Barbara Kay (born 1943) is a columnist for the Canadian newspaper ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

''. She also writes a weekly column for '' The Post Millennial'' and a monthly column for '' Epoch Times''. Kay announced on July 24, 2020, that she was leaving the ''National Post'' due to increased editorial scrutiny of her columns. On October 23, 2020, the ''National Post'' announced the return of Barbara Kay.

Early life and education

Kay was born in 1943 to an "intensely patriotic" American mother from

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, and a Canadian father from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. Kay's paternal grandparents and four of their children, emigrated from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

to Canada in 1917. They settled near a synagogue congregation of immigrants from Poland where they found a supportive Jewish immigrant community. Her grandfather bought and sold "junk from a horse-drawn cart" to

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

-speaking customers, and although the family was poor and Zaide never learned English, they never felt "isolated or despised". Although only one of Kay's father's siblings went to university, all of them "ended up solidly in the middle class. Barbara Kay's cousins, including the girls, were "university educated" and had successful, prosperous careers. One of Kay's sisters is Canadian public administrator

Anne Golden Anne Golden (born 1941) is a Canadian administrator. She received her BA in history from University College, University of Toronto, in 1962. She received an MA from Columbia University and a PhD in American history from the University of Toro ...

. Barbara Kay and her sisters grew up in Forest Hill Village, Toronto, a "posh" neighbourhood. They went to the public preparatory schools, then Forest Hill Collegiate Institute (FHCI). While Kay wrote that her generation did not experience anti-Semitism, according to the ''Globe and Mail'', the Oakdale Golf & Country Club in

North York, Toronto North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a pop ...

, where Kay spent her leisure hours as a youth, was established by "Jews who had been blackballed by the Rosedale Golf Club". In 2004,

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

historian

Irving Abella Irving Martin Abella (July 2, 1940 – July 3, 2022) was a Canadian historian who served as a professor at York University from 1968 to 2013. He specialized in the history of the Jews in Canada and the Canadian labour movement. Early life Abe ...

, who co-authored '' None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948'' wrote that the clubs—like the Rosedale Golf Club—were the "last bastions of restriction". Kay studied at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

where she earned an undergraduate degree in English literature. She received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

in 1966 and subsequently taught literature at

Concordia University Concordia University (French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

and several

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; ), also written cégep, CÉGEP and cegep, is a publicly funded college providing technical, academic, vocational or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, ...

s. Kay is married to Ronny Kay. They have two children including journalist Jonathan Kay.

Career

Kay began her journalism career as a book reviewer. During the 1990s, she joined the board and writing staff of the revived '' Cité libre''. Afterward, Kay branched out into writing op/eds for the ''

'' before becoming a columnist in 2003. Kay has also published articles in '' The Post Millennial'', ''Pajama'', ''

The Walrus ''The Walrus'' is an independent, non-profit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an 8-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a national s ...

'', ''

Canadian Jewish News The Canadian Jewish News is a non-profit, national, English-language digital-first media organization that serves Canada‘s Jewish community. A national edition of the newspaper was published for 60 years in Toronto. A weekly Montreal edition i ...

(CJNews)'', and ''Epoch Times''. Barbara Kay joined

Ezra Levant Ezra Isaac Levant (born February 20, 1972) is a Canadian conservative media personality, political activist, writer, broadcaster, and former lawyer. Levant is the founder and former publisher of the conservative magazine, The'' Western Standard''. ...

's conservative online media channel '' Rebel News'', in February 2017, as its

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

correspondent. Kay announced on Twitter on August 15, 2017 that she would end her "freelance relationship with Rebel Media. She stated her respect for Ezra Levant and

Faith Goldy Faith Julia Goldy (born June 8, 1989), also known as Faith Goldy-Bazos, is a Canadian far-right, white nationalist political commentator, associated with the alt-right and white supremacy. She was a contributor to '' The Rebel Media'' and cove ...

, but felt that the Rebel Media "brand" had been "tarnished" by several contributors who did not reflect the views of mainstream conservatives like herself. Kay held a residency on CBC's ''

Because News ''Because News'' is a Canadian radio and television program, which airs weekly on CBC Radio One. She was removed from the panel allegedly because of "her views on the misappropriation of Indigenous cultures."

Affiliations

Kay was on the Board of Governors of the conservative

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also rep ...

The Prince Arthur Herald The Prince Arthur Herald was a bilingual online student news blog based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by a group of students at McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language pu ...

