Since last October 7, I have never seen so many Swastikas around Toronto, They are on bus shelters, on hostage posters, on university campuses, on Jewish business and organizations, at pro-Palestinian rallies, and scrawled on sidewalks in Jewish neighbourhoods. You can’t avoid them. There has been a 670% increase in antisemitic incidents in the past year according to the Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. You rarely saw Jew-hate out in the open but now it’s everywhere.

Canadian Jews are experiencing open hatred. As for our government, it appears either blind to the hate, paralyzed by it, or indifferent. Why aren’t police doing more to enforce laws? It’s because they aren’t getting support from politicians.

Maybe the best example occurred on November 20. On that day in Montreal, at the annual session of the NATO parliamentary assembly, rioters organized by the organizations Divest for Palestine and the Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles literally rioted. They ignited smoke bombs, threw metal barriers into the street, and smashed windows of businesses and the convention center where the NATO delegates were meeting. The rioters torched cars. While Montreal burned, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was dancing at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. The next day he issued a single short tweet condemning the violent rally. This is a typical response from our PM, a few words and no action.

October 7 hit Canadian Jews hard as was the case elsewhere. But we never expected what occurred on October 8 and afterwards. Palestinian supporters were celebrating an attack in which children were murdered, women were brutally raped, bodies were burned and mutilated, and hostages were taken. These types of public displays have not subsided after 14 months.

Canadian Jews feel unsafe and under attack. Most believe the situation will not improve. I’m still hearing people suggesting the community is over-reacting. Since last October 7, there have been several drive-by shootings at Jewish schools in Montreal and Toronto. A coordinated bomb threat targeted more than 100 Jewish institutions from coast to coast. Synagogues in British Columbia and Quebec have been firebombed. One synagogue in Toronto, Kehillat Shaarei Torah, has been vandalized seven times. Jewish businesses across the country are routinely vandalized. Jews are face “pro-Palestinian protesters” in their own neighborhoods. Jewish university students are afraid to attend classes.

For too long we have been complacent about Jew-hate. The first “Israeli Apartheid Week” was organized in Toronto 20 years ago, an annual event that is now held in over 60 cities. When Palestinian organizations launched the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions strategy in 2005, the BDS movement had existed in Toronto for three years.

I reported this news story several weeks ago and I received comments blaming Jews (where have I heard that before). On November 24, Rabbi Adam Scheier and his daughters were shopping in downtown Montreal. While inside a cafe, they heard sounds of an anti-Israel protest. Scheier, who was wearing his kippah, grabbed his phone to document the event. But within moments, a police officer singled him out and asked him to move. His mere presence as a visible Jew was perceived as provocative. It is shocking to be told that police can not or will not protect Jews from violent mobs. Either one is unacceptable.

Almost none of these verbal or physical assaults are coming from white supremacists or antisemites on the right. They are being carried out by self-described progressives, Arabs, and recent immigrants who believe in ideology that until recently was foreign to Canada. This ideology declares Canada, United States and Israel as colonists and illegitimate states. It’s an ideology that has found a comfortable home in Trudeau’s Canada.

From the outset, Trudeau’s immigration policy set out to welcome unprecedented numbers of immigrants, temporary workers, and foreign students. Meanwhile, Muslim advocacy organizations quickly rose to unprecedented influence in Trudeau’s Canada. Many believe there should not be a Jewish state. They disguise their antisemitism by describing it as anti-Zionism. Many new Canadians come from countries where Jews have been driven out or killed.

How bad is it? According to the Toronto Police Service, of all the hate crimes since October 7 that involved religion, 80 percent involved an “anti-Jewish occurrence.” There are only about 120,000 Jews among the roughly three million people who live in Toronto. It’s similar in Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver.

On September 4, as part of a complex cross-border investigation, a 20-year-old foreign student from Pakistan was arrested in Ormstown, Quebec. He was trying to enter the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was headed to New York to carry out a mass slaughter of Jews on behalf of ISIS to coincide with the October 7 massacres in Israel. While he was planning his attack, Khan was also applying for refugee status. This is the Canada I live on.