Number of antisemitic incidents reached record high in 2023, says B'nai Brith Canada audit

In its latest annual audit, B'nai Brith Canada reports the number of antisemitic incidents in the country more than doubled from 2022 to 2023 and has now reached a record high.

"If a physical barometer did in fact exist, the reading for 2023 would be off the chart," Richard Robertson, the group's director of policy and research, said in Ottawa on Monday, which is also Holocaust Remembrance Day or Yom HaShoah.

B'nai Brith, a Jewish advo‐ cacy organization, said that between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023, it logged 5,791 incidents of antisemitism, surpassing the previous record of 2,799 reported in 2021.

WATCH: B'nai Brith says antisemitism is on the rise in Canada:

Robertson said he's par‐ ticularly troubled by the 208 per cent increase in the num‐ ber of violent incidents, with 77 such incidents recorded last year, compared with 25 in 2022.

"The systemic nature of the antisemitism has forced Canadian Jews to question the continued vitality of the nation's Jewish communi‐ ties," he said.

Robertson said that re‐ cent conflicts in Israel, first in May and June and then be‐ ginning on Oct. 7 of last year, "make it abundantly clear: when there is unrest in Israel, Jewish Canadians suffer un‐ duly."

About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led at‐ tacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and about 250 people were taken hostage, ac‐ cording to Israeli figures. More than 34,000 Palestini‐ ans in Gaza have been killed during Israel's military re‐ sponse since then, health of‐ ficials in the territory say.

Robertson said antisemi‐ tic incidents were also driven by the invitation to Parlia‐ ment of Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian Cana‐ dian who served in the Nazi SS Galizien formation during the Second World War.

Hunka was invited to sit in the gallery in September by then-House Speaker Anthony Rota to attend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelen‐ skyy's address to Parliament.

At the event, Rota intro‐ duced Hunka as a "Ukrainian hero" and a "Canadian hero," prompting a standing ovation in the House of Commons. Rota later stepped down from the Speaker's chair when Hunka's Nazi history came to light.

AI used to promote anti‐ semitism

B'nai Brith Canada said it recorded a rise in antisemitic incidents coming from across Canadian society and from a wide variety of actors, includ‐ ing figures on the far right and far left and "those acting at the behest of foreign ac‐ tors."

The incidents the group says it recorded include the firebombing of a synagogue and Jewish community centre in Montreal, eggs being thrown at a Holocaust Memorial Monument in Cal‐ gary, a Jewish student being assaulted in an antisemitic attack in B.C.'s Lower Main‐ land and a rise in antisemitic graffiti in public places involv‐ ing messages such as "Kill the Jews."

B'nai Brith also said in a media statement that artifici‐ al intelligence (AI) technology has been used to "to create antisemitic propaganda and materials."

David Matas, B'nai Brith's chief legal counsel, said his organization would be mak‐ ing submissions to Parlia‐ ment regarding the forth‐ coming online harms bill. He said the proposed legislation needs to be strengthened to combat the threat posed by AI.

"Artificial intelligence, like a lot of technologies, is both a benefit and a harm," Matas said Monday. "With each new technology, as we come to appreciate the benefit, we have to put in the safeguards against the harm, and we have not done that yet."

Liberal MP Marco Men‐ dicino, a member of the Canada-Israel Interparlia‐ mentary Group who atten‐ ded the press conference, defended the bill but said the fight against antisemitism must start much earlier.

"The online harms legisla‐ tion does make references to deepfakes, and this is proba‐ bly the most disconcerting aspect of artificial intelli‐ gence," he said.

Mendicino said it is "equally important, if not more important, to ensure that we are educating young Canadians about the Holo‐ caust and what antisemitism looks like today in the 21 cen‐ tury."

Conservative co-deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, who is also a member of the Canada-Israel Interparlia‐ mentary Group and was at the event to express her par‐ ty's support, dismissed the online harms legislation as a solution.

"We are not going to solve this by criminalizing speech, particularly having a govern‐ ment decide what you can say and see on the internet," she said.

"Where the focus needs to be after this report must be in making sure that the physical security of institu‐ tions, of synagogues, of schools, of businesses of people in the streets who find themselves in the middle of vile, hateful demonstra‐ tions, are kept safe."

WATCH: 'It's not right' that Jewish people feel un‐ safe in Canada, PM says

Speaking at the National Holocaust Monument in Ot‐ tawa at an event to mark Yom HaShaoh, Prime Minis‐ ter Justin Trudeau said Mon‐ day that since the Oct. 7 at‐ tack on Israel there has been a "disturbing increase in anti‐ semitism to a scale we have not witnessed for genera‐ tions."

"Windows of synagogues have been broken and shot at, Jewish stores vandalized, all of these acts, open wounds of painful chapters in our collective history," he said.

Trudeau said that those continuing to deny the Holo‐ caust or the Oct. 7 attacks are leaving Jewish Canadians feeling "isolated and unsafe in their communities."

"In a country like Canada, it should be and it must be safe to declare oneself a Zionist. Jewish or not, Zion‐ ism is not a dirty word or something anyone should be targeted for agreeing with," he said.

"It is the belief, at its sim‐ plest, that Jewish people, like all peoples, have the right to determine their own future."

WATCH | Poilievre speaks at Holocaust re‐ membrance ceremony

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who also at‐ tended the Ottawa event, said the memory of the Holo‐ caust has started to fade and antisemitic attitudes have again started to gain favour.

"We see at university cam‐ puses, the hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric directed at innocent students. We see firebomb‐ ings of Canadian syna‐ gogues; something we never would have imagined a short time ago," Poilievre said.

He said it's the responsi‐ bility of every Canadian to support the rights of Jewish people to proudly display their culture, history and reli‐ gion.

"In the last year, antisemi‐ tic attacks are up over 100 per cent," he said. "That means the Jewish people are being doubly victimized, once with the bloodshed they wit‐ nessed in their homeland of Israel, and again on the streets and in their syna‐ gogues."