antisemitism

Rule of law broken: councilor

Panelists Rabbi Philip Bregman, left, and Aron Csaplaros. Toronto city councilor James Pasternak spoke via remote link. (photo by Pat Johnson)

A Toronto city councilor, speaking via remote link at an event at Richmond’s Beth Tikvah Synagogue, slammed Canadian society and leaders for permitting – even encouraging – antisemitism.

James Pasternak told the June 23 event that the rule of law has broken down in Canada.

“It’s mostly a result of timid policing, the refusal to physically engage protesters, spineless politicians who are either scraping the barrel for a few extra votes or simply afraid to speak out and, of course, a broken judiciary that has weak bail conditions and drops a lot of the charges,” said the councilor, who is Jewish and is seeking reelection this fall in the York Centre ward, which has a significant concentration of Jewish voters.

Pasternak said anti-Israel protests have cost Toronto police more than $50 million, and yet activists continue intimidating people in Jewish neighbourhoods, harassing shoppers, interfering with subway commuters, and blocking major thoroughfares and rail lines.

“We have seen attacks on synagogues and threats against Jewish daycares and schools, against summer camps. We have seen the shooting up of a Jewish girls’ school, the firebombing of a Jewish-owned grocery store and the arrival of hateful mobs coming up to the area I represent, at Bathurst and Sheppard, every Sunday to harass the Jewish community,” he said. “There are no embassies there. There are no consulates. There are no government buildings. There’s no town square. They are up there to harass the local Jewish community.”

Pasternak directed special condemnation at elected officials who exacerbate the situation by warning that Israel’s prime minister should be arrested if he came to Canada, by diplomatically recognizing Palestine, “and spreading the tropes that the war in Gaza was genocide.”

He named Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow as one who “spreads that same trope … making a bad situation worse.”

Chow has alienated the Jewish community, said Pasternak.

“She didn’t show up to the … anniversary of Oct. 7. She didn’t show up to Walk for Israel. She didn’t show up to the Israel flag-raising. Anything to do with Israel is like a no-go zone. And she’s pandering to these groups that she feels she needs to remain in office,” said Pasternak.

He said he had a conversation with the mayor in which she told him, according to Pasternak, “Any time I take a step to help the Jewish community speak up, I get clobbered.”

“So I said, ‘Oh, clobbered by the crazies?’” Pasternak recounted, “And her answer was, ‘Yeah. Yeah, clobbered by the crazies. The crazies vote for me.’”

A spokesperson for Chow told the Independent via email the mayor hosts an annual Passover reception at City Hall and attends several public menorah lightings and High Holidays receptions. They said Chow toured the Nova Exhibition, joined memorials for the Bibas family, and attended the opening of the Toronto Holocaust Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum’s recent Auschwitz Exhibit. She also visited Congregation Chasidei Bobov, a Toronto synagogue whose congregants were targeted in a hate-motivated assault.

Joining Pasternak on the panel was Aron Csaplaros, BC regional manager for B’nai Brith Canada, who referenced his organization’s most recent annual audit of antisemitic hate crimes.

According to the 2025 audit, Canadian Jews experienced a record 6,800 reported antisemitic incidents last year – an average of 18.6 per day – representing a 9.3% increase over 2024 and a 145.6% increase since 2022. Harassment accounted for 95% of incidents, the vast majority taking place online. There were 299 reported cases of vandalism and 10 violent attacks.

“The one main theme that I keep hearing again and again and again is that Jews feel excluded. They feel unwelcome. They feel unheard,” said Csaplaros, who shared an anecdote about a unionized work environment where coworkers spoke of Zionists stealing, lying and violently killing people. When a Jewish employee reported it to human resources, they were told it was merely a political disagreement.

“That’s just an example,” said Csaplaros, “but that’s something that we hear time and time again – or teachers not understanding what it means to collectively blame all Jews for the actions of a single government.”

He welcomed Bill C-9, which just received royal assent, creating a standalone hate crime offence, among other steps against hate. He also said Prime Minister Mark Carney’s statement that confronting antisemitism requires a “whole-of-government” approach is positive, but still may not reflect the breadth required. Csaplaros said the federal government makes the laws, the provinces oversee Crown prosecutions and municipalities run law enforcement.

“So you can see how there could very easily be a breakdown where maybe the laws exist on the federal level, but, if the province isn’t doing its job in charging these crimes, and if the city isn’t encouraging the local police to make these arrests in the first place, then we’re not going to get anywhere,” Csaplaros said.

Rabbi Philip Bregman, the third member of the panel, recounted experiencing antisemitism during childhood in rural Ontario and at university in Toronto, then, on Jan. 25, 1985, when his synagogue, Temple Sholom, here in Vancouver, was destroyed in a firebombing.

“Today, in the Lower Mainland, we are spending over $100,000 a month on security for our [Jewish] institutions,” Bregman said.

The rabbi reflected on things he’s experienced in the expansive interfaith work he has undertaken, especially since retiring from the pulpit at Temple Sholom. For example, a United Church of Canada minister told Bregman that he reviewed his notes from divinity school in Toronto.

“My God, the antisemitism was right below the surface, right there,” Bregman recalls the minister telling him.

The rabbi credited the Catholic archdiocese of Vancouver with developing very strong relations with the Jewish community, and also commended Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim.

“I may not necessarily agree with all of his policies, but Ken Sim has been there for us,” said Bregman.

Like the other panelists, Bregman did not identify a great many reasons for optimism. Jewish Canadians seeking a Plan B, a place to flee if the situation here gets intolerable, might consider Panama, which he has heard is very welcoming to Jews.

The event was co-hosted by Stan Goldman and Lonnie Belfer.

Israel fighting for its existence

Pat Johnson, left, interviews Jonathan Conricus at the Friends of JNF Pacific Negev Event on June 7. (photo by Galit Lewinski)

On June 7, a full sanctuary at Beth Israel Synagogue gathered for the annual Friends of JNF Pacific Negev Event.

Howard Jampolsky, vice-president of Friends of JNF Canada Pacific Region, emceed. He spoke of the rise in antisemitism since Oct. 7, including in Canada, “a country that many Jews believed was among the safest and most tolerant countries in the world,” yet where Jewish schools have been shot at, synagogues vandalized, Jewish students intimidated, and Jewish businesses and individuals targeted.

