Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Chief Executive Officer	Prof. Stephen Scheinberg National Chair

2001 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents

Patterns of Prejudice in Canada

SECTION 2: INCIDENTS — HOW THE STREET RESPONDS

The data collected for this year’s Audit will be analyzed against the backdrop of the attitudinal indicators discussed above. The most statistically significant samples were collected in Quebec and Ontario, areas of settlement for the majority of Canadian Jews.

There were a total of 286 antisemitic incidents reported to the League for Human Rights during 2001, roughly the same level as in 2000, but an increase of 7% over the pre-Intifada level reported in 1999, and an increase of 35% over the figures of five years ago. The increases noted in 2000 were generally attributed to a rise in tensions beginning in the Fall of that year with the outbreak of the Intifada, and the resulting increase in inter-ethnic tension. In Quebec, we note that figures have risen to 83 incidents from 75 in 2000, a percentage increase of 11% over last year’s data. In terms of a comparison to the pre-Intifada 1999 figures (42 incidents), this represents a 98% increase. Compared to 1998, this is an increase of 290%. This data appears to mirror the findings of the attitudinal survey described above, highlighting disturbing indications of an apparently higher level of prejudice in Quebec than elsewhere in the country.

With respect to the Canada-wide figures, 35% of all incidents were reported in the aftermath of September 11, 20% in the immediate aftermath and close to an additional 15% in October. In Ontario, 26% of the entire year’s incidents were reported in September (15%) and October (11%) combined. In Toronto, 41% of the year’s totals were reported in September (24%) and October (17%). In Quebec, the figures record 22% for September and 10% for October, for a combined total of almost one-third of the incidents in just two months of the year.

These figures confirm the findings of various police reports across the country that there was a spike in hate crimes in general during that volatile period, targeting minority ethnic and religious groups. There are considerable variations in how individual police forces record their data relating to hate crimes, with some breaking down hate/bias crimes into individual categories, and other including many victims within several broader categories. The Calgary Police Service, for example, through its Community and Youth Services Section, reports on Criminal Offences by type of Hate/Bias. The current method of reporting, which will change and be more specific for 2002, identifies the motivation of offences as they relate to persons with disabilities, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, sexual offences and age. However, the criteria are broad and the statistics provided do not specify details within the categories of ethnicity, nationality, race or religion. In Montreal there is at present no official classification process for delineating hate crimes when reporting harassment, vandalism, assault or threats. The Toronto Police Service, in contrast, prepares a highly detailed Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report though its Hate Crimes Unit, with considerable attention given to differentiating between victim groups. Given the different criteria and reporting mechanisms used by various law enforcement agencies and community groups, and the level of comfort of victims who may prefer to use one reporting agency over another, date collection is a complex process.

The regional breakdown for incidents under review is as follows:

Regional Ontario

In regional Ontario (this does not include the City of Toronto or the National Capital Region) there was a 12% increase in antisemitic incidents, with 46 reported this year compared to 41 last year. These incidents included serious acts of harassment, distribution of hate propaganda and acts of vandalism.

Toronto

There were 116 incidents of antisemitism reported to the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada in 2001, including death threats, bomb threats, assaults, anthrax scares with a hate/bias orientation, serious acts of vandalism and several cemetery desecrations. This marked a 5.5% increase in reported antisemitic incidents from 2000.

National Capital Region

The 24 reported antisemitic that occurred in Ottawa, included cemetery desecrations, graffiti, vandalism and threatening e-mails. This is the same level of incidents as reported in 2000.

Montreal

There were 78 antisemitic incidents reported to the League in Montreal, which represents an increase of 9% from the previous year, and a disturbing 290% increase since 1998 (20 incidents). Once again this year, Montreal was plagued with antisemitic incidents due, directly or indirectly, to the rising tension in the Middle East. The City of Montreal was hardest hit, with 59% of the reported incidents, while the municipality of Cote St. Luc (now a borough) was the hardest hit locale in the Island of Montreal with over 20% of the total reported incidents. Cote St. Luc has the highest concentration of Jews of any area in Quebec and therefore its inhabitants can be easily identifiable targets.

Regional Quebec

There were 5 incidents reported in regional Quebec in 2001, up 1 from the scenario of the last few years.

Manitoba

In Manitoba in 2001, there were 6 reported incidents of antisemitic graffiti and hate propaganda, 2 more than last year.

