When Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at a Toronto synagogue on June 1 about the scourge of antisemitism following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, he described the problem, but offered few solutions.
However, meaningfully addressing Jew-hate means more than just offering a prognosis; it means providing practical prescriptions to address antisemitism, including identifying its culprits, and demonstrating zero tolerance for its purveyors.
Here is the speech that Prime Minister Carney should have made articulating his plan for combating raging antisemitism in Canada.
Thank you all for welcoming me to the heart of your community.
Before I continue, I want to begin with an apology.
As your Prime Minister, I have failed the Jewish community. I should have been here earlier. I should have come after Jewish schools were shot at. I should have come after synagogues were firebombed. I should have come after Jewish students were harassed on university campuses. I should have come after Jewish businesses were targeted.
I should have been here.
And for not being here sooner, I am sorry.
Not because a speech can solve antisemitism, but because leadership means showing up.
And too many Jewish Canadians have spent the last few years feeling abandoned by institutions that were supposed to protect them.
Tonight, I want to speak plainly. Canada is facing the most serious antisemitism crisis of the post-war era, and this crisis is not somebody else’s responsibility.
It is ours. It is mine.
Because antisemitism did not emerge in a vacuum. It emerged in our streets, on our campuses, on our social media platforms, and in our governmental institutions.
Too often, it has been tolerated, excused, minimized, rationalized, or ignored.
That must end today.
Let me begin with something that should be obvious but has become strangely difficult for many people to say.
Israel is a real country. A democratic country. A country whose government, like every government, can be criticized. Reasonable people can disagree about Israeli policy. They can disagree about military strategy. They can disagree about diplomacy. They can disagree about settlements. They can disagree about the conduct of a war.
That is not antisemitism. That is democracy.
But there is a line.
And in Canada, we have become increasingly unwilling to acknowledge where that line exists. When people call for “Globalize the Intifada,” they are not advocating peace, they are invoking a campaign of violence that has claimed thousands of civilian lives.
When people chant “From the River to the Sea,” they are not calling for coexistence, they are calling for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state and all the Jews who live within her borders.
And when Canadian Jewish schools, synagogues, community centres, and businesses become targets because of events taking place thousands of kilometres away, that is not political activism, it is antisemitism.
We must stop pretending otherwise.
Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of Canadian democracy. But freedom of expression does not require us to abandon moral clarity, and it does not ask governments to look the other way when hatred disguises itself as activism.
We have become accustomed to speaking about “antisemitism and all forms of hate.” But the crisis facing Jewish Canadians today deserves to be addressed directly, not folded into a broader discussion. Tonight, we are talking about antisemitism, full stop.
Worse, we continue to act as though it could be managed through statements, consultations, reports, and studies. That it is a phenomenon to be understood rather than stopped.
The Jewish community has been studied enough. Jewish Canadians have testified enough. Reports have been written and data has been collected. Statistics have been analyzed. The Jewish population of Canada represents less than 1% of our great nation, and yet they face 70% of religiously motivated hate crimes and more than ¼ of ALL hate crimes reported in this country. Put another way, Jewish Canadians are the single most targeted minority group in this country for hate crimes, despite being less than 1% of Canada’s population.
That should shame us all.
The time for studying whether there is a problem has long passed. We know there is a problem. The question is whether we are prepared to act.
That is why tonight, I begin by announcing that the Government of Canada will immediately convene a permanent advisory council composed of respected representatives from Canada’s Jewish community. We will ask for nominations from Jewish Canadians — this will not be a council made of political appointments to our friends, but will be composed of the people that the Jewish community trusts to represent their interests.
Not to study whether antisemitism exists or to explain antisemitism to those experiencing it.
Their only job will be to help shape the government’s response to it. Because every community deserves the right to help define its own challenges and participate in crafting the solutions.
No community should be spoken for without also being listened to. That is why ultimately, Canada’s Jewish community will be the ones to tell us what you need, not the other way around. And we promise to listen.
