Canada’s top race relations official says he cannot promise Jewish Canadians will be safe as attacks on synagogues and schools grow more frequent, admitting any reassurance is based on “hope” rather than certainty.Blacklock's Reporter says Mohammed Hashim, CEO of the taxpayer-funded Canadian Race Relations Foundation, told the Senate human rights committee that criminals targeting Jewish institutions are deliberately sending a message meant to intimidate the community. “All these incidents across the country are to send a message, that Jews cannot be safe here,” he said.Hashim said Jewish schools and synagogues have been hit repeatedly. Toronto’s Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue, he noted, has been vandalized 10 times despite cameras, reinforced windows and fencing. A Toronto day school, Bais Chaya Mushka, was shot at on three separate occasions..“To every Jewish Canadian who feels unsafe or alone, who fears they need to be hidden, I want to say Canada will always be a place of safety for you,” Hashim told senators. Sen. Marilou McPhedran pressed him on how he could make such a promise. “Hope,” he replied. “No one knows what the future is going to hold.”Hashim conceded that guaranteeing safety is “a difficult aspiration,” but said holding on to that hope is essential to keep Canadians united around shared values.Statistics Canada officials also confirmed the scale of the problem. .Jews make up just 1% of the population yet remain the leading target of hate crimes nationwide. From 2018 to 2024, police-reported hate crimes targeting religion climbed from 657 to 1,324, a spike of 101%. But that only captures a fraction of the problem.Gayatri Jayaraman, director general of StatsCan’s justice statistics branch, said most hate crimes never enter police records. A 2019 General Social Survey found only 1 in 5 hate-motivated crimes were reported, leaving the true number unknown.“Only 1 in 5 hate crimes is reported to police?” asked Sen. Mary Coyle. Jayaraman said new data is being collected and preliminary results are expected next year.
