Ever since the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Quebec's Bill 104, the law that closed a loophole whereby Quebec immigrants could win eligibility to publicly funded English schools by spending a short time in an English private school, the nationalists and separatists are in a tizzy over the notion that the Supreme Court is anti-Quebec.A recurring theme is that the court is unelected and stacked with judges who are bent on destroying the French language, Quebec culture and the ability of the province to enforce coercive measures to keep immigrants out of English schools.
Above is a picture of Mario Bealieu, President of the nationalist Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste and some Mouvement Montréal français cohorts having an impromptu demonstration in a Montreal Metro station mocking the Supremos.
The latest missive, La Cour des jugements loufoques (the Court of Crazy Judgments) is a rather nasty article printed in a nationalist web site that takes the court to task for having too many Jews sitting on the bench.
It's an 'intellectual' type of antisemitism, one that attempts to prove that Jews don't deserve to have such a large presence on the court due to their small demographic profile.
The author, Jacques Noël is a prolific poster who uses up a lot of ink postulating that Jews, Blacks and immigrants are over-represented, coddled and given preferential treatment in Quebec.
His body of work includes pieces like Où est la sous-représentation des Noirs aux Parlements ? (Where is the underrepresentation Of Blacks in Parliament), where using some nifty mathematics, concludes that there are too many Blacks elected in Quebec. In another article he complains that the Quebec government has no business offering a subsidy to a holocaust museum because there are far too few Jewish Quebec war survivors. He strays out of Quebec politics to tells us that modern Jews are not descended from those who lived in ancient Israel and in another post intimates that visible minorities are over-represented on Francophone television because although they number 8% of the general population, only half watch French TV. If you want a comprehensive listing of his body of work, here is a Google link. You can find lots of interesting articles denigrating immigrants, Jews, Blacks and oh yes, there is plenty of Anglo and Canada bashing as well.
Back to the article complaining about the fact that there are too many Jews on the Supreme Court.
Mr. Noël sets about giving us facts and figures and concludes that Jews are horribly over-represented on the court and asks the rhetorical question "Why?" He never explains why so many Jews on the court is a bad thing, it's an area that he is afraid to venture into and so, he just leaves it up to the readers' imagination.
His body of work is annoying, mostly because it hides his prejudice behind an impressive set of contrived statistics.
We can all use statistics selectively and so I'll endeavour to show Mr. Noël why it isn't an anomaly to see so many Jews on the Supreme Court in this open letter, which I will forward to him.
Dear Mr Noël,
You seem genuinely perturbed that there is an over representation of Jews on the Supreme Court and pose the question "Why?"
Firstly, let me inform you that the Canadian Supreme Court is not unique, the Quebec Court of Appeals is also one third Jewish and the United States Supreme Court has two Jewish members as well, with another one on the way, if rumours are to be believed.
It isn't really strange to see that Jews are wildly over represented on these august bodies, because Jews, when given a fair opportunity to compete, are over represented in every endeavour of human achievement, except maybe the physical (although Mark Spitz, Lenny Krayzelburg and Boris Becker are Jewish.)
Perhaps the real question to ask is "Why are Jews so successful?"
This marked over-achievement is not a question of religious formation, It is only those Jews of German and Eastern European ancestry (known as Ashkenazi Jews) that are so gifted. Jews from Southern Europe and Africa (Sephardi Jews) don't particularly perform any better than the average westerner. Ashkenazi Jews also have a decidedly longer lifespan, so it's pretty clear that it is a question of exceptional genes. Ashkenazi Jews are six times more likely to be geniuses and although it's a controversial subject, it's hard to deny the achievements of Ashkenazi Jews.
Since you are a great believer in statistics, let me give you the benefit of an assortment of facts and figures that I culled from the Internet.
Jews makes up a little more than one percent of the Canadian population and closer to two percent of the U.S population. Across the globe, Jews make up less than ¼ of one percent of the world's entire population. To understand how few people that is, imagine the world's population shrunk down to 400 people proportionately. Only one person would be Jewish.
20% of Noble Prizes awarded to date, have gone to Jews. Of the 18 Nobel prizes awarded to Canadians, 5 went to Jews (28%). Of the three Quebec-born winners, ALL were Jews from the Montreal area.
Half the world's greatest chess players are Jewish.
This over achievement is repeated in practically every category of human endeavour.
Here is a tiny sampling of Jewish notables;
Physics -Albert Einstein, Nihls Bohr, Richard Feynman, Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Sagan
Medicine- Sigmund Freud, Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin...
Fashion-Isaac Mizrahi, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole...
Models- Bar Refaeli, Cindy Margolis, Tanya Roberts, Yasmine Bleeth...
Criminals- 'Bugsy' Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, David Bercowitz(Son of Sam)
Notorious- Bernie Madoff, Jack Ruby, Monica Lewinsky, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Bobby Fischer, Howard Stern ...
Magicians- Uri Geller, Harry Houdini, David Copperfield, David Blaine...
Actresses- Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone, Iona Skye, Kyra Sedgwick, Gwyneth Paltrow...
Actors- Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Matthew Broderick, Robert Downey Jr.
Comedians- Lewis Black, Jerry Seinfeld, Rodney Dangerfield, Adam Sandler,
Singers- Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Beastie Boys, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkle, Gene Simmons...
Writers- Ayn Rand, Dorothy Parker, Marcel Proust, Saul Bellow, Emma Lazarus
etcetera ....etcetera.etcetera
Half of the American billionaires are Jewish.
In Canada 23 of the 100 richest Canadians are Jewish. (23 times what straight demographics would predict)
In Quebec, there are more Jewish billionaires then there are Francophone billionaires (remember Jews are outnumbered by Francophones by 100-1.)
With 1 percent of the population of the Province of Quebec, Jews make up 16% of McGill University students. In the United States, with less than 2% of the population Jews make up 26% of the students in Harvard University, 30% in Yale, 25% in Columbia University, 43% in Barnard college, 25% in Brown University, 25% in Cornell University and 55% in Brandeis University.
William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, is the brightest human who ever existed ( a Jew).
Of the 350 odd companies listed on NASDAQ, over 70 are Israeli (a country of 5 million Jews) while Canada a country of 33 million people has just 50 listings.
40% of the membership of the US National Academy of Sciences' Computer and Information Sciences division is Jewish.
Google, Dell and Oracle were all founded by Jews. If you use "Windows" most of the code was written in Israel.
Israel, with a tiny population of Jews, outperforms 90% of all the worlds countries in terms of patents, inventions, medical breakthroughs and scientific discoveries. In literature, social science, medicine, the law, entertainment and business, Jews outperform every ethnic and national group by leaps and bounds. The Israelis also have a kick-ass army.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for antisemitism is the incredible achievements posted by Jews. In grade school, who appreciated the smarty pants who knew every answer!
And so Mr Noël, that is why it isn't so strange that there are three jewish Supreme Court Judges. The reason is MERIT!!!!!
You use statistics to complain that Jews are over represented on the Supreme Court, but fail to mention that the Constitution guarantees Quebec three places out of nine on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that Quebec represents only 22% of the Canadian population (and falling.)
Doesn't this offend you, as well?
