Deborah Lyons, Irwin Cotler and Noah Lew
Globe and Mail, Nov. 11, 2024
“Canadians of conscience – which we believe most Canadians are – see this surging hate and are eager to be part of the solution, but don’t always have the tools to do so.”
By now, many Canadians are aware of the epidemic of antisemitism spreading across our country, and indeed, around the world. The violent antisemitic pogrom in Amsterdam last week – echoing the Kristallnacht pogrom that preceded the Holocaust – is merely the latest terrifying iteration of the explosion of global antisemitism.
Even before the Oct. 7 atrocities unleashed this global tsunami of anti-Jewish hate, here in Canada antisemitism was at the highest levels in recent history.
In the words of the late prime minister Brian Mulroney, “In the wake of the Holocaust … firewalls were thrown up, and the bonfires of antisemitism were for a time reduced to flickering embers. But those firewalls, weakened by the passage of time and willful neglect, have been breached. Cloaked in the armour of free speech, fuelled by hate and stoked by the oxygen of the internet and social media, those fires now burn out of control.”
Since last October, Canadian Jews have been subjected to antisemitic incidents across the country – the attempted eviction of a Jewish student organization in Vancouver; vandalism of the Calgary Jewish Community Centre; antisemitic graffiti and posters in Winnipeg; bomb threats at Jewish schools and antisemitic bullying at public schools in Toronto; the glorification of the murder of Jews in the streets of Ottawa; the shooting of Jewish schools and firebombing of a Jewish community centre in Montreal; and the vandalism of a synagogue in Fredericton – to name only a few examples. And while people may be tired of hearing about antisemitism, we promise you, the Jewish community is far more tired of experiencing it.
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