Anti-Semitism in Canada…
In its annual audit, the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada says there were 1,042 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2007, 11.4 per cent more than in 2006.B’nai Brith says there were just 250 incidents reported in 1998.
The group’s executive director, Frank Dimant, says anti-Semitism - once largely confined to urban centres - appears to be increasing in rural areas.
The group says the upward trend of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada is at odds with reports from some other large Jewish communities worldwide.
It says such incidents declined eight per cent in Britain last year, 13 per cent in the United States and 31 per cent in France.
The report says the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose 28.8 per cent in Quebec last year, to 291; 128.6 per cent in Saskatchewan, to 16; and 2.3 per cent in Ontario, to 582.
They dropped by 37.8 per cent, to 28, in Alberta - the only province to record a decline.
Allan Adel, chairman of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights, noted the spike in Quebec incidents was especially high in November, when a commission was in the midst of oft-contentious hearings into the province’s struggles accommodating immigrants.
Adel says the hearings have “unleashed latent feelings of anti-Semitism amongst Quebecers.”
“Particularly chilling is the pattern of retaliation we have witnessed against individuals who have come forward to denounce acts of racism, and in the process have become targets themselves,” he said.
“When one victim is targeted for hate, an entire community is victimized as well. This form of intimidation is intended to silence the victims, perpetuating the problem of under-reporting and distorting the true magnitude of the problem.”
The group says the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics Report found anti-Jewish bias was behind 967 of the 1,462 anti-religion hate crimes reported in the United States in 2006. The next closest group was the Muslim community, where 156 cases involved an anti-Islamic bias.
“This mirrors police findings in Canada as well,” says the B’nai Brith report.
The group says 699 of the 1,042 incidents reported in Canada last year involved harassment, 315 involved vandalism, and 28 involved violence.
What can I say? Anti-semitism is against the law, but since we’re a multicultural democracy bent on loving everybody, we can’t even oppose anti-semites.
Anti-semitism is everywhere in Quebec. It’s right there, just barely under the surface. Support for “palestine” is too tempting for all those who don’t want to seem “racist”. It’s a (disgusting) way of life.