Prime Minister Mark Carney's Glib Reassurances Contrast With Lack of Commitment

"The government has been taking actions at home to protect the Jewish community, protect all Canadians, but particularly the Jewish community."

"And it's above and beyond protection, it's about the ability to truly thrive, live their lives freely and openly and thrive as Jewish people in Canada."

Prime Minister Mark Carney

 

"[There will be] an increased police presence today and in the coming days [at synagogues and other places of worship]."

"We remain committed to working with communities across Toronto addressing hate, and ensuring people are safe."

Toronto Police Service statement 

 

"I'm thinking today of Jewish families across Toronto who have spent three years watching this kind of thing move closer to their homes, their schools and their synagogues, and who are tired of being told it's being taken seriously, while it keeps happening."

"Hate directed at any community is a threat to every community, and the people responsible for this [latest event, burning of Israeli flags on the anniversary of October 7] need to be found and charged."

Brad Bradford, Toronto City Councillor/Mayoral candidate 

 

"The hatred that fuelled October 7th did not remain on foreign shores."

"Right here in Canada, far too many synagogues, Jewish businesses and institutions have been the targets of harassment and hate." 

Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre 

Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at Holy Blossom Temple on June 1, 2026, to announce new efforts to combat antisemitism. (Photo: Mitchell Consky/The CJN)

 

Sanctimonious statements of regret, condemnation, support and dedication to ensuring that Jews in Canada are treated with the same deference, security and equality as any other ethnic/cultural group is afforded somehow ring inauthentically when they're solemnly expressed by the very heads of government that belie their words of comforting reassurance by doing absolutely nothing within the laws of the land to ensure that those words carry on beyond verbal performance. The federal Liberal government, under its previous prime minister carrying over to the current office holder, Mark Carney has done nothing in the past three years to relieve Canadian Jews of the imposed burden of Jew-hate directed from identifiable sources.

 

Those are the very identifiable sources that make no secret of their hatred and contempt for the Jewish community in Canada, loyal citizens whose presence as Canadians were of a far longer duration than those who seek to harass and threaten them to the point of terrorizing them into leaving the country of their birth for other, less threatening havens. The Jewish record of citizenship in Canada is centuries old, helping to build the country, their entrepreneurship, loyalty and commitment unquestioningly bringing credit and prosperity to the nation. Later arrivals from sources of traditional, habitual antisemitism entering Canada have brought that 'culture' with them.

 

Prime Minister Mark Carney notes their presence with the startling statement that "Muslim values are Canadian values". Invariably, while condemning antisemitism, Mr. Carney, like his predecessor never fails to mention "Islamophobia" as a social menace alongside that of antisemitism, even as the truth cannot be evaded that those 'Muslim values' practised by all too many immigrants, refugees and migrants from North Africa and the Middle East motivate and engender endless 'marches' focusing on Jews and Israel needing to be expunged from existence through modes and methods including that of  'Globalize the Intifada', and 'Final Solution'.

 

Anti-Israel protesters were "parading in front of a synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors to protest a foreign conflict". The Lodzer Centre Congregation was founded by Polish Holocaust survivors in the 1950s. Photo by Google Maps

 

Canada's progressive-left, adhering to Critical Race Theory and DEI, promoted by the Liberal government has infiltrated academia, unions, corporations, government branches and those areas of the general public permeated with the ages-old pathology of Jew-hate. Vandalizing Jewish-owned businesses, firing at Jewish day schools, throwing explosives at synagogues in Montreal and Toronto, harassing and threatening Jewish students and professors at Canadian universities has become 'normalized' in Canada, propelled by the concerted action of Palestinian student groups and foreign actors. 

"Nothing could be more contrary to the spirit of Canada, let alone our universities, than that [Jewish students avoiding wearing symbols of their ethnicity, the majority of whom feel campus antisemitism is a serious problem they have experienced or witnessed]."

[But] in addition to continue to strengthen the response on campus and giving this a national effort on behalf of universities, it's going to require a much closer partnership between all the institutional players because antisemitism does not stop or start at the edge of campus."

"The one thing I've heard most consistently from Jewish students is that they want the same protections under the same policies that every student is entitled to on campus and that's something that universities have taken to heart."

Gabriel Miller, president, Universities Canada

 

"What the university can do is ensure that it has clear policies that are consistently enforced to ensure that people are behaving toward one another in the university environment in a way that's conducive to higher education."

"Ultimately Jewish people in this country are going to be driven out of public institutions, and out of society, in a very scary way that we've seen in other countries throughout history and that no one would ever think possible in Canada."

Noah Shack, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

The state of funding of universities that fail to comply with the Ontario government's directive to apply their own standards and policies will lead to the reduction of operational funding through a new directive of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities of the province. The directive mandates that the institutions retain authority over (and responsibility for) student associations and groups operating on campus that promote antisemitism and hatred. This is the provincial government finally positively responding to the plight of Jewish students.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the main campus of the University of Toronto are pictured on July 3, 2024. Demonstrators cleared the encampment on the university's grounds before the 6 p.m. deadline to avoid confrontation with police. (Alex Lupul/CBC)

 

The current mayor of Toronto, who stated on the anniversary of October 7 that: "I will never waver on my commitment to the safety of Jewish Torontonians. We will continue to invest in keeping communities safe and strong and will take action until every Torontonian can practise their faith without fear", should be struck by the lightning bolt of reality coming back to haunt her, through the upcoming municipal election. Mayor Olivia Chow, in fact, has stood by impassively while Jews in Toronto have been threatened by mobs of Jew-haters, even in their own neighbourhoods. Not once has she responded with the authority of her office to put a stop to the promotion of antisemitism.