“Antizionism that denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination is antisemitism,” he said. “Israel is not an abstract political issue to us. Israel is family. Israel is history. Israel is survival…. For 2,000 years, we have said, we have prayed, l’shana haba b’Yerushalayim, next year in Jerusalem. Today, there is a Jerusalem. Today, there is a Jewish state – and we will never apologize for defending it.”

Funds raised by this year’s Negev event will support the Beit Elkana Centre for Holistic Therapy, in the Lakhish region of Israel’s Negev. Established by Galit Wiesel in memory of her late husband, Elkana Wiesel, a reserve combat officer who was killed in battle in 2024, the centre will offer care to those suffering trauma-related conditions.

“Projects like Beit Elkana are about more than buildings,” said Jampolsky. “They are about resilience. They are about healing. They’re about ensuring that Israelis living in the south of Israel know that they are not alone – that Jewish communities around the world stand beside them and with them. That’s what Zionism looks like. Not slogans, not hashtags, certainly not hatred, but building, planting, healing, supporting, creating hope…. Because our answer to hatred cannot be silence. Our answer must be courage. Our answer must be pride, and our answer must be action. We must support Jewish institutions. We must educate the next generation.”

In that vein, Friends of JNF Canada presented Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Judaic studies at King David High School, with its Education Award, “recognizing his tremendous contribution to Jewish learning, Jewish dignity, a Jewish identity, and the strength of our community.” The honour was presented by two of Jampolsky’s children, Elise and Jake.

Berger started his work in the community with NCSY more than 20 years ago, moving to KDHS about 18 years ago. He considers himself a resource for the Jewish community, not just the high school, and half-joked that he’d been teaching the same one idea in 25 different ways.

“The idea, very simply, is that we are souls…. We are spiritual in nature. We are not just super-smart animals…. [Rabbi Israel] Salanter says the big problem with the world is we’re always worried about our own physical needs and everybody else’s spiritual growth, [and] if we just flip that, if we could just worry about our own spiritual growth and everybody else’s physical needs, then the world will be a much better place.”

photo - Rabbi Stephen Berger holds the Friends of JNF Canada, Pacific Region, Education Award, presented to him by siblings Jake and Elise Jampolsky, whose father, Howard Jampolsky, emceed the event — Rabbi Stephen Berger holds the Friends of JNF Canada, Pacific Region, Education Award, presented to him by siblings Jake and Elise Jampolsky, whose father, Howard Jampolsky, emceed the event. *(photo by Galit Lewinski)*

Pat Johnson, who writes for and serves on the editorial board of the Jewish Independent, in addition to being the founder of Upstanders Canada, among other things, spoke about one of the main things he has learned in his 30-plus years of “hanging around” the Jewish community: “the depths of connection between Jewish people in Canada and the land, the state and the people of Israel.”

Engaged in political activism and progressive causes for decades, Johnson said that, during the Second Intifada, his communities diverged.

“Ostensibly, we were asked to choose to side either with Palestinians or with Israelis,” he said. “The real choice we faced, though, was between coexistence, peace and a negotiated settlement to conflict as characterized by the Oslo process, or supporting chauvinistic fanaticism, violence and the eradication from the Middle East of its only oasis of pluralism, democracy and equality.

“Why did I, and why did you, face that choice and make the right one, when so many others faced the same choice and opted to betray the values we thought we shared? Perhaps because we know Jewish history.

“People asked, ‘Could we be right and, seemingly, the entire world be wrong?’ Jewish history, for everything else it teaches us, reveals that the entire world can indeed be wrong – again and again,” said Johnson, who spoke about the inextricable links between Jews and Israel. He held up a JNF Blue Box, pushka, calling it “a tangible symbol of that bond.”

“In Jewish homes in Montreal and Minsk, in Vancouver and Vilnius, in Casablanca and Krakow, parents and grandparents dropped coins into boxes like this, demonstrating from generation to generation the centrality of this eternal connection.”

With Israel reestablished, the Zionist dream today, said Johnson, is “an Israel that is safe and indestructible. An Israel that exists in a changed region, where peace prevails. An Israel that is respected in a world without hatred.”

Jonathan Conricus believes Israel will have to continue fighting for its existence.

A retired lieutenant-colonel in the Israel Defence Forces, Conricus is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, where he provides analysis and insight on Israel, the Middle East, and the challenges facing democratic societies worldwide. His Vancouver talk was part of a cross-country tour with Friends of JNF Canada.

Significant progress has been made in Gaza and Hamas has been diminished, Conricus said. “In terms of long-range weapons, far less, almost nothing; in terms of capital, far less, almost nothing; in terms of senior terrorists with decades of experience, almost nothing; and, in terms of an ability to project force and to threaten Israeli civilians, almost nothing. But you’ll notice that I said almost in each and every sentence – and almost is a temporary situation. The nucleus of Hamas remains.

“Nobody has disarmed,” he said. And anyone who thinks they will “see a jihadi fighter lay down their weapons, doesn’t know what a jihadi fighter is.”

Laying down weapons “is not in their DNA – they cannot do it,” he said, adding that, if they did, “they are dead men walking … not necessarily because Israel will kill them all … but because there are long lists of grievances within the population in Gaza with most of the thugs and terrorists of Hamas.”

Gaza will continue to challenge Israel, said Conricus, as the IDF continues to fight in Lebanon, “clearing away the last remains of Hezbollah: storage facilities, bunkers, sniper positions and many other things that Hezbollah had built underneath and within civilian homes in Lebanon.”

The goal is to create a cleared area, “where there’s no infrastructure that Hezbollah can use in order to attack Israeli civilians along the border,” he said.

“I believe that, currently, we’re in the best position that we’ve ever been … [to] help our neighbours to the north in being a sovereign state for the first time in their history,” Conricus said. “The Lebanese state was granted sovereignty in 1946 from the French colonial powers [when foreign troops finally left the country], and they haven’t enjoyed a day of sovereignty in their whole lives.”

On the Iranian front, the IDF is ready “to get going against Iran again, with the purpose of dealing much more severe blows against targets that, up until now, have not been engaged by the IDF,” said Conricus, but the Israeli government is holding back.

