OP-ED: Canada must act forcefully against surging antisemitism
Lawyer Sergio R. Karas writes, "Canada’s justice system has often faltered when faced with anti-Jewish hate."
By: Sergio R. Karas
Sergio R. Karas, principal of Karas Immigration Law Professional Corporation, is a certified specialist in Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Law by the Law Society of Ontario. He is Division Chair of the ABA International Law Section, past chair of the Ontario Bar Association Citizenship and Immigration Section, past chair of the International Bar Association Immigration and Nationality Committee, and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He can be reached at karas@karas.ca
For the third time in a week, a Toronto-area synagogue was struck by gunfire earlier this month. In fact, over just five days three different synagogues in the city were peppered with bullets – a shocking series of attacks that, by sheer luck, caused no injuries. These brazen incidents have left Canadian Jews shaken and asking a pointed question: Why has rising antisemitic violence been met with such a weak law enforcement response? Jewish leaders warn that a surge of anti-Jewish hate is gripping Canada, emboldened by scant consequences for the perpetrators.
Recent attacks on Jewish sites have grown more frequent – and more violent. In late 2024, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal was firebombed for the second time in a year. (The first attack, in November 2023, had similarly targeted the same synagogue.) In Toronto, the Bais Chaya Mushka Jewish girls’ school was shot at on three separate occasions in 2024, shattering windows and nerves alike. A suspect was eventually arrested after one of those shootings, yet even that did not stop the next attack. Elsewhere, in Halifax and Victoria, synagogue buildings were defaced last year with antisemitic graffiti and even explicit death threats (“Jews did 9/11” was scrawled on one Halifax shul). What used to be mostly harassment, or vandalism, has escalated into actual attempts to inflict harm – by arson, by bullets, by targeted intimidation at houses of worship.
This rash of incidents is part of a broader spike in antisemitism across Canada. B’nai Brith Canada tallied 6,219 anti-Jewish incidents in 2024, the most ever recorded (up 7.4% from 2023 and 124% higher than 2022). That’s roughly 17 antisemitic acts every single day. Official police statistics likewise show an alarming rise: 920 hate crimes targeting Jews were reported to police in 2024, nearly double the annual totals seen before the Israel–Hamas war in late 2023. To put this in perspective, Jews make up less than 1% of Canada’s population yet accounted for 18.8% of all reported hate crimes nationwide last year. In fact, about 68% of religiously motivated hate offenses in Canada in 2024 targeted the Jewish community – a wildly disproportionate share. Antisemitism, by the numbers, is not just rising; it’s hitting record levels, and Canadian Jews are experiencing threats at a per-capita rate virtually unmatched in the Western world.
Canadian officials do routinely denounce these attacks. In the wake of the Toronto synagogue shootings, leaders from the Prime Minister to local mayors insisted that “antisemitism has no place” in Canada. The federal government even rushed out a pledge of $10 million for synagogue security upgrades after the gunfire incidents. But for many in the Jewish community, such gestures are too little, too late. Words of solidarity are cold comfort when houses of worship are being shot and firebombed, and yet perpetrators face scant consequences. “Not enough has been done over the last two years to prevent us from getting to this place,” warned Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), following the third Toronto attack. Shack and others trace today’s violence directly to earlier instances of unchecked hate – from small rallies openly calling for violence against Jews to protest mobs that moved into Jewish neighborhoods and began menacing synagogues and schools. Each time authorities looked the other way or responded meekly, it only emboldened the next, more brazen incident.
Indeed, Canada’s justice system has often faltered when faced with anti-Jewish hate. A notorious example is the case of the “Indigo 11.” In November 2023, at the height of the Israel–Hamas conflict, a group of protesters vandalized a downtown Toronto bookstore owned by a Jewish business leader, smearing it with red paint and plastering the windows with the owner’s face labeled “funding genocide”. Police arrested 11 suspects and charged them with hate-related mischief and harassment. Yet not a single one was convicted. Over the next year, prosecutors withdrew charges for most of the group, and those who admitted guilt received absolute discharges – no conviction, no jail time, no criminal record. “Draconian leniency” like this, as one Canadian Jewish outlet described it, sends a dangerous message that hate will go unpunished.
This pattern of hesitation and light-touch enforcement extends beyond a single case. Since late 2023, there have been regular anti-Israel protests in Canada where demonstrators harass Jewish communities – even gathering outside synagogues to shout intimidating slogans. Yet few arrests and even fewer prosecutions have resulted, as officials often treat such incidents as protected political speech. In some cities, police have literally escorted anti-Israel rallies through Jewish neighborhoods rather than preventing harassment. On paper, Canada has laws against promoting hate and intimidating communities, but in practice, enforcement has been inconsistent at best. Canada’s leaders have often responded with tepid outrage or excuses when bold action was needed.
The result is a climate where Jewish Canadians increasingly feel abandoned and at risk. Community leaders are demanding an end to complacency. They want a nationwide strategy to combat antisemitism – from beefed-up security funding to tougher laws against extremist incitement. Above all, they want action.
For now, Jewish Canadians are living on edge, watching vandals and gunmen target their most sacred spaces while leaders respond largely with words. This cannot continue. Antisemitism thrives when it is met with weakness. The terrifying surge of anti-Jewish violence in Canada will only be reversed when government and law enforcement decisively rein in the hate – by aggressively prosecuting offenders, bolstering protection for Jewish institutions, and refusing to allow any public space for those who incite violence. As one community advocate put it after the recent synagogue shootings, “the time for action is now”. Canadian officials must back up their vows of “never again” with concrete deeds, before a tragedy forces their hand. Every day of inaction simply reinforces the dangerous notion that in Canada, you can attack Jews and get away with it – and that is a status quo no democracy should ever accept.
These Jewish groups also supported Bill C-9 and urged it's passage; the opposite of CPC, and criminalizing parts of the bible. Yet here they want my support.