This marked the second successive year in which the 2,000 plateau was exceeded, amounting to an average of more than six incidents per day.
The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada in 2019 set records for a fourth consecutive year.
The 2019 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, produced by B’nai Brith Canada’s advocacy arm, the League for Human Rights, recorded 2,207 incidents of antisemitism, an increase of more than 8 per cent compared with the previous year.
This marked the second successive year in which the 2,000 plateau was exceeded, amounting to an average of more than six incidents per day.
Assaults became more brazen and violent in 2019, with several occurring in broad daylight and some directly in front of eyewitnesses, the report showed.
Among the incidents reported are :
- An assault against a visibly observant Jewish man by a Montreal taxi driver.
- A Toronto woman being spat on after being accosted with antisemitic abuse by her neighbour.
- A group of Hasidic children in Outremont, Que. being sprayed with tar by a construction worker.
- A physical attack against two young observant Jews in a Toronto area public park.
There was an increase of more than 11 per cent in anonymous online harassment, much of it advocating genocide and Holocaust denial.
“The record numbers of incidents we have documented in recent years have become the new baseline for antisemitism in Canada – and they are alarming,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada.
“These figures, and the brazenness of the incidents we are seeing, would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago. Instead, they have become a loathsome reality in this country. It is not only Jewish people who must be appalled by this pattern. It’s any law-abiding, decent human being.”