British Columbia

5 incidents of antisemitism were reported in British Columbia, which marks the second consecutive decrease from the 9 reported in 2000 and the 12 reported in 1999.

Alberta/Saskatchewan

The League received 5 reports of incidents of antisemitism in 2001, down from 14 incidents in 2000.

The Maritimes

There was 1 reported antisemitic incident in the Maritimes in 2001, occurring in Moncton, New Brunswick where 2 swastikas were carved into the door of a synagogue. This occurred shortly after the September 11 attacks.

EXAMPLES OF INCIDENTS

January

• A newsletter from a radical extremist separatist group called “Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec” (MLNQ) contained a caricature of a Chassidic Jew, with the caption: “If Quebecers looked like this people we would also laugh at them”.
• Reports of numerous abusive antisemitic phone calls were received.
• A non-Jewish neighbour came over to say, “Why don’t you drop dead, Jew.”

February

• The victim, a visibly identifiable Jew, was harassed and intimidated on a Société de Transport de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal (STCUM) bus by four young men who shouted abuse in Arabic. They then scrawled graffiti on a panel in the bus which said “f¿¿k you”, with an arrow directed to a crossed-out Star of David.
• Swastikas were scrawled in the snow outside a number of Jewish residences in the suburban municipality of Dollard des Ormeaux. In some of these homes the Mezuzahs (a Jewish religious symbol affixed to the door frame of the house) were ripped off.
• An accountant in Toronto received a request from an individual to apply for the Kosher Tax credit. The Kosher Tax credit is an old antisemitic canard that states that Gentiles are paying for Jews to have kosher food, but can apply for a tax reimbursement.
• Antisemitic messages were found in the used bookstore at the University of Waterloo.
• In the workplace, the story was circulated that, “The Holocaust happened because Jews were a liability”.

March

• Graffiti was spray painted in front of a synagogue in Regina, Saskatchewan with swastikas, “88” (a greeting commonly used by racists), “Die Jews” and “White Power”.
• A bomb threat was issued against the Yad Vashem Wall of Remembrance in Toronto, which commemorates Jewish victims of the Holocaust, stating: “If you continue with the Wall, we will blow it up.”
• At Carleton University in Ottawa there were reports of a pro-Palestinian rally in which people chanted antisemitic slogans such as “a Jewish state is a racist state”.
• A student at Concordia University witnessed another student in a political science class state in front of the professor: “The Talmud obliges Jews to kill all non-Jews.”

April

• A video denying the Holocaust was sent to teachers in Vernon, British Columbia, along with a letter that resembled the B’nai Brith Canada letterhead, asking them to show the video to their students on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• A member of the York Region’s Race Relations Advisory Committee reportedly distributed a review of a book titled “Holocaust Industry, Reflections of the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering”, which promotes the idea of a Jewish conspiracy to gain power and financial benefit by exploiting the Holocaust. The person is reported to have said: “This one community is controlling the whole system.”
• A group of adolescents threw rocks from the roof of the Côte St. Luc Shopping Center onto an identifiably Jewish couple and their four children as they were leaving the mall. The attackers shouted in Arabic as they threw the rocks.
• Several people received hate mail, including Holocaust denial and antisemitic slurs.
• Hate messages were received at a high school and at private homes within Ontario.

May

• The white supremacist group, the National Alliance in Canada, was active in Calgary putting racist and antisemitic pamphlets and stickers on car windshields.
• Jewish homes in Winnipeg were defaced with graffiti such as KKK, swastikas and “Fag”.
• An individual received death threats and there was an attempt to stab him with a knife. The victim reports being regularly harassed by his Arab neighbours because of his religion.
• Thirteen windows of a synagogue in Chomedey were smashed with a lead pipe, and a tree branch was thrown into the stained glass window of the sanctuary.
• Students from two Jewish high schools in Côte St. Luc were shot at with a paint ball gun from a moving vehicle not far from their high schools.
• In an Ottawa high school parking lot, a car was daubed with the words “F¿¿king Jew” and “Die Kike”.
• Gravestones were damaged at a Jewish cemetery on Bank Street in Ottawa.
• A motorist nearly sideswiped another other car, and shouted: “F¿¿k off, you stinking Jew.”
• Vandalism and graffiti were reported at a bus shelter in Ottawa, with classic White Supremacist graffiti displayed such as “14”, “88” and a swastika.

