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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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There were 267 antisemitic incidents reported to the League for Human Rights in 1999. This represents an increase of 11% increase from the 240 incidents in 1998.
Harassment comprised the largest proportion of incidents for 1999, with a total of 205 incidents. This is an increase of 3% from the 198 cases of harassment in 1998. 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 discrete incidents.
In recent years, there has been a steady decrease in acts of vandalism, but this year there was an upswing. The number of reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism was 62, a 47.6% increase from the 42 incidents reported last year. In 1997, there were 58 reported incidents of vandalism, more closely reflecting the 1999 numbers.
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 18 years since we began documenting them in 1982. Figure 2 presents the three year average of total incidents and the three year averages of incidents of vandalism and of harassment.
Table 2 and Figure 3 present the number of incidents by region and the regional proportion of overall incidents. Figure 4 provides a comparison of proportion of overall incidents with the percentage of the approximate Jewish population in each geographic region.
Toronto - In 1999 there were 119 reported incidents of antisemitism, including a cemetery desecration and a number of assaults. This represents a 3% decrease from 1998 with 123 reported incidents. 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 44.7% of all reported incidents in Canada in 1999.
Regional Ontario - In regional Ontario (not including the City of Toronto or the National Capital Region) there was a significant increase in antisemitic incidents. Last year there were 34 incidents and this year there were 47, up 42%.
National Capital Region - An 8.5% decrease in antisemitic incidents occurred in the Ottawa area with 32 incidents in 1999 down from 35 in 1998.
Montreal - There was a marked increase in reported incidents in Montreal this year with an 85% rise from the 1998 statistics. 37 incidents were recorded in 1999, up from 20 in 1998. Certain events within the Chassidic community this year led to increased publicity for the work that B’nai Brith does in addressing hate crimes. As more people in Montreal became aware of this avenue of assistance, reporting of antisemitic incidents increased considerably.
Regional Quebec - There were 4 incidents reported in regional Quebec in 1999. There were none reported in 1998 and only 1 in 1997.
Manitoba - There were 3 reported antisemitic incidents reported in Manitoba this year including a cemetery desecration in Winnipeg. B’nai Brith did not have a staff person in the Winnipeg Office for much of 1999, which could possibly explain the low numbers of reported incidents in that region in that other organizations do not keep a record of incidents that are reported to them.
Saskatchewan and Alberta - There were 5 reported incidents in this region in 1999, the same as the number reported in 1998.
British Columbia - B.C. had a decrease of 29.4% in reported incidents - 12 in 1999, down from 17 reported in 1998. It appears that an anti-immigration backlash has taken the focus of white supremacists away from the Jewish population in this area and that lack of reporting to B’nai Brith may also be a factor, since there are some organizations that both do not record incidents reported to them and do not report them to B’nai Brith for statistical purposes.
The Maritimes - There has been an increase of reported incidents in 1999 in the Maritimes with 3 incidents in 1999 and only 1 in 1998. In this area, anti-immigration backlash has strengthened white supremacist groups who have been handing out hate propaganda targeting recent immigrants and Jews.
January - A Jewish student was assaulted in the laundry room of his residence at the University of Toronto. The assailants used antisemitic slurs prior to the assault.
In Kitchener, a Jewish man received a personal message on his answering machine saying “This is the Angel of Death - you missed your appointment at Auschwitz.”
February - A letter bomb was sent to Calgary’s police chief. It was widely accepted that the two reasons she was targeted were because she is Jewish and a woman.
Four of seven floors in a university residence in Montreal were vandalized with antisemitic and racist graffiti. Swastikas and antisemitic slurs were also found written with marker on bulletin boards and other university property.
March - David Icke, a speaker known for his antisemitic writing came to Toronto. He denounces the Talmud as racist and blames a secret Jewish cabal for world ills, including the Holocaust. He also relies heavily on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to prove his points. He returned to Ottawa, Toronto and Windsor in October to loud protests and venues refusing to rent to him.
