Michael Higgins: Liberal government hate crime report pretends antisemitism doesn’t exist

“Hate persists when apathy prevails,” reads a new report on hate crimes by a federal government ombudsman who is supposed to be the “voice of the victim.” 

Hate also persists if you just ignore it. For example, the report by the victims’ ombudsman specifically does not mention any attacks on Jews, Jewish institutions, or the alarming number of antisemitic protests in this country. 

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The Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime reports that there was a 32 per cent increase in 2023 in the number of hate crimes reported to police but ignores the fact that attacks on Jews increased 71 per cent that year. 

If you are doing a report on hate crimes in 2023, then ignoring the biggest victims of hate seems like a massive oversight. 

It’s not as if attacks on Jews were quiet, trivial, local affairs that didn’t attract any attention. 

Antisemitic demonstrations calling for the genocide of Jews have become commonplace throughout Canada since the horror of October 7. In June, B’nai Brith had compiled a list of 18 attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues including shootings, firebombings, and vandalism. 

“It is out of control and must stop,” said Judy Foldes, chief operating officer for B’nai Brith Canada in a statement this year. “We implore police forces to monitor Jewish institutions closely and vigilantly during this troubling time for Jewish Canadians.” 

In August, police revealed that threats had been made to 100 Jewish institutions. 

And yet the “voice of the victim” stays silent on these attacks? 

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The report, Strengthening Access to Justice for Victims of Hate Crime in Canada, is primarily concerned with how victims are treated — and can be better treated — within the judicial system, with legislation and with support programs. 

But it finds time to detail hate crimes against: Indigenous, Black, and Asian communities; “2SLGBTQIA+” and gender-based Hate; ageism and disability-based hate and class discrimination and “hate against people who are unhoused.”

The report prominently features a hate-motivated attack in London, Ont., in which Salman Afzaal was killed along with his wife, Madiha, his daughter, Yumnah, and his mother Talat. 

The report also records how Mariam Musse, who works for the ombudsman, while in London covering the trial, was the subject of a racist and Islamophobic attack “simply for being a Black Muslim woman.” 

But the voice of the Jew is not heard. 

In the main body of the report, while discussing repercussions from the deadly attack on Afzaal and his family, it notes that a member of the Jewish community was worried about putting a Hanukkah menorah in their window less they be attacked. But that hardly touches on the scale of the hate being directed at the “Jewish community.” 

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Appendix B of the report does note that the ombudsman’s office has signed memorandums of understanding with the Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia and with Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism. 

A fleeting footnote finally mentions antisemitism. 

In the introduction to the report, it reads, “Recent global events have escalated hate-motivated incidents in person and online. Hate crimes target people based on parts of their identity and communicate a wider message of hate to others with similar identities.” 

What recent global events? Could that be a reference to October 7 when Hamas butchered 1,200 Jews during an attack against Israel? Is it now official policy that in a government report that so singularly ignores the plight of the Jews it is also forbidden to specifically mention that crime? 

At a press conference Tuesday to release the report, ombudsman Benjamin Roebuck was asked why there was no mention of antisemitism. 

“We obviously care deeply about how people are affected by antisemitism and Islamophobia and other forms of hate,” said Roebuck, who didn’t care enough to put hate crimes against Jews in the report. 

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“And there’s a lot that’s happening geopolitically and we didn’t want the report to particularly focus on those issues,” he said. Wait, so Roebuck appears to acknowledge rising hate against Jews but didn’t want that to be the focus? That’s nonsensical. 

 “We’ve tried to cover a wide range of issues. It wasn’t intentional to avoid any topics, but we did want to look at some of the really important cases that were coming forward and also raise the profile of hate crimes against people who are homeless and anti-Asian hate and hate against people who are older and femicide. So there’s a broad range of issues covered in the report.” 

All that hate, against so many different people, all included in Roebuck’s broad-ranging report, but the voice of the victim couldn’t spare one word for the Jews. How is that not intentional? 

Canada has an antisemitism problem that needs to be addressed at the highest level of government. But if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can just ignore it then why shouldn’t a government ombudsman. 

National Post

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