With its quotations from the prophets Isaiah and Amos, the philosophers Aristotle and Charles Taylor, and the Nobel Laureate Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landmark speech on antisemitism aimed for some of the most rousing oratory of his premiership, as he urged all Canadians to engage with this challenge that should not be for Jews alone.

But the strongest reaction in the audience at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, the oldest synagogue in Canada, was to what the prime minister left unsaid.

“He did not use the word ‘Zionism’ once and he could have,” said Mark Sandler, a prominent criminal lawyer and a former national chair of B’nai Brith League for Human Rights.

“I welcomed the fact that he said that no member of the Jewish community should be held collectively responsible for what happens elsewhere in the world. Having said that, I was disappointed because the contemporary antisemitism that we’re experiencing is so often tied to anti-Zionism,” Sandler said. “We need explicit references to the fact that antisemitism embraces anti-Zionism, the demonization and delegitimization of those of us who believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. And if that is not front and centre in the fight against antisemitism, we’re going to fail.”

“That was the overwhelming reaction in the room,” said Steven Pinkus, vice president of Mainstreet Research, a polling firm. He was encouraged, though, by both the content of the speech and for what it says about the priorities of this Liberal government. “I am so tired, angered, at hearing from the Jewish community that the man is an antisemite, and he clearly put that to rest.”

This speech on Monday evening was hotly anticipated, both for the seriousness of the matter and the fact it could have been given with similar urgency months ago.

“We are listening carefully for your clear commitment to confront antisemitism wherever it festers,” said Yael Splansky, Holy Blossom’s senior rabbi, in welcoming remarks. She said antisemitism is “not a Jewish problem” just as people of colour alone cannot solve racism and women alone cannot solve misogyny. “Only government can govern,” she said. But her congregants often feel they are forced, as Jewish Canadians, into the impossible choice to “relinquish one identity or the other…. We do not want to live in fortresses.”

Pinkus said the ranks of the ministers alongside Carney were encouraging. They included Vince Gasparro, Danielle Martin, Anthony Housefather, Gary Anandasangaree and Leslie Church. Evan Solomon gave welcoming and closing remarks. Marc Miller was announced as chair of the new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion.

“The antisemitic voices in the Liberal caucus have been silenced,” Pinkus said. “I see it reflected in who’s around him and who he’s listening to.”

“It’s not a performance. This is who he is. It’s what he believes,” said Barry Campbell, a former Liberal MP in the 1990s in this midtown Toronto riding.

Campbell, who is Jewish, said he appreciated that Carney issued a challenge to all Canadians to see that antisemitism is not an exclusively Jewish problem. He said Carney captured the unease for Jewish Canadians about living their faith and identity freely and with confidence.

“This needs to be a country where people can live openly and authentically. He captured that. Jews have been hesitant about being visibly Jewish,” Campbell said. So he found it powerful and correct that Carney’s speech called on Canadians to recognize that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,” and that if this “covenant” fails for one community, it fails for all.

Carney’s speech used the word “covenant” nine times. For example, Carney said the deeper work that Canadians must now shoulder “is the renewal of the Canadian covenant itself,” the same covenant Canada failed to honour, for example, when in 1939 it turned away the MS St. Louis, a ship carrying nearly 1,000 Jewish refugees fleeing genocide in Europe. That word “covenant” is an especially powerful one in the Jewish context, meaning an agreement with God.

“I’m sure it wasn’t chosen accidentally,” Campbell said.

Michael Diamond, a philanthropist and prominent advocate in Toronto’s Jewish community, said he expected a five out of ten speech but got a seven out of ten.

Carney spent time and cares, he said. His understanding is full and complete. “I believed what he had to say and he owned what he had to say,” Diamond said. Carney articulated the theory, and now it is the responsibility of Canadians to enliven it, to ensure Canadian Jews are not held responsible for the decisions of a foreign government even though they have an allegiance to the country.

“We don’t attack Russian Canadians,” Diamond said as a comparison.

“He did not say ‘Being a Zionist is not racist,’” Diamond said, echoing the common criticism. “That would have been another layer in the foundation he built. But (the speech) lays the foundation for what we want, which is equal treatment no matter what happens elsewhere in the world.”

“I feel tepid toward it … tentative,” said Leslie Wolfe, a labour education consultant with the Canadian Jewish Labour Committee. “I think there is good intention but I just don’t know what in practicality will come from the announcement of what is basically a new committee.”

She expressed skepticism about a federal government “identities committee” whose first order of business is to learn about antisemitism.

“How much more learning needs to be done,” she said. “I feel impatient for something to be done.”

