Rebecca Garner

Postdoc studying plasmids to help stop cow burps from heating the planet

[Sarah Ettedgui @SarahEttedgui]

Go Habs Go Was Supposed to Mean Something

Cities do not decline through a single catastrophe. They decline through normalization.

An event that would once have provoked outrage is explained away. Another follows. Then another. What once felt intolerable slowly becomes ordinary. What once shocked the conscience fades into background noise.

Montreal since October 7 offers a clear example of this process.

Three weeks after the massacre, Adil Charkaoui, the Montreal imam previously detained under a national security certificate for alleged links to al-Qaeda, stood in the city and publicly called on God to identify the Zionist aggressors and spare none of them.

Then came the encampments.

Then came the firebombing of Congregation Beth Tikvah in November 2023, followed by a second attack in December 2024, where my husband later scrubbed away the smoke stains.

Then bullets were fired at Jewish schools.
During the McGill encampment in May 2024, an effigy of Benjamin Netanyahu was hung from the Roddick Gates.

A swastika appeared on Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Canada’s oldest Reform synagogue.

And this week, in the middle of one of those rare moments of collective excitement and civic pride, while the Tricolore made a deep playoff run, effigies of Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Itamar Ben Gvir appeared alongside what looked like a Jewish figure wearing a kippah, displayed beside a Canadiens flag.

All of this unfolded while the city was celebrating.

The Canadiens have always been more than a hockey team. They are one of the few institutions that still unite this city: anglophones and francophones, old families and new arrivals, rich and poor. During playoff runs, Montreal remembers how to speak together in unison.

“Go Habs Go.”

That phrase once carried a meaning larger than politics. It belonged to everyone. Seeing the bleu-blanc-rouge beside imagery of hanging Jews felt like a fracture in something essential.

None of this is normal.

Firebombed synagogues are not normal. Bullets fired at Jewish schools are not normal. Swastikas on Jewish institutions are not normal. Hanging bodies and violent imagery woven into supposed political expression are not normal.

A healthy society does not convince itself that these are disconnected events. Serious societies recognize patterns. The pattern in Montreal is unmistakable.

It is visible in the quiet calculations Jewish families now make about where they can live safely, in the police presence required at schools, in the barriers around community buildings, and in the instinctive decision by some to become smaller in public spaces.

Jew hatred has long served as an early warning. It rarely remains confined to Jews. It reveals something broader: the weakening of civic norms and the growing inability to separate political disagreement from intimidation.

My mother made aliyah years ago. One of my brothers serves in the IDF. I am proud of them. I have family in Israel, but Montreal is my home. I chose to stay. I chose to raise my family here, build my life here, and continue investing in this city because I believed in what it stood for.

I am not afraid.
I am Jewish.
I have no trembling knees.

Tomorrow I will walk into my local police station and file a report, because that is what citizens do when institutions still function.

But I am sad. I am sad because I love this city.

And because I see what is happening to it: how a small minority can slowly poison the civic fabric of a beautiful city while everyone else learns to live with warning lights flashing.

Montreal deserves better. The city that gave us Leonard Cohen and Mordecai Richler deserves better. Its Jewish community, rooted here for generations and deeply invested in its success, deserves better.

And the symbols that once belonged to all of us deserve better too.

Because Go Habs Go was supposed to mean something.

[The Civil Commission @theCC07]

After more than two years of independent investigation, the Civil Commission has released a comprehensive report documenting sexual and gender-based violence committed by Hamas on October 7 and during hostage captivity.

The report is not only a historical record — it is a call for recognition, accountability, and justice.

Please read and share:
https://t.co/3ASO3PWyNF

#October7 #NeverForget #HumanRights #Justice

[Yael Bar tur @yaelbt]

Wow wow wow. Take a minute to watch these incredibly powerful remarks from a Rabbi in London.

I’ll add - if you’ve never had to send a loved one an “are you ok?” text after yet another attack, kindly stfu.

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@JesseBrown @TheAtlantic Thank you for the piece and for sharing.

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@JewishHockey @JewishHockey your captions are golden like perfectly fried latkes

[B'nai Brith Canada @bnaibrithcanada]

The Actions Governments Must Take Now

Governments in Canada already know the nature of the threat, the scale of the problem, and the consequences of continued inaction. What is needed now is a serious and immediate response commensurate with the gravity of the moment. The safety of Jewish Canadians must be guaranteed, public order must be restored, and those responsible for facilitating antisemitic violence must be brought to justice.

The Prime Minister must address the nation immediately and set out, in clear terms, what is being done and what further measures will be taken to ensure the safety of Jewish Canadians, defend Canadian values, and confront the radical extremism that is increasingly threatening the security and social fabric of this country.

All levels of government must act now!

These are the eight actions they must take.

Federal Government
1. Establish a national antisemitism emergency task force.
2. Treat the attacks as domestic terrorism.
3. Deploy national security resources to protect Jewish institutions.

