In the wake of recent shootings at Jewish schools, the federal government is planning to hold a national forum to combat antisemitism in the country.
The forum will be held in Ottawa in February of 2025 to “discuss the growing public safety threat of antisemitism,” the Department of Justice Canada announced on Friday.
“Canada has seen a troubling rise in antisemitic incidents, threats, and hate crimes,” the department said.
“The Government of Canada recognizes the urgent need for national leadership to ensure Jewish Canadians feel safe in their synagogues, schools, and communities.”
The justice minister, attorney general, and the minister and associate minister of public safety will co-chair the forum next year.
Federal, provincial, and municipal leadership, along with law enforcement and prosecutors will also be in attendance.
The announcement comes after the third shooting this year at the same Jewish girls’ school in Toronto, reported by police on Friday.
Shots were fired at the Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary School in the city’s north end Friday morning.
Police said the school was empty at the time of the shooting and no injuries were reported.
The all-girls institution was targeted a second time in October, on Yom Kippur, with shots fired from a vehicle on Chesswood Drive, striking the window, according to police.
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A few days later, police announced the arrests of a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy in connection with the shooting.
That incident followed on the heels of another shooting in May, in which two suspects fired shots at the school at around 5 a.m. on a Saturday.
Also in May, a Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire.
In August, more than 100 synagogues, Jewish organizations and doctors in multiple cities across the country received the same threatening email.
The email included threats of death and physical harm and indicated the goal was to cause “terror.”
Intelligence documents recently obtained by Global News warned of “escalating antisemitic activity,” saying an extremist attack targeting Canada’s Jewish community is a “realistic possibility.”
Released almost a year after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered an Israeli military response in Gaza and Lebanon, the reports show that national security analysts fear anti-Jewish sentiment could lead to terrorism.
The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada more than doubled in 2023 compared with the year prior, according to an annual audit performed by Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith Canada that was released in May.
In the audit, the group logged 5,791 incidents that meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. That represented a 109 per cent increase over 2022, when there were 2,769 incidents.
All the incidents reported through the audit saw significant increases after October 2023, following the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
–with files from The Canadian Press and Global News
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