 

She has stood, like the prime minister himself, foursquare with the Muslim community, appearing at their events in support and admiration, even to wearing the requisite Muslim garments for Muslim women as an indication of her comfort within the community. Not once has she moved herself to attend an event with the Jewish community in Toronto; doing all she could to evade a presence among Jews. During the mayoral election campaign she refused to take part in a discussion along with other mayoral candidates focusing on viral antisemitism in the city she governs. 

 

Source: Instagram

 

Too Bad, So Sad, Canadian Jews

Kiva's bakery at Steeles Avenue and Bathurst Street on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

 

"This is utterly reprehensible."

"[Incidents such as these] deepen fear and reinforce why so many in our community feel increasingly vulnerable ..."

"Condemnations are not enough. The Jewish community needs more than expressions of concern."

"It needs results." 

Michael Levitt, president,  Friend of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Study

 

"We condemn yet more violent attacks on the Canadian Jewish community."

"These attacks are not only on Jews but on Canada's values and our democracy itself. [There has] not been a word from the advisory committee on rights, equality and inclusion, now responsible for determining the causes of antisemitism in Canada."

"As we have previously noted, this committee has members with no qualifications in issues of antisemitism and members whose prior associations should have disqualified them."

Hadassah Goldberg, CLARITY Coalition Canada 

Supporters stand in front of the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on McGill University campus, in Montreal, Monday, June 17, 2024. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

 

Canadian Jews have been left disbelieving. Never would it have occurred to them that the ancient pathology of Jew-hate that most Jewish antennae are attuned to would suddenly escape the confines of polite society to emerge as a storm of unadulterated antisemitism, boldly declared in the public arena, escalating to the point that the sewage of Jew-hate has become a threat to their very existence as Jews living in Canada. There is not one Canadian Jew unfamiliar with the syndrome, all have experienced it to at least a 'mild' degree from childhood to adulthood. 

 

Jews have had a presence in Canada since the 16th Century; they are not recent immigrants.  The number of Jews in Montreal warranted the establishment in 1768 of the Shearith Israel synagogue. 18th Century Quebec City had seen Jews settling in as proud citizens, along with other parts of Lower Canada. In Trois-Rivieres, Ezekiel Hart was elected to the legislature of Lower Canada in 1807, but on the basis of his religion was denied his seat. Early arrivals in the emerging Canada of today, rife with antisemitism but a home to Jews.

 

In this more enlightened era where Canadian Jews known to have made a reputation for themselves as scientists and academics, industrialists and medical pioneers, researchers and writers, the place that Jews made for themselves in Canada emerged as contributors to Canadian advances in all spheres of human endeavour. Diaspora Jews valued their lives in the countries they became citizens of throughout Europe, Latin America and North America among other destinations. With the advent of the State of Israel reemerging in its ancestral geography it became another point of pride, passion and security.

 

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

 

It took only a few decades for Canada to welcome immigrants, refugees and migrants from parts of the world where the religion, history, culture and heritage was one of inherited antipathy to Jews and that viral antipathy accompanied them to their new home, their numbers among the general population steadily increasing to the point where politicians sought them out as a voting bloc irrespective of their inability and unwillingness to accept Canadian law, values and culture. This, in a society that valued its concept of multiculturalism as a great benefit to the country.

 

The outcome of which has been foreign interference in a programmed and organized campaign to slander and threaten Canadian Jews, based on their links to Israel as Zionists in support of that ancient heritage forever under threat by fundamentalist Islamists devoted to the jihad of the sword -- or bombs, beheadings and mass slaughter. A public relations campaign that introduced the West to a new phobia that was to be taken up and deplored as an assault on human rights -- Islamophobia -- became the darling of Western politicians courting the Muslim vote. And nor were the media confined to neutral reportage.

 

Temple Emanu-El windows shot out, March 2, 2026, North York, Toronto Star/Getty Images

 

Public institutions and governments throughout the West developed an affinity for responding to Muslim invective against Jews everywhere and particularly Israel which soon became globally isolated every time its military responded to deadly attacks against the presence of the Jewish state. The slopover in Canada saw campaigns to delegitimize Israel, to boycott its products, services and academics in favour of demonstrating fealty to the plight of Palestinians 'victimized' by a country that would not allow itself to be attacked, its citizens murdered by neighbours plaintively calling themselves victims while attacking their 'occupiers' whose very presence 'oppressed' them.  

 

In Canada, Jewish-owned businesses are vandalized, synagogues fire-bombed, Jewish parochial schools shot at, hateful marches through Jewish neighbourhoods harassing and threatening its residents, all with complete impunity. University campuses shut out for Jewish students and Jewish professorial staff frozen out by their colleagues whose support of the Palestinian 'cause' is paramount in their progressive-left Marxist embrace. One prime minister after another disinterested in the plight of that segment of the population in favour of deploring any symptoms of 'Islamophobia' should Jews point out the campaign of disentitlement of Jews in Canada is led by Muslims. 

 

The accused, Mohamed Ilyess Akodad, said he accepted a $15,000 contract to set fire to Congregation Beth Tikvah on Dec. 18, 2024. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)

 

"[Should the attacks on the two Toronto Jewish bakeries be proven to be hate crimes, they would be] the latest in such attempts to harass the Jewish community and would represent an assault on all civilized Canadians."  