“Up until now, Israel has decided not to do so, whether independently or together with the US, mostly thinking about the future of the Iranian people and wanting to leave intact infrastructure for the people of Iran to continue with their lives.”

Before Oct. 7, Conricus said, “We were responding, but we weren’t really fighting strategically back.” Now, however, “all the Iranian proxies that the Iranian regime spent billions and billions of dollars building, arming, training and equipping – none of those are even half as strong as they were before Oct. 7. Most have been dealt significant blows by Israel. And Iran itself, the Islamic Republic, is the weakest that it has ever been in its 47 years of existence.”

While concerned about “the looming threat of an imperialistic Türkiye” and about unity within Israel and between Israeli and diaspora Jews, Conricus said people should take everything they see in international media “with many grains of salt.”

“Please know that the situation in Israel is much happier, stronger, more resolute, united, and better than it is portrayed in international media. Please know that Am Yisrael, in Israel, is strong, committed to prosperity, to life, to creation, to peace, to beautiful things, and that, despite two-and-a-half years, almost three years, of relentless attacks against the very basic legitimacy of the state of Israel to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people, we’re here, we’re fighting and, much to everybody else’s disapproval, we’re going to continue to be so.”

In the conversation between Johnson and Conricus that followed, several topics were covered. One of the last questions was about Malmo, Sweden, where Conricus, who was born in Jerusalem, partly grew up.

“For a lot of us, the word Malmo … is shorthand for European multiculturalism gone wrong,” said Johnson. “Is there something from that experience you would want Canadians to know?”

Malmo is “a cautionary tale,” said Conricus, noting that most young Jews have left the city.

“There’s not really a future,” he said. “Within a generation and a half, I think that the Jewish community won’t exist there.”

He encouraged the community to focus on Jewish education and fostering Jewish identity, “how we love each other, how we nurture the bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”

During the event, David Greaves, executive director of Friends of JNF Western region, and Lance Davis, the organization’s chief executive officer, also offered remarks, and Ilene-Jo Bellas, board member and event chair, thanked the speakers.

Patriotic belonging diminishes

(photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

When I was a kid, living near Washington, DC, my dad would hang an American flag up out in front of our house on US holidays. We’d all go outside for Memorial Day or 4th of July and raise the flag together. It was a solemn ritual. It was uncomplicated and patriotic.

As my understanding of US history and geopolitical actions changed, I still remember feeling a sense of awe as we sat on a blanket under the night sky, celebrating Independence Day with fireworks and Sousa marches. I carried that mostly uncomplicated feeling with me when we moved to Canada in 2009, the feeling of pride in where I lived. I became a dual citizen, believing I could hold that feeling for two nations at once.

A few years ago, Winnipeg changed its celebrations around Canada Day. Some of the huge gatherings resulted in spikes in crime. Many events also didn’t properly acknowledge Indigenous peoples’ roles in this country. We found, with younger kids, that the crowds, loud noises and late nights required to celebrate with others became too hard.

The choice to downplay some aspects of Canada Day reflected a new understanding. Manitoba’s Indigenous population is 18.1%, larger than any other province. Winnipeg is home to the largest urban Canadian Indigenous population. Our kids attend public school in a division where the student population is approximately 30% Indigenous. Indigenous peoples have complex relationship with patriotism for many valid reasons.

I felt this nuanced understanding of patriotism and how it related to my country was only fair as a critical thinker who reads the news. Little of it had to do with my Jewish identity, I thought. Since Oct. 7, I realized that was incorrect.

On June 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.” This speech was, unfortunately, too little, and too late. While he did this, there were more incidents of hate, and little done to enforce the laws to stop it. Carney has created a new advisory council to combat hate, which has only one Jewish person on it. While one of their tasks is to tackle antisemitism, the council has a participant who supports Palestinian resistance via Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. Another member is a lawyer who represented Palestinian protesters in a university encampment. This doesn’t strike anyone in the Jewish community as an unbiased or safe environment to combat Canadian antisemitism.

Sorting through my feelings, I found a strange parallel in the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Chullin, which I am studying as part of Daf Yomi (a page of Talmud a day). This tractate, about kosher slaughter, is technical but contains insights that have broader implications. On page 44, there’s a discussion of treifa and how to detect it. In this situation, treifa refers to an animal that has a physical defect and will likely die soon. This type of animal isn’t kosher.

Sometimes, this is discovered only after slaughter. For the animal’s owner, this is a financial loss, too. In Dr. Sara Ronis’ essay on My Jewish Learning on Chullin 44, she highlights Rav Hisda, “who says: Who is a Torah scholar? This is one who sees his own treifa.” This is someone who sees his animal’s status, takes the financial loss and keeps potentially non-kosher meat out of the food supply. This person thinks critically enough to recognize when something might be harmful even when it’s difficult and the outcome doesn’t benefit them.

All my thoughts about patriotism felt emotional but abstract until October 2023. Then it became personal. The following situation is one I had but illustrates multiple Jewish Canadian experiences.

Someone I knew posted on social media. I’d sat on a committee with her. I visited her farm. I supported her business. Right after Oct. 7, this person cheered “resistance.” She promoted a “walkout for Palestine” at an urban high school near me. This person lived out in the country, not in the city. Still, she had lots of followers and this reaction to the Oct. 7 attack contributed to the antisemitism in Winnipeg.

When I asked her why she did this, I heard that this non-Jewish, leftwing Canadian once dated a leftwing Israeli. She believed in “one state” for Israelis and Palestinians. She’d once raised money to visit the West Bank but hadn’t managed the trip. She then defined antisemitism for me. After this online confrontation continued, I broke off contact, but this person still follows me on Instagram. It feels like I’m being stalked by someone who wants to monitor my minority identity.

My kids now attend that public high school, and I imagine how dangerous it could be if they were there during a “walkout for Palestine.” There’s a straight line from having a leftwing non-Jew feel confident enough to define Jew-hate to me, a Jewish person, and the hate we’re dealing with now. If a walkout happens at school, do my Jewish kids stay in the building, thus getting singled out as targets? My kids’ choice to side with Israeli friends and family and the Jewish state means they could be endangered at school by such “resistance” activism.