'', which published from 2011 until 2019,"Board of Governors - The Prince Arthur Herald"
, "The Prince Arthur Herald", 2011. Accessed October 12, 2011. and is on the

Canadian Institute for Jewish Research The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) is a think tank based in Montreal and Toronto. Founded in 1988, its primary goal is to promote Jewish nationalism and Zionism in Canada under the guise of research focused on issues concerning ...

's advisory board.

Topics

Pro-Israel

Kay is on the advisory board of the

(CIJR), a pro-Israel think tank established in 1988. In 2007, faced with an increase in

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, anti-Israelism and

anti-Zionism Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestin ...

on university campuses, CIJR launched the ''Student Israel-Advocacy Seminars Program''. Kay wrote that the

Israeli Apartheid Week Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual series of university lectures and rallies held in February or March. According to the organization, "the aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boyc ...

, an American import, was part of a larger movement growing in anticipation of the May 14, 2008 60th anniversary of Israel's founding. In a 2017 article, "Kay vs Kay", mother and son, Jonathan Kay, explore generational differences in their relationship to Judaism. To Barbara Kay, by 2017 anti-Zionism was "rooted in anti-Semitism". She describes those "who are aligned with the hard left" as "anti-Zionist and supportive of the

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations ...

(BDS) movement", with the worst of these "confined to university campuses." To her this is a "serious concern globally". She was dismayed that a German court "found that the Muslim firebombers of a synagogue in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

were not guilty of a hate crime because they had been motivated by anti-Zionism and events in the Middle East." Jonathan Kay, wrote that "Barbara is stuck in a time warp and seems to think we still live in the era when

Svend Robinson Svend Robinson (born March 4, 1952) is a Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2004, who represented suburban Vancouver-area constituencies of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party (NDP). He is noted as the first me ...

Antonia Zerbisias Antonia Zerbisias is a Canadian journalist associated with the ''Toronto Star'' from 1989 until she took early retirement from the paper on 31 October 2014. She has been a reporter and TV host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as wel ...

and

Naomi Klein Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...

are still loud and influential voices in the arena of Canadian foreign policy...The idea that Canada's intelligentsia is a seething mass of anti-Zionist agitation is about 15 years out of date...the issue of Zionism has so totally consumed Jewish advocacy groups in the West, that it has created what is, in effect, a spiritual faith unto itself, complete with its own forms of excommunication, liturgy and revealed truth."

Feminism

While Kay acknowledges that the feminism of the 1960s had "worthy ideals" of empowering women, she wrote in 2004 that the feminist movement had been "hijacked by special interest groups nursing extreme-grievance agendas". "Angry lesbians" and "man-haters" renounced heterosexuality, "traditional marriage, and parental influence over children". "Radical Marxist/feminists" dominated Women's Studies on campus".

Honour killings

Writing for the

, Kay offered the opinion that

honour killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...

is not strictly a Muslim phenomenon and that it is enabled by factors including

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers pri ...

, dowries and a lack of a dependable legal system. Nevertheless, Kay says that the murders are a Muslim phenomenon in the West, where 95% of honour killings are perpetrated by "Muslim fathers and brothers or their proxies". Kay warns that females do not dissent as one might expect either: The women may describe victims of honour killing as having needed punishment.

Anti-communism

Kay traces her

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

to the mid-1950s when her family, like many other Canadian families, considered building a "well-stocked bomb shelter" in preparation for a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. Kay who was a young teenager at the time was "existentially" shaken by the possibility of that a "monstrous totalitarian" communist regime might attack the "freedom-loving West". Her hatred of totalitarianism and communism was fueled by a "positive exposure to capitalism" and by books that she read, such as

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to c ...

'' (1945) and ''

Nineteen Eighty-Four ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...

'' (1949),

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...

's ''

Darkness at Noon ''Darkness at Noon'' (german: link=no, Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried ...

'' (1940),

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

's ''

Anthem An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short s ...

'' (1946), and

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repr ...

's ''

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (russian: links=no, italics=yes, Один день Ивана Денисовича, Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first p ...

'' (1962). In the 1960s Kay, who was by then a married graduate student at McGill University in Montreal in the 1960s, took no interest in campus politics or indeed any extra-curricular campus life. Kay's husband Ronny was born in China in 1944. One of his "most enduring" childhood memories was the liberation of Shanghai from the communists in 1949 by American soldiers during the Shanghai Campaign. Ronny Kay was passionately pro-American and aggressively anti-communist. When his family immigrated to Canada, he was nine years old and only spoke Russian and English. His parents, who only spoke Russian at home until 1960, and had relatives living in Russia, became part of the Russian immigrant community in Montreal, Quebec. He learned English at school. His "hatred of Communism was implacable, absolute, more visceral" than ay's Kay and her husband were newly weds attending McGill University as graduate students in the early 1960s when the Quebec nationalist group

Front de libération du Québec The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Cana ...

