When $10 Million Feels Like a Slap in the Face

In less than one week there was gunfire directed at three Toronto-area synagogues last week. These attacks did not occur in a vacuum. Iranian and Jewish-owned businesses have been attacked. And then the U.S. Consulate in Toronto was also struck by gunfire.

These attacks are the predictable result of more than two years in which extremists have targeted and harassed the Jewish communities across the GTA, while openly calling for violence. The Jewish community is upset and frightened.

The federal government’s response was very predictable and tiresome. They declared this is not our Canada. But it is now!

The feds announced that it would provide $10 million towards installing bulletproof glass in synagogues. Because our problem is nothing more than broken glass. Governments are so good at throwing taxpayers’ money at a problem instead of addressing the root cause. There is a serious problem with antisemitism.

This past Saturday, the Toronto protest for the international Al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day in Arabic) was held in front of the U.S. consulate. Only four days earlier, the building had been shot at with multiple rounds in what is suspected as retaliation by Iranian-regime-tied individuals responding to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

Al-Quds Day is an annual demonstration established in 1979 by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini following the Iranian Revolution. It calls for opposition against Israel and support for Palestinians. The event remains controversial because critics claim its organization and often extremist messaging are directly linked to Iran’s regime.

Earlier Saturday afternoon, the consulate was cordoned off by police, including the mounted unit of at least a dozen mounted officers. Dozens of other police officers, some armed with rifles, shut down a block of the street, blocking it with their cruisers.

The signs and flags made the aims of the protestors clear. Over a dozen of the attendees were waving or draping themselves in the Islamic Republic of Iran flag, while others waved the flag of Palestine. Others carried signs that portrayed the recently killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Still others held images of Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu with devil horns on his head or signs that read things like: “I hate crowds, but I hate Zionists more,” “Israel eliminated,” and “ISIS and IDF are the same, only difference is the name.”

The following day was the weekly “Free Palestine” rally in a largely Jewish neighbourhood in North Toronto. This has been going on for well over two years. At the rally, extremists openly made threats of violence, glorified terrorism, and depicted Jews as sub-human.

No arrests for the heinous acts above have been announced. In the wake of multiple violent attacks on our community, this leaves many concluding that police are protecting criminals instead of safeguarding citizens.

If imagery portraying Jews as vermin and celebrating the elimination of the Jewish state does not meet the threshold for enforcement under Canada’s laws that criminalize incitement of hate, what does?

For far too long, extremists have been allowed to spew antisemitic vitriol and support for terrorism throughout Toronto. The line has been crossed repeatedly.

Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated, and Jewish life will not be driven underground in this country. Governments must act now, with force, clarity, and conviction, or accept responsibility for allowing this crisis to deepen even further.

We want police to enforce Canadian hate laws.