Is Canada becoming a hub of antisemitism?
An alarming trend of anti-Israel-related, antisemitic incidents is occurring in Canada with incidents being recorded daily.
In one of the most egregious public displays of antisemitism, Dr. Munir El-Kassem linked the recent vehicle attack that killed four members of a Muslim family in London Ontario on Sunday, June 6, to the Canadian government’s pro-Israel foreign policy.
El-Kassem was asked to give the closing remarks at a two-hour vigil held in London June 8 for the victims, an event in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated.
“Well, I don’t have to speak,” El-Kassem said vehemently after being called up to the podium. “Each and every one who is present here is a final word. You all said everything that needs to be said except one angle that I would like to share with our officials. Now there is a reason why they say that the world is a small village. Every country has a foreign policy. I just want to say that whatever is happening in Jerusalem and [Gaza] is related to whatever happens in London, Ontario. Period. Thank you.” said El-Kassem, who then walked off the stage to wild cheers from the audience.
While little information is known at present about the alleged perpetrator of the attack, according to a taxi driver who witnessed his arrest, the suspect appeared to be wearing clothing that “perhaps” had swastikas on it.
El-Kassem’s outburst was followed by another incident recorded the previous day in Toronto.
“’Homosexual, dirty Jew’ – some of the words shouted in Shoppers Drug Mart on Parliament Street just now while the cashier continued to serve her at the checkout after she refused to put on a mask offered to her. Let this be a reminder that hate is alive and well in our city,” posted Jordan Lloyd Norman Allison on Facebook.
The same day, the Jewish organization B’nai Brith announced they had uncovered a scam in which anti-Israel activists in Canada falsified the endorsements of three leading medical student organizations to statement in support of the “People of Palestine.”
B’nai B’rith said that an anonymous group using the moniker National Advocacy for Palestine claimed the statement had been drafted by the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, Ontario Medical Students Association and Black Medical Students’ Association of Canada. The group then sent the statement to student medical societies at McGill University, Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto for their endorsement.
The same group then followed up with an email to the student medical societies cautioning them not to consult their membership about the statement and urging them to “think about how many students you may have in your student bodies who identify as Zionist.”
Just days earlier, Jewish families in Toronto came home to find demolition notices taped to their front doors.
“We regret to inform you that your house is scheduled for demolition in the next three days,” the notice stated. “If you do not vacate the premise within this time frame, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings.”
Whether or not the homes had a mezuzah on the front door, it seems whoever issued the notices had intelligence that the homes were inhabited by Jewish people, reported the Toronto Sun.
One victim said it was the “first time ever for us to be targeted as Jews in Canada.”
Writing in the Toronto Star, B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said, “We are seeing, in the West, the beginning of a new phase of discrimination against Jews. Many cannot openly identify as Jews without fear of being assaulted, which is happening all too often in Europe, the United States and now Canada … We’re in the realm here not of reason, but of a quasi-religious cult of incantation.”
“The broader reality presents us with a bitter irony. While developments in the Middle East are substantially moving in the direction of peaceful reconciliation between Israel and many of its Arab neighbors (the recent conflict between Iranian-backed Hamas and Israel being an exception), the obsessive anti-Israel crowd abroad is doubling down on its determination — delusional as it may be — to see things move in the opposite direction: the imposition of discriminatory, hostile measures leading to the destruction of Israel,” he added.
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