(FLQ), a "small violent group" "high on Marxist, revolutionary cant" began detonating dozens of bombs targeting English-speaking Québécois. While doing his MBA, her husband was co-editor of the ''McGill Daily'' along with Patrick MacFadden, who Kay described as a "militant Irish firebrand" and "more or less a card-carrying Communist". In contrast, her husband "whose Russian heritage had opened a privileged window on the realities of Soviet triumphalism, was a Reagan-style "evil-empirist" avant la lettre."

Identity politics

In an article in which she compared contemporary

identity politics Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these i ...

with communism, Kay questioned the erection of an 18' bronze statue of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, commemorating the 200th anniversary of his birth in Trier, Germany.

Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and vario ...

, in its most narrow definition—where

's and

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

's theories were redefined by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

in the late 1920s—was established by Stalin as the ideology of the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. See Allan Bullock and Stephan Trombley's 1999 publication, ''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought''. Citing the 1949 publication '' The God That Failed'' by former communist writers who denounced communism, Kay wrote that the book has "much to say about their identity-politics cultural cousins of today, and explained why we — classic liberals and conservatives — don't have common ground for discussion or debate with them." Kay cites a former member of the Communist Party, Aileen S. Kraditor, whose 1988 publication described the inner workings of the mind of a rank-and-file communist. Communists nd those who promote identity politics believe that "facts recontingent on dogma". They are so strongly possessed by an ideology, that the ideology "determines what they accept as evidence. Facts and logic can never make them change their fundamental worldview as long as the need for it remains as the organizing principle of their personalities." In her article about Sarina Singh, published just before Kay participated in a July 2018 panel discussion on free speech organized by Singh, Kay described how Singh had left her job as social worker, where she had worked for twenty-two years in a shelter, and broke with feminism. Singh who had been a "social-justice warrior", an "ardent feminist" who worked in social work, a "field dominated by feminist premises", became a "free speech champion". Singh refused to "see the world through the lens of ideology, identity politics or political correctness".On he
website
, Singh described the reasons for leaving social work in April 2017 as "due to stress related to the insufferable neo-cultural Marxist postmodernist agenda that has taken over all aspects of the social work profession. An ideology which views the world through the lens of the oppressed and the oppressor. An ideology which dispenses any notions of objective truth or morality and now dictates policy and law in our legal, educational and political institutions. Workers are compelled to kowtow to a very limited narrative that is rooted in radical feminism and failure to do will have professional consequences."

Free speech

In her May 2017 article, Kay defended Frances Widdowson,Calgary-based

Mount Royal College Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. History Mount Royal University was founded by Alberta provincial charter by the Arthur Sifton government on December 16, 1910 and officially opened on September 8, ...

's Widdowson, a co-author (along with her husband) of ''Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation'' (2008) was invited by

Lindsay Shepherd Lindsay Shepherd (born 7 December 1994) is a Canadian columnist who became known for her involvement, as a graduate student and teaching assistant, in an academic freedom controversy at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in Waterloo, Ontario, in ...

's newly-formed Laurier Society for Open Inquiry (LSOI) as part of their "Unpopular Opinion Speaker Series" to give a speech as the "lone academic" challenging Canada's

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

(TRC)'s conclusions and methodologies, such as

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

. Widdowson said " ile obviously there were serious problems with the schools that must be recognized and discussed, so as to avoid future educational deficiencies, labelling the schools as 'cultural genocide' prevents us from probing deeper into the structural reasons for the failings of these institutions".

Controversies

In 2006 she was criticized for a series of articles accusing

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

politicians of supporting

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

during the

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Le ...

. She coined the term Quebecistan. In 2007, the Quebec Press Council released a decision condemning Kay for "undue provocation" and "generalizations suitable to perpetuate prejudices". In 2007, she wrote a column titled "Not in my backyard, either" in which she criticized

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism ( Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of conte ...

Jews for not integrating into the neighbourhoods in which they live and for being "self-segregating" and "cult-like". In 2008, Kay criticized the behaviour of the Hasidim towards the Deputy Mayor of

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Ric ...

