'You Cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite"

"[We condemn] those who foment antisemitism in Canada."

"We will stand against all those in this country, regardless of motivation or ideology, who seek to demonize and dehumanize our Jewish fellow citizens."

"As Christians, we will not simply speak but act in support of you, our Jewish friends, in the interest of all that is just and good."

"We will not abandon you."

The Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism

"If we look back ... we see a steady increase in antisemitic hate crimes really since 2020. This is not simply about October7 and the aftermath of that."

"[Jewish communities have historically functioned as] the canary in the coal mine for growing intolerance and hatred within society. We've seen this throughout history. When Jews come to be targeted, it's usually a symptom of something ... rotten within the society at large."

"On the one hand we see the very overt antisemitism on our streets, this very awkward alliance between Islamists and woke progressives who have radicalized around this particular issue. But also I'm concerned about the silence and the inability amongst people who should be speaking out to realize that there's an issue, and to speak out without equivocation."

"My hope is that once we have these signatories to this declaration that we will have a summit, most likely in Toronto, later this year, where we'll bring together 50 of the leading Christian leaders who have been engaged with this declaration, together with 50 Jewish leaders ... to reaffirm this declaration publicly."

"Ant then the third stage is then to have those Christian leaders form a partnership with a local Jewish congregation."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, director of faith communities, Cardus

The Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett drafted the Canadian Christian Declaration on Antisemitism. Photo by Cardus

It has been a year since the horrendous atrocities of October 7 took place, an infamous day when thousands of Palestinian terrorists led by the governing Gaza Hamas group whose covenant with fate is to please Islam to enable them to rise to Paradise on the glowing record of having raped, tortured and murdered Israeli girls and women, shot to death infants and schoolchildren, burned entire families alive in their homes, as they marauded through southern Israel farming villages pillaging, destroying, slaughtering. An entire year when the Canadian public across the country has been treated to constant displays of rabid antisemitism posing as anti-Israel marches while threatening Jewish Canadians.

 

Governments at any level have done little to express their disgust at these betrayals of the Jewish Canadians at the terror-supporting, Hamas followers that have infiltrated Canada as immigrants, refugees and migrants, amassing a presence of formidable hate-dominating Islamist conquest against human decency and civilizational norms in favour of instilling their medieval-era exclusion/isolation/threatening agenda of Jew-expulsion by any means possible.

 

True, there have been courageous individuals whose moral compass has been outraged at these spectacles of hateful demonization of Jews and Israel, and they have taken to speaking up publicly in defense of human rights, equality, justice and the right of any country to defend itself and its population against the forces of evil exemplified by armed death squads whose function is to destroy and to kill for the rewards of justifying the most basic of Islamist dictums to jihad for the recognition they derive from their lethal actions that place them among the warriors of the Islamist death cult that aims for Jewish lives.

 

Canadians in the aggregate, who like to think of themselves as kind and considerate, courteous and welcoming toward others, believing in equality and neighbourliness, have been strangely silent. There have been no collective challenges to the hate-filled rallies that target their Jewish neighbours. Absent completely demands from civil society to their government to uphold the laws against injustice and hate-mongering. Silence from faith leaders. There has been no groundswell of support from non-Jewish Canadians for their Jewish neighbours.

 

Jews in Canada have been threatened and attacked in every conceivable way. They have been left in a state of disbelief and fear, and wondering whether their generations of life in Canada have been a dream overtaken by a nightmare. Finding empathy with their plight only amongst themselves. Placed in a ghetto of psychological bleakness, fearing for the present and for the future of their children. Simple acts of reassurance conveyed by non-Jewish neighbours to their long-familar Jewish neighbours have been absent.

 

The messages of unconcern for the well-being of Jews in Canada under the weight of an imported loathing of an ancient people viewed by Muslims as challengers to the favouritism of their heavenly spirit of choice bespeaks a total abandonment of civil, social, lawful and just alienation; it is their battle, they can fight it for themselves. The tiny demographic of Jews who have always considered their diaspora home in Canada to be inviolate, now know otherwise.

But here we have a sole individual who has dedicated himself within the country's faith communities to spur them to react to the spirit of carnage brought against the Jewish presence in Canada and the legitimacy of the tiny Jewish state dedicated to the preservation of Jewish life on this globe. Who has invested himself with the obligation to act as a Christian, to urge other Christians to acknowledge their duty to their religion and their fellow man. Hoping to arrive at a strong, inclusive coalition that will help to drive divisiveness, threats and hatred back to where it belongs; in the deepest, darkest corners of the human psyche.

Appealing through the humanitarian argument of a document of 450 words to convince fellow Christians to agree that: "In that light and in support of this declaration we affirm that the Jewish people remain God's chosen people. The law and the covenants that God gave to the Jewish people, which we see as fulfilled in Christ, remain intact." Posted on September 23, forwarded to 675 Christian leaders across Canada, the Reverend Bennett exults that over 200 signatures have been achieved in the first four days. 500 by the end of October, he hopes. "I'd love to see a thousand, I'd love to see 1,500", he enthuses. Good luck.

