Canada, the Antisemitic Capital of the Diaspora

"The report documents a 670 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada compared to the same period last year. It also highlights that despite making up just 1.4 percent of the population, Jews have been the targets of 70 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes, with 19 percent of all hate crimes in Toronto in 2023 directed at them. "

"Additionally, the report notes over 500 antisemitic incidents on university campuses, ranging from graffiti to violent occupations. It identifies specific individuals and organizations as major contributors to antisemitism in Canada, including pro-Palestinian group Samidoun which is now listed as a terror organization by Canada and the US."

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"This has been a very difficult year for Jewish students on campus. Across Ontario, students have reported more than 500 incidents of antisemitism, ranging from graffiti and hateful rhetoric to violent and intimidating occupations of campus."

"On a daily basis, we continue to hear from students who are being shamefully targeted -- both on campus and online -- simply for being Jewish."

"This is unacceptable and counter to the values Canadians hold dear."

"Jewish students, like all students, deserve to live and study on campuses free from harassment and discrimination, and we are calling on university leadership and elected officials to take urgent steps to safeguard their well-being."

Jay Solomon, chief advancement officer, Hillel Ontario 

The Schara Tzedeck Synagogue in Vancouver after an accelerant was used to start a fire at the front entrance, May 30, 2024. Photo by Jason Payne/Postmedia/File

 

In a highly unusual rebuke to Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Government of Israel released a detailed report singling Canada out as a hotbed of antisemitism, based on the reactions of Palestinian- and Muslim-Canadians to the atrocities meted out by thousands of members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, along with ordinary Palestinians to Israeli citizens in an invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. As soon as the word spread that terrorists had slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, raped and mutilated Israeli girls and women, abducted infants and children, the elderly and women, protests targeting Israel marched through Canadian cities.

The report published by the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism raises an alarm regarding an astonishing level of Canadian antisemitism. Antisemitism in Canada, notes the report, has increased in the time-span of the year that has passed since that savagery took place, by 670 percent. Jewish places of worship, community centres and day schools have been the targets of violent displays of pure, unadulterated hatred expressed in night-time firebombing, shooting and vandalism. The lack of response by the Trudeau Liberal government is as disturbing as the events isolating and terrorizing Canadian Jews.

Jewish-owned private businesses from book stores to restaurants have been picketed by screaming mobs of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas thugs wearing keffiyahs, many of whom as they scream invectives against Jews take care to cover their faces. Major antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents that took place since May 2024 are highlighted in the  report. Fires at a Vancouver synagogue, and at the Leo Baeck Jewish Day School in Toronto were noted. As was the Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School in Toronto for Jewish girls -- a shooting  target for the second time.

 

Shooters fire at the Bais Chaya Mushka Jewish girls school in Toronto, May 25, 2024. The school was shot at again on October 12. Photo by Screenshot/X

 

Over a dozen antisemitic incidents were categorized based on a risk-assessment level. Stone-throwing at two Toronto synagogues was classified by the Israeli ministry as a red alert; an attack that "could have or did harm to a large number of people/community". Defacing a Jewish cemetery in Montreal with swastikas; Montreal's Holocaust museum being defaced was categorized as a yellow alert. Whereas posters aimed at Liberal MP Anthony Housefather warning "get out of Canada" was given green code classification as was a sign in Montreal featuring "Globalize the intifada"; as a verbal/written assaults.

Four Canadian individuals were named in the report; independent Ontario MPP Sarah Jama and former government-appointed equity consultant Laith Marouf, along with the Samidoun group, identifying them as major inciters of Canadian antisemitism. Samidoun finally was given recognition for what it most definitely portrays itself to be, a terrorist entity, named as such a few days ago by both Canada and the United States. MPP Jama argued "no actual evidence" exists of Israeli women sexually assaulted by Palestinians on October 7. 

For his part, Marouf, a former government employee, paid to produce anti-racism training sessions for government employees, was revealed as an Islamist extremist when online statements identified him as such; statements such as: "You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, a.k.a. the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low-voiced bitches of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters"; a statement that found a place in the Israeli report.

Protesters at universities across Canada and the U.S. are demanding an end to Israel’s response to the Hamas savagery of October 7 in southern Israel when 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists. They want their schools to divest from anything connected to Israel and celebrate the Hamas atrocities as 'anti-colonialism'. CBC still from video

"When I was announced as special adviser [on antisemitism] I said it was one of my four priorities [to convince the federal government to classify the Palestinian 'charity' Samidoun as a terrorist and terrorism-supporting group] and I have been working on this long before feeding information to the public safety minister to pass on to the security services making the assessment."

"This is a very dangerous organization fostering hate in Canada and carrying on activities on behalf of an already listed entity [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]."

"It makes Canada and [the] United States safer."

Anthony Housefather, Member of Parliament, Special Adviser on Antisemitism