June

• The smearing of dog feces on the doorknobs of a synagogue in Ottawa was reported on several occasions.
• A sign next to an Ottawa high school said “no dogs, swastika, no Jews”.
• 40 tombstones were overturned at a cemetery in Toronto.
• Pamphlets were distributed on the subway depicting a Jewish man as a hated money lender with physically stereotypical features.
• Death threats and hate mail were received by an Interent chat site user.
• A park in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood in Montreal was defaced by graffiti which said, “Kill Jews”.
• Graffiti was scrawled on Concordia University property that said: “Stop Jewish Apartheid”, “End Jewish Occupation”, “Israel is a racist State”, and graffiti of the Star of David being equated to a swastika. Similar graffiti was scrawled on the corners of eight sidewalks on St. Catherine Street.

July

• Two identifiably Jewish persons were accosted and threatened on Stanley Street after leaving McGill University.
• Two identifiably Jewish adolescents were taunted and harassed in the Metro, and then followed into the street by two individuals who yelled at them in Arabic. Once outside the Metro station, one of the victims was attacked from behind by one of the aggressors and received a head injury.
• Vandals targeted a synagogue in Ottawa.
• A 20-foot large swastika was found spray painted on a road near Rideau Forest in South Manotick, Ottawa.

August

• Graffiti found in Toronto contained the words “Kill Kill Kill” and a swastika with “Achtung Juden”.
• A swastika and “Juden” were daubed on the home of the Jewish President of the University of Guelph.
• An Ottawa synagogue was defaced with graffiti, such as “A. Hitler” and “Nazi headquarters”.
• The message board of a Montreal-based web site, www.islamway.com, contained virulently antisemitic messages, as well as a recruitment call to train in Afghanistan for jihad (holy war).

September

• The West Island areas of Bay D’urfé, Beaconsfield, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and Pointe Claire, Quebec were blanketed for delivery of the National Vanguard, a publication of the National Alliance.
• In Winnipeg comments such as “Jews control the media” were aired on Shaw Cable’s public access channel.
• After the World Conference Against Racism in Durban the number of incidents reported to our office increased. Jewish offices in Toronto received hate messages blaming Jews for ruining the conference.
• Graffiti equating the Star of David with the swastika kept reappearing on the walls of Berri Metro Station in Montreal.
• A rock was thrown through the window of the West Island Jewish Community Centre.
• A passenger in a taxi cab was accosted by the driver who produced a Pakistani newspaper account as “proof” that 4,000 Jews had allegedly called in sick to the World Trade Centre on 9-11.
• After writing a pro-Israel letter that appeared in the Toronto Star, a man received a series of threatening calls saying “Saw your letter in the Star. How dare you, f¿¿king Jew. You lousy bastards.”
• 2 synagogues in Toronto were broken into, windows were smashed and cars in the parking lot were vandalized.
• A man threatened two Jewish men walking down a Forest Hill street in Toronto. He said he would “kick his f¿¿king head in ’cause he was a Jew.”
• A bomb threat was directed at a synagogue and a Jewish elementary school in Toronto on September 13.
• Callers identifying themselves as Arabs called into a CFRB radio call-in show and said that everything that happened to the World Trade Center was the Jews’ fault.

October

• Swastikas were carved into the door of a Moncton New Brunswick synagogue.
• Graffiti on the wall of a synagogue in York Region stated: “Jews must die. Osama Bin Laden lives.” Swastikas were spray-painted on walls in other locations in the region.
• The London City Police Hate Crimes Unit found, on the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Teams (CECT) site, a newsletter stating that Canadians must declare war on the Jews and Muslims living in Canada. The CECT is a Neo-Nazi group based in the Kitchener/London area that is currently under investigation.
• Jewish organizations, synagogues, schools, community organizations and individuals received a white power substance in the mail purported to be anthrax, along with threatening letters. A letter sent to a Montreal synagogue along with a white powder said: “Now the Jews will know what anthrax is” and “death to the Jews, this letter contains anthrax. Death to Israel. Islam marches forward.”
• People demonstrating in front of the Israeli embassy in Toronto blamed the Jews for the September 11 attacks.
• An apartment building in Toronto was defaced with the words, “F¿¿k the Jews”.
• 20-30 students in Toronto circled 2 identifiably Jewish males and shouted antisemitic remarks at them.
• On Thanksgiving, a visiting priest in Montreal was reported to have delivered a sermon on several occasions alleging that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

November

• Graffiti was found at the University of Guelph targeting the President of the University who is Jewish.
• A Bathurst Street apartment building in Toronto had “F¿¿k Jews” written all over an elevator. Similar incidents were reported in apartment buildings elsewhere.
• Swastikas were found engraved in 3 elevators of a building in Toronto where elderly people and some Holocaust survivors live.
• A cemetery in Toronto that is frequently a target of desecration had a black “J” written on the wall of the cemetery.

