A new poll has found a strong majority of Canadians respect and trust their Jewish neighbours, but a small minority feels differently because they believe Jews have a collective responsibility for Israel’s actions.
Jack Jedwab, the president and CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute, who released the poll by EKOS, said the results are very disturbing in a time of rising antisemitism in Canada.
“My concern is that collective blame can also provide a form of moral rationalization for antisemitic incidents,” Jedwab told National Post.
(Sidebar: that's the plan.)
“When Jews are treated as responsible for actions attributed to Israel, hostility, discrimination and even more extreme forms of antisemitism risk being presented as understandable or justified responses to events in the Middle East.”
The poll analyzed responses from 1,232 Canadians aged 18 and over between Oct. 9 and 15.
It was released today to mark International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism. On the evening of Nov. 9, 1938, a series of antisemitic riots took place in Nazi Germany. Homes belonging to Jewish families, Jewish businesses and synagogues were targeted and vandalized. Jewish people were attacked. It became known as Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass.
Canada has been battling a rise in antisemitism, notably since October 7, when Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel in 2023, sparking a war in the Middle East. An anti-Israel movement spread globally, affecting Canada and resulting in protests, boycotts, violence, and the targeting of Jewish and Israeli-owned businesses.
The poll sheds light on how Canadians feel about the Jewish community in the country. It found that 85 per cent of Canadians surveyed had “much or some” respect for Jewish Canadians.
Seventy-four per cent of Canadians said they trusted Jews and 70 per cent perceived that they shared values with them. Sixty per cent said they were in contact with Jews “often or sometimes.”
A small group of respondents reported little or no respect for Jews and provided explanations for how they felt. There were 100 responses.
Among those answers, the most common one (41 per cent) was that Jewish people had a collective responsibility for Israel’s actions.
Jedwab said he thought this kind of attitude was “most troubling.” Although, he noted, it was only a minority who felt this way — not Canadians as a whole.
(Sidebar: wrong. This is how the morally-posturing, unthinking crowd really feels. It will start as a drop and then a downpour. I don't remember Jewish schools, businesses and even people being attacked while growing up. Do you?)
One person who took part in the poll said they disrespected Jewish people because Jews “are participating in a genocide.”
Jedwab said he found the statements that bordered on “Holocaust inversion” to be especially disturbing.
“Portraying Jews collectively as perpetrators of atrocities comparable to those historically committed against them turns the memory of Jewish suffering into an accusation against Jews themselves,” he said.
“It is repugnant to invoke the Holocaust to morally condemn Jews as a people.”
Other reasons given for not having respect for Jewish people included their religion, beliefs and cultural practices (16 per cent), stereotypes, conspiracies and perceived behaviour (also 16 per cent), insularity, exclusivity and lack of integration (10 per cent), and negative personal experiences (3 per cent.)
And there it is.
Oh, but the Jews aren't alone in being isolated, targeted and being scapegoated:
Conservative MP Andrew Lawton attempted to call the House of Commons Heritage Committee to study crimes targeting religious institutions, such as church burnings and synagogue shootings, but was blocked by the committee’s Liberal and Bloc MPs.
During the House of Commons Heritage Committee on Thursday, Liberal MP and committee chair Lisa Hepfner declared Lawton’s motion to begin a study on crimes against religious institutions in Canada to be outside the committee’s scope. Her ruling was supported by the Bloc and Liberal MPs, who formed a majority on the committee.
Following the failed motion to begin the study, Lawton put forward another motion to have the committee “recognize that faith and religion are integral to Canadian history, culture, traditions and national identity” and to report their vote to the House of Commons.
The Liberals, however, also moved to block such a vote from reaching the House of Commons for members to review and vote on, including Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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