When I moved to Canada, I reveled in how safe and public Jews felt in Winnipeg. It was a novelty after moving from Kentucky, where I’d often felt worried about my safety. When someone recognized me on a Winnipeg street and called out to me from her bicycle, yelling that she knew me from synagogue, I felt unsettled. Six months later, I too felt safe enough to put my menorah in the dining room window during Hanukkah.

Sadly, that first Hanukkah in Canada, in 2009, is when my house got egged. It felt safe to be Jewish here, but we still couldn’t be that public about who we were.

When my twins were preschoolers, they walked to synagogue with us, wearing kippahs, because they felt proud of their identity. It was also easier than getting the kippahs on just outside the shul. We’re now in a situation where everyone’s toque, sun hat or ball cap comes off and the kippah comes on – sometimes even inside the building. We’ve had to change. It wasn’t safe.

Like many in Canada and the United States, I am now significantly less trusting of government and our country’s actions. I wonder if I will know when it’s time to move, when things are too unsafe. The older me sees value in the ways of Rav Hisda. It’s a sign of wisdom and maturity when we can identify and predict a loss or risk before it happens, and even cut our losses.

Part of me wishes for that uncomplicated time when I could lay back on my blanket, watch the fireworks and feel soaring pride. I’m sad to have lost that pride and the easy feeling of belonging I had in the past. Now, I wonder if I ever really belonged then, either.

Joanne Seiff has written regularly for the Winnipeg Free Press and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com.

A campaign to engage

(image from Jewish Federation of British Columbia)

In anticipation of the FIFA World Cup, a series of billboards has been put up across the Greater Vancouver Regional District – across both Canada and Millennium lines, on billboards spanning from Vancouver to Surrey,

Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows, and at transit hubs from Richmond to North and West Vancouver.

The billboards feature messages including:

• Supporting Jews shouldn’t require a PR campaign, but here we are.

• You don’t have to be a Jew to protect Jews.

• Can a billboard end antisemitism? No. But you’re not a billboard.

• Whether you call it football or soccer, antisemitism is a foul.

• You don’t need a whistle to call out antisemitism.

The campaign is designed to be impossible to ignore.

“Antisemitism is rising not only globally, but right here in British Columbia,” said Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of British Columbia. “Jewish people are experiencing increased harassment, vandalism, exclusion and threats in everyday spaces. Too often, that reality is minimized or misunderstood.”

The aim of the campaign is to encourage reflection and dialogue on shared responsibility in addressing hate and exclusion. The billboards are not about provocation for its own sake; they’re about breaking through the silence.

The campaign launched June 8, for its run to coincide with the FIFA World Cup. Sport is intended to reflect fairness, respect and belonging. However, real sportsmanship isn’t passive. It requires active participation, including speaking up and calling out harmful behaviour and supporting one another when it occurs. The campaign asks audiences to consider questions of inclusion and belonging in public life. It asks: Who feels safe, welcome and included in our city – and who does not? The messages are intended to encourage dialogue in homes, workplaces, educational settings and community spaces.

“We are asking for honest engagement with what responsibility looks like when hate is not abstract,” Shanken said.

The billboard initiative was made possible through a strategic partnership with the nonprofit JewBelong and PATTISON Outdoor Advertising and is a direct response to the rise of antisemitism. Following Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish communities in British Columbia and across Canada have experienced increasing incidents of harassment, exclusion and vandalism in public and institutional spaces.

In 2025, Federation, in partnership with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, conducted a community survey to assess the lived experience of antisemitism in British Columbia. Key findings included:

• 85% of respondents reported that antisemitism has “increased a lot,”

• 93% reported feeling less secure than they did prior to Oct. 7, 2023,

• 62% reported experiencing at least one antisemitic incident, and

• 46% reported experiencing multiple incidents.

These findings reflect a widespread perception within the community that antisemitism has intensified in both frequency and impact. Jewish Federation of British Columbia invites the public to engage with the campaign and consider the role of civic responsibility in addressing hate and exclusion. Learn more at jewishvancouver.com/combatting-antisemitism.

– Courtesy Jewish Federation of British Columbia

Upstanders’ first live event

Editor-in-chief of the National Post Rob Roberts, left, in conversation with journalist Dave Gordon at Upstanders Canada’s May 24 Media Bias event at Temple Sholom. (photo by Anna-Mae Wiesenthal)

Media Bias: How Media has Mainstreamed Antisemitism and What to Do About It was the first live event held by Upstanders Canada. It featured a conversation between journalist Dave Gordon and National Post editor-in-chief Rob Roberts, and took place in Vancouver on May 24 and in Ottawa May 26. Roberts was honoured with the inaugural Upstander of the Year Award.

Upstanders Canada, founded by Pat Johnson, encourages Canadians, particularly non-Jewish Canadians, to take a stand against antisemitism and antizionism. He started the event hosted at Temple Sholom by highlighting that Canada, which, until recent years, had been viewed as a nation of decency, fairness and pluralism, is now an international hotspot of antisemitism.

Janet Dirks, a retired CTV National News reporter who worked for a time in Jerusalem, wondered, in her introduction of the featured speakers, why most newsrooms in the country have been reluctant to delve into the barrage of antisemitic incidents in Canada.

“Is there fear of angering those who identify as antizionist, anti-Israel? Is there a dread of covering something that might be too controversial? The fear of getting too many emails criticizing the story treatment from both sides? Is there a narrative I’m not understanding?” asked Dirks, who is a member of the Upstanders board.

Citing a May 9 Toronto Sun editorial, she said, “The problem with appealing to our governments and, indeed, to civil society to combat the unprecedented rise of hatred against Canada’s Jewish citizens is that they were the ones who enabled it. By failing to punish countless examples of Jew-hatred ever since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, they have normalized antisemitism in Canada.”

The Media Bias event took place on the heels of a May 11 opinion essay by veteran New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, which accused Israeli prison guards and others of sexually abusing Palestinians. The Netanyahu government has subsequently sued the newspaper for defamation.

Roberts faulted the Times for not researching the allegations and examining if they withstood scrutiny.

“It’d be my opinion that every human institution is going to have some problems, but you look at that report and you look at the nature of the allegations, and they just don’t hold the ring of truth,” he said. “The other thing I’ll say is this, you don’t have to publish everything that’s submitted to you, even by the marquee columnists.”

