WINNIPEG – For the third consecutive year, records were set in 2018 for antisemitism in Canada.
The 2018 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, produced by B’nai Brith Canada’s advocacy arm, the League for Human Rights, recorded 2,041 incidents of antisemitism, a 16.5 per cent increase over the previous year.
Incidents of antisemitism included:
- Two Saskatchewan elementary school students being harassed and beaten by their peers.
- A Winnipeg high school student being mocked for her “Jewish nose” and for her relatives dying in the Holocaust.
- A Jewish community centre in Winnipeg receiving a flyer that says “Death to the Jewish Parasite.”
- A Manitoba woman receiving death threats by an anonymous caller.
- Antisemitic pamphlets claiming “99% of the 1% is Jewish” distributed around Alberta.
While the majority of incidents took place in Ontario and Quebec, there was a significant uptick in the provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan as well as parts of Atlantic Canada.
Manitoba and Saskatchewan experienced the largest relative growth in antisemitism in 2018, with a massive 142.6 per cent increase over the previous year.
Vandalism and violence continued to target members of Canada’s Jewish community in 2018, but harassment was the most dominant form of antisemitic expression, with a 28.4 per cent increase compared with 2017 – representing a 61.5 per cent increase since 2015.
“We are experiencing a disturbing new normal when it comes to antisemitism in this country, with expressions of anti-Jewish hatred surfacing in regions that are typically less prone to such prejudices,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada.
“Of particular concern is the rise of antisemitic harassment on social media, including death threats, threats of violence and malicious anti-Jewish comments and rhetoric.
“The massacre of Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, just days before a Montreal man threatened online to ‘kill Jewish girls,’ shows us that some individuals sadly make good on their threats. We must always be vigilant against all forms of hatred, which is why B’nai Brith is urging government officials to incorporate the steps outlined in our Eight-Point Plan to Tackle Antisemitism,” Mostyn said.
The plan includes increasing resources for hate-crime units with police forces, a no-tolerance approach to public funding of anti-Jewish events, provincial government action against antisemitism on campus and the adoption of a national-action plan for antisemitism.
Now in its 37th year, the Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which tracks and monitors trends in antisemitic hatred, is the authoritative document on anti-Jewish bigotry in Canada, cited regularly by law enforcement agencies, government bodies and human rights agencies around the world.
