A five-year coordinated campaign targeting Jewish civic life in Canada has been uncovered, according to a new dossier by advocacy group Unapologetically Jewish.
The group disclosed its findings Wednesday at a Parliamentary Press Gallery news conference in Ottawa.
The group says its investigation uncovered coordinated campaigns against Jewish institutions involving Just Peace Advocates and other organizations. It also examined shared leadership structures and funding relationships among the groups, including Al-Haq, Nonviolence International, the United Church of Canada, and the Vote Palestine Campaign.
In an interview with Juno News, founder Matthew Taub said he wanted to find out who was behind repeated campaigns against Jewish life.
“We started looking at organizations, Canada Revenue Agency complaints, funding, government relationships and how these groups work together,” Taub told Juno News. “Seven months later, we had accumulated an enormous amount of material.”
The dossier documents show sustained and coordinated efforts to file regulatory complaints against Jewish and Zionist charities as part of public campaigns to revoke their charitable status, according to Taub.
His group says more than two dozen audits involving Jewish charities remain ongoing, but Taub says it’s not clear why the audits were launched in the first place.
“That’s exactly the point,” he said. “I want to know why.”
The concern, he said, is whether organized campaigns to flood the Canada Revenue Agency with complaints can influence how government resources are directed.
“People are allowed to criticize Israel. They’re allowed to criticize Jewish organizations. They’re allowed to file complaints with the Canada Revenue Agency,” Taub said. “My concern is what happens when those complaints get inside government.”
“I don’t want the Canada Revenue Agency protecting charities,” he said. “I want the Canada Revenue Agency treating all charities exactly the same as everybody else.”
Taub said his dossier outlines how activist campaigns have left Jewish organizations facing uncertainty and legal costs to defend themselves, even before any decision is made on their charitable status.
“Schools, charities, synagogues, community groups… They’ve spent the last few years under enormous pressure,” he said.
He argued that targeting a Toronto Jewish school, synagogue, or charity supporting an Israeli hospital does not affect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israel Defense Forces, but it does affect Canadian Jewish life.
Taub said his findings should concern all Canadians, regardless of their views on Israel.
“If organized political groups can use complaints, lobbying, and public pressure to influence which Canadian organizations receive government scrutiny, would you be comfortable with that?” he asked.
“What if tomorrow it’s your church? An environmental charity? A women’s organization? A political cause you support?”
Unapologetically Jewish is calling for parliamentary committees to examine how complaints against charities are assessed, how audits are initiated and whether safeguards exist to prevent regulators from being used as political weapons.
Taub isn’t making criminal allegations, though. He said he is forwarding the dossier to authorities as further investigation is warranted. His organization is examining funding from the United States and working with American lawmakers, he said.
Unapologetically Jewish is sending the dossier to law enforcement and other authorities where it believes investigation is warranted. “We’re not going to play prosecutor,” he said. “We’re going to give the evidence to the people whose job it is to investigate it.”
“We’re opening with Just Peace Advocates because that’s where we’re ready to put information into the public domain,” Taub said. “But they’re not the end of the investigation. They’re the beginning.”
The material provided does not establish that the Canada Revenue Agency improperly initiated audits or revoked charitable status because of activist pressure. The dossier acknowledges that the revocations it discusses resulted from the agency’s own audits.
The supporting documents are expected to be published later this week.