Second, I want to address an uncomfortable reality. Canada is a nation of immigrants. That is one of our greatest strengths. My own family story, like the stories of millions of Canadians, is rooted in immigration. But successful immigration requires more than economic opportunity. It requires a shared commitment to the civic values that make pluralism possible.
We cannot tolerate new Canadians importing old hatreds into a new country. Canada welcomes people from every region of the world. We welcome their languages, their cultures, their traditions, their faiths. We know that radical Islam is a disturbing phenomenon in Canada, and over the last 2.5 years, these extremists – alongside their allies in the far left – have sought to attack Jews, their allies and indeed Western values at large.
That will not be tolerated. We do not welcome antisemitism. We do not welcome sectarian hatred. And we do not welcome the belief that some Canadians deserve fewer rights, fewer protections, or less dignity because they are Jewish.
That is why our government will work with settlement agencies, educators, and community organizations to strengthen civic education for newcomers.
Not to erase anyone’s identity or to demand assimilation. But to ensure that every new Canadian understands the responsibilities that come with citizenship in a pluralistic democracy.
Because pluralism is not automatic, it must be learned, nurtured and deliberately built.
Most importantly, it must be defended, and it must be renewed by every generation.
Finally, there is one remaining area where we must act.
For too long, our Jewish neighbours have watched demonstrations move through their communities carrying messages that would never be tolerated if directed at any other minority group.
Peaceful protest is protected in Canada. Political disagreement is protected in Canada. Criticism of governments is protected in Canada.
Intimidation is not. Harassment is not. Threats are not. And no community should be forced to live under a constant atmosphere of fear in the places where they worship, educate their children, and build their lives.
For years, Jewish Canadians have watched political demonstrations deliberately target residential neighbourhoods, schools, community centres, and houses of worship. This is unacceptable.
If your grievance is with the Government of Israel, then protest the Government of Israel.
Protest Parliament. Protest elected officials. Protest diplomatic institutions.
But Jewish Canadians are not stand-ins for a foreign government, and they will no longer be treated as though they are.
Political protest belongs where political decisions are made, not where vulnerable communities live.
That is why I am directing the Minister of Justice to introduce legislation prohibiting organized political demonstrations whose purpose is to target identifiable residential communities on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.
Canadians have the right to protest. They do not have the right to intimidate.
But legislation alone will not solve this problem.
We are facing a broader challenge: the rise of organized extremism, hate movements, foreign influence operations, and ideologically motivated violence that increasingly threatens the safety of Jewish Canadians and, ultimately, the cohesion of our society itself.
That is why tonight I am also announcing the creation of a National Antisemitism and Extremism Task Force, modelled on the proposal advanced by Toronto City Councillors James Pasternak and Mike Colle.
This task force will bring together the RCMP, provincial police services, municipal police services, intelligence agencies, prosecutors, and relevant government departments to coordinate Canada’s response to antisemitic violence, extremist activity, intimidation campaigns, and hate-motivated threats.
Its purpose is not to study antisemitism, but to stop it.
I have directed the Minister of Public Safety to provide recommendations within ninety days on strengthening intelligence-sharing, improving enforcement, identifying gaps in our existing legal framework, and ensuring that antisemitic violence and intimidation are treated with the seriousness they deserve.
The Jewish community has been studied enough. The time for reports and consultations alone has passed.
The time for action has arrived.
Because this is not only about antisemitism.
It is about Canada.
It is about whether we still believe in a country where people of different faiths, backgrounds, cultures, and histories can live together in freedom and mutual respect.
It is about whether citizenship still carries obligations as well as rights.
And it is about whether we are prepared to defend those principles when they are tested.
The Jewish community should not carry this burden alone.
Because if Jewish Canadians cannot live openly, visibly, and confidently as Jews, then Canada has failed.
And if Canada fails its Jews, Canada has failed itself.
So tonight, let me say this directly to Jewish Canadians:
You belong here.
Not conditionally.
Not temporarily.
Not at the discretion of shifting public opinion.
You belong here because this is your home.
You belong here because this is your country.
And as long as I am Prime Minister, the Government of Canada will act like it.
Thank you.