Gordon led the discussion towards the National Post and what he called its decidedly pro-Zionist stance, distinguishing it from other papers in Canada, with the possible exception of the Toronto Sun. Roberts said his newspaper has sought to be “fair and balanced” – not inherently pro-Israel.

The editor spoke about the paper’s decision to drop the Associated Press and the Canadian Press. The decision wasn’t made based on the organizations’ reports from the Middle East, said Roberts, but rather the Post’s preference to not run the same material as other papers. Nonetheless, he did not express a high opinion of the AP’s reporting from the region.

“We all know the story about the bomb that Israel dropped in the hospital – except they didn’t. That was AP, and it took them several hours to fix it,” Roberts said. The Post did not post that AP story, he noted, saying, “… we can’t simply trust even this venerable old wire service to do the job properly.”

Roberts maintained that the Post’s policies of fact-checking and fostering open debate have served the paper well at a time when other publications are struggling.

“We try to be very responsible,” he said. “The fact that people are asking whether journalism is dead is really good for us because we’re thriving at the moment,” adding that the Post is currently hiring.

photo - Pat Johnson, founder of Upstanders Canada, announces the launch of Ask a Jew, an initiative inspired by Selina Robinson, who accepted the honour at the Vancouver event — Pat Johnson, founder of Upstanders Canada, announces the launch of Ask a Jew, an initiative inspired by Selina Robinson, who accepted the honour at the Vancouver event. *(photo by Anna-Mae Wiesenthal)*

Following the conversation, Brandon Lu, an Allied Voices for Israel student ambassador at the University of British Columbia, spoke briefly on the importance of a free press and an informed, discerning public.

At the end of the program, Johnson announced the creation of a new initiative – inspired by Selina Robinson – called Ask a Jew. Modeled on the Human Library concept, Ask a Jew promotes dialogue between curious, open-minded people and Jewish individuals for one-on-one online conversations. The hope is that such conversations will help build understanding and human connection.

Robinson, the author of Truth Be Told – about her experiences with antisemitism, notably within the BC NDP government, in which she was a senior minister for years – has been donating revenues from book sales to Upstanders Canada and the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization that advocates for peace. Robinson joined the Upstanders event in Vancouver, presenting Johnson with another cheque in addition to revenues from the book donated previously.

Iddo Moed, ambassador of the state of Israel to Canada, attended the Ottawa event and addressed the audience, emphasizing the importance of allyship.

For more information about Upstanders Canada, visit upstanderscanada.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Responding to Carney

Panelists at the event Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, left to right: Ben Mulroney (broadcaster), Natasha Pein (researcher), Simon Wolle (B’nai Brith Canada), Matthew Taub (Unapologetically Jewish) and Amir Epstein (Tafsik). (photo by Dave Gordon)

Two weeks after Mark Carney’s address on antisemitism at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, Jewish community members offered a counterweight – a gathering led by grassroots activists, journalists and elected officials, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Called Faith Not Fear: Building Jewish Leadership for a New Era in Canada, the nearly four-hour meeting drew roughly 600 people to the city’s Chabad Flamingo synagogue on June 14. Organizers described it as an unprecedented gathering of local pro-Israel groups – many sharing a stage for the first time – aimed at confronting the question of what kind of leadership this moment demands, and what concrete steps the community must take.

Organized by Yalla, partner groups included Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, B’nai Brith Canada, Chai Tech and Tafsik. Jewish panelists included Matthew Taub of Unapologetically Jewish, Amir Epstein of Tafsik, Jesse Brown of Canadaland and Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman. Non-Jewish allies who spoke included broadcaster Ben Mulroney, educator Ali Siadatan, Juno News reporter Melanie Bennet, former MP Kevin Vuong and Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca.

The central message was that the community can no longer rely on vague reassurances, symbolic gestures or reactive fundraising alone. Speakers argued that the real work now must be proactive: building stronger Jewish identity, demanding governmental accountability, creating civic pressure and abandoning what several described as a culture of managed decline.

photo - MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative, Thornhill) addresses a June 14 gathering in Toronto that was held in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s June 1 speech on antisemitism — MP Melissa Lantsman (Conservative, Thornhill) addresses a June 14 gathering in Toronto that was held in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s June 1 speech on antisemitism. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

For Lantsman, the answer begins outside politics. She argued that what this moment demands is “a renewed Jewish identity,” adding that “before lobbying, before the press releases, before the next emergency appeal or the fundraising, more Jewish life is actually what’s necessary.” In her telling, public advocacy will only be durable if it is rooted in private conviction, education and continuity.

She also urged the audience to move outward, into politics and public life, “not as a supplicant” but as citizens who vote, donate, organize and remember. Politicians who abandon the Jewish community, she said, should feel it “at the ballot box,” because “this isn’t a Jewish problem, it’s a Canada problem.”

The insistence on moving from rhetoric to measurable action was sharpened by strategy consultant Maureen Leshem in her remarks. Drawing on conversations with intelligence officials, police, community leaders and counterterrorism experts, she said she had concluded that the community is “dangerously unprepared for what’s currently happening, and even less prepared for what lies ahead.”

Leshem argued that the community must rethink “everything, from our leadership choices, to how we spend our money, to how we work together.” Too often, she said, Jewish institutions and donors are stuck in “reaction mode,” raising funds to mitigate threats rather than forcing governments and public agencies to do the jobs they are already obligated to do.

A shooting at a Jewish institution, she said, is not mere vandalism or mischief but “targeted, potentially lethal violence against the Jewish community that demands the full weight of a national security response.” When Jewish families and institutions are expected to fund their own protection, she warned, the result is “a private tax on Jewish existence,” which risks normalizing public failure.

Leshem’s call to action was blunt: enough slogans. “Do not get up here and tell us that antisemitism is unacceptable. We know,” she said. Instead, leaders should explain what they are going to do, what laws they are demanding, what institutions they are pressuring and what risks they are willing to take.

Daniel Warner, co-founder of Yalla, said that, after Carney’s speech and subsequent committee appointments, it “became pretty clear that we’re going to have to take this into our own hands,” both as individuals and as organizations.

Warner said too many people he knows have already left Canada, but he rejected emigration as an answer. “Plan B is not leaving. Plan B is fighting back,” he said, urging attendees to stand up for themselves in new ways and to use their voices “as if their future here depended on it.”