A reporter in P.E.I. received hate propaganda from a white supremacist group known as the Celtic Sons and Daughters. He used that information to gain an interview with the members of the group and later wrote an article exposing hate group activity in Charlottetown.
April - Two young boys were walking home from a yeshiva (Jewish college) in Toronto and were assaulted by a group of teenagers who pelted them with eggs. This was the first of a number of such incidents targeting Jews in Toronto this year.
May - A swastika was spray painted on a car parked in front of a Toronto synagogue on Friday evening. More antisemitic graffiti was found on the sidewalk and bus shelter near the building.
Swastikas and antisemitic graffiti were also found on bus stops in downtown Montreal near a Lubavitch Centre. This was part of a trend in Montreal that also found swastikas painted on stop signs in a Jewish community and at a private business owned by a Jewish proprietor.
June - Antisemitic comments were published in a yearbook of a Toronto suburb high school. The students were asked to make comments about their individual culture and various languages they might know. This enabled them to write virulent antisemitic slurs in different languages that weren’t understood by the editor and, therefore, weren’t detected until after the yearbook was distributed. When it was discovered, each yearbook was recalled and the offending passages were blacked out.
Antisemitic and homophobic epithets were yelled at two men prior to their being assaulted on a major street in Toronto after leaving a night-club.
July - In Regina, “Fuck the Jews” was spray painted on a number of surfaces including a highway overpass and on the side of a bridge.
A major Jewish community centre in Toronto was the target of vandalism when a man entered the lobby and started screaming antisemitic statements. He then started kicking and smashing windows. The police were called and he was arrested.
August - In two separate incidents, a Jewish cemetery in Winnipeg was severely vandalized. In the worst of the two incidents, vandals toppled 219 headstones, causing $100,000 damage and untold emotional distress. The first incident occurred a few days prior when 9 headstones were damaged in a similar attack.
In late August, in London, Ontario, two swastikas were carved in the lawn of a synagogue. The increase in incidents in August may have been influenced by Furrow’s murderous rampage in California and the media’s coverage of his “wake-up call to kill all Jews”.
September - A number of incidents occurred around the High Holy Days, including in Montreal where a man was hit in the face by a paintball while walking home from synagogue. In Toronto, a young Toronto boy heard "Die Jew die" yelled at him from a car as he returned from services.
The Heritage Front, a white supremacist group formerly very active in Ontario, was active in Charlottetown with the distribution of their propaganda in front of some local businesses.
October - The playground at a Toronto elementary school was vandalized with slurs such as “Jews Suck” written on equipment and sides of the building.
A Toronto woman was terrified as one of the owners of the hair salon where she is a client started yelling antisemitic slurs at her and giving her the Nazi salute as she was getting her hair done.
November - A man harassed a rabbi speaking at a public Remembrance Day service in Halifax when he shouted “Save the world. Kill a Jew.” Police who were at the scene quickly apprehended him. He was later arraigned, given a court date and released. At the time the Audit was released, he had not appeared for his court date and a bench warrant had been issued for his re-arrest.
December - A messianic group took Toronto by surprise when they mass delivered their propagandist newspaper to many different neighbourhoods by targeted postal delivery. Wrapped in a blue plastic bag with a Star of David on it, the group engineered the drop offs to appear as Hannukah presents.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
| DEFINITIONS AND DATA COLLECTION
| SUMMARY OF DATA
ANTISEMITISM IN CANADA — REGIONAL CLIMATE AND TRENDS
| HATE IN CANADA: AN OVERVIEW
ANTISEMITIC BIAS AND SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION
| CONVERSION CRAZE — MILLENNIUM MADNESS?
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST ANTISEMITISM AND HATE
| APPENDIX A: The Jewish Community in Canada — A Brief Overview
Table 1: NATURE OF ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS BY YEAR
| Table 2: GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF INCIDENTS
Figure 1: Nature of Antisemitic Incidents by Year
| Figure 2: Three Year Average of Incidents
| Figure 3: Antisemitic Incidents by Region