Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech yesterday addressing the “scourge of antisemitism” plaguing Canada included several pertinent points.
It is significant that he stood in one of Canada’s largest synagogues and acknowledged that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians” and that “if that covenant fails for one of our communities, it fails us all.”
Carney also highlighted the role the IHRA definition plays in identifying antisemitism, recognizing that clear definitions are essential if antisemitism is to be effectively addressed.
However, the speech largely avoided the fundamental questions now confronting Canada: why antisemitism has surged, how it has mutated, who is fueling it, and what concrete actions will be taken to confront it.
While the prime minister struck some of the right notes, he fell short of the leadership required to directly confront the drivers of antisemitism in Canada today.
Over the past five years in general, and the past two and a half in particular, Jewish Canadians have faced sustained antisemitism, including repeated hate rallies, intimidation, and violence targeting the community.
The issue is not whether antisemitism exists, but if and how it is being identified and addressed – and whether its sources are being named clearly.
The speech did not meaningfully address how antisemitism has evolved in its contemporary form that demonizes, delegitimizes, and applies double standards to Israel as a “Jew” among nations.
It did not address the systematic hijacking, redefinition, inversion, and weaponization of facts and laws, including human rights language, to normalize “modern” antisemitic narratives coded as anti-Zionism.
Nor did it acknowledge the role that Islamic extremism plays in the antisemitism landscape in Canada, or the fact that some institutions that publicly promote inclusion have systematically excluded Jewish concerns.
Instead, Carney emphasized existing policies and praised law enforcement, without setting out how enforcement will be strengthened or how tools such as the government’s IHRA handbook will be operationalized across institutions.
Above all, he failed to reflect on how government policy is itself shaping and fueling the environment in which antisemitism has flourished, including through its own funding of organizations like the Muslim Association of Canada, which has hosted conventions ripe with antisemitism and has ties to Canadian-listed terrorist entities.
While warning against importing foreign conflicts, he did not acknowledge the extent to which Ottawa’s own approach vis-a-vis Israel affects the lived experience of many Jewish Canadians.
Canada's challenge
Decisions on issues ranging from military export permits to recognition of a Palestinian state following the Hamas-led October 7 massacre do not occur in a vacuum.
When government actions are perceived as applying standards to Israel that would not be applied elsewhere, they shape how many Jewish Canadians understand their place in Canadian society.
They also risk signaling to those who target the Jewish state that their grievances are endorsed by the political mainstream, reinforcing a climate in which hostility toward Israel increasingly spills over into hostility toward Jews.
The announcement of a new advisory council raises additional concerns. Even before it has begun its work, serious questions have emerged regarding the backgrounds and past public positions of some appointed members.
A body tasked with combating antisemitism cannot be effective if its own credibility is in question from day one.
Further, in a glaring omission, despite speaking in a synagogue about the 3,000-year history of the Jewish people, the prime minister did not explicitly acknowledge the Jewish people’s enduring connection to the Land of Israel as part of modern Jewish identity.
As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks warned, antisemitism is not static but mutating, taking new forms in each generation while preserving its underlying logic.
Today, its appearance as overt hostility toward Jews has become acceptable, even moral, as part of the opposition to the notion of Jewish peoplehood – including in its national liberation and its modern expression in Israel.
The challenge facing Canada is no longer comprehensively defining ever-mutating antisemitism. The IHRA did that, following the long democratic process that led to its creation. The challenge is finding the will, clarity, and courage to confront it.
Until political leaders, including Carney, are prepared to identify the forces driving anti-Jewish hatred, including the strain of anti-Zionism that has made it socially and politically acceptable in many circles, hold perpetrators accountable and apply the same standards to antisemitism that they would to any other form of bigotry, their words will ring hollow.
Worse, they risk reinforcing the perception that conduct which should be unequivocally condemned will continue to be tolerated.
The writer, former Israeli legislator and special envoy for combating antisemitism, is chief executive of the International Legal Forum.