Canada has never been a safe country for Jews. It wasn’t during the Holocaust and it isn’t now. The chant of globalize the intifada isn’t just echoing through the streets, it’s being carried out in our cities, in our schools, in our synagogues. And Canada, true to its history, is standing by, wringing its hands, and doing nothing.
Remember the St. Louis. In 1939 a ship filled with more than 900 Jewish refugees fled Nazi Germany. They sailed to Canada begging for sanctuary. They were turned away. Forced back to Europe, many of the passengers were murdered in the Holocaust. That was Canada’s official policy at the time: none is too many. A deliberate decision to shut the door on desperate Jews. At the very same time this country would later welcome Nazi war criminals with open arms. Canada didn’t just fail Jews then, it betrayed them.
And that betrayal continues today.
The anti Jewish attack wave of November 2023 should have been a wake up call. Azrieli Talmud Torah and Yeshiva Gedola, two Jewish schools in Montreal, were both blasted by gunfire in the middle of the night. Doors scarred with bullets, classrooms marked as targets. Just days later Yeshiva Gedola was attacked again. Police made arrests, yes, but what difference does it make when the message is already written in gunfire. The shooters pulled the trigger, and every Jew in Montreal knew exactly what it meant: Jewish children, Jewish education, Jewish life is fair game in this country.
Then came the firebombings. Beth Tikvah, the synagogue physically attached to Hebrew Foundation School, was hit twice. Flames roaring against the front doors, flames meant to send Jewish kids the message that they are not safe. Federation CJA, the heart of Jewish communal life, was attacked too. Windows smashed, peace obliterated.
On the streets it was no different. A Jewish father beaten in a park in front of his children. In Saint Laurent a man screaming that he would kill the Jews. Both arrested, but does anyone believe those charges carry weight. The terror already landed. The hate already spilled out into the open.
Toronto carried the same sickness. The Bais Chaya Mushka girls’ school was shot at three separate times in 2024, including on Yom Kippur. Three times in one year a Jewish school targeted, and every time the same routine followed: politicians denouncing it as “unacceptable” while doing nothing to stop it from happening again.
And here is the Canadian disgrace that makes it even worse. Security guards at Jewish schools, at synagogues, at community centers are forbidden by law to carry firearms. While Jewish kids walk into buildings that have been shot at and firebombed, the guards standing at the doors are unarmed. They can watch, they can radio for help, they can maybe take a bullet, but they cannot stop an attack. Canada has stripped its Jews of the right to defend themselves and then told them to trust a system that has failed them at every turn.
Meanwhile, every single week in Montreal and Toronto, mobs of Pro Hamas agitators march through the streets screaming globalize the intifada. They block roads, wave their flags, threaten Jews to their faces, and the police stand aside. They don’t disperse the mobs. They don’t make arrests. They protect the protest, not the people being targeted.
And then there was Indigo. The flagship Canadian bookstore, founded by a Jewish woman, Heather Reisman, already vandalized once by the so called Indigo 11 in 2023. Pro Hamas activists splashed paint and covered the store with their propaganda. They were charged, yes, but the courts handed out soft slaps, conditional discharges, dropped cases, leniency dressed up as justice. The lesson was clear: attack a Jewish owned business, you will not pay the price. This weekend it escalated again. Pro Hamas mobs stormed Indigo, occupied the store, filled it with their slogans. And the police, they lined up outside and let it happen. Allowed the takeover. Allowed a Jewish owned business to be humiliated in broad daylight.
Canada has terrorism laws. They are supposed to apply when violence or intimidation is carried out to advance a political or ideological cause. That is exactly what is happening here. Shooters attacking Jewish schools to terrify the community. Firebombers torching synagogues to spread fear. Mobs occupying Indigo to send a political message. Attackers beating a Jewish father in the park while shouting their cause. These are not random crimes. These are terrorist acts under Canadian law. So why isn’t the government using its terrorism legislation. Why are these criminals being treated as vandals, as hotheads, as troublemakers, when they are in fact domestic terrorists. The answer is obvious. Canada will not call them terrorists because it doesn’t want to offend the mobs screaming outside its Parliament.
Justin Trudeau was prime minister when the bullets first tore through Jewish schools. He condemned the violence and did nothing. Mark Carney is prime minister now, and the script hasn’t changed. Firebombs, bullets, mobs, threats, and still no real action. Instead, this government doubles down, preparing to recognize a Palestinian state while Jews in Canada are under siege from Pro Hamas mobs.
And what about the Jewish MPs. Anthony Housefather, Ya’ara Saks, Ben Carr. They sit quietly in caucus, neutered, rolled out when the party needs a photo, silenced when their community needs a voice. They have chosen loyalty to the party over loyalty to their people.
This is not local. This is global. France, Germany, Britain, America, and now Canada. The chant is the same everywhere: globalize the intifada. The actions are the same: bullets, firebombs, beatings, mobs. And in Canada, the betrayal is worse, because this country has a history of turning its back on Jews. From the St. Louis to the Nazi war criminals, from quotas to riots, and now to firebombed synagogues and overrun bookstores, Canada has always chosen the wrong side.
The Jews of Canada are under fire. Their schools, their synagogues, their businesses, their families are targeted. And the government not only refuses to defend them, it emboldens their attackers. Canada has betrayed its Jews before. It is betraying them again. And this time, it is doing it in the open, with mobs chanting murder in the streets and leaders practicing selective deafness.
