On November 23, the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize ceremony was held in downtown Toronto, recognizing excellence in Canadian literature.

The event was disrupted when a group of anti-Israel demonstrators stormed the stage, yelling “Scotiabank funds genocide.” They were soon removed, and a number of them have been charged by police.

But in her November 23 opinion column in The Toronto Star, columnist Shani Mootoo argued that those charges should be dropped on account of what she considers to be an unacceptable investment in Elbit, an Israeli weapons producer by Scotiabank, the main sponsor of the Giller Prize.

Importantly, when the Star first published Mootoo’s column online, it carried a headline referring to “Israel’s atrocities in Gaza,” which was then amended without an editor’s note to explain why.

If Mootoo opposes investments in weapons producers, she is certainly free to hold such an opinion, but as she makes clear in her column, her opposition is not based on facts, but on falsehoods and patent misinformation.

Mootoo wrote that “Elbit Systems provides Israel’s war machine the means to carry out, in Gaza, a program of ethnic cleansing…by extension, then, the Giller Prize is in bed with a corporation that is funding Israel’s war against Palestinian civilians.”

In contradistinction to those who allege that Israel is carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip, there is no basis for such a claim, and in fact mounds of evidence showing exactly the opposite.

Unfortunately, Mootoo does not share with readers exactly how Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The population in the coastal enclave has grown spectacularly in recent years, belieing such claims.

In the face of Hamas, a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization which explicitly calls for the violent destruction of the Jewish State, Israel has sought to degrade the group’s military capacity to murder Israelis and carry out its perpetual war.

Despite the grotesque face of its opponent Hamas, Israel has warned Palestinian civilians in advance of fighting, dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets, made phone calls and took other measures, including putting Israeli soldiers on the ground and at grave risk for their safety, rather than relying simply on air strikes, in order to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.

But to Mootoo, such details apparently are too minor to even mention, instead blithely labeling Israel’s counter-terrorism measures simply as “war against Palestinian civilians.”

Mootoo called on writers to voice support for the November 13 demonstrators, citing approvingly an open letter by writers and publishers in support of the protesters, whom she describes as carrying out a “vital service.”

The open letter, like so many anti-Israel demonstrations, carries a veneer of legitimacy, calling for a “ceasefire,” all while failing to mention Hamas a single time, let alone condemning it, and even denying Israel’s very legitimacy, falsely referring to the country’s “75-year occupation of Palestine.”

Mootoo demanded that “Scotiabank and the Giller Prize must align with the literary communities of Canada it serves and supports,” portraying these communities as a monolith facing censorship for daring to speak out in support of the Palestinians.

Does Mootoo truly believe that the open letter, which displayed not only a remarkable ignorance about Israel, but a blinding hatred of the country, represents the best of “the literary communities?”

It is the right of Mootoo, and indeed anyone else, to oppose Scotiabank’s investment in a weapons manufacturer, Israeli or otherwise, or to oppose any aspect of Israeli government policy. But neither Mootoo or the writers who signed the heinous open letter have a right to make up their own facts to suit their ideological beliefs.

Mootoo’s column is detached from and not representative of reality. Readers of her column would do well to keep that in mind.