December

• A high school received racial comments and threats against Jewish and Black people.
• A Thornhill man received a series of threatening phone messages after his pro-Israel letter appeared in the Toronto Sun, threats like “You f¿¿king Jew bastard…We’re coming to get you and your family.”
• B’nai Brith Canada received numerous calls from residents of Guelph who were outraged after a local real estate salesman mailed city residents a flyer that was perceived as antisemitic. The back of the flyer read in bold print “And one last assumption! Does the ‘stein’ in my last name automatically make me Jewish? Don’t let ‘stein’ stop you from calling me for a ‘Home Value’ Estimate!”
• Swastikas were spray-painted on the side of five different houses in London, Ontario.
• A public school in Halton, Ontario was defaced with swastikas.
• In Richmond Hill, Ontario six mezuzahs were removed and some were broken in half after there was a condo dispute regarding whether the association would allow them on the doorposts.
• Antisemitic literature was reported on the la fillière antinationaliste website, (www.geocities.com/quebdonation2001/rouge.html), listing the names of dozens of organizations and individuals considered as “enemies opposed to our values and our race”.
• Members and supporters of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill University distributed material from the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review, which claimed that Israel was creating an “ethnic bomb” that targeted Muslims but not Jews.
• A speaker invited by the SPHR at McGill University made antisemitic remarks and statements during the question and answer period, accusing Jews of being “Christ killers”.

ANTISEMITISM IN CANADA: A REGIONAL SNAPSHOT

Our Audit this year will focus on a snapshot of Quebec, where the highest percentage increase in incidents was noted, and especially on Montreal, since 78 out of the 83 incidents took place in that metropolis.

The sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in Quebec over the last four years has persisted, as noted above. Of additional concern to the League has been the change in the nature of the incidents. In the past, many of the incidents were sporadic or isolated. However, for the year 2001 there were several incidents that appeared to have been planned in advance, rather than the mainly spontaneous outbursts that marked the previous year. Also, much of the antisemitism of the last year appears to have permeated from the fringes to the mainstream of society.

There were two main categories of incidents for 2001, namely White Supremacist and neo-Nazi activity, and Middle-East Related Incidents. In the latter case, this analysis has been divided into four sub-categories: 1) Incidents related to the Middle East, 2) English-Language Universities, 3) Montreal Based Registered Websites, 4) Attacks related to the September 11 attacks on America.

White Supremacy and Neo-Nazi Activity

When compared to the past, White Power and neo-Nazi activity has certainly decreased in Quebec, a trend that has been evident elsewhere in Canada. Organized hate groups appear to have been driven underground across the country though their sporadic activities are still monitored and reported to the relevant authorities. Nevertheless, there have been reports that racist groups from the United States like William Pierce’s National Alliance have been actively targeting the Anglophone community in Quebec. The National Vanguard, a publication of the National Alliance, has been delivered to homes in the West Island areas of Bay D’urfé, Beaconsfield, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and Pointe Claire.

As our Quebec examples show, activities traditionally associated with White Supremacist and neo-Nazi group are still occurring in the region, such as ripping off mezuzahs from Jewish homes, and daubing swastikas, antisemitic messages and death threats on Jewish community institutions, as well as public buildings.

Websites like “la fillière anti-nationaliste” (www.geocities.com/quebdonation2001/rouge.html) contained antisemitic literature and had the names of dozens of organizations and individuals described as “enemies opposed to our values and our race”. The list included organizations from diverging ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, including the Black Coalition of Quebec, the Iranian Cultural Community Centre, the Vietnamese Community Association, and a slew of Jewish, anti-racist and gay organizations. Such websites, whether they originate in Quebec or elsewhere, continue to be an inexpensive way to disseminate propaganda and recruit for supporters, with virtual impunity.

Incidents Related to the Middle East

The rising conflict in the Middle East has had severe repercussions in Montreal. It is well known that antisemitism in the Middle East is dangerously high. The language used by leaders of Arab regimes and the state-controlled media have mainstreamed the denial and trivialization of the Holocaust, while certain extremist factions have also disseminated messages encouraging the killing of “Jews and Americans” as the will of Allah. There is considerable concern that these messages are starting to make particular headway in Quebec, where there is a considerable presence of individuals with strong ties to so-called “homeland conflicts”.

