Olivia Chow opts out of antisemitism debate

2026/09/08 Leave a comment

Pattern:

…Moderator has criticized Chow

Tuesday’s debate was to be moderated by Jesse Brown, editor and founder of the Canadaland media outlet, who has publicly accused Chow of endangering the Jewish community. In a post to X in July, he wrote that she had “allowed this city to become a global capital of antisemitism,” and described her statements about not tolerating hate as “dangerous gaslighting that keeps Jews unsafe.” 

In a post after his role as moderator was announced, Brown said Chow would “be treated fairly” if she decided to take part.

Rezvany did not respond to a question about whether Brown’s participation was a factor in Chow’s decision, and the lawyers association declined to comment.

In an email, Brown told the Star that Chow’s team hadn’t asked for a different moderator, and if they had, he would step aside. “If she chooses not to attend, that’s between her and the Jewish community as a whole and it’s not something I’m willing to be scapegoated for,” he said.

“I just don’t think it’s acceptable to sit this one out,” he added.

Not unusual for candidates to skip debates

Unlike at the provincial and federal levels, there is no centralized group responsible for organizing municipal leadership debates in Toronto. Instead, individual organizations stage their own, often leading to a high number of debates each election season. It’s not unusual for candidates to turn down invitations. Chow has confirmed she will attend a Sept. 14 debate hosted by the Daily Bread Food Bank, which is also expected to include Bradford and Alexander and which the organization is billing as the first debate of the 2026 campaign.

However, Tuesday’s debate has political significance for Chow, who since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel has faced criticism from some for how she has handled local fallout from the conflict….

Source: Olivia Chow opts out of antisemitism debate

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Court orders Ottawa to release details about resettlement of Nazi war criminals in Canada

2026/09/08 Leave a comment

Long overdue:

The Federal Court has ordered the government to publish redacted portions of a report about the resettlement of Nazi war criminals in Canada through a secret CIA program after the Second World War.

The court ruling is the result of legal action by B’nai Brith. The Jewish organization had challenged Ottawa’s decision to keep secret some details of American efforts to help Nazi collaborators enter Canada, contained in a report written 40 years ago.

The cover of Alti Rodal’s report, Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The Historical and Policy Setting from the 1940s to the Present.SUPPLIED

Unless successfully appealed by the federal government, the ruling will lead to the removal of almost all the redactions in a report written by historian Alti Rodal for the 1985-86 Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, headed by former Quebec judge Jules Deschênes. The commission investigated allegations that Canada had become a safe haven for Nazi war criminals.

Most of Ms. Rodal’s report had already been made public, with further declassified details released in 2024. The Federal Court judgment, issued Tuesday, relates to a section dealing with “irregularities in resettlement of defectors and former agents.” That portion has never been fully disclosed “despite its age and historical importance,” the ruling said.

Judge Simon Fothergill wrote that his considerations had included “the importance of the historical record” and ”the passage of time” in making his decision. …

Source: Court orders Ottawa to release details about resettlement of Nazi war criminals in Canada

For a detailed overview of the history and issues, see Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The known knowns and the known unknowns in Wesley Wark’s substack.

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Trump shares Christian group’s proposal allowing Canadian Jews facing antisemitism to flee to the U.S.

2026/09/04 1 Comment

Much as he prioritized white South African “refugees” compared to other groups:

As he finds new ways to poke Canada amid an ugly trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump has amplified a Christian group’s proposal to create a legal pathway into the United States for Canadian Jews facing antisemitism.

He shared on social media a news report about a letter written by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), which urges Trump to establish an expedited method of entry into the U.S. for Jewish Canadians “who are experiencing persecution or who credibly fear for their safety because they are Jewish.”

It points to “an alarming climate of harassment, intimidation, vandalism, threats, and violence” that Jewish Canadian families have faced since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, adding that “advocates working directly with these families report that more than 2,000 Jewish Canadians have expressed interest in relocating because of growing concerns for their safety.”