"Rather than shine a light on the real threats facing Canada, including Islamic radicalism and the Iranian regime's tentacles in Canada, much of the news media has instead fixated on regurgitating pro-Palestinian talking points."

Robert Walker, Honest Reporting Canada

 

"Toronto's Jewish community deserves more than just thoughts and prayers."

"Toronto is not going to remain a city where Jewish store owners sweep up broken glass."

"We will sweep it up together. Indifference is indictment."

Toronto City Councillor Brad Bradford, mayoral candidate 

"Canadians are Experiencing a Polite Pogrom"

"[The] harm to Canadian Jews won't stop until we all have the courage to name the problem accurately and to identify the specific people perpetuating it: Islamist religious extremists in collaboration with progressive activists."

"[Canadians are experiencing a] polite pogrom." 

Jesse Brown, Canadaland publisher

 

"I have often thought about making aliya [moving to Israel] but for familial reasons, I was tethered to Canada."

"Whenever I go to Israel, I experience a sense of calm. It is because I don't have to explain, or justify or excuse."

"I can be who I am in a way that I cannot in Canada."

Jack Novack, retired Dalhousie University professor 

 

"It's not even drip, drip, drip anymore. It's like a freaking firehose [rampant antisemitism]."

"[The NDP has made]a crude political calculation [to win over the much larger, faster-growing Canadian Muslim community over Jewish voters, choosing to overlook  antisemitism in their ranks]."

"[People in 1940s Montreal would call her father maudit Juif ['damn Jew']. But I never experienced that in Montreal [in the '60s and '70s]. So trying to figure out:What did we miss? Were there signs? And I think that's a very Jewish experience right now."

"Along with that comes tremendous grief. The overwhelming emotion is grief. Grief at, I would suggest, a loss of innocence for Jews and for others."

"Because Canada is supposed to be, and was supposed to be, a place where we could all be all that we are with full identity."

Selina Robinson, former NDP B.C. cabinet minister

This shot of three figures hanging in effigy of Israeli leaders was part of a reel posted by the group mtl4pal on Instagram following the group's pro-Palestinian rally in Montreal on Saturday, May 24. (mtl4pal/Instagram)

 

Jews in Canada no longer have any reason to place their confidence in law enforcement and the legal system in Canada. A high rate of the criminal charges against anti-Israel protests -- according to a Toronto digital media outlet -- sees that of the 150 people criminally charged in Toronto between October 2023 and January 2026, close to two-thirds of the cases were dropped or stayed. For further lack of trust, the recently published memoir of retired Toronto police inspector Hank Idsinga accuses the Toronto Police Service of institutionalized antisemitism. 

 

Mr. Idsinga's book recounts antisemitic incidents prior to his leaving the force in late 2023 for retirement, when colleagues were prone to state "I can't believe we have to pander to this f--king Jew". When his colleagues in the force, not aware that he was Jewish, would baldly make outright antisemitic statements. Mr. Idsinga unequivocally states from his own experience that antisemitism permeates every level of the Toronto Police Service, from the very top on down.  

"Every time I wake up and I realize that the water's getting hotter [like being a frog in a pot of boiling water], somebody greases the bowl."

"The level of tolerance that this country seems to have adopted in terms of antisemitism is breathtaking." 

"[Even as European Jews see politicians abandoning smaller Jewish electoral communities for larger and fast-growing Muslim ones, so too do Canadian Jews]. [Case in point: Belgian Jews] fear that they might be abandoned by politicians who look for new voters in Belgian society, for example among the Muslim population."

"Many politicians lack the political will [to address antisemitism and recognize a] jihadi ideology [has] now come to Canada."

Talia Klein Leighton, president, Canadian Women Against Antisemitism 

More than fifty Toronto police officers receive a morning briefing Sunday April 5 at Sheppard Plaza in North York before ensuring any anti-Israel or pro-Israel protesters remain out of residential neighbourhood streets. (Photo by Ellin Bessner/The CJN)

 

"Of all the groups" sociology Professor emeritus Robert Brym at University of Toronto studied, including racialized Canadians, left-leaning Canadians, Quebecers and others, it is Canadian Muslims whose attitudes toward Jews stands out for their malevolence in regarding Jews, where 28 percent agree in polls that "Jewish people are largely to blame for the negative consequences of globalization", while 34 percent feel Jews "talk too much about the Holocaust". Four percent of non-Jewish Canadian adults on the other hand, agreed with the former, 13 percent with the latter statement.

 

"The percentage of Muslims among the most extreme antisemites is considerably higher than the corresponding percentage of non-Muslims", Professor Brym wrote in an academic paper. In Australia that same differential also is reflected in attitudes toward Jews. Surveys to gauge European Christians and Muslims on whether they view "Jews cannot be trusted" reveal huge differences, where in Australia 10.7 percent of Christians agree with the statement, and a whopping 64.1 percent of Muslims agreed. 

 

In France, similar research reveals that the Muslim community's antisemitic views are at levels higher than the far left and the far right, where French Muslims in the majority believe that "Jews have too much" economic power (67 percent) and that "Jews today use their status as victims of the Nazi genocide during the Second World War for their own interest", at 56 percent. When these issues are pointed out, that the great upheavals seen in publicly expressed antisemitism, are led by Muslims throughout Europe and North America, executive government levels invariably while denouncing antisemitism never fail to link that social sin with 'Islamophobia'.

 

And then the popular version of fault rests on a totally unaccountable source, the nationalists and far right groups. To publicly agree that Muslim extremism is responsible for the raging antisemitism seen everywhere today is a non-starter. And because it remains unrecognized officially and institutionally, there can be no amelioration of the situation if the specific people perpetrating and perpetuating Islamist religious extremism are not held responsible, much less checked. 