The point, he said, is not simply to denounce antisemitism but to demonstrate Jewish life confidently and publicly in places where falsehoods about Jews are spreading most effectively.

Unapologetically Jewish’s Taub observed that, since Oct. 7, dozens of Jewish organizations have sprung up, but real coordination remains uneven. “Suppressing what others have to say is not unity, that is division,” he said, arguing that calling out institutional mistakes should be understood as honesty rather than disloyalty.

Taub accused parts of the organized community of applying temporary remedies to a crisis. “They are throwing Tylenol at cancer, and it’s not working,” he said, after arguing that some Jewish organizations have spent more energy lobbying internal critics than lobbying governments on behalf of the community.

Bennet addressed what she sees as the nature of the threat itself. Discussing themes she observed at a Muslim Association of Canada convention, she warned of a “destructive anti-Western ideology” in which Jews are often the first target but not the only one. “You guys feel it the strongest,” she said, but the larger struggle, in her view, is the attempt to reshape institutions and public life more broadly. Beware, she said, of “jihadis in Armani suits,” referring to the public propaganda face of Islamist terrorists.

Vuong, another ally, framed the issue in similarly expansive terms. He said his support was motivated not only by solidarity but by “self-preservation,” because “the people who hate you hate me as well,” adding that the old warning holds: what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

Independent of the conference, several of Canada’s national Jewish organizations also have responded to Carney’s remarks.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish federations across Canada, for example, issued an open letter reading, in part: “Instead of urgent, concrete measures, the government announced an advisory council, tasked first with further evaluating a crisis that has already been studied extensively, and which includes individuals who are not suited to lead government action on antisemitism. For many Jewish Canadians, this felt like the rug being pulled out from under us.”

“This was an opportunity for the prime minister to meet the moment,” said Simon Wolle, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive officer, in a release. (Wolle also spoke at the Toronto gathering.) “Instead, Canadians heard a speech that described the problem more than it confronted it. The Jewish community did not require another acknowledgment that antisemitism is raging across the country, we needed a plan proportional to the scale of the crisis.

“Canada is not facing an antisemitism awareness problem. Canada has an antisemitism problem,” he said. “The country has been poisoned with Jew-hatred and we need a remedy.”

The Jewish Independent reached out to other national Jewish organizations, as well.

“Carney is correct to note the rise of antisemitism is tied to larger trends of conspiracism, polarization and hate worldwide,” said Vancouver-based Maytal Kowalski, JSpace Canada’s executive director. “It is important to recognize this, not to universalize or trivialize antisemitism, but, in fact, the opposite – to fight it at its root and along with allies.” She said including “allies and leaders from different minority communities” is important if the work is to happen “holistically.”

Gabriella Goliger, national chair of Canadian Friends of Peace Now, said “Israel” was missing from the prime minister’s remarks. “He could have emphasized that he recognizes diaspora Jews’ emotional ties to Israel, that Canada is a friend to Israel,” she said, while also stressing that Canadian Jews “must not be held accountable for Israeli policy” and that there is “a huge difference between legitimate peaceful protest against Israeli actions, and using protest as a smokescreen for antisemitism.”

For the full reactions and recommendations of CIJA, B’nai Brith and JSpace, visit their respective websites.

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

Need holistic approach

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a much-vaunted statement on Canada’s antisemitism crisis last week. It was unlikely to satisfy everyone – partly because there is only so much a single government can do about a global social phenomenon like escalating Jew-hatred.

Even by the standards of that acknowledgement, the address, delivered in Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, seemed like a significant missed opportunity.

Some might have expected Canada to appoint a Royal Commission that would investigate the problem of antisemitism in this country, as Australia has done. That, too, likely would have been criticized as kicking the problem down the road.

Instead, Carney announced something called the Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion, under the stewardship of Marc Miller, the minister of Canadian identity and culture. The council’s mission seems reasonable enough: analyzing “the nature, scale and drivers of antisemitism in Canada – including across our public institutions, workplaces, campuses, public services, professional bodies and online spaces”; coordinating a “whole-of-federal-government approach”; improving research and the collection of data on hate incidents; and “measure[ing] the impact of our efforts, to reinforce those investments in education, prevention, training and community safety that are delivering real results and helping to build a safer, more inclusive Canada for all.”

Lovely enough, though Carney’s speech seemed defensive on at least two fronts. First, he insisted none of this would impinge free expression, which came across as a bit of a sop to those who insist that there should be no limits to the Jew-hatred and anti-Israel bombast on Canadian streets, in classrooms and at workplaces. Further, while insisting that antisemitism is a top priority and that it would be moved to the top of the new council’s agenda, the council is, in the end, a broadly mandated body with a massive jurisdictional swath including, as its name states, amorphous “rights, equality and inclusion.” At a time when many Jews feel like their interests cannot be addressed without an addendum acknowledging the concerns of a laundry list of other equity-seeking peoples, the assignment of antisemitism to this omnibus-type council seems as much an insult as a salve.

What most people did not know during Carney’s speech were the names of the members of the new council. Among them is a lawyer behind a Charter of Rights challenge in defence of anti-Israel encampments. More galling to many is the inclusion of former Liberal MP Omar Alghabra, who has been head of the Canadian Arab Federation, is an admirer of Yasser Arafat, and lobbied to keep Hamas and Hezbollah off Canada’s list of proscribed terrorist entities.

It is an understatement to say that this news undermines the confidence of Jewish (and most reasonable) Canadians that the council will be anything like a panacea for the antisemitism problem. One could hardly conjure council members more likely to raise distrust among Jewish Canadians, no matter how respected any of the other members may be.

Carney also outlined not insignificant steps the government has taken, including funding for programs against radicalization and for Jewish community security. The latter funding is, of course, deeply necessary and appreciated, but also a symptom, rather than a treatment, of the issue.

Rich on bromides and with a requisite quote from Elie Wiesel, the prime minister’s speech probably struck most Canadian Jews as bland and empty. Carney uttered not a word about Israel or antizionism. More than this, the role of Islamic extremism as a major source of antisemitism in Canada was addressed only indirectly. As many commentators have noted, if we are too afraid to even acknowledge and name a main driver of the problem, the likelihood of taking steps that will resolve it seems very remote.

