October 1, 2025
OTTAWA – As part of its advocacy at the federal level, B’nai Brith Canada penned a formal submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA), which is preparing an official report to inform the Federal Government’s Fall 2025 budget.
B’nai Brith Canada is, in addition, calling on the Federal Government to use the Budget Implementation Act (BIA) to eliminate a loophole that temporarily allowed Samidoun, which was listed as a terrorist entity in this country in 2024, to continue operating as a non-profit corporation.
“It is astonishing that, in Canada, an organization does not automatically lose its corporate status when it is declared a terrorist entity,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “The Government must amend the law to prevent a similar scenario from bedeviling us in the future.”
In our fall budget submission, we recommended that the Government:
- Make new investments to strengthen Canada’s resilience against violent extremism, including additional funding for its national security agencies;
- Ensure that recipients of federal grants are in compliance with Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy: Changing Systems, Transforming Lives, 2024-2028;
- Develop a five-year plan to enhance Canadian youths’ understanding of contemporary antisemitism, as outlined in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which Canada adopted in 2019;
- Make mandatory the existing antisemitism training approved for federal public servants.
FINA endorsed several of these recommendations, including B’nai Brith Canada’s call for federal funding recipients to abide by the Government’s Anti-Racism Strategy, in a December, 2024 report.
“Canada is experiencing unprecedented levels of antisemitism,” Robertson said. “The coming federal budget must allocate funds to programs that enable our Government to proactively combat hatred and extremism. B’nai Brith Canada looks forward to working with the Government to defend Canadian values, protect Jewish Canadians and secure our communities.”