 

The minority antidote when government itself will not do its work in upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

The Council of Muslims Against Antisemitism (CMAA) is a group of global
Muslim thinkers, professionals and activists, led by its founder director
Raheel Raza that is committed to fighting antisemitism in all its guises. This
group took its foundational inspiration from Canadian values of tolerance,
justice and peace among Canadian diverse communities living together
side-by-side.
We recognize antisemitism for what it is – a uniquely pervasive, enduring,
and lethal form of hatred which has insinuated itself into multiple cultural,
religious and political frameworks across the globe. We recognize the
particular threat posed by the meteoric rise of antisemitism in the 21st
century. Often genocidal or eliminationist in intent or expression, it
represents an unprecedented amalgam of the more familiar strains of
antisemitism promoted in extremist right-wing, left wing and Islamist
ideologies. The spread of contemporary antisemitism has been accelerated
by globalization and the advent of 21st century technologies.
The CMAA endorses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
(IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The IHRA definition constitutes the
world’s most widely accepted definition of antisemitism which has been
adopted or endorsed by 43 countries including Canada. It appropriately
recognizes that the demonization of the State of Israel as a Jewish state is
antisemitic, whereas criticism of Israel, its government, policies or actions
of a type that all countries are subject to, is not.
Despite challenges that include receiving death threats, we are committed
to working with like-minded groups to challenge antisemitism wherever it
may appear. We are working relentlessly towards the goal of attaining a
hate-free Canadian community.                                                                                          Council of Canadian Muslims Against Antisemitism

Safeguarding Canadian Jews

"There have been repeated incidents in Canada involving shootings, fire-bombings, bomb threats, and disrupted plots targeting Jewish schools, synagogues, and community events."

"[Large anti-Israel demonstrations across Canada became] platforms for hate speech and explicit calls for violence, not just against Israel, but against Jews globally."

"The Jewish community raised concerns early and warned that allowing open incitement and intimidation to go unchecked would lead to further radicalization and, eventually, physical violence."

"Unfortunately, in most cases, the police limited their response to crowd control rather than law enforcement, even when criminal thresholds were clearly met." 

"[Protecting citizens is a government responsibility], in practice, the Canadian government policies and funding models show a fundamental misunderstanding of the specific risks faced by the Jewish community." 

Joseph Reichmann, Jewish community advocate, Toronto 

Yang Meng: Moral shortcuts have fuelled the surge of antisemitism in Canada

 

The pressure on Canada's broad Jewish community has been unrelenting in the past two years, as time and again the public sphere has been witness to large processions of anti-Israel protests in response to the war in Gaza that resulted from 6,000 Palestinian terrorist operatives and ordinary Palestinian citizens flooding over the border into southern Israel to commit unspeakably sadistic atrocities against border farming communities, leading to the death of 1,200 Israeli children, women and men and the abduction of 250 Jewish Israelis, Israeli Arabs and foreign farm workers.

 

The very day following the October 7, 2023 mass atrocity with news of the scale and scope of the carnage, from mass rape and torching of families in their homes, mutilation of women, torture and murder of parents in front of their children, the wild celebrations in Palestinian communities in Gaza and the West Bank at the agony and trauma suffered by Israelis, the first of the processions of pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas demonstrations took place on the streets of Canada, and carried on almost daily afterward. Canadian authorities at the municipal, provincial and federal levels failed to respond. 

 

Now, over two years later, Jewish events have been forced to feel the need to shut down or cancel Jewish community events, as a result of concerns over security. No other community in Canada faces such a dilemma. No other community in Canada sees political and police indifference to their plight. The signal responsibility of any government, to protect and secure the safety of all its citizens with equal measure has seen gross failure in Canada, and Jews are left to feel that they're completely on their own. Fellow citizens among whom Jews live amicably appear to turn the other way, rather than 'get involved'; i.e., the Jews can look after themselves. 

"My wife and I worry about their safety [three school-age children] every single day we drop them off. More broadly, I feel a responsibility to speak on behalf of Jewish families and community members who attend schools, synagogues and other communal spaces."

"Since October 7, and with the sharp rise in antisemitism, concerns about security have become constant among the Jewish community and deeply personal for every Jewish person I know."

"[Security concerns focus on gaps in protection for Jews] That signals a failure to adequately protect the community. Proper protection is critical now because the threat environment has changed and many in the Jewish community fear that a violent incident like Bondi Beach could happen here. Sadly, that fear is widely shared."

Eli Yufest, Toronto resident 

Several weeks ago anti-Israel -- actually they should be identified for what they really are -- raving antisemites -- turned up at a Jewish community centre where an Israeli comedian was about to perform. He was able to get through the crowd to make his stage appearance, following which he once more was confronted with crowds of protesters and in the melee was physically injured. Just one of many events featuring guest speakers with links to Israel being harassed, humiliated, threatened and sometimes assaulted.

 

Magen Herut security team working High Holiday services in 2024/5785 in the Greater Toronto Area (Facebook/Aaron Hadida) Canadian Jewish News

"We have outlined a range of measures in place to support and protect Toronto's Jewish community, including dedicated hate crime investigators, increased patrols, ongoing engagement with community leaders and rapid response to incidents."

"Decisions by individual institutions to hire private or supplementary security are their own. Many organizations choose to take additional steps based on their specific needs, and we respect and support those efforts to help their communities feel safe."

