Anti-Semitic incidents highest on record in Canada last year with 490 in Ontario

The Jewish advocacy group says anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in Canada with 20 per cent of the incidents last year involving Holocaust denial.

Thestar.com
May 9, 2017
By The Canadian Press

A Jewish advocacy group says anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in Canada.

B’nai Brith Canada says there were more than 1,700 anti-Semitic incidents across the country last year - the highest number the group has ever recorded.

Twenty per cent of the incidents involved Holocaust denial, a sharp increase from five per cent in 2015.

Read more:Anti-Semitism rises, but violence against Jews falls, report says

The group has been tracking anti-Semitic incidents since 1982, which is based on police data and calls to the group’s anti-hate hotline.

Of the 1,728 incidents, 490 occurred in Ontario.

B’nai Brith Canada traces most of the Holocaust denial incidents to Arabic media, and credits Arabic speakers with bringing the incidents to the group’s attention.

Eleven of the incidents were violent, 158 were vandalism and the remainder are classified as harassment, according to the audit.

B’nai Brith Canada doesn’t blame U.S. politics for the higher statistics last year and notes anti-Semitic incidents were lower than usual in Canada at the time of the presidential election. Instead, B’nai Brith says anti-Semitism at home is a made-in-Canada phenomenon.