
Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair	Ruth Klein National Director of Advocacy

1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

SUMMARY OF DATA

Nature of Incidents By Year

There were 240 antisemitic incidents reported to the League for Human Rights in 1998. This represents an increase of 14% from the 212 incidents in 1997.

Harassment comprised the largest proportion of incidents for 1998 with a total of 198 incidents. This is an increase of 29% from the 154 cases of harassment in 1997. Harassment includes the distribution of hate propaganda; however, it must be noted that incidents of antisemitism spread over the Internet have not been included in the data. Were the League to document the thousands of hits on antisemitic hate sites, our statistics would dramatically increase. Only specifically targeted threats or individually addressed email have been included as discreet incidents.

The number of reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism was 42, down a significant 28% from the 58 incidents reported last year. This may be attributed to the decline in organized hate group activity, a crackdown by police hate crimes units and ongoing community vigilance and education.

Table 1 and Figure 1 summarize the total number of antisemitic incidents reported to the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada over the last 17 years since we began documenting them in 1982.

Figures 2, 3, and 4 present the three year total average, and yearly incidents of vandalism and harassment respectively.

Geographic Distribution Of Incidents

Table 2 and Figure 5 present the number of incidents by region and the regional proportion of overall incidents. Figure 6 provides a comparison of proportion of overall incidents with the percentage of the total Jewish population in each geographic region.

Toronto — In 1998 there were 123 reported incidents of antisemitism in Toronto. This is up from 98 incidents that were reported in 1997, an increase of 26%. Toronto is the largest city in Canada with the largest Jewish population and it is not surprising that it has the largest number of antisemitic incidents, comprising 51.3% of all reported incidents in Canada in 1998.

Regional Ontario — In regional Ontario (i.e. outside Toronto) there was a drastic increase in antisemitic incidents, including a cemetery desecration. Last year there were 20 incidents and this year there were 33, up 65%, the largest increase anywhere in Canada. As police hate crimes units crack down on hate and bias crime in the big cities, it seems that hate groups are picking up their recruiting efforts and activities in small towns.

National Capital Region — A 40% increase in antisemitic incidents occurred in Ottawa with 35 incidents, an increase of 10 incidents over 1997. This heightened activity appears to be the result of increased visibility of the B’nai Brith office, as well as rising tensions on campuses and between extremist groups.

Montreal — In 1998 the Montreal statistics stayed relatively unchanged with 20 reported incidents, a decrease of only one incident from 1997. Most incidents involved youth.

Winnipeg — There were 5 reported antisemitic incidents in Winnipeg in 1998, a decrease of 72% from the 18 incidents reported in 1997. B’nai Brith did not have a staff person in the Winnipeg Office for much of 1998, which could possibly explain the decrease of reported incidents in that region.

Saskatchewan and Alberta — In Alberta and Saskatchewan there were 5 reported incidents in 1998, down slightly from the 7 incidents in 1997.

British Columbia — British Columbia had a decrease of 2 incidents with 17 reported in 1998, a decrease of 10.5% from the 19 in 1997.

The Maritimes — The Maritimes had only one reported incident in 1998, down from two incidents in 1997.

Highlights Of Specific Incidents

Examination of the data reveals that there are peak times for incidents to occur. Jewish holidays and celebrations (Passover, Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Independence Day in April and May, and the High Holidays in the fall), as well as Easter and Christmas, are prime times for antisemitic incidents. January and February are relatively quiet months. The summer — a time for "Aryan Fests" and youth gang restlessness — is a "hot" time for antisemitic incidents to occur. A similar pattern has been noted for incidents of gay bashing as reported by the 519 Church Street Community Centre.

JANUARY- A woman phoned the Beth Din (Rabbinical Court) asking for a letter stating she is not Jewish for immigration purposes because she hates Jews. She was refused, and several days later 5 threatening antisemitic messages were left on the answering machine of the Rabbi who had handled her case.

A hate letter addressed to Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada, was sent to the Toronto office. The Anti-Defamation League logo had been changed to read "Aberration Defining Liberty" with a swastika replacing the ADL’s globe. The venomous letter inside stated that the Holocaust is a lie and threatened, “Maybe some day somebody will find you in an alleyway. Eh?” This is just one of many threatening letters and phone calls that various B’nai Brith offices receive every year.

FEBRUARY- In a Jewish neighbourhood in Toronto, a newspaper box had a swastika and SS lightning bars written across it. In Nepean, a suburb of Ottawa, a high school was vandalized with graffiti reading "DIE JEW DIE."

MARCH- A Jewish newspaper in Winnipeg received a phone call stating that "their time is up" and that there is a bomb in the building. Upon investigation, no bomb was found.