Toronto Police statement  

Noah Schwartz, assistant professor of political science at University of the Fraser Valley has a special interest in Canadian gun culture. "I think there's the general feeling that more needs to be done to protect Jewish spaces in Canada. I've heard people talk about armed security guards for a little while. It's obviously complicated in the Canadian context. To apply for a license to carry a firearm, you have to go through the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program. They're generally incredibly stringent with who they will give authorization to." 

 

That speaks to the conundrum that in Canada security guards are only legally able to carry guns to protect money or jewellery, with explicit authorization from the RCMP. Mr. Reichmann emphasizes that he believes the most reliable form of protection is community-based security "operating within the law and in coordination with police." With the goal of "professionally trained guards held to the same standards as any other armed private security", but who are members of the Jewish community, defending their own. The irony is that Canadian Jews are placed in a situation by authority-inaction, to be left to their own self-defense devices.

 

Mr. Reichmann sees no 'rational reason' that those who wish to protect places of worship, schools and communities cannot undergo extensive screening and training, the same way guards are trained to protect cash or other valuable assets. For his part, federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree's spokesman cited Bill C-9, Combatting Hate Act "which would create a specific hate-motivated offence, criminalize intimidation or obstruction of access to places of worship, schools and community centres, and make it an offence to wilfully promote hatred by displaying certain terrorism or hate symbols in public." The bill, however, remains aspirational; it has not been passed into law. 

"He [Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree] recognizes the deep concern within the Jewish community about threats to synagogues, schools and community centres."

"[He is] deeply concerned by the documented increase in antisemitic incidents across the country and believes it clearly warrants stronger security measures and more robust legislative tools."

Simon Lafortune, office of Public Safety Minister  

People carry a Palestinian flag during a rally in front of City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 9, 2023.   (photo credit: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo)

 

Civil Life in Canada

"[The government's new bill to target use of hate and terror symbols is not a] blanket ban [on any particular imagery]." 

"We see it in our streets. We see it in our parks. We see it in our grocery stores."

"Frankly, we see it almost everywhere."

"This behaviour is not just morally culpable, the impact has reverberations through the entirety of the community. And, I would argue, tears at the seams of the social fabric of the nation." 

"[The bill includes specific language exempting peaceful protest from prosecution and would only apply to conduct where the] motivation [is to intimidate or prevent someone from practising their faith]."

"We have included specific provisions to exempt peaceful protest."

Justice Minister Sean Fraser 

Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled a bill Friday adding four new offences to the Criminal Code. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

"Merely displaying this symbol, in and of itself, is not the sole harm we're trying to target." 

"It does have to be tied with the wilful promotion of hatred. This is difficult, because it could take a thousand different forms, and it's going to be for police on the ground and Crown prosecutors to identify when that threshold has been crossed."

Justice Minister Sean Fraser

 

"It is still necessary to show that there is an intention ... an intention to promote hatred by displaying these symbols."

"It's not even clear to me that this law would do what they want it to do, given that you would have to prove, in a criminal context, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person displaying the flag intended to promote hatred on racial or religious grounds, obviously, in particular, hatred towards Jews." 

Richard Moon, professor, freedom of expression, University of Windsor 

A group of people hold signs at a pro-Palestinian rally. (Travis Golby/CBC)

 

Warning that the Canadian government's new bill that targets the use of hate and terror symbols is not to be considered a 'blanket ban' on any particular imagery, the Justice Minister explained that it would depend on a variety of factors to be evaluated by police and prosecutors in laying a charge, along with questions over implementation.  

 

The measure represents the first piece of legislation since Parliament's resumption this week, representing one of five changes Prime Minister Mark Carney has prioritized in changes to the Criminal Code for an effort to respond to the viral hate messages proliferating in Canada. Those messages have been amplified and become more pointedly vociferous and sinister in the past two years, when the Liberal government in an earlier iteration chose to do nothing.

 

And in doing nothing, merely mouthing the words that 'antisemitism has no place in Canada' -- those who used an inverted triangle, those who flew the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, championing the groups that Canada lists as terrorists, those who chanted and carried banners shouting 'final solution', symbolizing another Holocaust, who burned the effigy of Israel's prime minister, along with Israeli flags -- were lent tacit encouragement to the  raging mobs accusing Israel of 'Apartheid', and 'genocide'.

 

Immediately on news of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas leading a flood of thousands of terrorists trained and armed with instructions to rape, mutilate, murder at will on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel, it was well understood that the nation being  savagely attacked would respond. Which led Palestinian groups in Canada to quickly organize protests against the Jewish state mounting its response in Gaza in a determined effort to root out Hamas, its leaders, weapons depots, and deadly operatives. Taking to the streets of Canada along with supporters in the thousands, Jew-haters went on a  rampage of hate, threatening Canadian Jews.

 

Blocking traffic arteries, entrances to hospitals and universities, synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses, the protest organizers cited their constitutional rights to free speech. And they were permitted to freely speak libelous slanders, inciting to violence, accusing and indulging in vituperative threats against Canadian Jews, even targeting Jewish children attending parochial schools with taunts and accusations. Police presence meant a minimum of physical violence, but no action was taken against verbal violence.

 

The Hub

The new legislative proposal would include criminalizing "willfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying certain symbols in a public place"; a crime carrying a two-year penalty. Hate symbols defined for the bill's purposes as a Nazi swastika or SS lightning bolts. Defining as well a terror symbol linked to a currently listed  terrorist entity under Canada's designated terrorist lists, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Deliberate alteration of such symbols to be included.

