Mark Carney’s antisemitism announcement sparks mixed reactions from Jewish Canadians

Canada’s Jewish community is reacting this week to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s announcement of a series of measures aimed at combatting antisemitism, and many are hoping for more.

The plan, which was revealed on Monday, at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, includes the creation of a new Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. It will be made up of community leaders and academic experts who will take on the responsibilities previously held by the Office of the Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia and the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. Carney has directed the council to begin its work by focusing on antisemitism.

Broadview contacted several Canadian Jewish organizations and Jewish community leaders for their responses. Here’s what they had to say, based on official statements and interviews requested by Broadview.

You may unsubscribe from any of our newsletters at any time.

Simon Wolle, Chief Executive Officer, B’nai Brith Canada:

“This was an opportunity for the Prime Minister to meet the moment. Instead, Canadians heard a speech that described the problem more than it confronted it. The Jewish community did not require another acknowledgment that antisemitism is raging across the country, we needed a plan proportional to the scale of the crisis. Canada is not facing an antisemitism awareness problem. Canada has an antisemitism problem. The country has been poisoned with Jew hatred, and we need a remedy.

Freedom is not a suicide pact; we cannot tolerate intolerance. Canadian liberties were never intended to protect intimidation, harassment, violence, the glorification of terrorism or the targeting of communities because of who they are. The defense of freedom requires the defense of the values that make freedom possible.

The Government must also address the ideological and organizational infrastructure driving radicalization and hatred.

We cannot continue cutting the branches while ignoring the roots. The head of the snake must be addressed. Any serious effort to combat antisemitism must include confronting the extremist movements, networks, financiers, and organizations across the ideological spectrum that spread hatred, glorify terrorism, and radicalize individuals against Jews and against Canadian values.”

Maytal Kowalski, Executive Director, JSpace Canada:

“The rise of conspiracism, extremism and polarization poses a threat not only to Jewish communities, but also to the democratic values that underpin Canadian society: freedom of expression, tolerance, pluralism and mutual respect. These trends erode trust, weaken social cohesion and make it more difficult to address the legitimate concerns of any community.

This is also where the Prime Minister’s discussion of particularism and universalism was especially important. He correctly noted that acknowledging other forms of hatred is not an exercise in false equivalence. Rather, it is a recognition that many of the same forces driving antisemitism are also contributing to rising levels of hatred and intolerance more broadly. If we fail to address those underlying drivers, we will struggle not only to combat antisemitism effectively, but also to build a safer and more cohesive Canada for everyone.

We acknowledge that members of our community are rightfully scared, concerned and in need of immediate safety and protection. At the same time, if we want to address the cause rather than merely the symptom, we must confront the deeper resurgence of hate, conspiracism and polarization in Canada. We appreciate the Prime Minister’s address and his willingness to engage these difficult realities. Much as we argue in our discussions about Israel, to love a country is to work toward its best self. As the Prime Minister noted, we must work to build ‘the country we aspire to be.’”

More on Broadview:

Corey Balsam, National Co-ordinator, Independent Jewish Voices:

“IJV is highly critical of the government’s approach to fighting antisemitism, which has relied on the widely-discredited International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism that conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.

Using IHRA has contributed to proposed legislation, like Bill C9, that risks criminalizing supporters of Palestinian human rights protesting Israeli war crimes, including Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Seeing recent acts of antisemitism in Canada has been deeply disturbing, and have justifiably led to greater fear in our community for the safety of ourselves, our places of worship, and our friends and family. The answer to these incidents is not more and more policing, which disproportionately harms racialized people, including Jews of colour, who may be subjected to heightened scrutiny and profiling. The answer is certainly not, as some Toronto clergy have suggested in their response to Carney’s speech, muting government criticism of Israel because of an imaginary correlation with Canadian foreign policy and domestic antisemitism.

As a form of racism, antisemitism must be confronted as part of a coherent and interconnected struggle against racism, discrimination, and oppression in all their forms, including anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.”

Cantor Rachael Littman, Temple Har Zion, Toronto:

“As a cantor, I was particularly struck by the Prime Minister’s choice of the word ‘covenant.’ Covenant is a deeply Jewish concept. It speaks to the responsibilities we have toward one another and to the kind of society we aspire to build together.

For many Jewish Canadians, the rise in antisemitism has not been an abstract issue. It has been experienced in our schools, synagogues, campuses and community spaces. Hearing the Prime Minister acknowledge that reality matters. Naming a problem is an important first step, and the announcement of an advisory committee on rights equality and inclusion is a positive next step.

At the same time, a covenant is only meaningful if it is lived out in action. My hope is that this moment will lead not only to stronger protections for Jewish Canadians, but also to a renewed commitment to the dignity, safety and belonging of all Canadians. The strength of a society is measured not by how it treats those who feel secure, but by how it responds when any community feels vulnerable.”

Jordy Cummings, cultural critic, educator and writer, Toronto:

“Two things stick out to me…. The first is that, to his credit, [Carney] stuck to the main point: the scourge of antisemitism. He situated antisemitism as not something unique, but as part of the broad history of Canadian settler-colonial racism, even if that’s not the kind of language that he used. He did not indulge the increasingly discredited right-wing old-guard leadership of legacy Jewish institutions, who have been calling for repression of the type we see south of the border. Hearing Carney’s speech, I did not see, for example, him opening up the door to a situation that would be akin to the likes of using state power to, for example, deport activists or attempt to impose curricula on universities.

For this reason, I felt that his one-line reference to the IHRA definition of antisemitism stuck out. The IHRA definition of antisemitism does not distinguish between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and hence would tar millions of people, and a growing number of Jewish people, as antisemitic. And it would open up the door to precisely the kind of repression and censorship that we must guard against.

Secondly, seeing that my uncle, Marc Gold, was appointed is intriguing. Marc [has led] Jewish institutions, including Jewish Federations of Canada and the Canada Israel Committee. With this being said, I don’t think I am going out on a limb in making a point that he is no fan of the current government and its conduct in Gaza and beyond. In general, Marc and I do not see eye to eye on Palestine, but we respect one another, and he is a genuine, principled liberal. … I do hope that Marc works to ensure that antisemitism is combatted without censoring dissident voices and with respect for our long Jewish tradition of anti-Zionism.”

***
James Adair is an intern at Broadview.