During that time I was able to verify Canary Mission’s location, the size and shape of its operation, as well as its mindset. The effort yielded an inside look into the Jewish community’s most opaque and hidden public activist group.
The group of students, ex-students, and others who comprise the Canary Mission movement works out of a single, non-descript medium-sized office located in an American city. Numerous computer workstations are sprinkled around the office, using certain specialized web-based software to do its work.
Work is done mainly from the office, which people visit from time to time as they review and add profiles of anti-Israel agitators and bullies and engage a roaring constellation of social media. However, remote participation is also common by some of the small group of Canary Mission warriors.
James is the boss. He hires and fires. He speaks with the voice of experienced authority describing the organization and its perilous situation. “Most of our staff is American,” he says. “We have a policy of keeping a low profile. We want to keep as many barriers as possible between us and [the hacker group] Anonymous, and any of those who are against us. When we find out who they [anti-Israel agitators] are, we just put out the facts. But when they find out who we are, they literally want to kill us. Because that is what they are like.”
A Canary Mission team member says, “People on this project genuinely believe there is a physical risk with doing this. Look around the world. You see ISIS, Hamas, and Hizbullah. It doesn’t matter if you’re Shiite or Sunni. You see home-grown terrorism in America and in Europe. It’s a real thing. Just look at Charlie Hebdo.”
But, he qualifies, Canary Mission differs radically from Charlie Hebdo “because we are not trying to attack any religion. We are not into that. When a radical says something, we report it. But, we are not religious extremists in any way, we are simply democrats.”
When one Canary Mission staffer was asked, “Do you harbor any animus toward Islam?” the reply was swift. “Not at all. We do not believe in any form of Islamophobia, any form of racism. We are simply fighting racism. And if you want to be specific, we are fighting anti-Semitism.”
Canary Mission’s gestation began late in 2014. Asked if there was straw that broke the camel’s back, one specific thing that ignited the movement, James replied: “There wasn’t one particular straw. There just seems to be an ongoing demonization of people who support Israel on U.S. and Canadian campuses. That is unacceptable. There is no reason why people who care about democracy or Israel should be physically harmed or abused. Therefore, we have to stand up against the anti-democratic forces and against anti-Semitism. It is our genuine belief that it is us [the Jews] today – and everyone else tomorrow.”
Asked about the veracity of public profiles, James replied, “Everything has to be fact-checked. We are not into making false claims, the kind of stuff the other side does. They deal with lies and we deal with truth. If it were shown that we made a mistake, we would not be very happy. We would correct it as soon as possible. We let the truth speak for itself.”
Amid media speculation about big donors lurking behind Canary Mission’s operation, James stressed the grassroots nature of the organization. While some staffers are paid, many volunteer. “It’s amazing what you can do when you care,” said James. “People can get away with not having vast amounts of money. Everyone’s looking for some huge donor who’s backing us. It’s a silly exercise, looking for things that don’t exist.”