 

The proposed change, according to Richard Moon, professor at the University of Windsor specializing in freedom of expression, raises the question  of assigning motivation to anyone who displays such a symbol. Response to the presence of flags representing Hamas and Hezbollah has Jewish community groups and leaders specifically calling for government action. All such appeals to government have gone unanswered despite the fact that Canada already has anti-hate law legislation.

 

Accordingly, Professor Moon questions whether the government proposal is simply 'performative', since the episodes and symbols new legislation is meant to address are already covered by existing criminal law. In response to the new bill, a spokesman for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, sensitive to any issues that might be addressed to impede the Muslim narrative, insists greater clarity is required on the plan to criminalize the display of terror symbols, since white supremacist symbols "remain untouched". 

 

There are, needless to say, no marches, protests, rallies led by white supremacists interfering with civil life in Canada. 

 

People on both sides are taking issue with some of the signs and social media posts about recent events in the Middle East. (CBC)

 

 

Canada Today

 

"While rampant violent offenders are released hours after their most recent charges and antisemitic rioters vandalize businesses, terrorize daycares and block traffic without consequences, the Crown wants seven years prison time for the charge of mischief for Lich and Barber."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre 

Key organizers of the Freedom Convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber who led the infamous convoy of truckers from Western Canada to central Ottawa to launch their COVID 19 pandemic regulations protests mounted by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau and who were recently the subjects of a court action brought by a vindictive government against Canadians who had the temerity to oppose pandemic-imposed strictures now face the potential of 7 years in prison after being convicted on lesser counts of promoting unrest.

 

While six charges for a variety of accusations such as mischief, intimidation, counselling others to break the law, obstructing police, and counselling others to obstruct police were set aside, the two were found guilty of the minor charge of counselling others to disobey a judge's order to stop honking horns. As to the majority of the charges, they were found not guilty. They now await sentencing by Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, three years after they were first arrested.  

 

Convoy protest organizer Tamara Lich, right, and her lawyer Lawrence Greenspon approach the Ottawa Courthouse where sentencing submissions began Wednesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

"[Lich and Barber came to Ottawa] with the noblest of intentions to simply protest their wish for the government and Prime Minister [of the time] Justin Trudeau to end the COVID mandate. The Crown agrees that the accused came to Ottawa to advance a noble cause and had the right to protest against COVID mandates, but argues they crossed the line with the means used to achieve their ends."

"Persons testified that the noise from the truck horns made it difficult for downtown residents to sleep and focus on work. Others testified that the egress from their buildings was blocked or that because of the streets being blocked that it was difficult or impossible to get to work and appointments. Generally, the central core of the city came to a standstill."

"The downtown residents who testified including persons and their families who lived in the downtown core, owners and employees of small businesses and other institutions such as churches suffered significant interferences in the use and enjoyment of their property and in their daily activities because of the protest."

"[There is a] delicate balance between law enforcement concerns for public safety and order and individual rights and freedoms on the other."

Judge Heather PerkinsMcVey

AFP via Getty Images

 

The 45-day trial saw the two organizers of the convoy found guilty of mischief, with Barber found guilty as well of counselling others to disobey  judge's order to stop honking horns. Yet for this misdemeanor the Crown is adamant that a penalty is required that has no relation to the charges to which they were found guilty. The Crown asks for seven years imprisonment for Lich and 8 years for Barber. The Freedom Convoy in its several weeks of disruption caused inconvenience for people living nearby their encampment on Sussex Drive. 

 

 

 

There was nothing particularly offensive, much less violent in the Freedom Convoy during its three-week stand against pandemic conditions imposed by the government, including that truckers refusing inoculation would not be permitted to drive their long-distant rigs. The punishment for lacking respect for the government's COVID-19 protocol is all out of logical proportion to the alleged sins committed. But this was a government that demanded obeisance to its dictates. Justin Trudeau similarly sought recriminatory vengeance against the second in command of Canada's national forces for ostensibly countermanding his orders.

 

Vice-Admiral Mark Norman suffered the full extent of Justin Trudeau's malice accusing him of leaking restricted cabinet documents relating to a supply ship for the Canadian navy. That he was head of the Canadian navy, and went on to become vice-chief of the Defense Staff gave him no immunity from persecution by the government on orders from Justin Trudeau who could not countenance the thought of anyone defying him. Trudeau's revenge wreaked havoc with the further career prospects of a loyal Canadian who was the commander of the Canadian fleet.  

 

Within the Truckers Convoy there was signage insulting to Justin Trudeau personally. And it was no secret certainly the contempt in which he was held, and the wish of those present to be removed from his position as prime minister for having administered the pandemic response for Canada in a clumsy, autocratic manner unbefitting a democratic county. Where the right to protest is enshrined in the Canadian constitution. 

 

"In a free and democratic society such as Canada", said Judge Perkins-McVey, "we welcome and encourage people to hold demonstrations if such is necessary to exercise their right of freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and their right to freedom of association as guaranteed by section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, society also expects demonstrators to exercise these rights to do so without violating the rights of others to move about freely or to engage in activities which they have a perfect legal right to do so."

 

"At the heart of the competing interests in this case lies the question to what extent the exercise of the right to protest protects those from criminal liability when the rights of other citizens to enjoy their property have been impacted by their actions. Even Charter-protected rights are not absolute", the judge added.

