Jerry Grafstein: The war against Jews comes to Canada

The roots of antisemitism in Canada are deep, tangled and growing. Nowhere in Western democracies has the rise been so swift, obvious and evident as in Canada. B’nai Brith Canada’s annual report tracking antisemitic incidents across Canada with impeccable statistics proves the point. Metro Toronto Police statistics also confirm this fact. There are more hate incidents against Jews and Jewish institutions per capita in Canada than all other minority groups put together. Per capita, the number of antisemitic incidents in Canada is highest in the Western world, and Toronto leads the world in per capita antisemitic incidents.

The cancer of antisemitism, like a pandemic, is evident in public unions, among teachers at all levels of schooling, especially universities, and among administrators at various levels of government—federal, provincial and municipal.

Canadian union leaders seem to have no historical memory. Have they forgotten politicians like David Croll, a Jewish mayor of Windsor and a government minister, who resigned during an auto strike in the 1930s, saying that he would rather walk with the workers than drive with General Motors? What about union leaders like Kalman Kaplansky or New Democratic Party (NDP) leader David Lewis or Louis B. Fine, the deputy minister who, in the 1950s, led Canada in implementing hours for work and other pioneering workers-rights legislation? Where is the condemnation of public union leaders and members who breach their own bylaws when they discriminate against Jewish workers?

Some years ago, a well-documented report on systemic antisemitism at the University of Toronto Medical School was released. To this day, no reported changes have been made—no egregious faculty members or administrators were dismissed. None. The medical school has neglected its three operating principles—the Hippocrates Oath, the University of Toronto’s rules of ethical conduct and the systemic failure by the school to uphold the rights and freedoms under the Constitution of Canada.

Further, the University of Toronto recently signed an “amnesty” agreement with anti-Israel protesters who spewed vitriol and manifested aggressive conduct, surely, if not an act of obstruction of justice, an action contrary to all their own rules of conduct. No doubt, this agreement will only invite further appalling conduct on the campus in the future.

A recent egregious NDP motion in Parliament condemning only Israel was met with a standing ovation by all but a few members of Parliament. The NDP has broken with their revered founder, Tommy Douglas, who was a fervent supporter of Israel. Meanwhile, the liberal caucus in Ottawa has isolated some of its Jewish members and their supporters.

Vandalism, and even the burning of synagogues and Jewish schools, has been met with mostly silence from most government leaders and most leaders of other faiths. And where was the outrage when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued rules that essentially outlawed the shechita of kosher meat? (A federal court injunction was granted to slow down this incredible regulatory act of lawlessness.)

Since Sept. 11, in every synagogue across Canada are security measures to protect its members. My own synagogue, Beth Tzedec Congregation, the largest in Canada, requires that members go through a guarded backdoor to enter the building. Not so for parishioners at Timothy Eaton Church just a mile or so away in mid-Toronto or those who worship at the United Church, a steadfast critic of Israel.

Why are church or other leaders silent? Silence is complicity. When a synagogue in a small town was firebombed in France, French President Emmanuel Macron immediately declared that “any attack on a synagogue is an attack on France.” Where are our political leaders?

Olivia Chow, the mayor of Toronto, refused to attend a long-established Israeli flag-raising ceremony. She seems to believe that she is the mayor of only some of Toronto’s citizens. She chose to forget that Nathan Phillips Square, where her office is located, is named after the city’s first Jewish mayor, who prided himself on being “the mayor of all the people.” Perhaps Chow was unaware that the third-largest gay pride parade in the world is in Tel Aviv and that there are no other gay pride parades anywhere elsewhere in the Middle East. Why else would she choose not to attend a tradition of raising the Israeli flag yet days later attend the gay-pride flag-raising?

Where is the call for accurate reporting by the CBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is regularly in breach of its mandate with its biased coverage of the Hamas-incited war in Israel? (Follow Honest Reporting on this issue.)

Another instance is an attack on the literary prize formerly known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize by writers who opposed the bank’s ties to Elbit Systems, an Israeli-based defense company. Now just called the Giller Prize, it was created to honor the late Doris Giller, who was a staunch supporter of Israel.

What can be done?

The Metro Police in Toronto are overworked, and underfunded, and have done a good job prosecuting antisemitic incidents, even as the city is flooded with crime. Perhaps Chow could set up a special unit in the police department solely dedicated to solving antisemitic crimes, similar to what they did to stop drugs, gangs and car theft.

Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general, Arif Virani, can fulfill his sworn duty to uphold federal law. He can immediately call for a joint strike force comprised of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the intelligence agencies and provincial police forces as rapid-response teams in each province to prosecute all egregious breakers of the criminal code. The Minister of Public Safety can persuade the provincial premiers to have their police forces join these joint strike forces to prosecute relevant egregious protestors in each province.

A war against Jews now rages across Canada. Every synagogue and Jewish institution recently received threatening messages. The enforcement of the criminal code—the one great barrier to criminal behavior targeting Jews and others—should be strenuously prosecuted. Surely, Canada is not a democracy if it allows antisemitic hate behavior to become normalized in direct opposition to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms under the Canadian Constitution.

A democracy is defined by its equal treatment of all its citizens under the rule of law; O’ Canada, does it no longer stand on guard for all?

Jewish News Syndicate