Anti-Israel protests in Canada
File showing anti-Israel demonstrators during a protest in Toronto in August 2024. (Video: Reuters via Anadolu Agency.)
Antisemitism in Canada has exploded in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, reaching record numbers last year and becoming a central issue for the country’s Jewish community ahead of an April 28 federal election.
Last week, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, the main challenger to Prime Minister Mark Carney accused pro-Hamas protesters of staging “hate marches” and vowing to deport antisemitic foreigners from Canada.
“The rampaging chaos that we see in our streets, the targeting of synagogues and Jewish schools with hate, vandalism, violence, fire bombings … these things were unheard of 10 years ago,” Poilievre said.Â
He also had a warning for foreign agitators. “Anyone who is here on a visitor visa who carries out lawbreaking will be deported from this country,” Poilievre said.
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A man fixes the lock on the doors of Congregation Beth Tikvah as police investigate an alleged arson at the synagogue in the suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux in Montreal Dec. 18, 2024. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
“To Canada’s Jewish community,” Poilievre added, “you are not alone, you have friends. Canadians stand with you. You have the right to wear your Star of David, your kippah, and have your mezuzah on your door. You should feel proud to be Jewish and should never have to hide your Jewishness in order to stay safe.”
On Friday, Poilievre shared on X the Montreal Jewish Community Council’s call for Jewish voters to endorse him. In the video, the group’s executive director, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, referencing Poilievre’s support for the community, stated, “We remember who stood with us when it mattered most, and now we can all make a difference.”
Emanuel noted that Jewish voters could play a decisive role in as many as 14 districts in Canada. “Our vote matters, our voice matters. That’s why I am proud to support Pierre Poilievre and I urge you to do the same,” he said.
Carney has also used social media to condemn antisemitism. In a tweet wishing Jewish Canadians a happy Passover, he condemned the growing incidents, stating in part, “Together, we must confront and denounce the rising tide of antisemitism, and the threat it poses to Jewish life and safety in communities across Canada.”
Anti-Israel protesters gather outside Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue hosting ‘Israeli Real Estate Event’ in Thornhill, north of Toronto, Ontario on March 7, 2024. Thornhill is home to a large Jewish population. (Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Yet despite his strong words against antisemitism, Carney recently faced criticism following a campaign rally in Calgary, where someone yelled at the Liberal Party leader, “There’s a genocide happening in Palestine.”
“I’m aware,” Carney replied. “That’s why we have an arms embargo [on Israel].”
The next day, Carney, who in March replaced longtime Premier Justin Trudeau, claimed he had not heard the anti-Israel demonstrator correctly.
His backtracking did not stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering the fray. He posted on X that “Canada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney.
“But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state,” Netanyahu posted.
According to an annual audit released this month by B’nai Brith Canada, the total number of reported cases of Jew hatred in the country hit 6,219 in 2024, a 7.4% increase over 2023 and the highest number since the survey’s inception in 1982.
Antisemitic incidents in Canada have skyrocketed by 124.6% since 2022.
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Mark Carney was criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for remarks made during a campaign rally last week. (Andrej Ivanov/Getty Images)
“Over the last 18 months, a new baseline has been established for antisemitism in Canada, and it’s having a detrimental effect on the lives of Jewish people,” Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told Fox News Digital. “We are seeing an increase in certain forms of antisemitism, specifically anti-Zionism.”
Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and attorney general of Canada for the Liberal Party, told Fox News Digital “antisemitism has become mainstream, normalized and legitimized in the political, popular, academic, media, entertainment and sport cultures. All this happened in the absence of outrage,” he said.
“I hope that whichever party gets elected, we will see deliverables in combating specific hate crime, hate speech, harassment, assault, vandalism and all the things you find reported in the [B’nai Brith] annual report. From my experience, even those statistics are not telling the true story. They are underreported.”
Canada Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre condemned antisemitic violence and incidents in Canada and promised action if elected as the country’s prime minister. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
“The community of democracies must act because the security of our collective freedom is at stake,” Cotler warned.
Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed told Fox News Digital many local Jews “feel vulnerable, unsafe and unprotected by law enforcement bodies, governments and education systems that have stood by as antisemitism reached crisis levels.”Â
He noted that Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, is obligated to act when Jews in the Diaspora are in distress.
“Equipping teachers with the resources to teach about antis
