Prime Minister Mark Carney has been under pressure from opposition Conservatives and establishment Jewish leaders to do something big to “stop antisemitism.”  Ten days ago at a Toronto synagogue, he received a standing ovation after acknowledging the “pain” of antisemitism the Jewish community had endured of late. By antisemitism, we know that includes any criticism of Israel – that point has been absolutely driven home by now as municipalities, provinces, cities and institutions across Canada adopted the IHRA’s (International Holocaust  Remembrance Alliance) “working definition of antisemitism”.  You can read the criticism of the IHRA, in No-IHRA, including that it dishonestly conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel, and labels as antisemitic any speech the Palestinians wish to speak about their history of displacement, murder and starvation at the hands of Israel.  

But Carney’s statement at the synagogue did not win favour with Canada’s Jewish establishment organizations. Almost as Carney was speaking, their condemnations came in. Holy Blossom Temple’s senior rabbi Yael Splansky said: 

“When Canadian elected leaders publicly condemn Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, Jewish Canadians pay the price … or flee Canada altogether in search of a place where we and our children can be safe, understood and accepted as Jews, and as lovers of Israel.”

In Toronto and throughout much of Canada, a dozen synagogues or schools have been vandalized since Oct 7 2023.  

That is reprehensible.  However, a check on Toronto’s Muslim community  reveals anti-Muslim attacks and damage to mosques  have also gone up significantly since 2023.  In addition there are complaints of terrible physical and personal attacks on Muslim people on transit, on streets and in public buildings and  at work places. 

Who has the ear of the Police?

Jewish-Canadians regularly contact B’nai Brith and the police to report suspected antisemitism because they trust they will get a fair hearing and some action, and they do.  No one is exactly sure of the figures for the Muslim community but overall Muslims do not complain as readily.  Sometimes Muslims, often racialized, have  problems trusting the police or the RCMP (read this) and they are reluctant to make demands on the authorities or attract their attention.  This is likely because they have heard about or encountered prejudice by police and institutions due to Islamophobia.  

But in Toronto, the police were “all over” last Sunday’s annual Walk for Israel.  No worries for the 55,000 Jewish marchers and their friends because there were not only hundreds of uniformed Metro police on duty – both regular and those hired as extra security by the march organizers, but the chief of police Myron Demkiw himself was present.  Despite the two and a half years of  genocide perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians, resulting in 100,000 dead including tens of thousands of children, the chief wanted to support Toronto’s Jews who wholeheartedly approve of (or at least do not speak out against) the slaughter. Chief Demkiw  has attended the march for three years in a row. 

Unsurprisingly, Jewish Canadians on the annual Walk for Israel displayed both their belief in the righteousness of any action taken by Israel, and the total defence of Israel’s military might to crush Palestinians– overwhelmingly civilians. “Might is right” is the watchword of the Walk for Israel. The march allowed the Israel-supporters to hurl insults and slag off protesters, who gathered to call out Israel’s genocide,  calling them Nazis and worse.  Watch this clip of an older grey haired man walking, “I fucked your sister. Nice pussy.” Just behind him is likely his daughter and grandson.  

“I fucked your sister. Nice pussy.” Wholesome family fun always at the annual @UJAFederation Walk With Israel in #Toronto. We are supposed to believe these people feel threatened, as they go around yelling such depravities in front of their own children. https://t.co/f6oenONg9D pic.twitter.com/Bhzg1RFBvj

— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) June 7, 2026

If the organizers of the march were happy Chief Demkiw attended, they were furious that Toronto’s mayor, Olivia Chow did not.  For the politically centre-left mayor of Canada’s biggest city, marching for Israel seemed to stick in her craw.  This was not the first time Chow has attracted the wrath of Toronto’s Jews.  

As one person wrote on X, “There has never been a war in history in which 80% of the country has been destroyed, 100% of the population displaced, and 50% of the deaths are children. Call it what it is: GENOCIDE.”

When Toronto’s mayor did not attend events for Israel…

In Oct 2024, on the first year anniversary of Oct 7, Chow did not attend  the memorial event organized by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.  The Jewish establishment did not accept her excuses, and complained she did not “consistently” support the Jews.  When she finally did apologize for missing the memorial vigil, the Jewish community circulated an online petition that received more than 12,000 signatures that demanded Chow resign for “neglecting the Jewish community.” 

A month later, at the “Interfaith Summit on Antisemitism and Hate,” at Toronto’s city hall, when mayor Chow spoke, she was  

“interrupted several times by people in attendance who said the city is failing to act to adequately protect the safety of its Jewish community.”

A man asked what Chow was doing to stop antisemitism.  He yelled at Chow, “We’re here because you’re not doing anything.  My kids are suffering.” 

All hell broke loose when Toronto’s Mayor Chow said the word ‘genocide’

A year later in Nov. 2025, the Canadian Jewish News headlined, “Jewish groups blast Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s ‘genocide in Gaza’ remarks” after Mayor Chow dared to say the word genocide at an event held by the NCCM (National Council of Canadian Muslims).  She said,

“The genocide in Gaza impact[s] us all. … I will speak out anywhere when children anywhere are feeling the pain and violence and hunger.” 