 

People take part in a pro-Palestine demonstration in Ottawa, Canada, on October 15, 2023. (Kadri Mohamed via Getty Images)

"The people in their respective congregations come to know one another, they come to have conversations about the relationships between Christians and Jews, presently, historically, the good and the bad ... and in that way to build a solidarity between Christians and Jews in this country."

"I think that can have the longest and most lasting impact."

"You cannot be a Christian and be an antisemite. It doesn't work. It's completely incongruent with our Christian faith."

Reverend Dr. Andrew Bennett, deacon, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Canada

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"[A] toxic environment was allowed to build [at the school]."

"This action is for assault, humiliation, discrimination, and other aspects to be named requiring compensation of general damages, declaratory judgement."

Mike Murphy, lawyer representing Shaked Tsurkan, Israeli-Jewish schoolgirl

 

"The plaintiff states the first attack and second attack happened because she is Israeli and/or Jewish."

"Since October 7, 2023, the date of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the plaintiff has experienced blatant antisemitism at LHHS [Leo Hayes High School, Fredericton, New Brunswick]."

Statement of Claim 

Shaked Tsurkan suffered black eyes, scratches, cuts and bruises after being attacked near her Fredericton high school on April 30, 2024, in what the family claims was an antisemitic assault sparked by the Israel-Gaza war. (Photo courtesy of the Tsurkan family)

 

A Fredericton domiciled family is taking a high-school student to court. The sued student's family is included in the claim, as is the district education council, reflecting an assault that occurred in April when their daughter -- another student at the high school -- was assaulted and beaten by the student they've brought a lawsuit against, solely for her Jewishness in a high school where an "antisemitic environment" exists.

Filed in the Court of King's Bench on September 6, the lawsuit lists Shaked Tsurkan as the plaintiff, represented by her father and litigation guardian, Eli Tsurkan. The family had discussed the situation in May, the month following the assault that took place on April 30 when they met with the provincial premier Blaine Higgs over the incident.

The Anglophone School District West District Education Council, along with the student, as well as another student who witnessed the assault and two "unknown parties", identified as the alleged assailant's parents and a third unknown party who witnessed the assault have all been named in the lawsuit. The complainant, Shaked Tsurkin, was 14 years of age at the time of the assault.

Shaked was aggressively confronted by the other student who grabbed her arms while they were in the school hallway, and when the plaintiff pushed the defendant in self-defence, it caused her hijab to become loose. The principal intervened in the physical altercation, ordering the two to separate. Shortly afterward, the plaintiff and her boyfriend left the school and walked to a nearby store.

 

There the girl was confronted again, and attacked by the other student "repeatedly battering her" in the parking lot of a sports complex, resulting in injuries occurring. "Unknown Party 3" witnessed the attack and accosted the plaintiff soon after. A video of the resulting altercation was then shared widely online, causing the girl to be humiliated, states the claim.

 

Video taken by a student bystander shows Israeli teenager Shaked Tsurkan, 14, being beaten near her Fredericton N.B. high school on April 30 while the assailant, wearing a pink hoodie, punches her about the head and face. (Submitted photo)

The video, shot by another student and then widely circulated, shows Tsurkan being jumped from behind by another student, thrown to the ground, and punched repeatedly by an attacker whom the Jewish girl identified as an older female Muslim student wearing a pink hoodie that Tsurkan said hid her hijab.

 

As injuries were caused, resulting in fear of returning to school, the Jewish girl missed five days of school attendance. When she did return, school staff advised here to use the teachers' washroom, to arrive late for classes, not to walk alone in the school hallways, and not to leave the building for the duration of the day. The aggressor-student was suspended for five days.

"We were kind of scared because I had already moved to high school, and there was a bigger community of Muslim people, that I know they’re pro-Palestinians, and they support them, and they tried to talk to school [staff] and ask them what can they do because… it’s a big deal."

"It’s not like middle school where they are still young there. In high school, they are like Grade 12 and they support Palestine, and I’m just in Grade 9, and I’m new in this school, and I’m the only one (Israeli), so I was really careful at first."

"I don’t want anything like this to happen again, because it’s just terrible. I want the school to understand that it’s not okay, because they are still saying it was my fault that I went outside, and I should have not gone outside… so they are blaming me about what happened at the school."

Shaked Tsurkan

Fredericton parents Eli and Michal Tsurkan speak with Premier Blaine Higgs at the New Brunswick legislature in May. Photo by Andrew Waugh/Brunswick News /pmc

Becoming the subject of antisemitic rumours linked to political issues reflecting the Gaza conflict had an understandably deleterious psychological effect on the young Jewish high school student. She was also profoundly affected that a homemade Israeli flag she brought to school as part of a class assignment was destroyed by other students. Additionally students and a teacher took part in a pro-Palestinian walkout at the school.

All of which, pointed out the lawsuit, had the effect of causing other Jewish or Israeli students to conceal their Jewish identities in the hope of avoiding similar persecution. In May, a 16-year-old girl was arrested, linked to the April 30 altercation, according to Fredericton Police. Police spokesperson stated that charges of assault and uttering threats were recommended.

