shouldn't because the optics are bad). By the way, we deport Nazi war criminals who are older than that, and they stand trial, and some of them use walkers.
What does this have to do with a nice Syrian restaurant? Well, the owner's son is also an activist and a person of conscience, and he happened to be at the rally and was standing next to the woman, unmasked, when people yelled at her. For this, he and his father have been doxxed, harassed, and sent death threats, even though the owner apologized for both of them. I have been in contact with the son all week and the threats are very serious and scary, from people who know where they live and who have a history of racist violence.
Today they announced that they were closing for the safety of themselves and their workers.
The media has been complicit, sensationalizing the whole incident. Now they're bemoaning the loss of a beloved restaurant as if they didn't help spread lies about the people who run it.
The racists have learned that their tactics win. While the PPC is unlikely to win a seat in the election, they and their brownshirts have been emboldened by a successful attack against hardworking, kind refugees.
Welcome to Toronto in 2019.