At a minimum, the PM’s address gives a benchmark with which to measure success or failure in the next few years. Any progress brought about by the work of the council and the other steps Carney noted, including Bill C-9 regarding hate propaganda, hate crimes and access to religious or cultural places, will be welcomed. The government should be held to account for any shortcomings.

As important as government action is, that alone will not have the impact necessary if there is not a significant upswell in public demand for change. While Carney called for a “whole-of-federal-government approach,” we need an all-of-society approach, with civic groups, media, the corporate sector and, especially, individual Canadians, speaking up against antisemitism.

Zionism as a solution

(internet photo)

On May 17, Tafsik Organization and Stop Antizionism hosted a full-day World Symposium Against Antizionism. With justifiable pride, the organizers declared that this was the first conference in the world specifically dedicated to combating antizionism. Keynote speaker was Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, along with Gad Saad, Eve Barlow, Leora Shemesh and a packed A-list of inspiring Jewish leaders from around the world.

The fire of Jew-hatred has been ravaging the Jewish community across our country, and elsewhere, and absolutely every option must be considered to put it out. At the same time, I wonder, What if this conference had been organized around the topic of Zionism, where these same speakers focused on all the many visions, projects and ways that Jews everywhere could support the cause of Zionism?

Whether you identify more with Zionism, Jewish peoplehood, Israel or Judaism, if we really want to declare war on antizionism and antisemitism, I think it is by embracing everything that makes us proud to be Jewish and to live Jewishly. For every action each of us takes to combat antisemitism/antizionism, imagine the impact if we also did an equal action that deepens our Jewish identity. Consider it a one-to-one combating antisemitism, promoting Zionism challenge.

As Canadian Jews, we have endured longstanding discrimination. Many of us remain vigilant, knowing our lives will be shaped by the latest surge of “protesters” in Jewish neighbourhoods, or by flash mobs of such protesters at Toronto subway stations or at public forums like Phillips Square in Montreal. where effigies were hung.

When, in Vancouver, someone sets fire to the entrance of Schara Tzedeck Synagogue and the Jewish Federation of BC reports that 62% of Jewish community members have experienced at least one antisemitic incident, wearing Jewish symbols in public is an act of pride and defiance against any of our fellow Canadians who secretly, or openly, hate us for being Jews.

Even before Oct. 7, 2023, B’nai Brith recorded that, in Canada, in 2021, for the sixth consecutive year, records were set for antisemitic incidents in the country, reaching 2,799 that year. In their recently released 2025 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, B’nai Brith found there were 6,800 incidents of antisemitism documented that year.

Zach Bodner, chief executive officer of the Palo Alto Jewish community centre and the head of the Zionism 3.0 movement, declares: “We have to stop pretending that anti-antisemitism will keep Judaism alive for the next generation…. We have to stop believing that fighting against antizionism will keep our kids loving Israel.”

Rabbi David Hartman, in his 1982 essay “Auschwitz or Sinai?” challenges us to examine if we will live our Judaism shaped by trauma, persecution and hatred, or if will we be shaped by covenant, responsibility and moral purpose. “It was not Hitler who brought us back to Zion, but rather belief in the eternal validity of the Sinai covenant,” he wrote.

Recently, as a simple test, I went to the Jewish Independent archives and clicked on the antisemitism tag, I found 45 pages of articles. When I went to the Zionism tag, I found only four, but the tag for Israel had 111 pages, while antizionism/anti-Zionism had three pages of results combined.

I then decided to compare the number of articles published in 2026 between the antisemitism and Israel tags. I found about 30 articles in the former and roughly 25 in the latter. Of those 25 Israel stories published in 2026, at least four dealt with antisemitism and included that tag search as well. Of the 21 remaining Israel articles, most could be construed as some form of cultural connection, solidarity with or interest in Israel, more than enough to classify as Zionism.

While close in number, so far in 2026, antisemitism stories are outpacing stories about Israel and/or Zionism. I have no doubt this same test could be used with any other Canadian Jewish publication, with similar findings.

I’m sure we can agree that there is so much more we can do to inspire ourselves and pass the torch from Sinai to our future generations, rather than allow so much of our creative and intellectual drive and energy to be focused on those who hate us.

We are living in the aftermath of 1948, the year when we Jews finally transformed the seemingly impossible dream of reestablishing statehood into reality. We have a strong North American Jewish community and representative organizations that make us an undeniable political force.

With these resources that were unimaginable to previous generations of Jews, we have new goals to set, new visions to dream, new swamps to drain, new heights to achieve – as Jews.

So, I ask every one of you reading this: What inspires you about being Jewish? What about Judaism, Zionism or Israel inspires you? What leads you to live a Jewish life and gives you strength during tough times? What drives you to be the best Jew you want to be?

For every statement, action, rally or event you attend where you roar with defiance against our haters, please take a moment to express why you are the Jew you are; how you live Jewishly; and why you are proudly part of the Jewish nation. Your words, your ideas, your vision can and will inspire many others.

Alan Herman has lived in Israel twice, including when attending Ben-Gurion University, where he completed his master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies. He participated in the Quebec-Israel Committee’s parliamentary program in Montreal, and organized many Israel and Zionism related events as a co-chair for the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research from 2013 to 2025. He is a proud member of the board of Upstanders Canada.

Legal help for students

StandWithUs Canada executive director Jesse Primerano and lawyer Anita Bromberg, director of the organization’s new legal department. (photos from SWU)

StandWithUs Canada has just launched a new legal department to help students navigate the climate on Canadian campuses.

StandWithUs Canada is an educational organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, challenge misinformation and fight antisemitism within schools and communities. While the organization has always helped students navigate legal challenges, up to now, according to executive director Jesse Primerano, the organization has had to outsource cases to volunteer lawyers on a case-by-case basis. Cases have included incidents of human rights complaint violations by, for example, a university or a student union. With a staff lawyer leading a new department, StandWithUs aims to have greater reach in the legal realm.

Anita Bromberg is a lawyer with extensive practice experience in human rights and constitutional law, including religious freedom, censorship and freedom of speech cases. She has done research and teaching, worked with B’nai Brith Canada as a human rights officer and legal counsel, and served as executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. She has argued before the Supreme Court of Canada.

After Oct. 7, 2023, Bromberg rededicated herself to the Jewish community and fighting antisemitism, heading the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation.

