The Broken Social Contract: When Antisemitism Goes Unchecked in Canada
There is a lawlessness of anarchy taking hold in this country, the license to hate is targeting Jews and the rhetoric is starting to lead to violence.
During a casual conversation with a young man at a downtown art exhibit, I was told—quite earnestly—that the people who currently occupy Israel are not the “real Jews,” but rather Europeans who took over Palestine because Europe had no more space. He doubled down: “It’s easy to see. Just look at them—blond hair, blue eyes.”
I left the conversation advising him to read some history books and maybe visit Israel. But what struck me was the sincerity of his ignorance. He believed this. He had inherited his misinformation as a truth.
On my morning walks through the University of Toronto campus, I am confronted daily with declarations of hate: “F*ck Israel” seems to be the message of choice. These aren’t political critiques—they are the normalization and demonization of the Jewish people. Sound familiar? I wouldn’t be honest if I said it didn’t affect me. I will admit to feeling targeted and demoralized by seeing it constantly in my face. That, of course, is the point. This morning I encountered a number of people cycling around Queens Park waving the Palestinian flag, draped in Keffiyeh, and yelling all the usual three word bytes. What makes me shake my head is that they are seemingly liberal marxists who, with the exception of the Jew, stand for humanity. I wonder how they will fare under the Jihadists they so desperately support.
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Then there is the increase volume in violence and disruptive protests. A Montreal father beaten in front of his child. A total stoppage of traffic by Palestinian protestors at one of Toronto’s busiest intersection on a Friday afternoon, without permit- yet no resistance or law and order by police.
The problem we have in Canada today is twofold.
Canadian are being misled by those we are supposed to trust
Canada lacks clear legislative definitions around incitement to hate and violence
Canadians are being misled by those we are supposed to trust. Our national broadcaster, the CBC, and our Prime Minister have made public statements that echo The Hamas Terrorist propaganda machine or rely on unverified claims from biased sources. That gives misinformation the credibility of authority. It confuses the uninformed and emboldens the malicious.
Canada lacks clear legislative definitions around incitement to hate and violence, especially when it comes to antisemitism. This legal vacuum neuters law enforcement, weakens judicial response, and grants effective immunity to those who engage in hateful rhetoric. It gives license to the lawlessness.
Man convicted of threatening to bomb ‘every’ Toronto synagogue, ‘kill as many Jews as possible
When someone like Waisuddin Akbari ’makes a public statement to “Kill as many Jews as possible”, we will never know if he had the intent to act on it. But we do know that someone else might. Someone who believes the rhetoric and misinformation.
Websites like findIDFsoldiers.net—which cleverly use publicly available data to “out” Jewish individuals—do not exist to promote dialogue. They are modern-day hit lists. Digital blood libels. And yet our government, fully aware of the danger, has failed to shut it down.
As a Jew in Canada, I no longer feel that the social contract applies to me. The promise that all citizens are equally protected under the laws of this country feels broken. It feels like when it comes to Jews, there is an exception.
We are told there is no tolerance for hate—but there seems to be an exception made when that hate is directed at us.
And that’s what worries me the most.
One day, someone—deranged, radicalized, misled—will act. It won’t come with a warning. It will happen in a moment. A flash. A knife. A bomb. A bullet. And our nation will pause in horror at a tragedy that could have been prevented.
But we’ll know the truth: the warning signs were there. We just chose to ignore them.