It was a tough week. Canada’s Jews could use some help from our leaders.
This is what antizionism
looks like. Within the space of a week, three
Toronto synagogues were shot up. In the same week, antizionist gangsters
also shot up the Old Avenue Restaurant in Thornhill, owned by Esther Bakinka, a well-known Jewish activist. Their message
couldn't be clearer: speak against Jew-haters at your peril.
But it’s 2026. Here in
Canada, shooting up a Jewish business because it’s a Jewish business, isn’t
sensational enough to make the mainstream news. Only the Jewish press even
noted the Old Avenue Restaurant and also YEDI, another Jewish business, were
both hit the same night as Temple Emanu‑El. (here).
Such outrages aren’t new.
Since Hamas started its war against Israel on October 7, 2023, antizionists
have shot up a Jewish girl’s elementary school here in Toronto three times (here) and a Jewish school in
Montreal twice (here).
Beyond that, countless
synagogues and Jewish businesses have been vandalized or suffered arson
attacks. In fact, antizionists vandalized the Old Avenue Restaurant once before
in January 2024 at its Toronto location, where I sometimes eat (here).
As always, what starts with the Jews doesn’t stay
just with the Jews. A couple weeks ago, the gangsters fired 17 shots at the
Saliwan Gym in Thornhill – an Iranian-owned business where Toronto-area
Iranians gather to plan anti-regime rallies (here).
A pair of antizionist
gangsters also recently fired shots at the American Consulate on University
Avenue in downtown Toronto. That's an attack the police are taking seriously.
All the other attacks, not so much. After all, this has been going on now for two
and a half years. And what’s been done?
Not much.
Yet day by day, a mass
casualty terror attack grows more and more likely. Recently, in Michigan,
a man armed with a rifle and a car full of explosives rammed into a synagogue
with 100 children inside. Fortunately, synagogue security shot him before he
was able to murder anyone.
And no one has forgotten
the attack on a Hanukkah celebration this past January at Bondi Beach, with 15
murdered and 40 injured – in Australia, a peaceable country very like Canada.
We’ve also seen
ISIS-inspired terrorists sexually assault and attempt to abduct Jewish women in
two separate incidents this past May and June in the Toronto area (here), and Canada’s Integrated
Threat Assessment Centre has been warning for the past year that a terror
attack against the Jewish community “remains a realistic possibility” (here).
Yeah, we didn’t actually
need an official government agency to tell us that.
In response, the Carney
government has added $10 million to the Canada Community Security
Program. Ten million sounds substantial, but Canada has hundreds of
synagogues, schools and other Jewish institutions that need protecting. Not to
mention the thousands of Iranian, Muslim, and Sikh institutions that also
have a claim on this cash.
 |
| Bais Chaya Mushka |
This bit of money will buy a few more security
cameras, walls and gates, bollards, steel doors, and reinforced windows. But
you know what? The Bais Chaya Mushka Girls School already had all that and it
didn’t stop the antizionists from shooting it up three times.
Plus, while security
hardware is pricey enough, the real expense is salaries for guards. Beth
Tzedek, a synagogue I know well, already spends $400,000 a year on security.
With the rise in antizionist gangsterism, it will spend more (here).
What about businesses? No
grant money has been set aside for the Old Avenue Restaurant nor for our
friends at the Saliwan Gym. Nor for countless other Jewish and
Iranian businesses at risk.
And what about my friend
who doesn't wear her Jewish star anymore? Will the feds supply her with an
armed escort so she can walk her dogs and go about her life assured that she
won't be harassed, sexually assaulted, or kidnapped?
What about Jewish
households with mezuzahs on their doorposts who don’t want to see them stolen as
happened at some 120 apartments in December (here) or families who have
taken their mezuzahs down, not wishing to be so visibly Jewish? Will our
government assign a Mountie to every Jewish home in Canada?
If the feds are simply
going to play defence, they need to up the budget to $10 billion, not $10
million. Even then, it's a losing strategy.
 |
Antizionist protesters blocking
the Gardiner Expressway
in downtown Toronto |
I suppose I need to repeat the obvious: The police
policy of hands-off antizionist protesters has encouraged them to express
their hatred ever more violently. Blame for this lies with our police chiefs
who give the orders, but also with our mayors, our premiers and our prime
minister.
None of them has said,
enough! Enforce the law. Arrest people who block the trucks that deliver food to our grocery stores from entering the Ontario Food terminal (here), who block streets and highways (here), who block ambulances (here), who block entrances to
synagogues, and hospitals (here), who block Jewish
community centres and seniors’ home (here).
Stop the intimidation. Every week, antizionist
protesters dressed up as terrorists and with their faces covered gather at the
corner of Bathurst and Sheppard in Toronto.
Why there?
There's no Israeli or
American consulate at the corner, no MP's constituency office, no
political presence of any kind. But it is the heart of Toronto's
Jewish community, so that’s where antizionists choose to gather – to intimidate
and to demonstrate their Jew-hatred.
 |
Protester at Bathurst and Sheppard
holds sign, one of several with
Nazi-style caricatures of Jews |
The police do make some arrests – 154 of them
since Oct 7, 2023. A third of those cases are still pending, but out of
the 96 cases that have been resolved, in 94 cases nothing
happened: the charges were dropped or stayed, or the accused received
absolute discharges (here).
No wonder the police make
so few arrests. Our courts have decided that antizionist thuggery is legal.
But beyond the obvious of
enforcing the law, we need our leaders to speak out against incitement. Sure,
Mark Carney posts a Tweet when someone shoots up a synagogue. But worldwide, we
face the largest and the most organized anti-Jewish propaganda program since
the Nazi era.
Undoubtedly, this program
of vilification against Israel and Jews has succeeded. Just look around – this
is the reason thugs are shooting at synagogues.
About this, Mark Carney
has said Not One Word.
Jews in Canada aren’t
leaving yet (mostly), but we’re counting our passports. I've got a golden
ticket: dual American citizenship. We hear Alaska's friendly to Jews (and our dogs
would love it). Most other states are good candidates, too.
But some people I know
just have dual British citizenship, and unfortunately, the anti-Jewish hatred
is even worse in the UK. Recently, antizionists torched four
ambulances in north London belonging to Hatzolet, a Jewish volunteer service that services Jews and non-Jews alike (here). In October, two Jews
were killed in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester,
capping a record-high year for anti-Jewish incidents in the UK (here). And for visible Jews,
central London has become a dangerous no-go area.
But there's also Israel. Yes,
the Ayatollahs and all the terrorist organizations they fund, arm and train are
doing their best to wipe the Jews off the map, but (a) the Ayatollahs are losing
and (b) the Israeli government's actually on our side.
Not so here. Do you see
Carney spending any political capital to come to our defence? Nope, me neither.
April 4 update: Last night, antizionist gangsters attacked the Old Avenue Restaurant again, this time at the Toronto location. They fired 14 shots into the building. This time, at
least, the media is taking notice: here.
***
This piece will also appear this Sunday, April 5, on the Canadian Zionist Forum.
Read more of my pieces here (and scroll down). For pieces specifically of Jewish interest, see here. ~Brian
