Mark Grushcow has never waded into political protests before. But this year, ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Canadian retiree—who is the father of Montreal Rabbi Lisa Grushcow —helped to create a video aimed squarely at his country’s athletes. He had hoped to convince them to not go to China, or at least forgo the opening ceremonies, in solidarity with the country’s 12 million persecuted Muslim Uyghur people, including a million thought to be held in concentration camps.
But when he sent his video to the Athletes’ Commission of the Canadian Olympic Committee, they declined to share it with the rest of Team Canada. They argued that athletes’ attendance did not equate condoning genocide, boycotts aren’t effective, in-person diplomacy is better, and speaking out may jeopardize the athletes’ safety.
Grushcow’s video is part of a growing protest movement organized, in part, by Jewish Canadians during the lead-up to the Beijing games. He and Phil Kretzmar, a political activist in Ottawa, join The CJN Daily podcast to discuss their mission and journey to raise awareness of the Uyghur genocide.
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Read the transcript of the podcast below.
What we talked about
- Watch “Message to Athletes – Don’t Turn Your Backs On Us” on YouTube
- Watch Anthony Housefather’s motion in Parliament on Facebook
Credits
The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.
Episode Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated automatically by a computer. Because we can’t always read them through entirely, they may contain some errors.
Uyghur:
You can’t separate being an athlete from being human. If you are Indigenous, you can look to the Uyghurs and understand the deposition from the land, the destruction of language and culture and the theft of children. If you are a Jew, you know what it is. Happening now is the start of the March to the Death Camps.
Ellin Bessner, Host The CJN Daily:
That’s a clip from a new video created by Mark Grushcow of Toronto and a small group of activists. He made it to try to convince Canada’s Olympic athletes to boycott the games in China, or at least not to march in the opening ceremonies. The retiree, who spending the winter in Florida, had never done anything like it before, but he hoped to at least educate some of the Canadian team about the genocide, which even Canada’s Parliament has said China is perpetrating against the 12 million Muslim Uyghurs in the Western part of the country, including a million thought to be held in concentration camps. The video did reach Olympic trampoline medallist Rosie MacLennan. She chairs the Athletes Commission of the Canadian Olympic Committee, and while she appreciated Grushcow’s efforts, she didn’t feel the athletes should boycott. She told them boycotts don’t work, and instead they’ll try to use person-to-person diplomacy when they’re in China. Also, she said, going to the Olympics doesn’t mean they condone genocide. Plus, it was too risky to pass the video on because if Chinese authorities got wind of the YouTube video, the Olympians might get into trouble. The video is just part of a growing protest movement and events this week organized by Canadians of Jewish faith and timed to coincide with the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday. An Olympics that some are calling the “Genocide Games”, while others are comparing them to Adolf Hitler’s use of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany to whitewash his persecution of Jews.
Marc Grushcow:
The parallels between what’s happening to the Uyghurs in China today and what happened to the Jews in, it’s like they’re on parallel railroad tracks. And my feeling was this happened to us in the 1930s and everybody stood by and watched. Nobody did anything, and I can’t do that.
Ellin Bessner:
I’m Ellin Bessner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Thursday, February 3, 2022. Welcome to the CJN Daily, sponsored by Metropia.
Mark Grushcow won’t be watching the opening ceremonies this Friday. Neither will his friend and fellow activist Phil Kretzmar of Ottawa. Kretzmar co founded the Stop Uighur Genocide Canada group through his synagogue. Kehillat Beth Israel, and he’s been holding a weekly protest vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa for over a year. There will be a much larger one this Friday, timed to get maximum media attention with his own version of the opening ceremonies, including a march with flags, medals for human rights violators, and lighting the flame of freedom. Phil Kretzmar and Mark Grushcow will be here to explain why fighting to save the Uyghurs is a Jewish problem. But first, here’s what’s making news elsewhere in Canada right now.
Mason Freedman:
I’m Mason Friedman in Toronto. And this is what Jewish Canada sounds like.
Ellin Bessner:
In the wake of the truckers’ convoy protests that have engulfed Ottawa since the weekend and the appearance of Nazi and Confederate flags and other hateful, antisemitic and racist symbols, the House of Commons passed a motion Tuesday to denounce these particular things from being displayed on Parliament Hill. The motion was put forward by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who is Jewish, and from the Montreal riding of Mount Royal. The motion passed unanimously.
Phil Kretzmar joins me now from Ottawa. And Mark Grushcow is in Coconut Creek, Florida.
You both will be heavily involved in Canadian activities, protest marches, protest rallies outside Canadian-based Chinese embassies and consulates. So let’s talk about this poster that you put together. It’s called it the Genocide Games. Either of you can start. Tell us about the activities that you have planned?