The letter continues: “Accordingly, we respectfully ask that you direct the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to identify and implement lawful, secure, and appropriately expedited pathways for eligible Jewish Canadian nationals and their immediate family members who face persecution.”

“NACL founder and president Jason Rapert signed the letter, alongside state representatives and religious leaders, and it was sent to the U.S. president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and several U.S. senators and representatives on Thursday.

Trump shared a link to the report on Truth Social on Sunday evening, but did not comment on the contents.”

Source: Trump shares Christian group’s proposal allowing Canadian Jews facing antisemitism to flee to the U.S.

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Chait: The Apocalyptic Style in Woke Thinking

2026/09/03 Leave a comment

Good nuanced commentary and the need to recognize moral ambiguity:

…In an atmosphere that permits deliberation, rage may give way to reason. Liberal supporters of Israel may concede to the Free Palestine movement that Israel’s current government has no strategy other than endless use of force, that it has willingly enabled settlers to terrorize Palestinians in the West Bank, and that American policy has done too little to alter these choices. The Palestine activists might be made to acknowledge that the carnage in Gaza would not have occurred but for Hamas’s desire to murder as many Israeli Jews as possible, and that the group deliberately maximizes deaths among Palestinian civilians by embedding their fighters in schools and hospitals.

In other words, the Middle East is complicated. Bringing the moralistic fervor of Western progressives entirely onto one side of a generations-long conflict between warring religious sects claiming mutually exclusive historical and divinely granted rights to control a sliver of land is unlikely to result in peaceful coexistence.

Pro-Palestinian activists are correct to argue that American support has enabled Israel to pursue a one-state solution and to rely on military force in place of diplomacy. What they have yet to grasp is that the Western left’s inability to repudiate Hamas has had a pernicious effect on the conflict: reinforcing a co-belligerent in a cycle of violence. The American civil-rights movement is not, in fact, the proper moral lens with which to understand a terrorist group that murders not only Jewish civilians but also dissident Palestinians, and whose objective is not the right to vote and sit at lunch counters but to impose sectarian theocracy. An effective and humane Western form of activism would recognize that disregard for Palestinian well-being is a trait shared by Hamas and Israel, and would challenge both accordingly.

The American influence on this intractable conflict can be exercised more constructively. What Middle East policy cannot accomplish—what no reforms in any policy domain can accomplish—is resolving the existential angst caused by a political style that cannot tolerate moral ambiguity.

Source: The Apocalyptic Style in Woke Thinking

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Jack Jedwab: The seeds of today’s efforts to excuse antisemitism were planted 25 years ago in Durban

2026/09/01 Leave a comment

Useful historical reminder:

…That legacy is now visible everywhere. Jews are often required to prove that what they experience as antisemitism is indeed antisemitism. Expressions that would be condemned instantly if directed at other minorities are parsed endlessly when Jews are the target. The same people who insist that minorities must be trusted to define their own experience of racism suddenly demand footnotes, qualifications and geopolitical context when Jews describe hatred directed toward them.

That is one of the enduring legacies of Durban. It showed how easily anti-racism can be inverted when ideology overtakes principle. A movement that begins by defending the vulnerable can end up deciding which vulnerable people are inconvenient. A discourse built to expose hatred can become a vehicle for excusing it. A gathering convened to fight racism can, in the name of fighting racism, make room for one of its oldest forms.

Twenty-five years later, the deeper lesson arising from Durban is that universality is fragile. Anti-racism cannot survive if it becomes selective. Human rights cannot retain their force if some forms of hatred are condemned while others are rationalized because they fit a preferred political narrative….

Source: Jack Jedwab: The seeds of today’s efforts to excuse antisemitism were planted 25 years ago in Durban

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Robert Brym: Yes, anti-Zionism is antisemitic

2026/08/28 Leave a comment

Agree:

…All these findings are in line with results from a 2024 survey of 414 Canadian Jews and a 2018 survey of 2,335 Canadian who identify as Jewish by religion or ethnicity.

