Anti-Semitism on the rise in Alberta: B’nai Brith audit

Fires set outside a Jewish school, stolen Israeli flags and hate mail sent to synagogues were among 22 cases of anti-Semitism reported in Edmonton last year, according to B’nai Brith Canada.

The cases contributed to what the Jewish human rights advocacy organization said was a rise in anti- Semitism across the country in 2017.

The group’s annual audit reported 1,752 hate-related complaints nationwide, a 1.4 per cent increase from 2016.

Alberta accounted for 206 of those cases.

In Edmonton, the majority of the reports were tied to vandalism.

Three fires were set outside the Talmud Torah School in July 2017.

Police arrested two suspects, who were also believed to be responsible for a series of arsons in the Callingwood area.

In December, 14 synagogues across Canada received antiSemitic hate mail, including Edmonton’s Beth Israel Synagogue and Temple Beth Ora. The flyer depicted a bleeding Star of David with a swastika drawn over it and it originated out of southern Alberta.

The anti-Semitism audit has been conducted every year since 1982, and 2016 and 2017 were both record-breaking years.

To put the Canadian 2017 total in perspective, the United States has a total population nearly nine times larger and a Jewish population 14 times larger than Canada, yet it only had 234 more cases.

The majority of Canadian cases in 2017 occurred in Quebec and Ontario, with 474 and 808 reports, respectively.

Online anti-Semitism was reported as the primary source of hate-related cases within Alberta.

Daniel Koren, spokesperson for B’nai Brith, said harassment makes up 80 per cent of its cases, and of those cases, the majority happen online.

The audit recommends the creation of hate crime units in every major city and the development of an action plan against online hate speech, among others, to slow anti-Semitic trends.