Phil Kretzmar:
Well, the games have become known in many circles as a Genocide Games because of the activities of the Chinese government. And both Mark and myself have really disagreed with holding the Olympics in Beijing. And we felt that we wanted to use the publicity and the opportunity and the controversy to really draw attention to those that have suffered at the hands of the Chinese government. So we’re really trying to draw attention and raise awareness of something that probably is not going to be spoken about or seen over the period of the Olympics.
Ellin Bessner:
Right. And, Marc, you put together this video that was called “Don’t Turn Your Backs on us”, aimed at the athletes and for educational purposes, but also lobbying that maybe they should decide not to go or if they’re going to go, at least know what they’re going to.
Marc Grushcow:
Right. I had previously put together a video with the cooperation of some people in the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project. It is all Uyghur voices. It consists of an introduction explaining what’s happening to the Uyghurs. Because as constantly amazes Phil and I, the extent of ignorance. And I don’t mean that negatively, just people not knowing what’s going on there and people who kind of know something is going on have got no idea of the depth of it. So the first speaker talked about what’s happening. Generally, we have testimony from two Uyghur people, a man and a woman who survived incarceration in China and a close off by an absolutely marvellous young woman who is a Uyghur in Alberta. And effectively, what we did was we said, “Look, as you know, we’d really like you to not go to the Games, but we understand that you’re going to. And the one thing that we’re asking is that you do not participate in the opening and closing ceremonies.” I have to say that I’ve taken some criticism from people I work with for such a small ask.
Ellin Bessner:
Why? What was the criticism?
Marc Grushcow:
Well, that asking athletes not to march in a parade was no big deal. And as Kayom, my Uyghur friend, shouted at me in anger, the only time this has happened, he said, “What do you mean they won’t skip a game? My family is missing!” So there’s this tremendous gap in this discussion, but the athletes are going to go. What I was hoping is to have a flag with nobody behind it going on to the field at the opening and closing ceremonies. And I was hoping to get on board a group of influential young people being very aware of this so that when they came back, they would say, “Yeah, it was scary and oppressive being there.
But if you think we thought it was scary and oppressive, look at what’s happening in the rest of China to these other people, the people who are effectively slave labourers, making the cotton that goes into the LuluLemon costumes that the athletes are wearing at the games.” That’s not right.
Ellin Bessner:
We had a Canadian billionaire, the co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, right. He said no one cares about the human rights abuses in China. Phil, you’re doing these public events in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a truckers protest. Tell me how you make space for this.
Phil Kretzmar:
Then you just do it. I think what he said was ridiculous. I think it’s more that people don’t know. And we live in a hugely privileged society, and I don’t think in many cases, we fully appreciate that. It’s important to try and make people aware. And sadly, I think I wasn’t involved in human rights activism before the last year or two. Sadly, it’s a sort of a longer term undertaking, because while you’re doing this, people are suffering. And I guess this is something I feel I have to do. I can’t not do it. And the situation of the Uyghurs, to me is different from many other people who are being persecuted or in very difficult situations, whether it’s Ethiopia, whether it’s in Nigeria, whether it’s in Myanmar or elsewhere. You have a very largely peaceful population who are just being persecuted by a draconian, brutal central government. I cannot stand by and do nothing.
Marc Grushcow:
The chances of me doing anything significant, I have to say, are not huge. But like Rabbi Tarfon says, you might not finish the job, but you can’t not take the job off.
Ellin Bessner:
Parliament has called the genocide. There are restrictions on using labour or products bringing into Canada. They’ve only stopped one shipment as far as I remember. But what do you want Canada to do more than it’s done?
Phil Kretzmar:
There are a number of things that they can do. Canada has laws about products with forced labour. They are not enforcing those laws. There needs to be a registry for foreign agents. There needs to be assistance for Uyghurs who want to have refugee status. Canada needs to work with our allies to have stronger statements. One of the first things again, I’m going back to this. There’s no way that the Canada Pension Plan should be investing $50 billion plus of our dollars in Chinese companies and in international companies, multinational companies, that have been identified as using forced labour. Those are starting points.
Ellin Bessner:
And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like for this episode and this week of the CJN Daily sponsored by Metropoia. Integrity, Community Quality and Customer care. Today’s listener shout out goes to Tzvia Devor in Hamilton. I wrote about her family in my book “Double Threat” which is all about Canadian Jewish soldiers who served in the Second World War. Her late father, Berko Devor was one of them.
And before we end the episode with a clip of Anthony Housefather’s motion in the House of Commons, just a friendly reminder to use the word CJN Daily as your promo code to get a $36 discount off the regular price of a subscription to the CJN Circle where you’ll get a guaranteed place on the magazine mailing list, great content like our podcast and events and exclusive newsletters and important Jewish journalism.
Anthony Housefather:
In this time of rising antisemitism, Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations amongst the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. That the House deplores the use of Nazi and antisemitic symbols in demonstrations on Parliament Hill and denounces their use at all times.
Speaker:
All those opposed to the Honourable Minister or member moving the motion will please say Nay? Agreed. The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say Nay? Carried.
