It was surely a distressing sign of the times in Canada.
Josh Matlow, the councillor who represents the Toronto district of St. Paul’s in city hall, sounded an alarm in his latest newsletter.
His informative monthly bulletin usually deals with local community topics ranging from design in public spaces to ravine protection. But in this instance, he turned his attention to a completely different and urgent issue — antisemitism.
To the best of my knowledge, it was the first time he had addressed this subject.
“The rise in antisemitic acts of harassment, intimidation and violence continues to be unacceptable and alarming,” he wrote in the opening paragraph of his brief essay, “Taking Action On Antisemitism.”
Saying he has been working closely with Jewish organizations “to strengthen the safety of their institutions,” he disclosed that the city will install protective barriers in front of the Chabad daycare and school on Bathurst Street to guard against “hostile vehicles.”
Matlow’s disclosure hit home because I live only one kilometer away from the Chabad building, which is in the center of Toronto, Canada’s biggest city. With a population of about 200,000 Jews, Toronto is home to nearly 50 percent of Jewish Canadians. At present, Canada’s Jewish community is the fourth largest in the world.
Matlow, a Canadian Jew himself, made a few more relevant points.
He expressed support of a colleague’s motion to establish a joint municipal, provincial and federal task force to combat and prevent acts of antisemitic hate and violence.
He congratulated the Toronto Police Service for having launched a Counter-Terrorism Security Unit. He said he had voted for a City Council resolution to ask the federal government to create a tax credit program to support parents of children in “identifiably ethnocultural, faith-based … institutions that bear extraordinary security costs to keep their communities safe.”
In closing, he pledged to support Jewish community leaders in demanding “urgent and decisive action” against antisemitism.
Matlow’s missive reached my mailbox shortly after B’nai Brith Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Senate Committee on Human Rights released reports on antisemitism in Canada.
B’nai Brith documented 6,800 incidents in 2025, the highest number since it began keeping records in 1982. Online harassment formed the majority of incidents, with nearly 300 cases of vandalism and 10 cases of violence having been listed.
Richard Robertson, a B’nai Brith official, struck a glum note: “Do we want Canada to be the nation that succumbed to the forces of hate and abandoned its Jewish community in its time of need? Is that the narrative that we want to symbolize … in our collective history?”
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported that antisemitism continues “to persist in Canada, manifesting itself in different ways — vandalism and graffiti, circulation of hate propaganda, intolerant and racist statements, bomb threats to Jewish schools and community centers …”
The Senate Committee on Human Rights pointed out that Canada’s Jewish community has been the object of 70 percent of documented hate crimes since 2023, the year when Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel in a murderous rampage that claimed the lives of roughly 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
The committee’s chairperson, Senator Paulette Senior, said, “It is unacceptable to me … that a community should live in fear just because of who they are or what they believe.”
Her colleague, Senator David Arnot, said, “When people feel unsafe expressing who they are in public life, the promises of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are not fully realized. Antisemitism is not only an attack on Jewish Canadians. It is an attack on our democracy.”
The committee calls for the creation of a task force to address antisemitism in cooperation with key agencies such as the RCMP and Canadian Heritage. It also recommends the reinstatement of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism.
It was replaced several months ago by an advisory council aimed at fighting hate and promoting national unity. Arnot believes that the panel, having created “a wealth and understanding and relationships,” should be reinstated.
All three reports were released after the federal Integrated Threat Assessment Center warned that synagogues and Jewish community centers and schools in Canada face the realistic prospect of a violent attack by a lone wolf extremist within the next six months.
The current situation is such that antisemitism is no longer confined to the margins. “It has spread across our society,” noted Noah Shack, the chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
“The hate is coming from the left and the right,” The Globe and Mail columnist Marsha Lederman wrote.
In the meantime, the Senate should finally pass Bill C-9, which would criminalize the willful promotion of hatred toward ethnic and religious groups.
It is seriously needed. Now.