Last Wednesday, protests were held at fifty Indigo stores across the country to oppose its owners’ assistance to non-Israelis who join a military brutalizing Palestinians. In response, the officially named Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism Deborah Lyons posted multiple images from different Indigo stores.
Lyons noted, “Members of my team and I did some book-shopping today at Indigo in Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg, not only to purchase some excellent reads, but to push back against the trend of boycotting Jewish-owned businesses. Lots of shoppers lining up to join us; you still have a couple of hours before stores close to join too! Buycott Indigo Chapters.”
Over the past year, Lyons’ position has morphed from Canada’s special envoy to promote apartheid into Canada’s special envoy to promote genocide and then special envoy to promote a holocaust. Now Deborah Lyons should be labeled special envoy to promote a billionaire couple’s right to fund a genocidal military without criticism.
Protests boycott billionaires’ for financially supporting Israeli military
Protesters weren’t “boycotting Jewish-owned businesses,” as Lyons knows full well. The CEO of Indigo, Heather Reisman, and her husband Gerald Schwartz have plowed nearly $200 million into their HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Along with other support to the Israeli military, the registered charity provides scholarships and bursaries to non-Israelis who join its military (in clear violation of the Income Tax Act and possible violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act).
Reisman has responded to the growing campaign to boycott Indigo and revoke HESEG’s charitable status by pretending her foundation doesn’t assist the Israeli military. But HESEG offers free education to induce people to sign up, which is a common military recruitment tactic around the world. The official “Draft IDF” site describes the incentives HESEG offers those who enlist.
In a 2010 Canadian Jewish News article comedian Dan Aykroyd described visiting “some of the soldiers supported by the organization.” The Canadian Jewish News reported, “in 2006, Aykroyd visited Israel, a trip that came about through his friendship with Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, who had just founded Heseg (achievement) Foundation for Lone Soldiers, to support soldiers without parents or extended family in Israel, the previous year. Having met some of the soldiers supported by the organization, Aykroyd said he ‘got a picture of Israel which the world doesn’t [see].’”
At a 2006 HESEG award ceremony that included Israel’s prime minister, Knesset speaker, internal security minister and head of the Association for Israel’s Soldiers, Schwartz and Reisman were gifted US lone soldier Michael Levine’s paratrooper pin “in appreciation for their efforts on behalf of lone soldiers in Israel.” Levine was killed occupying Lebanon. HESEG board members Major Generals Doron Almog and Ofra Strauss attended the ceremony.
Billionaires’ support goes beyond lone soldiers foundation
Even if the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers didn’t, well, assist lone soldiers, Reisman and Schwartz’ other support for Israel justifies boycotting Indigo. The Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation has funded dozens of other Israel-focused charities.
They have assisted the Jewish National Fund, Ne’eman Foundation, Canadian Zionist Cultural Association, Canada Christian College, Jerusalem Foundation and Mizrachi Canada. In addition to $190 million for HESEG, Reisman and Schwartz have given tens of millions of dollars to other projects in Israel over the past two decades. The Schwartz and Reisman Foundation has also funded multiple partnerships between Canadian and Israel universities.
The billionaire couple were central in creating the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs lobby group. Schwartz and Reisman have also funded almost every Canadian Zionist lobby organization, which is part of why the lobby has come to their defence so aggressively.
Schwartz and Reisman have used their extensive wealth, high-powered accountants and political influence to milk charitable tax credits. Canadians cover over half their donations even though the CRA prohibits charities from assisting foreign militaries.
Now all Canadians are funding a special envoy to protect Reisman and Schwartz from criticism for promoting a genocidal military. Historians aren’t going to believe it actually happened.
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