Canadian Jewish groups underwhelmed by national forum for combatting antisemitism
Ottawa government pledges, including $10 million toward fighting hatred, seen by Jewish organizations as too little, too late
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
At a National Forum on Combatting Antisemitism Thursday, the Canadian government pledged to take steps to ramp up its fight against anti-Jewish violence and rhetoric, including adding CAD $10 million ($7 million) to a program aimed at helping community groups counter hatred and violent extremism.
However, Jewish groups in the country were unimpressed, saying the measures were too little, too late in the face of rising violence.
In December, following a series of high-profile attacks on Jewish institutions around Canada, including the firebombing of a synagogue in Montreal and a shooting at a Jewish elementary school in Toronto, the government announced it would hold a forum on combating antisemitism as a response to “a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents, threats and hate crimes.”
The forum, originally scheduled for February, concluded with representatives of federal, provincial and municipal governments reaffirming their commitments to address hate crimes that target the Jewish community through strengthened law enforcement and prosecution efforts.
Commitments included up to $10 million to help the Community Resilience Fund (CRF) fight hate crimes, $26.8 million over four years to provide training to police colleges and $1.4 million for Holocaust remembrance initiatives.
However, as Canada’s ruling Liberal party prepares to hold elections next week to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with national elections expected soon after, it is unclear whether even these commitments will be fulfilled, critics noted.
Jewish organizations, long complaining that the government has not done enough to fight antisemitism, expressed skepticism at the forum’s conclusions.
“Though we welcome the commitments put forward today, it is imperative that the Canadian government engages immediately in the heavy lifting that is needed to combat antisemitism,” B’nai Brith Canada said on social media following the forum’s conclusion. “The time for platitudes has long passed. Combating antisemitism requires our leaders to practice what they preach.”
B’nai Brith noted that the forum’s commitments included some components of a seven-point plan it had shared, including amendments to the Criminal Code, ensuring that recipients of government funding respect Canadian values and promoting educational initiatives.
However, calls for stricter immigration controls and proposals to fight antisemitism on university campuses were missing, along with a proposal to ban rallies for Al-Quds Day on March 28.
“Further, Canada has failed to denounce the ICC and ICJ’s undue prosecutions of the Jewish state,” B’nai Brith Canada said. “The Prime Minister suggested that never is now, and yet Canada has failed to join the 18 countries that have already banned the public display of the Nazi Swastika.”
Canada’s Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs likewise was disappointed by the forum, noting that a guide to combatting Islamophobia published by the Canadian government earlier in the week “undermines its own approach to combatting the explosion of anti-Jewish attacks in Canada.”
The report by Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia Amira Elghawaby “contains references to extreme positions that seek to police Jewish identity in public schools” and “draws upon references to definitions of anti-Palestinian racism that attempt to shut down criticism of narratives,” CIJA interim president Noah Shack wrote.
Antisemitic attacks on Canada’s 350,000-strong Jewish community have surged in Canada since Hamas launched the war with Israel on October 7, 2023, when it massacred some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.
Attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions grew by 670 percent in the year since the attack, according to data from Israel’s Diaspora Ministry, with more than 900 attacks reported in 2023. Jews were on the receiving end of 70% of religious hate crimes in Canada, despite comprising only 1.4% of the population, the report noted.
Rachel Bendayan, who was appointed associate minister of public security when the forum was announced, said that more than 500 antisemitic incidents have been reported on university campuses, including damages of over $500,000 caused by antisemitic protesters at McGill University in recent weeks.