Members of the JFN are therefore wrong to claim that being Jewish is only a matter of religion and not a matter of statehood. Moreover, just as it is antisemitic to discriminate against Jews based on their religion, I believe it is antisemitic to erase support for the existence of a Jewish state as a core part of Jewish identify.

Some Jews are anti-Zionists. They deny the need for the existence of a Jewish state. In Canada, a 2025 survey of 332 Jewish Canadians found that one per cent of Canadian Jews at the time regarded themselves as anti-Zionists, while the most recent 2026 survey of 625 Canadian Jews cited earlier puts the number at five per cent. The proportion of Jews who deny the need for Jewish statehood is thus tiny….

It should not surprise us that the JFN has written an op-ed arguing that anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism. In the principles section of their website, they state that they oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism which was accepted by Canada in 2019. It includes non-legally binding illustrative examples of what might constitute antisemitism, including, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination.”

Notably, the JFN’s “principles” page on their website lacks any mention of the horrific attacks on October 7, and their press release page includes only two entries, one opposing the IHRA definition and one about “anti-Palestinian racism.”

Many Jewish Zionists, including me, are highly critical of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and its conduct in the Israel-Hamas war. However, for reasons I’ve indicated, I regard the small coterie of Jewish anti-Zionists as misguided.”

Robert Brym is an emeritus professor of sociology and Jewish studies at University of Toronto.

Source: Robert Brym: Yes, anti-Zionism is antisemitic

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ICYMI: Muslim Association promises ‘Jew-free’ incident will not recur at future youth events

2026/08/28 Leave a comment

Demonstrates the need for moderation…:

In June 30 submission to National Post, Sharaf Sharafeldin, president of strategy at the Muslim Association of Canada, stated that during the three-day conference that attracted thousands of Muslim-Canadians, speakers and attendees examined “faith-rooted life” in Canada. The incident involving the “jew-free” phrase occurred during a youth session and was “a public, anonymous audience-participation exercise” that produced a word cloud image, when asked what kind of community they wanted. It has since been widely circulated.

There were 50 entries visible in the word cloud, wrote Sharafeldin. But the facilitator did not notice the “jew-free” entry.

The August 12 update follows an “internal investigation” into the incident.

“MAC regrets that this phrase appeared at our Convention, even briefly and even though it originated from an anonymous, bad-faith submission with no connection to the youth or the discussion taking place in the session.” The organization did not explain what it meant by bad faith….

Source: Muslim Association promises ‘Jew-free’ incident will not recur at future youth events

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Jewish public servants face disproportionately high levels of discrimination at work, survey finds

2026/08/27 Leave a comment

Of note:

The federal public service is facing calls to combat antisemitism after Jewish civil servants reported experiencing disproportionately high levels of discrimination in the workplace.

In 2024, the annual federal employee survey tracked responses based on religion for the first time. A breakdown of the responses found that 18 per cent of Jewish civil servants reported experiencing discrimination and harassment in the workplace, including offensive remarks.

Some Jewish community leaders say the survey confirms anecdotal reports they’ve heard about rising antisemitism within the public service. 

Across the federal civil service, 9 per cent of employees who responded to the survey said they had experienced discrimination in the workplace in the preceding 12 months, with 11 per cent reporting they had faced harassment.

Thirteen per cent of Muslim public servants said they had experienced discrimination in the year preceding the survey, with 12 per cent reporting they had experienced harassment. 

Only half of civil servants responded to the survey, including approximately 67,820 Christians, 6,550 Muslims, 3,130 Hindus, 1,830 Sikhs and 1,500 Jews.