“I hope that, in my position, I will bring that expertise and connections and networking to StandWithUs,” Bromberg told the Independent. “And, most importantly, to me, is to find a way to bring our community together so that we are a lean, mean fighting machine that parallels the type of support that we’re seeing the anti-Israel crowd getting.”

Anti-Israel organizations have lawyers on call, according to Bromberg and Primerano, and Jewish students and their allies need parallel defences.

Students are being confronted on campus, including in classrooms, with aggressive harassment not only from student activists but from professors and faculty advisors, said Bromberg.

In addition to being harassed, students are being doxxed – having their personal information, like home addresses, made public – and access to public spaces like tables and room rentals on campus is being denied to Jewish students based on their political views, said Primerano. Jewish students are being silenced, he said, based on justifications that events, for example, cannot go forward for their own protection, based on security concerns.

“They need legal support to understand what they can do to defend themselves against a machine that’s trying to take them down,” said Primerano.

Launching the legal department has been a longtime goal of StandWithUs Canada, said Primerano.

“It required not only funding, but it required us to make sure the rest of our infrastructure was immaculate,” he said.

Legal avenues are often the only option for students who feel harmed by the actions of an institution or its representatives, he said.

“At the end of the day, very little holds universities to account outside of the law itself,” Primerano said. “That is the one thing that they say that they respect.”

The new legal department, with a single employee, is just the beginning, he maintained. The organization envisions a future with multiple lawyers and several staff members, collaborating with lawyers across the country.

“We’re not planning to solve this problem on our own,” said Primerano. “We’re looking to build a network of pro bono lawyers across Canada who are willing to support us here and there.”

The goal, ultimately, is to make sure that students have somebody they can call that is specifically focused on their issues. From there, StandWithUs might engage with community partners as appropriate, such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and others.

“Our goal is to build a real network,” he said. “Our fundamental belief is that the community is stronger when we work together, but we also know that the university students need a point of contact, and all we’re trying to establish here for them is a point of contact with expertise and reliability that can then utilize the rest of the infrastructure that exists, especially with Anita being based in Toronto, to speak to lawyers in Vancouver and say, ‘You’ve already been having these conversations. Let’s work together to make sure that we can effect a change.’”

Bromberg’s deep roots in the Jewish community and legal experience mean she can hit the ground running on complex issues.

“I think that was one reason why I got the nod for this position,” said Bromberg, “because I’ve been in the community, I’ve networked with pretty much every organization and I’ve always adopted a cooperative measure. I think that the unity in the community is probably the most important thing that we have to develop.”

Students can access a reporting tool through the StandWithUs website (standwithus.com) and social media.

“The goal is not entirely reactive,” Primerano added. “Anita will also be developing resources, workshops, webinars and ways for students and community members at large to be aware of what their rights are and how they can defend them.… We’re also trying proactively to help people get a better understanding of what they’re entitled to as Canadian citizens.”

Wrong person rebuked

The City of Vancouver’s integrity commissioner this month declared that Mayor Ken Sim breached the city’s code of conduct by criticizing Councilor Sean Orr’s presence and comments at an anti-Israel rally last year.

The report concluded that Sim misused the influence of his office by holding a press conference to criticize Orr over inflammatory social media posts and his attendance at an anti-Israel protest alongside very problematic speakers and organizations. The report said Sim should apologize to Orr or face censure by council.

Ezra Shanken, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of British Columbia, said in a statement that the conflict commissioner’s report represented a double standard, and expressed gratitude to the mayor for raising our community’s concerns.

Nico Slobinsky, on behalf of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, criticized Orr for not showing accountability for past social media posts, including claiming that city planners were controlled by a “secret cabal of Jews,” and calling for the “destruction of both Israel and Canada.” While a city councilor, Orr spoke at the “Flood for Palestine” protest organized by Al-Awda, a group with links to the terrorist entity Samidoun.

The brouhaha at city hall is just one in a small avalanche of administrative, legal and political episodes in recent years that have left many Jews feeling abandoned and betrayed by the institutions and legal protections ostensibly in place to protect them and other minority communities.

Many Jews feel under attack and, despite pleasant words from some elected officials, actual tangible responses often seem weak or absent. For example, the flooding of a Vancouver neighbourhood with hate messages against Jews and Israel have been effectively ignored by city officials. Clearing them away has been left to local residents. Nothing, apparently, has been done to reprimand the individual known to be perpetrating the graffiti and vandalism, despite laws and bylaws against precisely this sort of behaviour.

In Ontario, some progress has been seen recently. Toronto authorities responded to demonstrations in Jewish neighbourhoods by tightening enforcement, restricting marches from entering residential streets, and arresting some participants and investigating alleged incidents of hate speech and public incitement. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has been vocal in defending Jewish communities and, no doubt, his unequivocal position gave some political cover to police and others to take action.

No similar political leadership has been seen in British Columbia, where the unresolved case of Charlotte Kates remains a sore point for many in the Jewish community. Vancouver police arrested Kates in April 2024 after remarks at a Vancouver rally in which she praised the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and venerated their perpetrators as heroic. Police recommended charges for public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred. Nearly two years later, Crown counsel has still not announced a charge decision. Pressed by the Independent, the premier’s office pointed to prosecutorial independence, arguing that charging decisions rest with the BC Prosecution Service, not elected officials.

This may be fair justification, but piled upon so many instances where words and actions that are perceived by Jews as hateful and inciting go officially unchallenged leave many Jewish people with an overall sense that they are being abandoned by those who should be enforcing anti-hate protections.

Parliament is now considering Bill C-9, a proposed online harms law that carries numerous provisions that Jewish leaders support. But many people are leery of more laws that likely will not be enforced, provisions intended to increase safety for minority communities – Jews, in particular – but that will not have their intended impact, whether because police do not enforce them, the Crown does not pursue charges or, if it reaches that level, courts do not convict. The proposed new federal law has much to recommend itself but, if it is just going to be another law on a dusty legal shelf, it will not change the situation we face.

The case of Vancouver’s mayor, who called out egregious incidents only to be called on the carpet himself – and ordered to apologize – portends a chilling on those who would stand up for the Jewish community.

We have laws in this country, but many of them are not being enforced. Very few Jews in this country, we confidently venture, believe the system is working as it should.