The Kids Are Mixed Up

Violent protests in Montreal at a NATO conference. Broken shop windows, cars lit on fire and three people arrested for assaulting cops. They were pro-Palestine and anti-NATO protests joined together. This follows a student strike to ‘free Palestine’ at two of the city’s main universities and a college on Thursday. Chants for a ‘final solution’ were heard. Contrary to the Who song from the 1960s, in 2024 the kids are not alright. 

Most probably have no idea what they’re protesting. For them it’s vaguely understood performative social justice. I mean, anti-NATO? But does it matter? They know one thing: the adults in charge have screwed things up and they’re gonna pay a price for it. The world is overheating, environmentally and politically. The cost of living is out of control. The American dream has turned into a nightmare. As my daughter, a late 20s Justice Department lawyer two years into her career and living in Toronto said to me this week, ‘I talk with my friends. We all feel the same. Like I’ve done everything ‘right’ in my life, worked my butt off, but still have no hope of purchasing a home in the foreseeable future. 

There’s an undeniable sense of frustration veering into anger, and particularly among young people. Partly because there’s the equivalent of a car accident happening on their smart phones every minute. Some tragedy or catastrophe somewhere in the world to keep them worried and watching constantly. For example, a work colleague whose son and grandchildren live in northern Israel has an app on his phone that alerts him every time there’s a warning siren for an incoming rocket anywhere in Israel, meaning dozens and dozens of times a day, every day. I ask him why he subjects himself to this? He answers, I can’t help it, I’m concerned. Is there any wonder he’s a nervous wreck? 

So we're already on edge. The violent protests this week were in some measure spurred on by the sham ICC arrest warrants (see my earlier post) for the PM and former Defence Minister of Israel. No doubt the protesters felt emboldened to lash out and wreak havoc by the support of the so-called 'international community'. It feels like the moral guideposts are falling down around us. The leader of the free world is an adjudicated rapist, criminal felon and fraudster, who was given immunity from prosecution, and now international legal authorities are treating the democratically-elected Prime Minister and Defense Minister doing their utmost to defend their citizens from the threat of a multi-front war, as if they were criminal fugitives. The failures of the UN have been particularly galling to me, someone who did graduate studies in Geneva, and researched at the UN. It’s gotten much worse than I could have imagined. Not just the fundamental legal and moral lapse of the ICJ and the ICC, and not just that UNRWA and UNFIL have been unqualified disasters, but that they’ve actually aided, abetted and provided cover for transnational terrorism to operate. They’ve made a bad situation far worse. The international system of assistance and law are in a shambles, partly because of them. 

So Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau came out with a statement that Canada would abide by the illegitimate ICC warrants, along with Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Portugal, Australia, The Netherlands and Slovenia, who made similar public statements. Notably Hungary, the Czech Republic and Argentina, said they would not enforce the warrants. Never thought I could be siding with Orban, Milei, and trump for that matter.

I don’t blame the kids for not being alright. And mixed up. It feels like a lot of people are.