Even though Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’Tselem, the well-respected Israeli human rights group, call the mass slaughter of Palestinians a “genocide”, in this twisted logic using that word is antisemitic.

CIJA (the Centre for Israel-Jewish Affairs), the establishment Jewish community’s main voice, plus B’nai Brith and right-wing Tafsik demanded an official investigation by the city’s integrity commissioner.  CIJA’s CEO noted, Chow’s comments were “reckless, divisive, and dangerous” in a statement and video post.

Do Jewish people’s feelings count more than others?

But isn’t that just the way of the establishment Jewish Troika – including CIJA, B’nai Brith and Simon Wiesenthal Centre?   Deep within this activity is embedded the toxic notion that the feelings of Jewish-Canadians count more than the deaths of families of other groups.

“We need to separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza, we are being too considerate.”

Nissim Vaturi, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli parliament, Member of Netanyahu’s Likud party; read more here

And how convenient it is to include under the rubric of “antisemitism” any condemnation of Israel’s rampages. Now in their desperation to not just conflate but cement criticism of Israel to antisemitism. The Jewish pro-Israel campaign silences and will not allow words such as Palestine, and Palestinians. Gaza and the West Bank must also be edited out of speeches, talks and even displays.

For example take the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.  At the end of June, a new exhibit, Palestine Uprooted:  The Nakba Past and Present, will open.  There has been a call for such a commemoration since the Museum was in its planning stages twenty-five years ago.  As Ramsey Zeid, the president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba and the descendant of Nakba survivors notes, 

“This project has been in development for nearly four years and will present the story of the Nakba. It is an exhibit created for Palestinians, centring Palestinian narratives with the goal of educating the broader public.”

But CIJA and other Troika members have tried to block or at least derail the exhibition many times —though it is set to open on June 27.   

A Tel Aviv-based lobbying group Shurat HaDin (meaning: the strict letter of the law) has threatened to take legal action against the exhibit; it shows the mass displacement, murders and dispossession suffered by the Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba and beyond. Shurat HaDin announced on May 15 that it had sent a legal letter to the museum’s board of trustees and senior leadership (including Khan) regarding the upcoming exhibition, calling for it to be paused in order to conduct an “independent legal and scholarly review.”

On its website, Shurat HaDin describes itself in “the forefront of fighting terrorism and safeguarding Jewish rights worldwide.” 

Why is an Israeli-based lobby group trying to cancel a Canadian Museum for Human Rights exhibit?

What’s an Israeli organization doing leading the campaign against a Canadian museum’s display? Good question.  Shurat HaDin’s president writes, 

“In addition to supporting Israel’s war efforts, Shurat HaDin could not sit idly by in the face of rising Jew hatred and global antisemitism, which spread like a virus across US campuses. Amongst others, we have assisted with American counsel in bringing an impactful lawsuit against “Students for Justice in Palestine” and against Harvard University. …  the war is still raging. Rest assured, that now more than ever, we are fighting back! We are hard at work assisting the Israeli government, on a multitude of fronts, in battling the terrorists, the antisemitic haters, and those that threaten Jews globally…”

Their website and Annual Report (albeit from 2024) is really an offshoot of the Israeli Law Centre which has been dubbed a “government organized non-governmental organization.”  It has ties to Israel’s government and to its spy agency, the Mossad.  The Israeli Law Centre  is behind the ‘lawfare cases’ doing legal battle against universities, public institutions and the media in Israel and abroad that have dared to allow demonstration or even free speech about Palestine.  

A key case was Shurat HaDin’s 2011 lawsuit against former US president Jimmy Carter and publishers Simon & Schuster for releasing Carter’s bestseller, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The plaintiff contended that Carter’s “hatred of Israel has led him to commit this fraud on the public.” The Israeli agency demanded $5 million in damages, but after a lot of bad publicity, Shurat HaDin dropped the case.  

As one Australian law professor said, 

“The goal of the lawsuit isn’t to force Simon & Schuster to pay damages for publishing Carter’s book; its goal is to bully Carter and other would-be critics of Israel into not writing books like Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid in the first place.” 

And on that note – the bullying into silence that critics of Israel warned us about 15 years ago has now reached epic – and absurd – levels.  

To illustrate just how crazy the lawfare warfare has become, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) – the city’s public transportation agency is under fire from several newly formed pro-Israel ‘burner groups’ including Canadian Women Against Antisemitism and Unapologetically Jewish. The TTC’s staff jerseys to celebrate FIFA’s World Cup feature an upside down red triangle emblazoned on the jerseys’ shoulders. The National Post delicately writes – sometimes, 

“a triangle is just a geometric shape, a common design element in sports branding. In the current climate, however, that specific motif is politically loaded, say Jewish leaders.”

Burner groups absurdly claim an inverted red triangle is part of “Hamas propaganda videos” now used by university student protesters, and by vandals targeting  Jewish homes and institutions. CITE.  But the real truth here is that the Jewish establishment is warning the city and especially mayor Chow to walk on eggshells when dealing with the pro-Israel community and to silence any criticism of Israel. 

Image at the top: Toronto–Palestine supporters wait for the parade of pro-Israel marchers: Barriers were set up at major intersections along the route. (credit: Saloni Bhugra/CBC)