Provincial Governments
4. Fund immediate security protection for Jewish institutions.
5. Establish a special prosecution unit for hate crimes.

Municipal Governments
6. Ban events that incite hate and intimidation.
7. Enforce zero tolerance for intimidation in public spaces.
8. Prioritize protection of Jewish neighbourhoods and institutions.

The attacks we are witnessing did not occur in isolation. They are the consequence of allowing hate to fester unchecked on our streets.

A substantial reward must also be offered immediately for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for targeting Jewish institutions and businesses with gunfire.

Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated, and Jewish life will not be driven underground in this country. Governments must act now, with force, clarity, and conviction, or accept responsibility for allowing this crisis to deepen even further.

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@DrCaseyBabb @TheFP Hi @DrCaseyBabb, I'm interested in listening, can you point me to the podcast episode? Thanks!

[Yonit Levi @LeviYonit]

המג״דית שנלחמה 14 שעות והצילה את מוצב סופה: הכתבה שערכתי על סא״ל אור בן יהודה, תשעה ימים אחרי שבעה באוקטובר -

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@realajedelman @israelbobsled @NBCOlympics Epic.
בהצלחה רבה!

[Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון @dannydanon]

After hundreds of sessions and debates here at the UN, speeches sometimes feel routine.
But today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it was especially moving to speak in front of Holocaust survivors from all over the world.

Hatred for the Jewish people has not vanished; it has simply evolved.

Watch my speech at the UN General Assembly >>

[Eli Lake @EliLake]

What happened to “help is on the way?”

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

It's day 832 of the October 7 Hostage Crisis. 

Hamas Gaza is still holding onto the body of Ran Gvili.

He was a police officer, killed defending Israeli communities from Hamas' barbaric atrocities. 

There must be no one left behind.

[Raz Shechnik @RazShechnik]

כנרת גת ז״ל, גיבורה. הישירה מבט אל פני הרוע. נזכור לנצח🤍
(מתוך צילומי @Uvda_tweet)

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

It's day 706 of the October 7 Hostage Crisis.

48 hostages are trapped in the dungeons of Gaza. 20 are presumed alive but at imminent risk of death. Hamas is trying to ransom the bodies of another 28 hostages it has already murdered.

Hamas must #LetThemGoNOW

[JCCMontreal @jcc_montreal]

Statement from Rabbi Saul Emanuel on Possible Leniency for Sergio Yanes Preciado

The idea that Sergio Yanes Preciado, the man who assaulted a Jewish father in broad daylight last Friday before throwing his kippah into the water, could receive a lighter sentence or even walk free because it was “hot outside” is beyond absurd. If the courts accept this, we might as well put a thermometer in every courtroom and let the weather forecast decide who goes to jail.

This was not a petty disagreement or a momentary lapse in manners. It was a violent public attack committed in front of the victim’s children, followed by a deliberate act meant to humiliate and degrade him. Any society that allows the temperature to be used as an alibi for violence is a society that has lost its grip on justice.

Heat waves do not commit assaults. People do. And when they do, they must face real consequences. A justice system that entertains such excuses tells criminals that accountability is optional and tells victims that their safety is negotiable.

If this defence is accepted, it will not only insult the victim and his family, it will undermine public confidence in the courts and embolden others to believe they too can avoid punishment with flimsy excuses. Justice in Montreal must be firm, swift and unambiguous. Anything less is a betrayal of the rule of law.

Rabbi Saul Emanuel
Executive Director
Jewish Community Council of Montreal

[יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog @Isaac_Herzog]

The faces of hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, say it all.

Forced to dig their own graves. Tormented with execution. Starved, tortured, wasting away in Hamas’ terror tunnels.

But Hamas doesn’t just starve the hostages. It starves the people of Gaza, by looting aid and blocking humanitarian deliveries which Israel has worked with its international partners to increase.

Now Hamas spreads lies and libels, blaming Israel to exploit global compassion. Hamas rejoices as it succeeds in distracting the world from their own crimes against humanity.

This is pure cruelty.

I urge world leaders: demand the hostages’ release. Ensure aid reaches civilians – not terrorists.

This is a test of humanity. Silence is not an option.

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@jcamthrash Thank you for posting our article, @jcamthrash!

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@yaelbt Pigeons against the patriarchy

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

It's day 617 of the October 7 Hostage Crisis.

53 hostages are trapped in the dungeons of Gaza. 

Up to 22 are presumed alive, at imminent risk of death. 31 have been murdered and Hamas is ransoming their bodies.

The Hamas terror state must #LetThemGoNOW🎗️

[Rebecca Garner @ChillyMicrobe]

@BriannaWu Dear Brianna, you have touched many more lives than you will ever know. Your courage is extraordinary. It is so wrong that some people attack you for who you are, but so many more admire and appreciate you. Thank you for being here.