Antisemitic incidents across Canada have Canadian Jews and advocates on edge.
“The voices of the vast majority of Canadians — including faith, business and political leaders — need to be heard before it’s too late. All Canadians must come together against this growing surge of antisemitism,” wrote Deborah Lyons, the Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, on X.
Lyons, who is also a former ambassador to Israel, was responding to a recent wave of vandalism and threats to Jewish schools, businesses, and synagogues.
Across the country, hate crime investigations and charges are up. While hate crime reports in Toronto were down 30 per cent from June, according to a briefing given Wednesday by Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, officers still received 113 calls in July. So far, in 2024, antisemitism accounts for 45 per cent of all hate-crime reports in the city. Jews account for less than two per cent of Canada’s population.
“Just this past week, we have been reminded about the terrible impact these occurrences can have on our communities,” Demkiw said.
Demkiw’s address came as Toronto police announced the force was investigating two incidents where signs in front of a Jewish day school and synagogue were lit on fire in the city. “The school and synagogue were not damaged,” police said.
“For far too long, Jews in Canada have felt under attack as acts of vandalism targeting Jewish sites and hateful rhetoric play out on our streets,” wrote Michael Levitt, the president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
One of the locations has been targeted five times in recent months, according to a joint statement from Jeff Rosenthal, chair of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, a Jewish group, and Adam Minsky, president and CEO of the organization.
“The escalation of violent, anti-Jewish hate in Greater Toronto has reached a critical point — and demands strong actions from authorities,” they said.
The Calgary Police Service’s hate-crimes unit is investigating after graffiti was discovered last weekend on a stone fence near a synagogue and Jewish day school in Alberta’s largest city. The graffiti included a Palestinian flag, and the words “Free Palestine” and “the flood is coming.” The Calgary Jewish Federation said in a post to X that those words — mirroring Al-Aqsa Flood, the operational name given to the October 7 attack by Hamas — “emphasizes the insidious intent” of the graffiti.
“As 1000s gathered amongst the graffiti, Calgary’s Jewish community & our allies showed we will not back down in the face of hate,” the Calgary Jewish Federation said on X.
In Vaughan, Ont., a city just north of Toronto, which is home to the bulk of Canada’s Jewish population, police are seeking a person who, while wearing black robes and a mask of the Ghostface killer from the Scream movie franchise, spray-painted “Free Palestine” on several businesses and a synagogue. Images posted to social media show “Free Palestine” graffiti on a window at the Gates of Zion synagogue, at a Starbucks and on a sign for the UJA Federation, a Jewish group.
Video from York Regional Police shows the robed figure painting a sign. Although police blurred out the words the figure painted, National Post confirmed that the person had written “Gaza” on the sign.
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“The recent acts of unacceptable vandalism targeting the Jewish community in Vaughan, Markham and Toronto need to be denounced in the strongest possible terms,” Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca said in a statement.
There have also been recent reports of anti-Israel graffiti elsewhere in Canada.
In Edmonton, spray-painted messages saying “Free Gaza,” “F–k Israel” and “Israel kills babies” were reported to the city after they appeared along the Victoria Promenade overlooking the city’s river valley. Police have yet to make an arrest in that case.
Last week, police announced they were seeking the public’s help in identifying a man who wrote “hate-motivated” messages on a wall in north-central Edmonton. Police refused to say what was written, arguing to do so “could potentially compromise the investigation” but that it “was directed towards the Jewish community.”
Last Thursday, Statistics Canada released new data on hate crimes. The data covers 2023, which would include the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military response, but not any further hate crimes recorded to police in the first seven months of 2024.
The data show that 70 per cent of all religiously motivated hate crimes were directed at the Jewish faith. There were 900 incidents reported to police that targeted Jews, and 1,284 total hate crimes targeting Canadians of faith.
Meanwhile, two incidents initially claimed to be antisemitic in nature have been dismissed by police. Aviva Klompas, a former speechwriter at Israel’s mission to the United Nations, pointed to the burning of a school bus owned by a Jewish day school.
“Antisemitic violence is escalating and Canadian leaders aren’t doing nearly enough to keep Canadian Jews safe,” Klompas wrote on X.
Marco Mendecino, a Liberal member of Parliament, wrote that, “Police are investigating, but antisemitism will continue increasing until there are serious consequences for violent, dangerous hate crimes.”
The Toronto Police Service, however, told the CBC that the bus was destined for the scrap yard and there was “no evidence” of hate-related motivation.
In another case, a fire broke out at Leo Baeck Day School. B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, said the school was vandalized in an act of arson.
“This attack is now part of a deplorable pattern of rising hate crimes against Jews in Toronto,” the group wrote on X.
Brad Bradford, a Toronto city councillor, called it “utterly and completely despicable” and Avi Benlolo, founder of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative, called it a “firebombing,” while some media reporting said windows were smashed in an alleged attack.
But, Toronto police investigated and Deputy Chief Robert Johnson told the Toronto Police Services Board that “there is no evidence at this time to suggest this incident was motivated by hate.” The fire, police said, was started in an exterior storage shed that “an under-housed individual” was using for shelter.
“The truth is people have a right to be anxious and nervous, because there really are horrible things happening, but when they tie things together in order to sensationalize them, it completely undermines our ability to deal with the situation rationally,” Eric Petersiel, the head of the school, told the Canadian Jewish News.
With additional reporting by The Canadian Press
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