, Brenda Hogg, who attended the Menorah-lighting

Hanukkah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each nig ...

. Kay wrote that if the rabbis, whom she called "black hats", cannot observe "small courtesies" then they should "stay in their self-wrought ghettoes and eschew public life altogether". In her July 28, 2010 ''National Post'' article, Kay 2007 wrote about

Jewish messianism The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jews, Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king ...

, the theme of a 2007 Michael Chabon novel, ''

The Yiddish Policemen's Union ''The Yiddish Policemen's Union'' is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement ...

'', against the backdrop of the rise of the

Haredi Judaism Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to '' halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppo ...

in 2010, an "extreme right wing ultra-Orthodox" that numbered approximately 1.3 million in 2010. Kay expressed concerns that could eventually dominate the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...

—and "Jewish destiny". In 2013, Kay published an article sympathising with

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) fo ...

' ''Rolling Stone'' statement regarding the Steubenville rape case. In a response to a comment, she said, "Ours is not a rape culture. If it were, our girls would be walking around in

burqas A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...

". Further debate over what constitutes rape culture came in February 2014 when Kay criticized universities for exaggerating the prevalence of rape. Her claim that prudent women face a "statistically nugatory" chance of being assaulted was referred to as "irresponsible nonsense" by

Toula Drimonis Toula Drimonis is a Canadian journalist and author of the 2022 book ''We, the Others.'' Early life Drimonis was born to a parents who emigrated from Greece to Quebec in the 1960s. Career Drimonis is a journalist and social commentator. She ...

and Ethan Cox. In 2018, Kay received criticism for comments she made in a ''National Post'' column about the perpetrator of the

Toronto van attack A domestic terrorist vehicle-ramming attack occurred on April 23, 2018, when a rented van was driven along Yonge Street through the North York City Centre business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The driver, Alek Minassian, targeted ped ...

, saying "I would have preferred it 'sic''.html"_;"title="sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''this_had_been_an_act_of_jihadism.html" ;"title="sic">'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''this had been an act of jihadism">sic">'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''this had been an act of jihadism or something else linked to a clear ideology or cause" and that "Islamist terror is at least something we have come to understand". Kay was criticized for citing a Kevin Alfred Strom quotation which is often q:Voltaire#Misattributed, misattributed to Voltaire—"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." The original quotation is: "To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize? We all know who it is that we are not permitted to criticize. We all know who it is that it is a sin to criticize. … ti-semitism is the ultimate sin in America." It was written by Strom, an American white nationalist and

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

, in his 1993 publication. In a '' Canadaland'' article,

Jonathan Goldsbie Jonathan Goldsbie is a Canadian journalist, and currently the news editor for Canadaland. He has previously worked as a performance artist and as columnist at ''The National Post'', '' NOW Newspaper'' and ''Torontoist.'' He won a National Magazi ...

wrote that Kay had tweeted the phrase in April 2017. In her blog post, "Bill C-16, or The Transgender Identity Bill, is an act of "Velvet Totalitarianism", Kay compared the October 2017 Transgender Rights Bill to compelled speech in Voltaire's 18th century when it "was dangerous to criticize the Catholic Church and its dogmas. In our era, it is dangerous to criticize the Church of Gender Identity and its dogmas." During the July 18, 2018 panel discussion on the Bill C-16 Controversy, hosted by the Rights and Freedoms Institute, Kay used the phrase again to describe her "quarrel" with "

compelled speech Compelled speech is a transmission of expression required by law. A related legal concept is '' protected speech''. Just as freedom of speech protects free expression, in many cases it similarly protects an individual from being required to utter ...

" and "compelled expression of belief" in regards to the use of genderless pronouns. Kay said it was ironic that she used Strom's words, but felt they the words of the quotation made sense, even if they are those of a

Holocaust denier Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: * ...

Personal life

Barbara and Ronny Kay have a son, Jonathan Kay, and a daughter.

Publications

* 2012: ''Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter's Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love'', Freedom Press Canada, . * 2012: ''Acknowledgements: A Cultural Memoir and Other Essays'', Freedom Press Canada, .

Notes

References

External links

Barbara Kay's page
at the National Post {{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Barbara 1943 births Living people Canadian anti-communists Canadian columnists Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Canadian women journalists Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian Zionists Concordia University faculty Female critics of feminism Jewish women writers Journalists from Toronto McGill University alumni National Post people University of Toronto alumni Canadian women columnists Writers from Toronto Jewish Canadian journalists