`WE'VE LOST OUR SENSE OF SAFETY IN CANADA'
Canada is no longer a safe place for Jews.
Hatemongers chant genocidal slogans in the streets of Canadian cities. Jewish institutions have been vandalized, firebombed and fired upon. And Jewish students and professionals are targets of vicious harassment.
“It's not OK to direct hate at Jews,” says Dr. Nili Kaplan-myrth, a prominent Jewish physician who lives and practises in Ottawa. “And yet that seems to be the one kind of aspect of racism and discrimination that the general public won't speak about it. They won't address it.
They won't stand up against it. And that's scary.”
Ottawa Police Service's Hate and Bias Crime Unit has opened an investigation into a pro-palestinian protest that took place near Parliament Hill on April 20. Video of the rally posted online showed protesters waving Palestinian flags and chanting in support of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on agricultural communities in southern Israel. The terrorists killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
In the video of the Ottawa demonstration, a protester can be heard exclaiming on a bullhorn: “Oct. 7 proves that we're almost free!” He then declared: “Long live Oct. 7!
Jaime Kirzner-roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, took to social media to condemn the rally. “No more euphemisms, they are openly promoting terrorism and violence towards Jews,” she wrote in an April post on X, formerly Twitter. “This is intolerable and it is time for Canadians to speak up.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also logged on to the microblogging site to condemn the demonstration. “There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful intimidation,” Trudeau stated in an April 21 post. “It is unconscionable to glorify the antisemitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. This rhetoric has no place in Canada. None.”
According to Deborah Lyons, Canada's special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, the video proves that “anti-israel and antisemitic rhetoric continue to escalate.” In an April 21 post on X, she declared: “Peaceful protest does not include chants supporting or celebrating terrorist massacres.”
DEFINITION STRONG
Canada is an active member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which is made up of 35 member states and eight observer countries. In 2016, the IHRA adopted this non-legally binding working definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The IHRA website enumerates numerous examples of contemporary antisemitism. “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is a metric of antisemitism. “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is another illustration of antisemitism, as is “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.” Perhaps the most extreme example of antisemitism is Holocaust denial or minimization.
The IHRA definition is part of the Government of Canada's Anti-racism Strategy.
HATE CRIMES
Hate crimes targeting Jews have risen dramatically in Canada since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. The situation seems particularly bad in Toronto, Canada's most populous city.
In a March 18, update, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw revealed that since Oct.7, officers had responded to 989 calls related to hate incidents. A news release issued by Toronto Police Service noted that the majority of hate crimes (47 out of 84 incidents) since Jan. 1 were of an antisemitc nature. “That's an 83 per cent increase in the number of hate crimes from the same period in 2023,” Jonathan Rothman of The Canadian Jewish News reported in a March 18 story.
During the pandemic, Jews who have taken leadership roles in public health advocacy have been targeted by hatemongers, Kaplan-myrth said in an April 22 telephone interview when reached by the Whig-standard in Toronto, where she was preparing to celebrate Passover.
Kaplan-myrth, who also serves as an Ottawa-carleton District School Board trustee, rose to prominence during the early days of COVID-19 for being an advocate for pandemic mitigation measures. She also organized mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics in Ottawa.
“My mother is Canadian,” said Kaplan-myrth, who was born in Israel and came to Canada as a baby. “My grandparents came here from Poland during the war as refugees, during the Holocaust,” she added.
“I grew up in downtown Toronto. I never experienced this kind of antisemitism,” Kaplan-myrth said of the harassment she has received over the past four years. For example, hatemongers have telephoned her office, calling her “a dirty Jew” and issuing death threats.
EMAILS STRONG
Lately, Kaplan-myrth has been receiving a torrent of especially threatening emails. And she shared six of the emails with the Whig-standard. The emails are too profane to be quoted verbatim in a family newspaper. Nevertheless, it is necessary to address the content of the pernicious emails so that Canadians can understand the nature of the threats that Jews endure.
For example, Kaplan-myrth, the granddaughter of both Holocaust victims and survivors, received an April 18 email with the subject line: “Zionism is evil and so are you.”
The sender writes: “You are morally equivalent — possibly morally inferior — to the Nazis who killed your grandparents.”
An email dated April 21 included a hateful Passover message that used the K-word, a racist slur that refers to Jews.
Similarly, an April 17 email used the K-word. “I find you to be a repulsive Jew,” the author adds.
On April 18, Kaplan-myrth received an email that refers to her as “a money-hungry Zionist” who “shouldn't have a voice on social media or in Canadian society.” The writer also expresses deeply disturbing, sentiments: “F--you you Zionist c---. Die in a fire you crazy hag.” In a reference to Kaplan-myrth's family members who perished in Poland during the Holocaust, the sender writes: “I hope one day you meet the same fate as your grandparents did in the camps.”
Another email, received on April 17, expresses the desire “to see people like you die and be driven into the ash heap of history.” Articulating both anti-zionist and anti-vaccine sentiments, the writer declares: “I'm glad that you are living in fear in Canada, and I hope you never feel comfortable here … Hitler was right about you `people.'”
As the Whig-standard was interviewing Kaplan-myrth, just hours before Passover, she received yet another hateful message. The email refers to her by the K-word, accusing her of committing genocide. The email concludes with this message: “F--- ISRAEL, F--PASSOVER, AND F--- YOU.”
“Unless I share these (emails) publicly, I can't explain to other people just how horrific it is,” she said. “Throughout history, being quiet about antisemitism has never ended well.”
NO LONGER SAFE IN CANADA
“I'm not going to be able to change anybody's mind who thinks that I represent the evil of the right-wing government in Israel,” said Kaplan-myrth. “We can't talk international politics or peace or anything as long as there can be people in the streets calling for death to Jews.”
The hatred directed at Canadian Jews of today compels Kaplan-myrth to reflect on the Holocaust experiences of her grandparents' generation. “It's intergenerational trauma,” she explained.
When you saw reports of the pro-oct. 7 demonstration in Ottawa, how did it make you feel?
“I felt abandoned by all of the progressive colleagues and friends and neighbours with whom I've stood on every other issue. I felt frightened that it could happen in Ottawa, and relieved that I wasn't there, because it is really scary,” she responded.
“Explain why this is any safer than it was for our grandparents. It doesn't feel like it.”
Will this year's Seder be more poignant or anxious than in previous years?
“Yeah, it will,” Kaplanmyrth said just hours before she was to take part in the Jewish ceremonial dinner marking the start of Passover. “This year we've lost our sense of safety in Canada. We've lost our sense of safety in the world.”