Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow -- Mayor of All the People She is NOT

 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow

“I unequivocally condemn this disgusting antisemitic act and the repeated vandalism of Kehillat Shaarei Torah temple. The Toronto Police Service is investigating and the Hate Crime Unit has been on scene. I support the Toronto Police in quickly apprehending whoever is responsible and will provide whatever resources are necessary. My office is in contact with police throughout this investigation and I understand they will release more information as it becomes available.

The City has several initiatives to help keep Jewish communities safe. My budget provides tens of millions towards visible police presence and service in Jewish communities. We have created policies to protect safe access to religious and cultural institutions and invested in anti-hate public education campaigns. Jewish Torontonians deserve to live in peace and security, we will never tolerate vandalism, violence or the intimidation of our Jewish neighbours.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow Webpage 

"The city has a real problem with antisemitism and Jew hatred. It does...and that lands on Mayor Chow's desk."

"It's really regrettable that she's not able to attend a debate, have a conversation with a community in Toronto that is deeply hurting about a topic like antisemitism." 

Mayoral candidate Councillor Brad Bradford 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow appeared at the National Council Canadian Muslims gala on Nov. 1, 2025 (Screenshot image via X.com)

 

"Here in Toronto, a global city, we feel the pain of what happens around the world."

"The genocide in Gaza impact[s] us all. A common bond of shared humanity is tested."

"I will speak out anywhere when children anywhere are feeling the pain and violence and hunger."

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, at the National Council of Canadian Muslims

"No international court or legal body has made a binding or final ruling that a genocide is taking place. Making such inaccurate and misleading statements, while representing all Torontonians, sends a harmful and divisive message."

"Toronto deserves leaders who treat every community with respect and act with impartiality. At a time when the mayor should be working to mend divisions and ease tensions, she has instead chosen to inflame them."

"The City’s own Code of Conduct makes it clear that elected officials must act with integrity and impartiality and that their actions must withstand the closest public scrutiny."

"When a Mayor presents a legally disputed claim as fact, it crosses the line from leadership to bias."

B'nai Brith Canada

Toronto is in the throes of a campaign for mayor of Canada's largest city. So far,the incumbent, Olivia Chow, as the current office holder, is in the lead and may yet be confirmed to continue to hold her office in a renewed mandate. Three frontrunners have been identified for the October 26 mayoral race in a massive ballot of 50 names in total. Aside from Mayor Chow, her top challengers are Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander. A recent debate focusing on antisemitism which has risen to alarming proportions particularly in Toronto, presented as a perfect opportunity for Mayor Chow to answer to and rebut accusations that she has fuelled a distinct aura of Jew-hate in the city.

 

While she has often issued declarations of condemnation when Toronto synagogues and Jewish schools have been shot at, defaced and congregants harassed as they entered their places of worship, her words are meaningless when she fails to react in any concrete manner to ensure that civic law is upheld and that the 
Toronto Police Service is called upon to ensure that Toronto's Jewish neighbourhoods not continue to see hordes of keffiyeh-clad, masked anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian groups mock and threaten Jewish residents.

 

Invited to a mayoral debate on antisemitism and the precarious security of Toronto's Jewish community, she refused attendance. When pressed, she said she does not take part in candidate events when her campaign had not yet been official launched. Which it was, the day after the debate took place. Irrespective of whether this debate was linked to the mayoral campaign, Mayor Chow should recognize the need to address an issue that has been ongoing for three years, of crowds of Jew-baiters setting up encampments at universities, of Muslims in large groups taking over streets for mass prayers.

 

The Palestine Youth Movement held a downtown rally from Yonge and Dundas Sts. to the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, before shutting down the intersection to traffic. Photo by Caryma Sa'd /Special to the Toronto Sun

 

The travesties of anti-Jewish groups standing before Jewish-owned restaurants and harassing those entering, of other crowds shouting anti-Jewish invective in front of Jewish old-age homes, in front of a Jewish hospital that treats all patients, being permitted these anti-social and threatening actions in the name of 'free speech' even when shouting "Go back to Poland", or infamously "Final Solution", and "From the River to the Sea", clearly enough hate propaganda inciting to violence and nothing is done to uphold the law, a reflection of the mayor's disinterest in her obligations to all her constituents.

 

By The Toronto Police Service's own numbers, Jews were targets of 82 percent of religious-motivated hate crimes in 2025, for an ethnic/religious minority representing a mere three percent of the population. Despite which, this mayor saw her way clear to inciting even greater verbal assaults against the Jewish community by her rhetoric demonizing the Jewish state, and in one fell swoop, calling down even greater threats against Canadian Jews in Toronto.

 

She is a disgrace to her office, for choosing the inflammatory language she uses toward satisfying a larger voting demographic that clearly identifies Jews in Toronto being the default for Israel. Canada deserves better, and so does Toronto. Above all, the Jewish community which has their roots in this country going back centuries and considers Canada their home, deserve better than to have Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. When municipal authorities see it in their political interest to identify a victim for the baying Jew-haters in society, that society identifies itself as a human-rights failure.

 

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow speaks to media on March 8, 2025. Prof. Yang Meng writes that a speech made by Chow in November, in which she drew parallels between the Japanese invasion of China during WWII and the situation in Gaza, was hurtful to both Jewish and Chinese people. Photo by Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press

 

"The Mayor of Canada’s largest city, stood with us and spoke the truth: that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, [that] truth matters. Mayor’s Chow’s words tonight were not about politics — they were about acknowledging the genocide in Gaza, and the path forward."

"It is an acknowledgment that has important policy implications, as we all know, because as we also all know, there are far too many who have not made this acknowledgment."

"Speaking the truth is the only way to be decent right now."

"There is still much wrong here in Toronto. And we’ve seen terrible things happen to shut down peaceful protests to stand against the genocide in Toronto over the past few years."

National Council of Canadian Muslims

 

"Such language distorts fact and law, and it legitimizes the hostility and intimidation that Jewish Torontonians are already facing in record numbers."

"By echoing that narrative, Mayor Chow lends support to those spreading malicious libels and undermines public confidence in her commitment to the safety, dignity, and inclusion of all Torontonians."

"The Jewish community expects the mayor to make this right by addressing the harm caused and taking immediate action to restore trust and ensure our safety."

Noah Shack, CEO,  Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs