Antisemitic incidents in Canada rise to record number for third straight year
Audit by B’nai Brith shows that there were more than 2,000 cases recorded in 2018, up 16.5 percent from the previous 12 months
Antisemitic incidents in Canada rose to a record high for the third consecutive year, according to an annual audit by B’nai Brith Canada released Monday.
The audit showed 2,041 antisemitic incidents recorded last year in Canada – 16.5 percent more than the 1,752 incidents in 2017.
“To put that in stark perspective, this represents the third straight record-breaking year for antisemitism in Canada, reflecting a ‘new normal’ regarding the landscape of antisemitism here,” said Ran Ukashi, director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights.
The group said the surge was fuelled by social media and was a worldwide trend.
According to the audit, despite the troubling increase in incidents, they remain a “marginal phenomenon” in Canada. Nearly 90 percent of the incidents took the form of “harassment,” and 80 percent came from online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Specific incidents included lit fireworks being thrown at Chasidic Jews in Quebec and two students in Saskatchewan province being harassed and beaten.
B’nai Brith Canada President Michael Mostyn said equally worrying is that anti-Jewish hatred is “surfacing in areas typically less prone to such prejudices.” Most incidents were recorded in Ontario and Quebec, but there was a marked increase elsewhere, apparently due to the online rise.
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