There was a time when a Jewish family in Canada could send their kids to school, attend synagogue, or walk down a city street without fearing for their lives. That time, tragically, is slipping away. Make no mistake—Canada is not Glorious and Free if Jews can’t walk safely in it.
A year ago, I wrote an article titled A Call for Non-Jewish Canadians to Stop the Silence, Stand Up, Speak Up in Support of Canada’s Jewish Community. That piece addressed the alarming rise in antisemitic hate crimes following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack—the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. It described the surge in threats, violent assaults, and harassment targeting Jewish Canadians, and called on non-Jewish citizens to reject silence and confront this growing hatred. I argued then—and repeat now—that defending Canada’s Jewish community is not only a moral obligation but a civic imperative essential to our democracy.
One year later, the situation has worsened. Across the country, too many have remained silent—whether out of fear, apathy, confusion, or willful ignorance—as masked agitators chant genocidal slogans, threaten violence, and target Jewish Canadians with impunity.
In a democracy like ours, freedom of expression is fundamental—but not absolute. It does not extend to incitement, harassment, or hate speech. We must draw a clear line between lawful protest and dangerous intimidation. A healthy democracy defends free speech, but it must also recognize when that freedom is being weaponized to erode civil society and endanger minorities.
According to Statistics Canada, Jewish Canadians—less than 1 percent of the population—were targeted in nearly 70 percent of all reported religiously motivated hate crimes in 2023. Synagogues have been firebombed, Jewish students harassed on campuses, and Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. Yet our political leaders, university presidents, and their risk-averse boards offer little more than platitudes—if they speak at all.
The Hypocrisy of Carney, Starmer, and Macron
Canada is built on principles of pluralism, tolerance, and the protection of minority rights. These values demand more than symbolic gestures—they require moral clarity and consistent leadership. It is not enough to denounce antisemitism in vague terms while remaining silent as it spreads in our streets, our institutions, and our national discourse.
The Liberal Party has long positioned itself as a champion of human rights. But in the face of rising antisemitism—at home and abroad—words are no longer enough. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government cannot continue to equivocate while hate festers and violence escalates. Through selective outrage, strategic silence, and moral ambiguity, they risk becoming the G7’s chief apologists for antisemitism, rather than its principled opponents.
Carney’s recent remarks, though professing concern for Jewish Canadians, simultaneously distance Canada from Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hamas. Cloaked in the language of humanitarianism, this rhetoric omits crucial context: the October 7 massacre was carried out by Hamas, a terrorist organization designated as such by Canada since 2002. Hamas continues to hold hostages and systematically uses civilians as human shields—violating every norm of international law.
Carney’s position is echoed by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, who together issued a joint condemnation of Israel’s military campaign and threatened “concrete actions” against the Jewish state. Yet this moral indignation rings hollow when compared to their countries’ own military histories.
Canada, the UK, and France have all participated in foreign interventions—in Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen—that inflicted massive civilian casualties and left behind chaos and instability. These operations were justified as efforts to defend democracy, protect civilians, and combat terrorism. Yet in Afghanistan, NATO missions led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths and the Taliban’s eventual return to power. In Libya, the NATO-backed overthrow of a dictator fractured the nation into competing militias.
All three countries continue to arm regimes like Saudi Arabia, despite its devastating war in Yemen. Yet none of these military actions provoked the same moral outrage now directed at Israel—a democracy defending itself against a genocidal terrorist group embedded in civilian areas.
By condemning Israel without offering a credible alternative to dismantle Hamas, Carney and his counterparts are—intentionally or not—advancing Hamas’s strategic goals: isolate Israel, erase the context of terrorism, and weaponize civilian suffering to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.
This is not moral leadership. It is performative, corrosive, and dangerous. It alienates Jewish communities, empowers antisemitic movements disguised as “anti-Zionism,” and legitimizes hatred under the false banner of humanitarian concern. It feeds a global narrative that increasingly justifies antisemitism as social justice.
If Carney, Starmer, and Macron genuinely believe in the principles they once invoked to justify foreign interventions, they must also affirm Israel’s right to protect its citizens from terror. Anything less is not moral clarity—it is cowardice cloaked in compassion.
More troubling still, their posturing leaves Canada’s Jewish community feeling isolated and betrayed. Rather than addressing the alarming rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence, Carney’s government appears more focused on appeasing fringe protestors than defending Jewish Canadians. This is not leadership—it is abdication.
A National Shame
On May 25, 2025, Israel issued a travel advisory warning Jews to be cautious while visiting or living in Canada—not in a war zone or authoritarian regime, but here, in a democratic, peaceful, multicultural country.
The advisory urged Jews and Israelis to avoid wearing visible signs of their identity in public. Why? Because synagogues have been firebombed. Jewish schools have received bomb threats. People wearing Stars of David or yarmulkes have been assaulted. Molotov cocktails, terrorist flags, and open calls for violence now scar our public spaces.
Let’s be clear: this is not about Israeli policy. This is about hatred—persistent and virulent. This is about Jews being harassed, threatened, and attacked for who they are.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
A report by the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force found an 83 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Canada. Though Jews comprise less than 1 percent of the population, they are the victims in nearly 70 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes. Since October 7, cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa have seen a dramatic rise in anti-Jewish violence and rhetoric.
What began as chants of “Free Palestine” has metastasized into calls for intifada, for Israel’s erasure “from the river to the sea,” and into physical assaults on Jews walking to synagogue.
While antisemitism once festered on the far-right, it now thrives on the radical left, fused with Islamist extremism. The Combat Antisemitism Movement reports a 325 percent surge in far-left antisemitic incidents in 2024. Pro-Hamas protests routinely feature chants echoing blood libels and genocidal slogans.
This is not protest. This is terror cloaked in social justice rhetoric. It is a perversion of Canadian values, and it must stop.
The RCMP’s Alarming Alert
The RCMP recently reported a 488 percent increase in terrorism charges in the past year, tied to Islamic State resurgence and youth radicalization. Six plots have been foiled in just twelve months.
We have reached a point where being visibly Jewish in Canada now carries a warning.
No More Neutrality
This is a moment for moral clarity—not excuses, not equivocation, and certainly not silence. Non-Jewish Canadians—all Canadians—must confront this crisis now. We must speak up not only after the next synagogue is vandalized, but before. We must reject hatred in all its forms, especially when it targets our neighbours for their identity.
To Catholics, Muslims, progressives, conservatives, educators, clergy, journalists, and everyday citizens: this is your fight, too. As Pope Francis rightly declared, “To be antisemitic is to be un-Christian.” To remain silent is to betray every value we claim to hold dear.
Canada failed once before. When Jewish refugees aboard the MS St. Louis sought sanctuary from Nazi Germany in 1939, our government coldly replied, “None is too many.” Most of those passengers were later murdered in the Holocaust.
We must not fail again—not in spirit, not in silence, not in the streets of our cities.
In recent days many commentators have noted that the following action is required to blunt the cancer of antisemitism in Canada. In short steps required include:
• Government action: Enforce hate crime laws and outlaw the display of terrorist symbols. These are not free speech—they are threats.
• Educational reform: Expand anti-racism curricula to include Holocaust and antisemitism education.
• Community solidarity: Show up for Jewish neighbours—in public, online, and at interfaith events.
• Media accountability: Stop amplifying false casualty figures from Hamas and retract unverified, inflammatory claims.
• Security funding: Ensure cities provide protection for synagogues, schools, and Jewish community centres.
This is not a time for polite discomfort or moral neutrality. It is a time for courage, clarity, and conscience. Because if Jews cannot live safely and proudly in Canada, then none of us are truly free.
Photo: iStock.
