Graydon Nicholas, a retired lawyer, judge and an elder from the Wolastoqey First Nation in New Brunswick, understands only too well the negative impact of colonization on Indigenous people in the Americas.

He also understands the role the Roman Catholic Church played in it through what became known as the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that by “discovering” the Americas, colonizing countries like Spain and Portugal could claim Indigenous land as their own.

But Nicholas, who is Roman Catholic, also believes the story is more complicated than most people realize and also incomplete without noting opposition from those in the Church during that age of discovery and conquest.

That includes Dominican priests such as Antonio de Montesinos, who publicly condemned Spanish and Portuguese abuses against Indigenous people in the Americas during that time.

Due to unprecedented levels of antisemitism in Canada in the last few years, most organizers of Jewish community events, in Winnipeg as elsewhere across the country, no longer publicly advertise the location of those events, choosing instead to share that information only with those who are registered in advance and, in some cases, only to those who provide proof of identification.

The fact that the organizers of a conference entitled Faith Not Fear still felt the need to follow that practice is less ironic than it is pragmatic. Not publicly identifying the conference’s location seemed to be the only way to ensure that its participants could safely meet to learn about protecting themselves, their community institutions and their freedom to walk through university campuses and city streets without being harassed because of their religion, culture or an international conflict in which they play no part.

Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada took place in Vaughan, Ont., on the evening of Sunday, June 14. It was, as Simon Wolle, CEO of conference co-sponsor B’nai Brith Canada, explains, “a fresh initiative bringing together voices and organizations at a time when there is a national crisis of antisemitism.”

“The conference was inspired by the need to address Canada’s systemic failure to address threats to the Jewish community, the ongoing threat to Canadian values and its effect on the lived experience of Jewish Canadians in particular,” Wolle said.

There’s a rule in nature that you can’t only do one thing. If you dam a river to make hydroelectricity, you will impede the fish trying to swim upriver to spawn. If you drain wetlands, flooding usually increases elsewhere. If you remove trees from steep slopes, erosion results.

In December, last year, Canada experienced the truth of that rule in another way. That’s when Parliament passed Bill C-3 to extend citizenship to those born outside of Canada.

The new rules retroactively restore Canadian citizenship to someone who was born outside of Canada before December 15, 2025 and who can prove that an ancestor, such as grandparent or great-grandparent, was a Canadian citizen on or after January 1, 1947.

Called the Act to Amend the Citizenship Act, the bill was designed to fix a problem that arose after an Ontario court ruled the “first-generation limit” on citizenship was unconstitutional.

“As an observant Jew who was celebrating Shavuot, a holiday mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as a time of rejoicing, I was shocked to open my paper on Friday morning to see our premier indulging in an antisemitic Christian trope — apparently being tough on drug dealers is ‘Old Testament,’ and having love and compassion for drug users is ‘New Testament’?”

That’s what a writer of a letter to the editor of the Free Press said last week. He was writing in response to a remark made by premier Wab Kinew about his approach to drug dealers and drug users in the province.

At an event on May 21, Kinew said Manitoba’s stance would be “Old Testament for the drug dealers, New Testament for the drug users.”

By that he meant there will be “harm reduction and compassion and recovery” for users, but “law enforcement” for those who deal drugs.