Antisemitic incidents, including those of a violent nature, increased to unprecedented levels across Canada in 2023, according to B’nai Brith Canada’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. B’nai Brith Canada Director of Research and Advocacy Richard Robertson said the incidents and numbers cited in the audit “should concern all decent Canadians.”“Antisemitism is not only a blight on Jewish people,” said Robertson in a press release. “It is an attack on Canadian values and a threat to our multicultural, diverse society.”B’nai Brith Canada said reported antisemitic incidents rose by 109.1% from 2022 to 2023. It added the total number of antisemitic incidents in Canada in 2023 was 5,791 incidents. The total number surpassed 2021’s statistics, which was the highest on record. At the time, B’nai Brith Canada recorded 2,799 incidents, although it decreased to 2,769 in 2022. The jurisdiction with the most antisemitic incidents was Ontario at 2,401 incidents. After Ontario was Canada-wide through online harassment (1,581). This was followed by Quebec (523), British Columbia (465), and Alberta (352). Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut recorded zero incidents. Some notable examples it cited from 2023 were a synagogue and Jewish community centre being firebombed in Montreal, a man hollering antisemitic profanities and throwing eggs at a Jewish community centre in Calgary, and a Jewish student in Langley, BC, being assaulted by classmates while being taunted with antisemitic epithets. Beyond the numbers, it said the audit captured other alarming trends. For instance, there was a massive increase in 2023 of the prevalence of antisemitic incidents on university campuses. A group of five Liberal MPs asked 25 Canadian university presidents to commit to creating safe environments for Jewish students on their campuses in December. READ MORE: Liberal MPs call for Canadian university presidents to address campus antisemitism“We have heard from students who say they are being harassed by fellow students, are being subjected to hostile environments in some classrooms, and are being forced to walk through protestors on campus who are calling for the elimination of the world’s only majority Jewish state,” said the Liberal MPs. “We have heard from students who are at universities where the student association and other groups funded and recognized by the university are hostile environments for Jewish students and where student newspapers are refusing to run articles from contributors that support Israel.”.B’nai Brith Canada went on to say other forces contributing to antisemitism included radical communist and socialist groups, who took antisemitic positions under the guise of anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism. It said another trend was the increased use of artificial intelligence to create antisemitic propaganda and materials.Another concerning development was the influence of foreign state and non-state actors of antisemitism in Canada. One example of this was the celebration of Al-Quds Day.Robertson urged people “to think seriously about what this spike in antisemitic incidents says about the direction in which our society is heading.”Several factors contributed to the number of incidents, although many of them occurred in the early months of the Israel-Hamas War. Antisemitism escalated across Canada after the Israel-Hamas War began in October upon terrorists abducting Israelis and raping and murdering about 1,200 of them in the world’s worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. However, B’nai Brith Canada had observed an upward trend in the months before the Hamas attacks. Many earlier examples could be attributed to the fallout from Ukrainian Nazi veteran Yaroslav Hunka being honoured in the House of Commons. “An unprecedented wave of antisemitism plagued Canada’s Jewish community in 2023,” said Robertson.