• Carney says Jewish Canadians are being 'brutally targeted' and the country is failing them
• Read Mark Carney's speech arguing that the crisis of antisemitism 'demands a targeted response'

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In a speech in Toronto on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that the country’s civic compact “is failing Jewish Canadians,” who are being “brutally targeted” amid a crisis of antisemitism in the country.

Carney said that more than two-thirds of all religiously-motivated hate crimes were directed at Jewish Canadians last year, even though they only make up one per cent of the population, and argued that it “demands a targeted response.”

Read the full text of Carney’s speech:

Thank you, Leslie and Evan, for that introduction.

I would like to thank Cantor David Rosen for welcoming me to Holy Blossom Temple, and Rabbi Splansky for her video greeting, and her stewardship of this synagogue of belonging, learning, and spirituality.

For three thousand years, Jewish tradition has taught us that a society should not be judged by its wealth or its power, but by how it treats its most vulnerable.

The Hebrew prophets returned repeatedly to this lesson.

Isaiah called on rulers to “Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow.”

Amos warned against societies that prosper while neglecting the weak.

The message of the prophets to us was that a just society is sustained, not merely by law, but also by the obligations we owe each other.

Centuries later, Aristotle described this as civic friendship – the bond that holds a state together.

By friendship, he did not mean intimacy, affection, or fellow feeling.

He meant something more demanding and durable: the mutual recognition between citizens that each is pursuing a good life under the same political roof, and that the conditions of your flourishing are the same as mine.

This is the covenant that makes Canada possible.

And this is the covenant being tested today by the scourge of antisemitism.

I want to speak today about that terrible reality and how we can restore the full promise of Canadian citizenship to all.

Canada was not founded on a single creed, race, language, or faith.

Instead, we have held our differences in common, beginning—after a long period of struggle and oppression—with the French and English accommodation.

This deepened with Confederation.

It has carried through successive generations of immigration from every continent and of every faith. It continues to be travelled in the long journey of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the original stewards of this land.

(Translated from French) Respect for—indeed, celebration of—differences is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically in section 27, which states that any interpretation of the Charter must be consistent with the objective of promoting the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.

This commitment rests on a concept that one of Canada’s great philosophers, Charles Taylor, called “recognition.”

According to him, recognition is more than mere tolerance.

It is rather about actively recognizing that each citizen is constituted, in part, by the identity they carry within them—through their faith, language, traditions, and history—and that their dignity is preserved only when these aspects of their identity are taken into account.

To be recognised is to be received as who you are.

Pluralism in Canada is not the exception to the framework. Pluralism is the framework.

Our secularism is open. The state takes no side in matters of belief, and the institutions of public life are not captured by any particular faith.

In Canada, state neutrality does not empty the public square but ensures that no conception of the good — including humanism or atheism — is privileged by state power, and that every Canadian has the freedom of conscience to live as they believe.

This means that the state—above the responsibilities we all have as citizens—has a special responsibility to ensure that no culture, faith, race, gender, or identity is threatened or suppressed.

And it goes further to the responsibility of ensuring that that everyone can be their whole selves in Canada.

Canada’s fundamental insight is that unity is not uniformity.

That our differences are strengths to be nurtured, not risks to be managed.

In Canada, faith, language, heritage, and tradition are not concessions to citizenship.

They are expressions of it.

In Canada, the visibility of our differences is not an obstacle to belonging, but the substance of our mutual respect.

This is how we hold ourselves together.

I do not pretend this is always easy. Differences generate friction.

Accommodation of competing claims is real work. We will always have our legitimate debates about where the lines properly fall. But those debates are part of how our pluralistic country sustains itself.

Today, that nature is being tested, as one of our communities is being particularly and brutally targeted.

Across our country, antisemitism has surged to levels not seen in the post-war period.

Last year, over two-thirds of all religion-motivated hate crimes were directed at Jewish Canadians who make up only 1% of the population.

Antisemites in Canada have fired bullets at Jewish schools.

They have thrown firebombs at synagogues and attacked community centres. They have targeted Jewish-owned businesses. Harassed Jewish patients at hospitals.

Drove Jewish students from the common spaces on our university campuses. And desecrated our Holocaust memorials.

(Translated from French) Canadian parents are now having to ask themselves whether it’s safe to send their children to a Jewish school.

Observant Canadians are thinking twice before wearing a kippah on the subway.

The same scourge is raging in Europe and the United States. It is also affecting the United Kingdom, where the terrorist attacks in Heaton Park and Golders Green deeply shook Jewish communities.

And Australia, where, last December, fifteen people were murdered at Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah.

