Harley Finkelstein was onstage at Montreal’s Startupfest to talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, and building companies. He was not there to debate the war in Gaza.
But that did not stop activist Yves Engler from interrupting the Shopify president’s conversation with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre and demanding that Finkelstein answer for “genocide in Gaza.” The audience booed as Engler was removed, and Finkelstein told him he was “embarrassing” himself.
Finkelstein later called the disruption antisemitism “disguised under a thin veil of advocacy,” writing: “When the target is always the Jew and never the topic, it’s not advocacy. It’s hate.”
That is exactly the point.
This was not a foreign policy panel. There was no Israeli official onstage. It was a Jewish Canadian businessman being forced into a public loyalty test because activists decided his identity made him responsible for events in the Middle East.
Finkelstein told the National Post that behavior instantly recognized as bigotry against other communities is often rationalized when Jews are the target. He is right.
This was not activism. It was harassment dressed up as moral courage. And Finkelstein’s response was the right one: call it what it is, refuse the ritual, and get back to building.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