APRIL- In St. Catherines in Southern Ontario, 43 headstones were vandalized in a cemetery next to B’nai Israel Synagogue. Warren Michael Soles, 20, was arrested for the crime. Soles’ body was adorned with Nazi tattoos and upon searching his apartment, a picture of Adolph Hitler was found as well as a business card from the HammerSkins, a violent racist skinhead organization. Just over a week later, Soles’ cousin Daniel Arthur Youmans, was arrested for vandalizing the same cemetery. Youmans faces 11 counts of causing indignity to human remains and one count of mischief.

MAY- A racist, homophobic, Holocaust denial flyer announcing the meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood Study Group was faxed directly to the police in Ottawa. The library where the meeting was supposed to take place had no appointment by the said organization, and in fact no such organization exists. The flyer listed the proposed topics of discussion as: “How the Jews use their bogus Holocaust to extort billions of dollars from the countries of the Western World every year”, and “Why the Jews are behind such things as homosexuality and abortion.” The meeting also promised to teach “how to kill a Jew with your bare hands”, and “how to detect a Jew by smell”. The flyer appears to be intended to disrupt and disturb Muslim/Jewish dialogue. Muslim organizations in Ottawa were notified by B’nai Brith, since this seemed to be an attempt at damaging the reputation of Muslims, as well as a virulent antisemitic attack on Jews.

JUNE- After a television appearance in the Toronto area in which she highlighted that her daughter was in the Israeli army, a woman received a pamphlet from a Christian proselytizing organization and an antisemitic hate letter, including such diatribes as “Dear Chaim, the Jewish pig: Do you think that we expect that a fucking Jewish Zionist pig like you... Zionist bastard separatist... we let you in... and you crossified (sic) Jesus... you fuckin’ Jewish pigs...”.

JULY- In Toronto a fight over a parking space turned ugly when a man screamed at the woman with whom he was arguing, “You rotten Jewish bitch, you should have been exterminated.”

AUGUST- An antisemitic flyer called the Last Call International, was distributed around Jewish neighbourhoods in Toronto. The flyer was put under doors and in mailboxes that were easily identified as Jewish by mezzuzahs on their doors. The flyer included such statements as “A mighty persecution is coming again, Jews are going to be taken into concentration camps.” Police were notified. No arrests were made.

In August, Frank Dimant’s life was again threatened on the Internet when somebody posted that Mr. Dimant needed a bullet in the head and that all Jews should die.

SEPTEMBER- A man in downtown Toronto displayed a placard at a major intersection exclaiming, “JEWS ARE KILLING CANADIAN CHILDREN.” The flyer he distributed stated that when he and his children arrived in Canada they were trained by a “Jewish Terrorist training center” to kill Canadians using undetectable methods including poison and laser guns. People outraged at the incident phoned B’nai Brith and the police.

OCTOBER- Within one week in October there were three attacks on Jewish targets during the High Holidays:

In Ottawa, the Ecole Maimonides was the target of an arson attack. The fire caused over $75,000 in damages. No arrests were made.
In downtown Toronto, a fire fueled by rags soaked in gasoline caused $10,000 damage at the Bloor Jewish Community Centre during the festival of Sukkot.
In Montreal, a house was broken into during Yom Kippur. The house was spray-painted with antisemitic statements on the walls, causing thousands of dollars damage.

Also in October, in Calgary, a father and son calling themselves "X" and "X Jr" handed out antisemitic pamphlets called the Silver Bullet while wearing sandwich boards which read, “Calgary Jews are you going to crucify us just as you crucified Jesus Christ?”

NOVEMBER- A man in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario was horrified to arrive home to find a death threat on his answering machine. An ominous voice said: “Hey Jew boy, you fuckin’ kike piece of shit... I’m going to kill you boy. I don’t like you running my country, Hitler was right all along... that final solution, Jew boy... see ya later in the ashes. Fuckin’ Jew!” The man was terrified for weeks until the call was traced by police.

In New Brunswick, patrons in restaurants were horrified to see place mats with the history of the KKK on them. The manufacturers of the place mats said their intentions were not racist or antisemitic and that any restaurant that was offended by the place mats could return them.

In B.C. several Jewish and non-Jewish community leaders received anonymous hate mail: “As Jews you have no hesitation to lie... because there are so many ignorant goyim on your side!”

DECEMBER- A Jewish merchant in Whitby, Ontario found a swastika and other graffiti spray-painted on his store. The Durham Regional Polic

A Jewish teenager in central Ontario was harassed and assaulted during the holiday season by a school bully uttering antisemitic epithets. This was just one of the many cases of Jewish students being harassed in schools during the Hannukah/Christmas season.