The Vile Wave of violence, Hatred and Intimidation of Jews in Canada

"[The] fire-bombing of the synagogue is not a one-off event."

"[It is] part of a pattern of an exponential rise in hate crimes and incendiary hate speech incentivized by a culture of impunity as in the absence of accountability of the crime of willful promotion of hatred."

"What is so necessary now is strategic policy direction at the governmental and municipal level around the four Ps:

• Prevention of the crime to begin with;
• Protection of the target;
• Prosecution of the perpetrators; and
• Partnerships among federal, provincial and municipal authorities. 

Irwin Cotler, human rights lawyer, founder, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

"There is no question that Canada has become a more dangerous place for the Jewish people under the divisiveness of Justin Trudeau that has stoked it."

"Another day brings another brazen act of antisemitic hate, and it's well overdue that the government do something or anything to protect Canadians."

"These lawless mobs of lowlifes must be brought to justice."

Conservative Party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman

"These hate activities are overwhelmingly directed against the Jewish community, students and faculty, and ordinary citizens on our streets."

"They are also being directed against people living in quiet residential neighbourhoods in Westmount and merchants around them."

"As a result, most within the Jewish community and many other residents of the Montreal Island are feeling unsafe."

"We are asking you, as the Mayor and chief of staff to ensure, through policy direction, that there is zero tolerance for antisemitic crime activity in our city, and that as a matter of policy and strategic guidance, the police robustly use the criminal law tools and municipal bylaws available to them to protect the public."

Cote Saint-Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein, Westmount Mayor Christina Smith, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather

A damaged window is seen at Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal after its second arson attack in a little more than a year, Wednesday December 18, 2024. Photo by John Mahoney/Postmedia

For the second time since the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas terrorists, a Montreal synagogue was firebombed. A fire had been reported at Congregation Beth Tikvah at 3:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. When police arrived they found remnants of a firebomb that had been thrown through a window of the building. In Toronto, several days later, a Jewish parochial school was shot at again, at the front doors. These events occur early in the pre-dawn hours, wreaking double damage; to the buildings themselves and to the security of mind and person of the targeted community.

 

On news of the fire-bombing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau let loose with his usual verbal reaction, that Service de Police de la ville de Montreal is investigating the "hateful act. This vile antisemitic attack against Montreal's Jewish community is cowardly and criminal", he responded. He speaks the language of responsible government, but has never yet -- in a year-and-a-half of street mobs shouting threats at Jewish Canadians, of stalking them in their communities to hurl invective at them, of calling for the destruction of Israel -- undertaken any direct action to put a stop to the unlawful events.

Anthony Housefather, Mount Royal Liberal MP, called on authorities to "make every effort to quick[ly] arrest anyone responsible" for the firebombing. He, along with others in municipal authorities co-wrote and addressed an open letter to Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante for stricter law enforcement to provide due protection to the city's Jewish community. She, like other municipal authorities, like their provincial counterparts, like the federal government itself, have verbally deplored these unlawful, hateful events, but have done nothing within the law to put a stop to them, nor instructed police to follow the law.

The errant, unforgivable failure to pursue hate speech criminal law, along with an "over-reliance on non-enforcement as a form of de-escalation", pointed out the letter co-signers "has emboldened protesters and demonstrators to engage in intimidating, violent acts and unequivocal hate speech, and thus, ultimately, has not successfully addressed the unsafe and toxic situation in our city". Toronto's mayor too, has done nothing to address the lack of safety and security for the public in that city; a permissive aura for tolerating intolerable Jew-hating marches and volatile speeches have marked her as a failure.

"Over the last 14 months, this is the seventh instance where a Jewish institution has been targeted in Montreal and the second time these specific institutions were targeted, chilling reminders of what happens when politicians fail to call out antisemitism and prevent the escalation of violence on our streets", wrote the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, along with Federation CJA, a Montreal-based Jewish organization.

After local Montreal police responded to the synagogue call, to find a flammable projectile had broken a window and ignited within the building, scorching nearby walls before first responders arrived, law enforcement later that morning discovered two windows destroyed at a nearby Federation CJA Jewish community building.

Both properties had been attacked in similar manner with a Molotov cocktail thrown at the synagogue and a fire started at the back exit of the Federal CJA building in November of 2023, a month following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7.

"The attack on the synagogue is] appalling, yet another example of the vile wave of violence, hatred and intimidation to which Jews in Canada -- and all over the world -- have been subjected in recent weeks and months."

"The world must wake up, words are not enough: synagogues burned, Jews attacked -- NEVER AGAIN IS NOW."

"Following this terrible attack especially, I call on the Canadian government to act decisively, and show that such hatred will not be tolerated."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog