Antisemitic incidents rose in Canada last year — and after Oct. 7: B’nai Brith

Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada Director of Research and Advocacy, holds up an Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in Canada as B’nai Brith Canada and the League for Human Rights and members of Parliament hold a press conference in Ottawa on Monday, May 6, 2024, to divulge details and data about the prevalence of antisemitism in Canada.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada more than doubled in 2023 compared with the year prior, according to an annual audit performed by Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith Canada.

In the audit, the group logged 5,791 incidents that meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This represents a 109 per cent increase over 2022, when there were 2,769 incidents.

“The absolute number and the increasing number of antisemitic incidents in 2023 are astonishing,” B’nai Brith legal counsel David Matas said at an Ottawa press conference.

“Whatever one thinks of the Israeli responses to (the Hamas) terrorist attacks, Jews in Canada have had nothing to do with them. To attack Jews in Canada for these responses is straight bigotry.”

The bulk of the reported incidents — 4,847 — took place online in the form of harassment. B’nai Brith links much of the increase in online antisemitism to the proliferation of images and videos created with artificial intelligence.

For offline incidents, B’nai Brith says it tracked 77 reports of physical violence compared with 25 the year prior. In-person harassment and vandalism – ranging from instances of graffiti to arson – all saw increases over 2022 at 405 and 462 incidents reported, respectively.

According to B’nai Brith, in-person harassment is up 42 per cent and vandalism saw a 14 per cent increase.

All of these real-world incidents reported through the audit saw significant increases after October, following the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has been the focus of rallies and protests in the months since.

For example, the report noted, a Montreal Jewish school was shot at twice in November and two Jewish institutions in the same city were firebombed.

“The result of the aggressive rise in antisemitism is that Jews from coast to coast, after being subjected to dehumanizing levels of hate over the course of the previous year, have been left feeling ostracized and abandoned,” Robert Richardson, B’nai Brith director of research and advocacy, said.

This goes in line with data collected by Statistics Canada in its annual look at police-reported hate crimes. Since 2019, Jews have been the most targeted religious group based on police data, with 502 incidents in 2022.

Muslims are the second most targeted group, with 108 police-reported hate crimes in 2022. According to a November 2023 Senate report on Islamophobia, an additional 1,723 crimes were motivated by racial or ethnic hatred involving Muslim people in 2021.

The B’nai Brith audit uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism when logging incidents. This broad definition includes elements like calling for the harm or death of Jews, denying or downplaying the Holocaust, holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the Israeli state and claiming the existence of Israel is a racist endeavour.

To gather figures for its audit, B’nai Brith gathers information on police-reported incidents collected from 29 contacted police agencies in Canada, and reports submitted through their online platforms and anti-hate hotline.

B’nai Brith tracked fluctuating reports of online hate, with June being the most active month last year.

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“It’s definitely a problem. One of the causes of this acceleration of antisemitism. But we have to realize artificial intelligence … like a lot of technology, is both a benefit and a harm,” Matas said.

“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.”

Artificial intelligence can create content rapidly and cheaply, and has been increasingly identified by security officials as a growing challenge when it comes to tackling misinformation and online hate.

Matas said he would like to see the Liberals’ Online Harms Act adopted “with improvements” as soon as possible. He added that B’nai Brith will be making submissions to the government on what they would like to see in the bill.

Broadly, the Online Harms Act looks to create an internet complaint mechanism, bring in steep penalties for hate crimes and protect children from potentially harmful content.

Video: Justice Minister says online harms bill is not ‘about insults launched from a smartphone’

Ontario Liberal MP Marco Mendicino appeared alongside B’nai Brith and said the Online Harms Act isn’t the only tool that should be looked at to address virtual antisemitism.

“I think that it is equally important, if not more important, to ensure that we are educating young Canadians about the Holocaust and what antisemitism looks like today in the 21st century,” he said.

Meanwhile, deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman, who is Jewish, argued the bill is not the appropriate mechanism.

“We are not going to solve this by criminalizing speech, particularly having a government decide what you can say and see on the internet,” Lantsman said.

“Where the focus needs to be after this report must be in making sure that the physical security of institutions, of synagogues, of schools, of businesses, of people in the streets, who find themselves in the middle of vile, hateful demonstrations are kept safe. We do not have a law problem in this country. We have an enforcement problem.”