Is a school lesson plan, widely used across Canada, designed to fight racism like its promoters say? Or is it also a clever cover for defending Jewish and white supremacy in the Middle East?

A recent 12-page Canadian Jewish News insert about Elizabeth and Tony Comper raises the issue. According to the supplement, in 2005 the Bank of Montreal head and his wife Elizabeth started Fighting Anti-Semitism Together (FAST), a coalition of non-Jewish business leaders and prominent individuals. FAST sponsored a lesson plan for grades six to eight called "Choose Your Voice: Antisemitism in Canada."

The Green Party convention this past weekend offered a win for everyone. Sort of.

The convention was held to clarify the Greens' position vis-à-vis economic pressure on Israel for its human rights abuses. Green leader Elizabeth May was so opposed to an August resolution condemning Israel's human rights abuses that she had threatened to resign. Influential party activists sought to preserve their August win while maintaining party unity.

Last month, The Vancouver Sun printed a remarkable apology to Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Canada. The Sun editorial board had published a piece in August claiming that IJV -- a Jewish organization -- had denied the Holocaust and encouraged terrorism against Israelis. The only problem was, they were dead wrong.

What do today's right-wing Quebec and Israeli nationalists share in common? A claim to victimhood that enables them to deny their role in oppressing others.

This commonality became clear when a prominent right-wing Quebec nationalist politician cited the French language and Jewish sensibilities to criticize immigration and the veil. It also reflected a historic reversal in Québecois-Jewish relations. More significantly, it highlighted the dangers of an "empowered sense of vulnerability," a psychological state many Quebeckers and Jews seem to share.