Fourteen per cent of Sikh public servants who responded said they had experienced harassment, with 13 per cent saying they had suffered discrimination, including on the basis of their race. …

Source: Jewish public servants face disproportionately high levels of discrimination at work, survey finds

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Geist: TMU Picks Damage Control Over Fixing the Damage: Behind Its Shameful Response to the Devastating Benotto Report on Campus Antisemitism

2026/08/26 Leave a comment

The contrast is telling:

…A report like this should have sparked immediate action, and it is difficult to believe that findings of this kind involving any other group would have been met with anything less. For example, in November 2020, amid mounting pressure over Egerton Ryerson’s residential schools legacy, TMU established a task force that issued its report within a year (during which time the Ryerson statue was toppled), and the Board of Governors adopted all 22 recommendations immediately (including changing the name of the university to TMU). But when the issue involves Jewish students, TMU’s response is far different. It sat on the report for nearly two weeks, released it with disciplinary findings redacted, and announced a President’s Implementation Task Force that will report back on the report in 2027. That means students arriving on campus in the next few weeks will face another year of antisemitism with the university signalling that there is no urgency to address the issue.

In fact, the task force membership leaves little doubt that the university intends to reject many of the report’s recommendations. Nearly half of the committee’s members have signed public petitions opposing some of the recommendations, including the adoption of the IHRA definition, and rejecting the report’s findings on the links between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Simply put, delaying the implementation of the Benotto report and stacking a new task force with opponents of its recommendations is precisely what you do when you don’t take the antisemitism report seriously and want to kill its recommendations. As a result, TMU is home to two problems: its antisemitism problem is now the most thoroughly documented in the country, and its leadership is more interested in damage control than fixing the damage. If the university is unable or unwilling to establish a safe environment for all of its students and faculty, it falls to the Ontario government, which already requires universities to implement policies to address and combat hate, including antisemitism, to ensure that it does.

Source: TMU Picks Damage Control Over Fixing the Damage: Behind Its Shameful Response to the Devastating Benotto Report on Campus Antisemitism

From the Globe editorial:

….As both reports show, Jews who don’t renounce Israel’s existence are treated as outcasts: “The redefinition of Zionism to incorporate genocide and the insistence that anyone who fails to actively support anti-Zionism is likewise culpable,” Ms. Benotto writes, “have contributed to an environment that has enabled antisemitism to flourish.” A Jewish lecturer says it’s “incredibly unsafe” to wear a Star of David, and even organizing a non-political Sabbath dinner requires a risk assessment, Ms. Benotto reported.

This is not about isolated episodes. It is about a poisoned environment. Our learning institutions should consistently stand up for the values they claim to represent. As Ms. Benotto documents, TMU already has policies against violence, threats of violence, and discriminatory, intimidating or harassing words and conduct. Every school should, as she urges for TMU, “establish clear behavioural expectations, protect the rights of all members of the community, and enforce its policies consistently, transparently, and predictably.”

It hardly seems too much to ask. Yet TMU has not responded to the eight recommendations of the Benotto report, instead announcing an “implementation committee” that has until next March to come up with a “blueprint.”

The report – again, commissioned by TMU – already lays out a course of action. No blueprint is needed, just a spine.

Source: The betrayal of Jewish students needs to end

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Lowman: 5 countries, 5 approaches: How the Anglosphere is—and isn’t—fighting antisemitism on campus

2026/08/17 Leave a comment

Useful comparisons and reminder of the limits of government in terms of culture change:

….But policy may only go so far. A funding freeze can force a university to write a new complaints procedure. A report card can force administrators to define antisemitism on paper. Neither can write the syllabus of an antisemitic professor, or talk a 19-year-old student out of despising the Jewish student sitting next to him in the lecture hall. Governments can regulate what institutions do; they cannot legislate what students and faculty believe.

Whether Washington’s funding cudgel, Canberra’s grading system, London’s disclosure regime, Ottawa’s diffusion, or Wellington’s silence proves most effective will ultimately matter less than something none of these governments can directly control: whether campus culture itself changes at all.

Source: 5 countries, 5 approaches: How the Anglosphere is—and isn’t—fighting antisemitism on campus

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