 

Which brings us directly to the issue of wildly damaging social compact demonstrations that have been disruptive and ongoing to an extent that dwarfs by massive degrees the three-week Truckers Convoy demonstration. For two and a half years, week after week, large demonstrations have taken place in Canadian cities by Palestinian supporters aggrieved over the Israeli invasion of Gaza following thousands of Palestinian terrorists having launched a massive atrocity in southern Israel, raping, maiming, murdering children, entire families, the elderly, music-celebrating youth, at a music festival and farming communities across the border from Gaza.

 

Jewish Canadian businesses have been vandalized, Jewish parochial schools have been shot at, synagogues and community centres have been fire-bombed, Jewish residents in Jewish-majority communities have been intimidated, harassed and threatened. Anti-Israel protesters have marched on university campuses, setting up encampments and harassed Jewish students and faculty. Crowds of Muslims gather in public squares and roads, cutting off traffic while they engage in massed prayer sessions. Chants of 'globalize the intifada', 'from the river to the sea', and 'final solution', in all their sinister dimensions ring out.

 

Pro-Palestinian supporters on the Avenue Road bridge. (Credit: Lila Sarick)

 

These are social hate crimes, of a dimension that challenges Canadian hate laws as criminal offences, yet governments at every level countenance them, failing to act to bring the situation to order, to restore normalcy, to protect the Canadian Jewish population from ongoing threats. The federal government sets the tone for its counterparts at lower levels and these travesties of civil behaviour are continuing and as they do, become more threatening and psychically violent.

 

Yet a minor offence, held to have sullied the dignity of the social aura of compliance with government edicts however offensive to good governance they may be, are held up as justified legal reactions to public behaviour found offensive to authority. Offensive to the degree that a national emergency was called to bring the Convoy's presence to an end, and those involved, even to the extent of having minimally donated funding to the cause found their bank accounts frozen by government edict, as punishment.

 

A proscribed terrorist group like Hamas -- listed by Canada as such, can be lionized by hordes of protestors while a Jewish state whose democratic foundation links it with Canada's, and whose right under international law to defend itself from lethal violence is unquestioned -- merits no government reaction when Hamas flags are flown by protestors and threats of lethal harm are expressed toward Canadian Jews. 

 

Regular blockages of intersections continue but are not considered a crime, nor are the real threats to security, safety and harmony within the population, with malicious threats growing ever more virulent and violent given any level of attention by government. This is Canada today. 

  

Honest Reporting Canada

 

Australia Synagogue Terror Arson

"Firefighters arrived on scene to find the single-storey, 30-by20-metre building fully involved in fire.

"The response was escalated to a third alarm with crews wearing breathing apparatus attacking the fire."

Fire Rescue Victoria

"The firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne appears to be another shocking escalation of the hate that we have seen brazenly displayed on the streets of Melbourne every week for over a year."

"No one should be surprised; this violent attack is a direct consequence of words turning into actions."

"Jew hatred, left unchecked, endangers all Australians. Enough is enough, this is a stain on our nation. It's time for all levels of government to turn their words into actions to stamp out this Jew-hatred."

Jeremy Leibler, president Zionist Federation of Australia

 

"[This] heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government."

"[Canberra decided to vote for a UN resolution demanding the end of Israel's] 'unlawful' [occupation of Palestinian territory]."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Sacred items were recovered from inside the damaged building following the attack. Getty Images

 

"Quite clearly terrorism is something that is aimed at creating fear in the community, and the attacks on the synagogue in Melbourne clearly were."

"And therefore, from my personal perspective, [they] certainly fulfill that definition of terrorism."

"The protocol is that the state jurisdictions who have the lead on this will make an assessment and a recommendation."

"That's a formal process, but quite clearly this has been aimed at creating fear and that is what terrorists aim to do."

"[The attack on the synagogue was part of] a worrying rise in anti-Semitism. But we call it out and we call it out consistently … People must be allowed to conduct their faith with peace and respect."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Mr. Albanese's sentiments would certainly carry more moral weight if he and his government committed to a due response to the hate emanating from the streets of Australia's cities in the ongoing campaign of anti-Israel, Jew-repressive gatherings of pro-Palestinian protesters that threaten and intimidate the Jewish communities in Australia. These gatherings are tolerated despite their chants for Israel's destruction, despite that they take place offensively, and loudly in front of synagogues where if a Jewish man in front of the synagogue carrying an Israeli flag amidst a sea of Palestinian flags can face arrest for 'antagonizing' demonstrators.

 

Government inaction to stem the tide of antisemitism freely displayed in the streets of Australia, the government's lack of interest in protecting the security of its Jewish residents, and the government's own actions at the United Nations in consistently voting against Israel and with the 'Palestinians' leave the impression with Australians, and most particularly Palestinian-Arab-Muslim Australians that the government is fully onside with their intimidating, harassing and often violently threatening assaults against the Jewish community.

The result is incidents like the Friday arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Reported at 4:20 am in Ripponle, a suburban area, Fire Rescue Victoria responded to the call of the synagogue on fire. At the time, several men were in the synagogue. The men were reported to have heard banging at the  door. When they approached the door to open it they saw two men who had poured "petrol on the front of the synagogue and then lit it on fire". Victoria Police have launched an investigation, with police encouraging any possible witnesses to provide any information, or dashcam footage of the event.

Firefighters gather at the scene of a fire at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Friday  Tania Lee, Fox 22

 

"An absolute travesty. This is the realization of the worst fears of many in the Jewish community", commented James Paterson, a senator in Victoria. In 2015 the Chassidic synagogue had been the subject of a documentary film titled Strictly Jewish: The Secret World of Adass Israel. The St.Kilda Historical Society has a listing page for the synagogue, documenting that this was not the first arson attack on the synagogue. It had been severely damaged in a January 1995 incident, and later rebuilt.

