The following is an edited excerpt of testimony given by Shimon Fogel, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, on Monday before the standing Senate committee on human rights, as it began its study on antisemitism in Canada.
There is a crisis of Jew hatred in this country. Antisemitism is emanating from the extreme right, the radical left and, to be truthful, from segments of the Muslim and Arab communities — a bitter irony, given that they, too, experience discrimination and hate.
The prime minister called the recent rise of antisemitism terrifying, and he’s right. The statistics are staggering. Since October 7, there has been a 93 per cent rise in hate crimes in Toronto, the majority of which have been directed at the Jewish community. In Vancouver, reports of antisemitism increased 62 per cent in 2023 over 2022; 70 per cent of those occurred subsequent to October 7.
In Ottawa, the nation’s capital, the overall number of hate-related incidents rose nearly 20 per cent in 2023. While Jews only comprise about 1.4 per cent of the population, incidents affecting the Jewish community in Ottawa comprised 27 per cent of reported hate-related incidents in 2023.
I could mention that we’ve recently learned that the two young people charged with terrorism offences earlier this year were planning to set bombs at a Jewish event here on Parliament Hill, or that our former minister of justice and human rights activist, Irwin Cotler, required 24/7 RCMP protection, having been the target of terrorist assassination plots, allegedly by Iranian agents, for his outspoken criticisms of that regime.
I could mention Jewish schools in Montreal being shot at or bomb threats targeting Jewish schools in Toronto or synagogues across the country picketed and vandalized; demonstrations taking place in Jewish neighbourhoods for the sole purpose of intimidating residents; Jewish-owned businesses are defaced, damaged, boycotted and vandalized.
In our streets, we hear glorification of terrorism and violence. On Parliament Hill, the very heart of Canada’s democracy, on April 18, we heard praise for the October 7 attack by Hamas and its affiliates that murdered 1,200 people in Israel. Both the National Post and the Globe and Mail reported statements including: “Our resistance attacks are proof that we are almost free.… Long live October 7, long live the … intefadeh, long live every form of resistance.”
On October 28 in Montreal, a controversial imam was given the microphone and in Arabic he said: “Allah, take care of these Zionist aggressors.… Allah, identify them all, then exterminate them. And don’t spare any of them.”
Shockingly, we subsequently learned that he was not going to be charged. Still in Montreal, yells of “death to the Jews” were heard in front of a Jewish school. The Jewish community centre was under siege, with people not able to go out for hours and then finally being escorted by police through the backdoor.
It’s gotten so bad that the authorities were so passive and the only solution the community could turn to for relief was the courts, where they sought injunctions to protect our institutions — an extraordinary recourse. These junctions were granted and extended, twice. These injunctions were necessary because of the failure of civil authorities.
And the situation on campus for Jewish students is especially disturbing. We see hate symbols such as swastikas defacing campus property; kippah-wearing students are spat on and called “dirty Jew”; mezuzot, the holy Jewish scripture parchment housed in the distinctive cases affixed to door posts, are being torn down in residences; discriminatory remarks in lectures claiming Jews harvest the organs or blood of non-Jews; and even bare-faced threats of violence against Jewish students.
Peaceful rabbis, like Rabbi Adam Scheier of Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal, and Jewish journalists being directed to move by police while the haters are free to spew their venom. Students and faculty share with me that they avoid reporting incidents due to fear of retribution by both their professors and peers.
When reports are made about potential safety concerns, we’ve heard numerous instances where Jewish students and faculty were advised to stay home rather than address the root cause of the matter. Student unions and educators on Ontario campuses have made statements supporting and celebrating violence and discrimination. We’ve witnessed campus protests disguised as legitimate forms of political activism, only to morph into riots while spreading hateful and violent rhetoric directed towards Jews, as they rob students of their educational rights and professors of their teaching commitments.
Let me be clear: academic freedom and freedom of expression are pillars of our values as a country and as a society, both on and off campus. But when lines are crossed and policies are not enforced, it shakes the trust of our community, our trust in the system that we support.
At this point words are not enough. We’ve had enough of those. We need action from government.
I’m a child of Holocaust survivors — both my parents. And what perhaps makes them exceptional is that when they were warmed by the embrace of Canada, they had a second opportunity almost to be reborn. They cherished their lives here in Canada. They saw Canada as a beautiful, exceptional place to build lives, to grow families, to contribute to community.
I’m almost grateful that they are no longer with us, because, for so many survivors with whom I come into contact, you see this paralyzing fear as signs begin to emerge and behaviour begins to assert itself that reminds them of what they survived.
I can tell you that we are now two, three, even four generations past the Holocaust, and for many Canadian Jews, they’ve experienced very little by way of overt or aggressive antisemitism. That’s no longer the case. They are riddled with anxiety and fear. They’re frustrated with a system that is not living up to its social contract. They’re angry. They are worried and they’re looking for solutions.
For some, the expectation and the hope is that those who are charged with the responsibility of fostering an inclusive, tolerant, respectful society will come forward and provide the kind of solutions and remedies that will push back against this hate — hate that, I underscore, is not exclusively directed against Jews but has become normalized because of the expression of hate against Jews more than any other group.
But I will tell you frankly that there are those who are looking at other options. They’re looking to move. They’re encouraging their children to seek a more stable and secure environment. What that tells me is that they’re giving up. Absent signals and actions on the part of authorities and on the part of civil society in general, that will only accelerate and deepen over the coming days, weeks and months. We can ill afford that.