April 30, 2025
OTTAWA – B’nai Brith Canada has called on the new Federal Government to “prioritize and take tangible steps to combat the crisis of antisemitism.”
In a letter Wednesday, B’nai Brith Canada wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney to express deep concerns shared by many in the Jewish community. It further implores the Government to safeguard the wellbeing and security of all marginalized groups in Canada.
Highlighting figures from the organization’s most recent Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in Canada, the letter warns that the country has experienced an unprecedented rise in antisemitism.
“Over the past two years, a deeply concerning and unacceptable new baseline for the occurrence of antisemitism has been established in Canada,” the letter said.
B’nai Brith Canada urged the Prime Minister to incorporate eight directives into the mandates of his ministerial appointees. These recommendations include that:
- The Minister of Public Safety review all entities of concern and list any that meet the criteria for designation as terrorist organizations.
- The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada review existing legislation and enhance the Government’s ability to combat hate crimes and online harms. This would include a legislative amendment to the Criminal Code that would make Canada the 20th country in the world to ban the public display of the Nazi hooked cross (Hakenkreuz) and other Nazi iconography, with reasonable exceptions for historical, educational or artistic purposes.
- The Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship review federal legislation to improve Canada’s ability to prevent entry to individuals associated with listed terrorist entities, hate groups and foreign-influence networks.
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development be mandated to authorize an independent, comprehensive, third-party audit of Canada’s continued funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNWRA), which has been suspected of providing institutional cover to individuals aligned with Hamas and other proscribed terrorist entities.
- The Minister Responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency begin an immediate investigation into Canada-registered not-for-profit organizations and charities that may be facilitating, directly or indirectly, the transfer of resources to listed terrorist entities.
- The Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity convene a national roundtable composed of community representatives, media ethicists, and regulatory experts to establish binding best-practice guidelines for conflict reporting and hate speech mitigation. These standards would align with Canada’s international human rights obligations and the principles of democratic pluralism.
- The Minister of Democratic Institutions establish a federally legislated, independent enforcement body to detect, investigate, and publicly report on foreign-influence operations. B’nai Brith Canada also called for legal protections for whistleblowers as well as victims of intimidation, in addition to secure reporting channels for such individuals.
- The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs create a task force to maintain uniform national hate-crime protocols, standardize data collection and threat-reporting methodologies, and coordinate multi-agency training across law-enforcement bodies.
“Antisemitism is spiraling out of control in Canadian cities,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “We have written this letter with the objective of outlining for the new government the serious concerns of Canada’s Jewish community and steps that can be taken immediately to address them.”
“We look forward to working with the Prime Minister and his cabinet to confront the escalating crisis of antisemitism in this country,” added David Granovsky, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Government Relations.
