EDITORIAL: Non-Jewish Canadians condemn antisemitism
· Toronto Sun
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Ever since the explosion of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Canada’s beleaguered Jewish community – a mere 1% of Canada’s population – has worried about having to fight the rising tide of hatred against it largely alone.
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That concern, and fear, was voiced by Deborah Lyons, appointed by the Trudeau government as Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism just days after Oct. 7, who resigned her post in frustration three months before her term was up last July.
Lyons told the Canadian Jewish News at the time she was exhausted from nearly two years of “waking up every day to a fight,” trying to get Canadian business and religious leaders and politicians to speak up and stand with the Jewish community, which left her “despondent and despairing.”
Governments, she said, “found it easier to hold summits to fight carjackings and tariffs – yet could not cooperate when it came to combatting hate.”
In that light, an open letter signed by 80 prominent non-Jewish Canadians describing themselves as an ad hoc, non-partisan group of business and community leaders published Saturday in the National Post and other Postmedia papers condemning antisemitism is an overdue step in the right direction.
“We ask our colleagues to join us in condemning any act of antisemitism in this country,” the letter says.
“We are issuing an urgent call for respect and to safeguard the equality of all Canadians. Hate and intolerance have no place in Canada’s workplaces, public spaces, anywhere.”
Among the signatories are senior executives from Postmedia, Telus, National Bank, Sunlife Financial, Rogers Communications, Scotiabank, University of Toronto academics, former prime minister Stephen Harper and former Toronto mayor John Tory.
Somewhat ironically, the letter quotes from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto on June 1 condemning antisemitism in which he said: “It requires all of us to raise our voices in disgust and defiance when we see the ugly face of antisemitism” given that many Jewish leaders criticized the speech for lacking any new specific measures to address antisemitism.
For example, the letter calls for a constant and consistent enforcement of Canada’s anti-hate laws that many Canadians feel has been lacking ever since Oct. 7, 2023.