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When leaders are derelict in their duty to lead, the consequences usually aren’t pretty. Sadly, we see it glaringly at all levels of government.

A recent and particularly disturbing case in point involves Carolyn Parrish, mayor of Mississauga, Canada’s third largest city. Last week, despite numerous requests, she refused to speak out against an abhorrent event planned for Celebration Square next to City Hall on November 26. Admirers of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel that killed 1,200 men, women and children, had announced a planned vigil honouring the mass murderer. A few days ago, following mounting public outrage, organizers canceled the event.

When I first learned of this upcoming tribute, I, like many other Canadians, was appalled. The initial flyer for the event shared on social media showed a smiling Sinwar, surrounded by Remembrance Day-style poppies, under the headline “Lest We Forget Our Heroes: Vigil for Resistance Leaders,” as if the soul-crushing atrocities Hamas carried out against unarmed civilians on Oct. 7 were heroic resistance. An organizer for the event praised Sinwar publicly, telling Mississauga.com “For us, he’s our hero.” Surely, I thought, promotion of such an obscene spectacle in Mississauga would trigger disgust and anger from local leaders, especially the mayor. How wrong I was.

Inexplicably, instead of nipping it in the bud, Mayor Parrish shared a statement from the city, saying the group has a right to use public space and that the city wouldn’t interfere with the event if by-laws are followed.

After hearing Parrish’s disappointing response, I reached out to her as a concerned citizen, a leader in the Jewish community and as a fellow former MP. I left our phone conversation deeply troubled by the mayor’s repeated refusals to do the right thing and take a stand against such a despicable initiative.

Not surprisingly, Parrish’s position triggered the ire of many and demands for her to reconsider her feckless stance and condemn unequivocally the then-upcoming tribute to an arch-terrorist, particularly as it was set for her jurisdiction. Such a toxic event posed a threat to public safety and was an affront to Mississaugans including the local Jewish community. I told her as much in our conversation.

Much to my dismay, Parrish has still not condemned the planned event, standing by her original statement.

By not taking a side, Parrish took a side. Such a lack of decision was a decision that effectively emboldened and gave space to those seeking to push extremism and hate, especially at time of surging antisemitism. Not only was this lack of resolve a stain on Mississauga and a disservice to her constituents, it’s also an indictment of her leadership, or absence thereof.

Adding insult to injury, at a city council meeting last week, Parrish invoked a comparison between Sinwar, whose brutality and ruthlessness earned him the nickname of the Butcher of Khan Younis, and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, the late South African President and human rights activist, adding that the US considered Mandela a terrorist until 2008.

Responding to a council member who said a public celebration of a notorious arch-terrorist, such as Sinwar, shouldn’t be tolerated in Mississauga, Parrish said: “Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things,” as if upbraiding her colleague.

No, Mayor Parrish, your statement implying that terrorism is in the eye of the beholder was patently wrong and deeply offensive.

Does Parrish need reminding that Sinwar was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians and that he headed a jihadist, genocidal organization openly committed to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews? Did she forget that in 2002 the Liberal government she was then part of, under former Prime Minister Paul Martin, officially listed Hamas as a terrorist entity?

The first responsibility of any elected official is to protect our democratic values and public safety. A vigil promoting hatred is a threat to both. By shamefully not taking a position on glorifying someone who was the embodiment of evil, Parrish showed herself to be a bystander lacking the moral fortitude that’s needed now more than ever.

Far too often our politicians are turning away, lacking the courage to confront the extremism and hate on full display on our city streets, a reality that’s a threat to all Canadians. We deserve so much better. We deserve leaders who will lead.

Read in the Toronto Star