"The dark shadow of antisemitism has been spreading from nation to nation, and over the last year, the warning signs have all been there that the Australian Jewish community is a direct and vulnerable target."

"The time for words of condemnation is over; it's now a time for strong action from governments around the world."

International March of the Living organizers

Messages and flowers are seen attached to the fence at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea on December 9, 2024. - Australian police said on December 9 they are hunting for three suspects linked to a Melbourne synagogue blaze, which authorities have designated as a terrorist act. (Photo by Martin KEEP / AFP)

 

Mass Antisemitic Attacks -- The New Normal

"Jews must feel safe n the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times."

"We put our arms around them and will not let them go."

Dutch King Willem-Alexander

 

"It's against everything we're proud of in Amsterdam."

"I'm very ashamed of the behaviour that was shown last night."

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema

 

"[This is the] disturbing reality of Jewish life in 2024."

"And if nothing is done to address the scourge of antisemitism targeting our community, it won't be long before Amsterdam becomes Montreal or Toronto following one of the usual weekly pro-terror demonstrations."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"This is a dark moment for our world -- and one we have seen before."

"My heart goes out to the victims, and the entire Jewish community today."

"Canada condemns this disgusting antisemitism."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

People protest in support of Palestine in Toronto on Saturday, October 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey

 

Only one of those messages is a hypocritical lie. Canada is next in line for the kind of atrocious display of violent Jew-hate that was revealed in Amsterdam last week. The wonder is that such an event has not yet played out. But it will, as long as the country's prime minister mouths insincere inanities and fails to ensure that criminal acts of espousing hatred against an identifiable group with a view to marginalizing it and threatening violence, while fomenting dire safety and security situations; against Canada's criminal laws continue, but never are acted upon.

 

Several weeks back Canada officially placed a Palestinian group, Samidoun, inciting to violence against Israel and Jews, and more latterly against Canada as a 'colonialist' entity, on the country's terrorist list. The formal designation has done nothing to stop its co-founder from continuing to organize group protests and to deliver addresses slandering Israel and threatening Jewish Canadians, stimulating crowds of Muslims and their enablers to continue their chants of 'from the river to the sea', along with 'globalize the intifada!, both calls for the destruction of Israel. Canadian authorities fail to act.

Amsterdam's Johan Cruyff Arena was the venue that saw the Netherlands soccer team Amsterdam Ajax and Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv engage in a match, which brought out fans on both sides. Israeli fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv team travelled to the Netherlands specifically to cheer on their team. The arrival was noted by local pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups in the Netherlands who have long agitated against Israel as an 'occupier' of Palestinian land. The presence of Jews cheering on their team gave Amsterdam's Muslim population the opportunity to stage a mass attack by pursuing and beating Jews.

Reuters

"The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked."

"Prime Minister Netanyahu views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and ensure the safety of our citizens."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office statement

Now, days later, similar statements will have to circulate to Belgium, Sweden and France, where swarms of pro-Palestinian thugs have gathered with a similar project in mind; chasing down and beating Jews wherever they can be found. Amsterdam police who, in response to the pogrom of last Friday arrested some of those involved, have in fact laid no charges and all who were arrested have been released. It has been in fact revealed that some members of the Amsterdam police force refuse to intervene altogether, citing a personal moral dimension favouring the mob and damning the Jews.

The Amsterdam rampage where pro-Palestinian youth mobs, new migrants and radical Islamists sought out Jews and Israeli soccer fans, threatening, beating, forcing some of the victims to mouth 'free Palestine' as they shoved them in the canal and marched door-to-door, hotel-to-hotel int heir search for Jews, reflected a huge surge in the Netherlands of antisemitism it he wake of last year's October 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel by thousands of terrorists who raped, slaughtered and took hostages of Israeli citizens.

 

In this image taken from video, people march with Palestinian flags near the Ajax stadium in Amsterdam, November 7, 2024. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were targeted by anti-Israel rioters in what victims and witnesses said was an organized attack by Arab and Muslim gangs following a soccer match. (AP Photo InterVision)

During that time of social upheaval, reports emanated of Dutch police refusing to guard Jewish sites; the Dutch National Holocaust Museum  included, over the 'moral dilemma' they cited in reference to the Israel-Gaza-Hamas conflict. In other words, the inroads that Palestinians and Muslims in general have made in Dutch society with their antisemitism, uprooting values of tolerance and respect, tearing the fabric of democratic societies has made its indelible mark.

In Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and beyond, protests by pro-Hamas mobs with their chants to "free Palestine" and "Globalize the Intifada" have been allowed to proliferate. Mobs of Muslims have gathered in major intersections in Toronto to shut down traffic as they indulge in group prayers with a sense of entitlement, a municipal criminal offence that is yet to see those involved arrested, much less the prayer sessions interrupted for fear of being labelled 'Islamophobic'. Any time Justin Trudeau murmurs a statement of 'regrettable' over displays of antisemitism, the obligatory addition of 'Islamophobia' accompanies it.

Violence perpetrated against synagogues, Jewish parochial schools and social centres, as well as private businesses sees no response from governments at any level with a view to countering the unprecedented displays of viral hatred infecting the public sphere. To add to the anguish of an  unprotected Jewish-Canadian public under constant stress of threats, the government is proceeding with a mass intake of refugees/migrants from Gaza, where a massive proportion of the population fully approved of the atrocities of October 7, 2023.

Aftermath of Nova Music Festival Attack; stacked bodies of young Israelis