Let me personalise this. Last October, I attended the opening of the Chabad Jewish Centre at the University of Ottawa.

This Jewish student centre made possible by the philanthropy of one of Canada’s leading entrepreneurs, Harley Finkelstein, who, as a student, had benefitted from the teachings and friendship of Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky, who remains the heart of Jewish student life at the University.

The otherwise joyous event occurred under heavy police presence and was interrupted by angry shouts of some passers-by.

I would next see Rabbi Boyarsky on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon in December as we lit the first Menorah candle at Ottawa city hall and mourned the victims of Bondi beach which included his friend and Chabad colleague, Rabbi Eli Schlanger.

The pain, threats, and fears can appear relentless.

The horror and shame are global. Our actions must be local.

They start with clearly admitting that Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.

And they extend to all Canadians recognising that, if that covenant fails for one of our communities, it fails us all.

Since being elected a little over a year ago, our government has been acting first and foremost on the most fundamental responsibility of government: protecting our citizens.

We have introduced six pieces of legislation to bolster public safety and to combat antisemitism and other forms of hatred.

Foremost of these, Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, addresses directly the rise in antisemitism, hate-motivated violence, and the targeting of communities.

It significantly strengthens the Criminal Code by creating new offences for intimidation and obstruction at places of worship, schools, community centres, and other institutions used by identifiable communities.

(Translated from French) We also reaffirmed the importance of the working definition of antisemitism formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and adopted by Canada in 2019 as part of its Canadian Anti-Racism Strategy.

This definition allows for legitimate criticism of any government, including the government of the State of Israel, while also naming hatred against Jewish people for what it is.

We are advancing work to confront hate online and violent extremism, including through the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, which leads Canada’s work on countering radicalisation to violence and supports prevention, research, and front-line intervention through the Community Resilience Fund.

Last year, the Government announced more than $36 million for projects to help counter violent extremism, including early prevention in schools and communities and work to understand and respond to extremist movements online and offline.

This April, we committed an additional $75 million through the Canada Community Security Program — for synagogues, for Jewish day schools, for community centres, and for the institutions of every faith community whose safety is at risk.

We are working with provinces, municipalities, and with our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, to coordinate that protection.

And I would like to commend Chief Carrique, Deputy Commissioner Larkin, and Chief Demkiw and the Toronto Police Service for their efforts for enforcement.

(Translated from French) These measures are necessary. However, they are far from sufficient on their own.

A country where Jewish schools require security guards, where synagogues need barriers, and where Jewish children attend schools secluded within a protected perimeter is a country that protects its citizens but fails to uphold its civic duty.

The deeper work is the renewal of the Canadian covenant itself.

To that end, I am pleased to announce the launch and membership of Canada’s new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion to be chaired by the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Marc Miller.

The Council has a clear mission: to combat racism and hate in all their forms, and to guide the Government of Canada as we build a fairer, more just, more inclusive country.

I am also honoured to announce that Senator Marc Gold, one of Canada’s most collaborative, effective, and principled voices on the scourge of antisemitism, has agreed to join the Council.

I have directed the Council to begin work by addressing antisemitism from four different directions.

First, the Council will reassess the nature, scale, and drivers of antisemitism in Canada – including across our public institutions, workplaces, campuses, public services, professional bodies and online spaces.

These are the places where the habits of civic life are formed, and where, if those habits fracture, the fracture spreads.

Second, the Council will coordinate a whole-of-federal-government approach to antisemitism because combating antisemitism is a responsibility we all share.

This will ensure that federal policies, workplaces, public safety programs, and community initiatives are aligned in protecting Jewish Canadians, confronting hate and promoting inclusion.

Third, the Council will improve research and the collection of data on hate incidents.

It will build stronger data-sharing systems, so all orders of government, schools, and police services are working with the same facts.

Finally, the Council will measure the impact of our efforts, to reinforce those investments in education, prevention, training, and community safety that are delivering real results and helping to build a safer, more inclusive Canada for all.

I want to be clear about what these potential measures are, and what they are not.

They are not curtailments of freedom of expression. They are not constraints on legitimate criticism of any government on any subject anywhere.

They are the basic standards we owe one another, in our shared public institutions, to ensure that no Canadian community is driven from those institutions by hatred.

Institutional measures, even the strongest ones, cannot do the deeper work of true recognition alone.

That deeper work falls to each of us, and to all of us in how we treat each other.

As the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel once observed, “The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.”

Canadians must stand up for each other.

This means all Canadians must speak out when we see antisemitism creep into our social media feeds, our classrooms, and our workplaces.