English-Language Universities

This type of propaganda is impacting on Canada with the campus as the point of entry. One such example has been at Concordia University where Jewish students have complained of being targeted because of their religion and their belief in Zionism as an expression of the right of the Jewish people to have a national homeland. Jewish students who have tried to argue to the contrary have been verbally abused and harassed. As elsewhere in Canada, there are growing reports that visibly Jewish students have become anxious about participating in campus life and debate, with some even hesitant to attend their classes.

In September 2001, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) published an Agenda entitled Uprising, which accuses Israel of being involved in “state terror that has killed civilian men, women, and children whose only ‘crime’ is their nationality”. The CSU-produced Uprising goes one step further with an article by Laith Marouf that insinuated that “the ‘Jewish’ Rector knows how much money the university owes to Zionists”, and accused the Concordia administration of being Arabophobic.

Earlier in the year, Mr. Marouf, a foreign national from Syria who was in Canada on a student visa, is alleged to have harassed and intimidated the editor of a Concordia University newspaper and her staff, by alluding to their religion. He is also alleged to have stated in an undergraduate Political Science class in the winter semester of the 2000-2001 academic year, in front of all his peers and the professor, that the “Talmud obliges Jews to kill all non-Jews”.

Marouf, who was elected as a CSU student councilor in March 2001, was allegedly caught on two occasions scrawling graffiti on Concordia University property. One of these incidents relates to graffiti containing both anti-Jewish and anti-Israel diatribes, including “Stop Jewish Apartheid”, “End Jewish Occupation”, “Israel is a racist State”, and the Star of David being equated to a swastika. Similar anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti was scrawled by an unknown person or persons on the corners of eight sidewalks on St. Catherine Street not far from the York Theatre, stating “Stop Jewish apartheid” and “End Jewish supremacy”.

However, Concordia University is not the only university where antisemitic incidents took place in 2001. In one such incident, members and friends of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill University distributed material emanating from the Institute for Historical Review, a well-known Holocaust denying publication. This material contained the myth that Israel is producing an “ethnic bomb” that would only target Muslims, but not Jews. At McGill, the SPHR invited Israel Shamir to speak at a lecture entitled “Israel: the Racist State”. Mr. Shamir is on record for having made antisemitic statements in the past. During the question and answer period, Mr. Shamir accused an orthodox Rabbi present at the lecture of being “a monkey”, and mocked the religious garments he was wearing. The councilors of the Student Society of McGill University were reportedly concerned about the antisemitic tone of Mr. Shamir’s remarks.

Montreal-Based Websites relating to the Middle East

As the differences between antisemitism and anti-Zionism become increasingly blurred, resulting in an intensification of antisemitism worldwide, anti-Zionist websites are appearing that contain considerable antisemitic content. In many instances, these websites promote infamous antisemitic books such as Hitler’s Mein Kampf, andThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

B’nai Brith Canada’s Quebec regional office discovered two such Montreal-based web sites in August of 2001. The first one, Islamway (www.islamway.com), contained a slew of virulently antisemitic messages and Islamic fundamentalist articles posted on the message board. The board was also being used to recruit people to train in military camps in Afghanistan as soldiers for jihad (holy war), and contained articles advocating against the “infidel Jews and Christians”. A second Montreal-based website was found, known as the “Islamic News and Information Network” (www.inin.net), which reproduced the charter of the Hamas terrorist organization, equated Zionism with Nazism, and advocated the destruction of the State of Israel. The web site also had a section called, “On the permissibility of martyrdom operations”. B’nai Brith reported both these sited to the authorities for appropriate action.

The September 11 attacks on America

In the post-September 11 aftermath, anthrax hoaxes were directed at numerous government offices and businesses, and targeted the Jewish community in particular. A synagogue in Montreal received a letter contained white powder which said, “now the Jews will know what anthrax is” and “death to the Jews, this letter contains anthrax. Death to Israel. Islam marches forward”.

Antisemitism in Montreal appears to have shifted from the reigns of white supremacists to groups propagating the myth that not just Israel, but also Jews, whether in Canada or elsewhere, are responsible for the current conflict in the Middle East, the tragedy of September 11 and most of the ills of the world.

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