"They were sent to the Crown who would decide to the next course of action, which could be diversion", spokesperson Sonya Gilks clarified.

"[The school is making this out to have nothing to do with antisemitism, claiming it to be a] run-of-the-mill high school dispute."

"The school doesn’t want problems. They want everything to be kept quiet. Maybe they’re afraid of the larger Arab population who would cause problems."

"They don’t want us to talk about it. They want us to drop it. But we won’t stay quiet. We can’t. We don’t accept it."

Michal Tsurkan

Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton, N.B. Photo by Twitter

Dismal Canadian Failure to Put Out the Fire of Antisemitism

"[The threats were made to] a number of institutions, including synagogues and hospitals, across Canada."

"Law enforcement is also engaging with faith-based leaders to ensure they have the information and support they need."

RCMP

 

"It is absolutely chilling to hear of more than 100 Jewish institutions across the country being threatened earlier this morning."

"For many, many months, Canada's Jewish community has raised alarm bells about the escalation of rampant Jew-hatred, as incitement and hateful rhetoric have become normalized online, on our city streets and on our university and college campuses."

"Repeated calls for violence against Jews and Jewish institutions are a stark reminder that extremism and radicalization are thriving in Canada and must be confronted before it's too late."

"The time of our leaders to step up is now." 

Michael Levitt, CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

"[There was no] imminent threat [the emails appear to be] nuisance emails designed to disrupt lives."

"Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated -- we will continue to take part in Canadian society and Jewish life."

"We will stay vigilant, but we will never be intimidated."

Eta Yudin, Quebec vice-president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

A police vehicle sits outside Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal, a Jewish school that was hit by gunshots for the second time in three days, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Photo by Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press

Jews in Canada are indeed on alert; more than that, they are profoundly perplexed and disappointed that their prime minister, their provincial premiers, non-Jewish faith leaders, corporate heads, government departments, human rights groups and civil society at all levels, from school boards to municipal offices, have not made an effort to stand behind their Jewish neighbours. Canadian unions in particular, academia as well, have added fuel to the fire of condemning Israel for protecting its people in the wake of the October 7 Palestinian terrorist attack on Jewish civilians in southern Israel, leaving 1,200 dead and hundreds taken hostage by Hamas.

The constant 'pro-Palestinian' and growing pro-Hamas demonstrations taking place across Canada, at university campuses, in front of Jewish hospitals, Israeli legations, synagogues, Jewish neighbourhoods, shopping centers and municipal offices exude hatred for Jews in Canada, issuing threats well known to Jews but evidently beyond the threat-literacy of the federal government. The display of Hamas flags alongside those of the Palestinian Authority, while chants of 'from the river to the sea', the 'triangle-cum-swastika signalling death to Jews, 'final solution', and 'go back to Poland' blatant in their rancid hate.

In the absence of any vestige of a crackdown on the illegal marches, the harassment of Jews, the implied threats, public expressions of antisemitism have become increasingly and startlingly terrifying for Jews in a country they were born in and to which they have been proud of representing. The great yawning gap of disinterest by authorities in meeting this chaotic disorder threatening a minority population has served to satisfy the organizers of the rallies that they can continue to threaten and intimidate, slander and alarm, with no enforcement of the law forthcoming, enabling the organizers to become more blatantly antisemitic with each passing week.

 

Toronto firefighters are shown here at the scene of a fire at North York business. (CBC)

In the matter of a series of emails reaching synagogues, Jewish groups and medical personnel who are Jewish and considered fair game for Jew-haters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assured the Jewish public that they are collaborating with local law enforcement to make certain that Jewish establishments wherever they are located remain safe. The source of the threats is being investigated by the Federal Policing National Security Program which, if it did its analyzing well, would conclude that foreign financial support has been key in the organization of these hate rallies.

Threats of death and physical violence were included in the emails, which indicated the goal of the perpetrator was to cause 'terror'. Really? after months of promulgating hate fests after hate fests,that is the investigative conclusion? Our policing and intelligence agencies are really doing us proud! Since the October 7 Hamas attack last fall on Israeli civilians the lunacy of antisemitism has gone unchecked and has ballooned, threatening the well-being of the entire community. In Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, police have been responding to threats. Toronto police revealed they evacuated a building in the West End of the city to "investigate for a bomb threat".

"We are continuing to address the possible impact in Toronto", assured the Toronto Police Service media relations officer. One would hope so, considering the multiple incidents of violence targeting Jewish institutions in the last year. Where fire-bombings of synagogues and community centres in Montreal and Vancouver have taken place, even as the same in Toronto have occurred with businesses have been vandalized, and shots fired at Jewish schools, as ongoing investigations so far yield few clues as to those responsible, though Jews know very well who they are collectively.

The Adath Israel Poale Zedek Anshei Ozeroff Synagogue in Hampstead, Que., was one of more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canada to receive a bomb threat by email Wednesday morning. (François Sauvé/CBC)