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The Canadian government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Mark Carney, is once again under scrutiny for its efforts to combat antisemitism. This comes as a new report reveals an unprecedented surge in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community across the nation.
On Monday, B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights published findings indicating that in 2025, there were 6,800 reported antisemitic incidents in Canada. This figure marks a significant 9.4% rise compared to 2024, averaging 18.6 incidents daily. According to the organization, this is the highest number of such incidents recorded since they began monitoring these occurrences.
Adding to the urgency, Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights recently released a report highlighting the escalating antisemitism following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. The committee has proposed 22 actionable steps for the government to mitigate the growing wave of anti-Jewish sentiment.
The report outlines a variety of recommendations, including enhancing research on hate crime statistics, boosting security funding, regulating the use of hate symbols, improving digital and social media literacy, and expanding educational resources for educators and students alike.
The recommendations span the gamut of expanding research into hate crime data, improving security funding, addressing the display of hate symbols, expanding social media and digital literacy, and increasing educational resources for professionals teachers and students.
In one recommendation, the report addressed the prime minister directly, asking that he reinstate the position of a Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. Carney eliminated this position in February along with the combating Islamophobia position, integrating them into a different office. His office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about whether he intends to follow the recommendation.
While some welcomed the report, several Jewish Canadians expressed concern whether it accurately identified drivers of antisemitism.
The report does not mention Islamic extremism, and only occasionally mentions anti-Zionist fervor, often describing it using the words of other institutions and respondents.
Masked pro-Palestinian protesters stormed a pro-Israel event in Toronto, breaking glass and allegedly attacking attendees on Nov. 5, 2025. (Jonathan Karten)
“It is deeply troubling and bewildering that the Senate report doesn’t even reference religious radicalism as a problem,” Canadian orthodox Rabbi Reuben Poupko, host of The Jewish World podcast, told Fox News Digital.
“The reluctance to identify the radicals is itself evidence of ignorance and bias,” he said. “By their silence, politicians are implying that they think the broad Muslim community is supportive of the radicals and therefore fear alienating that community by denouncing the radicals. Truth be told, it is often that moderate Muslims are the first who suffer at the hands of radical elements.”
Poupko added that it “is notoriously difficult to quantify with any degree of certainty what percentage of Canadian Muslims support the radicals,” but said “it is certainly far from a majority.”
Anti-Israel protesters gather outside the Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue in Toronto on March 7, 2024. The synagogue was one of three targeted in shootings during the first week of March 2024. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu)
The Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council raised concerns of its own about the Senate’s recommendations. Though it “reaffirm[ed] that combating antisemitism is essential to protecting all communities in Canada,” the group stated on X that “certain recommendations… raise serious concerns about potential impacts on Charter-protected freedoms, including protest and expression” and suggested “efforts to address hate” should “not inadvertently limit civil rights, restrict lawful advocacy or disproportionately marginalize communities.”
Aviva Klompas, CEO and co-founder of Boundless Israel, told Fox News Digital that she applauds the report’s recommendations of “creating safety zones around religious institutions and community spaces, strengthening hate crime enforcement and education,” but does not “think it fully accounts for the multiple dimensions driving this immediate surge, including Islamic extremism and the ways anti-Zionism is used as a cover to target Jews.”
There are concerns about whether the Senate’s recommendations are sufficient to address the current climate of anti-Jewish hate. Poupko said, “Antisemitism is too generic a term to describe what is now the problem,” adding that the “‘old’ solutions, like education, police training and Holocaust awareness are clearly insufficient to meet the challenge.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney faces criticism over the rise in antisemitic attacks after shootings at synagogues in the Toronto area earlier this year. (Renaud Philippe/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Klompas says she “appreciate[s] that a plan is being put into place” but is concerned “that it doesn’t meet the urgency of the moment. Jewish schools have been shot at, synagogues repeatedly targeted and Jewish-owned businesses vandalized.”
She questioned whether anyone would “gamble on a new task force or education training programs to keep your family and friends safe at a moment when they are actively under attack?”
Ian McLeod, senior media relations advisor at the Canadian Department of Justice, told Fox News Digital, “The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to counter hate in all its forms, including antisemitism, and reinforce that our society will not tolerate anyone being made to feel afraid because of who they are, how they worship or where they gather.” The spokesperson noted that many of the Senate’s recommendations “reflect these actions.”
Temple Emanu-El in Toronto was shot at on March 3, 2026. No injuries were reported. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Among the initiatives McLeod said were already underway is Canada’s Action Plan on Combating Hate (CAPCH), launched in September 2024, “which brings new and existing initiatives together to foster greater coordination and collaboration among federal organizations to prevent and address hate.” Â
During the same year, McLeod said the Canadian government “announced over $273 million to support community safety, improve responses to hate crimes, help victims, and counter radicalization.”