Because history teaches us that hatred metastasises when a society grow indifferent to it, when intimidation becomes routine, when conspiracy becomes discourse, and when citizens choose to look away.

We must learn from our history, from our times of love and indifference.

(Translated from French) At Pier 21 in Halifax, over the past century, nearly a million people have set foot in Canada.

They came from Europe in the aftermath of two world wars, from countries torn apart by conflict, from regions plagued by poverty and persecution.

They arrived with their stories, their beliefs, their languages, and their hopes. They arrived with a heritage that has since become Canada’s.

And the pact they made—the pact that has since become the very essence of Canadian citizenship—is clear.

We welcome the peoples of the world and their diversity in all its splendour.

We do not welcome the world’s hatreds.

When you come to Canada, you bring your faith, your tradition, your language, your story. You leave behind your wars and your animosities.

We have not always lived up to that promise. In 1939, the M.S. St. Louis, carrying 907 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, sailed up the Atlantic coast seeking refuge.

Cuba turned them away. The United States turned them away.

And Canada? We looked away, too.

The ship returned to Europe, and hundreds of those passengers were murdered in the Holocaust.

The St. Louis is the face of the promise denied. Prime Minister Trudeau rightly apologised for it in 2018.

The covenant we must renew today is, in part, the covenant we failed to honour then.

What does that require, in this moment?

It requires that we do not transpose foreign conflicts onto each other.

It requires all of us to stand up and protect our fellow citizens.

It requires all of us to raise our voices in disgust and defiance when we see the ugly face of antisemitism.

It requires that no Canadian child goes to school is seen as a representative of any foreign state.

(Translated from French) This means that no Canadian going about their daily life should be held responsible for the actions of any government, wherever they may be.

Whether they are on the subway, in a store, at a hospital, at a university, in a synagogue, a mosque, a gurdwara, or a temple.

This requires holding political debates in Parliament and in the public sphere, and not targeting private businesses, homes, and communities.

The covenant runs in every direction.

Antisemitism breaks it. Islamophobia breaks it. Burning churches breaks it.

Transphobia breaks it.

The targeting of any Canadian for their faith, their origin, or their identity breaks it.

I want to be clear, particularly to the Jewish community: naming these assaults is not equivalence.

The crisis of antisemitism in Canada today is specific, severe, and demands a targeted response. Our government is fully committed to that response.

But the covenant we are renewing is comprehensive. It protects all of us by binding all of us.

That is its strength; the source of its legitimacy. It is all our responsibility.

Let me close where I began.

Canada was summoned into being by peoples who learned, imperfectly and over time, to hold their differences in common.

That has not always been easy, and we have, at times, failed.

We failed Indigenous peoples. We failed the Acadians and French settlers. We failed the passengers of the M.S. St. Louis.

Each failure has taught us something about what it means to be the country we aspire to be.

That means protection. That means outlawing and policing hate. That means preventing radicalisation and addressing institutional biases.

That means restoring Canada’s promise by ensuring each of us has the space and confidence to be their whole selves and thrive.

Canada promises a country in which Jewish Canadians can be visibly, fully, joyfully Jewish in public life — at school, at work, on the street, in synagogue, in the academy, in the arts, in every place that is theirs because Canada is theirs.

Canada promises a country in which Indigenous Peoples, Muslim Canadians, Black Canadians, Sikh Canadians, Christian Canadians, Queer Canadians — every Canadian — can be visibly themselves without fear.

Canada promises a country where our differences are nurtured, not managed.

Where our differences are honoured, not suppressed.

Where our differences are lived out in common, not pushed to the margins.

That is the covenant we are renewing today. And which we must all honour with our actions.

Thank you.

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OTTAWA — Canada’s Jewish community is being “brutally targeted” amid a crisis of antisemitism, Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a speech in which he declared the country “is failing Jewish Canadians.”

Speaking from Holy Blossom Temple synagogue in Toronto Monday afternoon, Carney denounced the “scourge of antisemitism” afflicting Canada’s Jewish community and pledged to do more to stop it.

But he also called on Canadians to stop importing the world’s conflicts and hatreds here, arguing that Jewish Canadians do not bear the responsibility of events unfolding overseas.

“A country where Jewish schools need security guards, where synagogues need barriers and where Jewish children attend schools hidden behind a protective perimeter is a country that is protecting its citizens, but is failing to protect its civic compact,” he said.

“Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,” he added. “If that convenant fails for one of our communities, it fails us all.”

Carney used the speech to announce the creation of a ministerial advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion. The new body will be chaired by Heritage Minister Marc Miller and will include Senator Marc Gold, he said.

