An Ontario court has handed down a 12-month prison sentence to a man who incited hate\u00a0against Jews in public during a vigil last year at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe commend the Court for making clear that there is a difference between free speech and hate speech, and for demonstrating that those who target our community, or any Canadian community, will be held accountable under our country\u2019s laws,\u201d said Richard Robertson, B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s director of research and advocacy.<\/p>\n
Razaali Bahadur, 45, was convicted this past June of inciting hatred at the April 7, 2024, event. His outbursts included blood libel, such as that Jews enjoy killing children and are, as a collective, responsible for killing Jesus.<\/p>\n
During Bahadur\u2019s sentencing, B\u2019nai Brith Canada delivered an impact statement reflecting the fear and anguish many Jewish Canadians have felt as antisemitism has increased in this country.<\/p>\n
As part of its advocacy at the federal level, B\u2019nai Brith Canada penned a formal submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, which is preparing an official report to inform the federal government\u2019s fall budget.<\/p>\n
In addition, B\u2019nai Brith Canada is calling on the federal government to use the Budget Implementation Act to eliminate a loophole that temporarily allowed Samidoun, which was listed as a terrorist entity in this country in 2024, to continue operating as a nonprofit corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is astonishing that, in Canada, an organization does not automatically lose its corporate status when it is declared a terrorist entity,\u201d said Robertson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In its fall budget submission, B\u2019nai Brith recommended that the government:<\/p>\n \u2022 Make new investments to strengthen Canada\u2019s resilience against violent extremism;<\/p>\n \u2022 Ensure that recipients of federal grants are in compliance with Canada\u2019s anti-racism strategy: Changing Systems, Transforming Lives, 2024-2028;<\/p>\n \u2022 Develop a five-year plan to enhance Canadian youths\u2019 understanding of contemporary antisemitism, as outlined in the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which Canada adopted in 2019; and<\/p>\n \u2022 Make mandatory the existing antisemitism training approved for federal public servants.<\/p>\n \u2013 Courtesy B\u2019nai Brith Canada<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Ontario court has handed down a 12-month prison sentence to a man who incited hate\u00a0against Jews in public during a vigil last year at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. \u201cWe commend the Court for making clear that there is a difference between free speech and hate speech, and for demonstrating that those who target […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[801,8830,6716,24408],"class_list":["post-47801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-antisemitism","tag-federal-budget","tag-hate-crimes","tag-razaali-bahadur"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}