A new audit from B’nai Brith Canada shows a nearly 143 per cent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut in 2018.
The audit also notes some specific anti-Semitic incidents in Canada, including a Grade 10 student in Winnipeg who was mocked over her “Jewish nose” and her relatives who died in the Holocaust.
“Antisemitism has real world consequences,” said Ran Ukashi, the national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s advocacy arm the League for Human Rights, in the audit.
“We are nearly two decades into the 21st century, yet we continue to witness a regrettably continuous evolution of antisemitism in Canada,” said Ukashi.
The report, which was produced by the League for Human Rights, used data collected by the league and law enforcement agencies.
The audit breaks down the incidents by region, as opposed to province or territory, because the numbers are gathered by aggregating Jewish communities of various sizes. Therefore, the report uses the term Prairies to refer to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nunavut.
According to the audit, in 2018 there were a total of 131 anti-Semitic incidents in that area, which is a 142.6 increase from the 54 incidents tracked in 2017.
Of the 131 incidents, the reports says, 112 were harassment, 18 were vandalism and one was violent.
The document shows that in 2018 there were 2041 anti-Semitic incidents across Canada, a large number of which were concentrated in Ontario and Quebec, home to the country’s largest Jewish populations.
“To put that in stark perspective, this represents the third straight record-breaking year for antisemitism in Canada, reflecting a “new normal” regarding the landscape of antisemitism here,” said Ukashi.
“Not only have we seen a significant uptick in online expressions of anti-Jewish hatred, but antisemitism has increasingly sprouted in regions that are typically less prone to such prejudices, including Eastern Canada, the Prairies and parts of Western Canada,” said Ukashi.
