MONTREAL (JTA) — Canada experienced a record number of antisemitic incidents for the fourth straight year – and they’re becoming more violent.
According to the annual audit by B’nai Brith Canada, the 2,206 reported incidents in 2019 represented an 8% increase over the previous year. The Jewish community remained the most targeted religious minority in Canada.
Violent incidents in ’19 rose by 27%. They included Hasidic children sprayed with tar by construction workers in Montreal and Toronto-area Orthodox Jews being assaulted.
Among the overall incidents, Ontario saw a 62.8% increase and Quebec was up 12.3%. Areas outside those provinces, however, saw declines.
The coronavirus is only making Jew-hatred worse, according to Ran Ukashi, the director of the B’nai Brith League for Human Rights. Ukashi spoke of “utterly false” notions that Israel developed the COVID-19 virus to boost the pharmaceutical industry and that Orthodox Jews are deliberately spreading the virus.
“That’s the nature of the antisemitic activity that we are hearing regarding the alleged culpability of Jews in COVID-19,” B’nai Brith CEO Michael Mostyn said.
The audit noted that last year, the Canadian government adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.