Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit record number for 3rd straight year
‘New normal’ sees Canadian Jews targeted over 2,000 times in 2018, although vast majority of attacks are online harassment
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MONTREAL (JTA) — Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose to a record high for the third consecutive year, according to an annual audit by B’nai Brith Canada released Monday.
The audit showed 2,041 anti-Semitic incidents recorded last year in Canada — 16.5 percent more than the 1,752 incidents in 2017.
“To put that in stark perspective, this represents the third straight record-breaking year for anti-Semitism in Canada, reflecting a ‘new normal’ regarding the landscape of anti-Semitism here,” said Ran Ukashi, director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights.
The group said the surge was fueled by social media and was a worldwide trend.
According to the audit, despite the troubling increase in incidents, they remain a “marginal phenomenon” in Canada. Nearly 90 percent of the incidents took the form of “harassment,” and 80 percent came from online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Specific incidents included lit fireworks being thrown at Hasidic Jews in Quebec and two students in Saskatchewan province being harassed and beaten.
B’nai Brith Canada President Michael Mostyn said equally worrying is that anti-Jewish hatred is “surfacing in areas typically less prone to such prejudices.” Most incidents were recorded in Ontario and Quebec, but there was a marked increase elsewhere, apparently due to the online rise.
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