One of the most scathing denunciations of anti-Semitism which has come from a government official here was uttered last week by Justice Desaulniers ruling in a plea for an injunction to restrain the Goglu papers and their publisher, J. Menard, from publishing further anti-Jewish propaganda.
Justice Desaulnier’s refusal of the plea for an injunction, because as he said, that he is powerless to act in this direction, under the law, was by far overshadowed by the justice’s denunciation of the anti-Semites and their propaganda in a seven page judgment.
The stand taken by the justice against the anti-Semites has found favor in liberal circles and has brought a public statement of approval by Premier Taschereau of Quebec.
The campaign, Justice Desaulniers declared, is anti-Christian, and he offered the Jews the consolation of the beatitude, “Blessed are they which are persecuted, for their’s is the Kingdom of Heaven.” “And,” he added, “I am convinced the editors of ‘Le Miroir’ will not place that statement in doubt. It was this same word (of Jesus) which told men to love one another.”
He went to the verdict of history to declare false the charges made against the Jews, particularly with regard to ritual murders; and invoked the testimony of St. Paul and the Pope against the claim that Jews are sons of Satan.
At the end of his judgment, Justice Desaulniers invoked the record of history in warning against campaigns which arouse popular prejudice. “The Jewish race is marvellously endowed,” he said. “Despite its faults—and who has none—it offers for our contemplation this fact, unique and stupendous in history, of a people surviving the empires which have conquered it. Where now are the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Persians? What has become of the empires of Spain and Russia? The brutal pen which has just signed in Madrid the expulsion of the admirable sons of Loyola (the Jesuits) was dipped in the inkwell of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, who routed into exile 170,000 Jewish families.”
His Lordship recalled that at the hearing he had advised Menard to abandon his campaign and that subsequent issues of the paper showed renewed virulence, which went so far as to bespatter the court itself. “I freely pardon the personal insults,” His Lordship commented, “but I am astonished that the respondent and his collaborators should forget the respect due to the magis-
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