The council will be tasked with reassessing the nature, scale and drivers of antisemitism in Canada, coordinating the government’s approach to combatting it, improve the research and data collection on hate incidents writ large and measure the impact of government measures on community safety.

“The crisis of antisemitism in Canada today is specific, severe, and demands a targeted response. Our government is fully committed to that response,” Carney said.

Incidents of antisemitism in Canada have risen dramatically since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area, home to the country’s largest Jewish population.

Just last month, three visibly Jewish individuals were shot at with a replica firearm outside a synagogue in the city and posters for a missing Jewish teenager were repeatedly torn down. In March, multiple synagogues in the GTA were damaged by gunfire.

In his speech, Carney listed recent attacks by antisemites against Jewish Canadians and their institutions, such as throwing firebombs at synagogues, harassing Jewish patients at hospitals and firing bullets at Jewish schools.

He also recognized that antisemites had driven Jewish students from common spaces on university campuses and forced parents to question if its save to send their children to a Jewish school.

He said he saw the relentless “pain, threats and fears” assailing Canada’s Jews while attending the opening of the Chabad Jewish Centre at the University of Ottawa in October alongside Shopify President Harley Finkelstein and Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky.

“The otherwise joyous event occurred under heavy police presence and was interrupted by angry shouts of some passers-by,” he noted.

The next time he would see Rabbi Boyarksy was at a Menorah candle lighting in December, he said, where they mourned the death of Boyarski’s friend Rabbi Eli Schlanger at the antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi beach in Australia.

“As the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel once observed, “The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.’ Canadians must stand up for each other,” Carney said.

That means that Canadians must speak up when they see antisemitism online or in the real world, the prime minister said. He also said that Canada does “not welcome the world’s hatreds.”

“When you come to Canada, you bring your faith, your tradition, your language, your story. You leave behind your wars and your animosities.”

None of this means that Canada is outlawing or constraining “legitimate” criticism of “government on any subject anywhere.”

But Jewish Canadians cannot, and should not, be held responsible for the actions of a state halfway across the world, the prime minister insisted, in a veiled reference to the Israeli government.

“Canada promises a country in which Jewish Canadians can be visibly, fully, joyfully Jewish in public life — at school, at work, on the street, in synagogue, in the academy, in the arts, in every place that is theirs because Canada is theirs.”

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney should begin today’s announcement with a “big apology.”

“The Liberal Party has set to divide Canadians, one against the other,” he told reporters on Monday.

“They have let in terrorists and anti-Semites through our policy of open borders, their soft on crime policies allow violent anti-Semites to be released back onto the streets to terrorize Jewish communities.”

Poilievre said he believes the federal Liberals have “stoked this anti-Semitism by saying one thing in a synagogue and then saying exactly the opposite in a mosque to divide the communities against each other.”

“Mark Carney should lay out an apology to the Jewish community for the violence, the terror, and the fear that his party and his government have allowed to happen over the last decade.”

National Post, with files from Stephanie Taylor.

cnardi@postmedia.com

• Opinion: Mark Carney, antisemitism is not a public relations problem
• Marty York: Canadian Jews are fleeing antisemitism at record rates — and the numbers prove it

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Toronto police have announced five additional arrests in relation to antisemitic signage displayed at a demonstration that took place on March 15 in the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West area, the heart of the city’s Jewish community.

In a news conference on Monday, Toronto Chief of Police Myron Demkiw said: “On April 2 we announced the arrest of one individual and a charge of public incitement of hatred at the time. We also announced that a number of search warrants had been carried out at multiple locations, and that phones and laptops had been seized.

“This investigation continued over the past weeks, and yesterday, early in the morning, police carried out search warrants and arrested five additional suspects in relation to the March 15 incident.

“These five individuals have been charged with public incitement of hatred and willful promotion of hatred.

“The individual arrested two months ago was also charged with willful promotion of hatred.”

Protests have occurred regularly in the Bathurst and Sheppard area since shortly after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas in 2023.

Chief Demkiw said in the news conference that since October 7, 2023, Toronto police has laid 30 hate propaganda charges, including 11 willful promotion of hatred charges.

In the 10 plus year period before October 7, meaning 2010 and 2023, Toronto police had only laid six hate propaganda charges, including four charges of willful promotion of hatred, he said.

“We will continue to be relentless in following the evidence to hold those who commit criminal acts of hate accountable, no matter how long it takes,” he added.

Photos of the March 15 protest shared on the social media platform X by a prominent account known as Leviathan ( @l3v1at4an ), and later shared by B’nai Brith Canada, The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, showed anti-Israel demonstrators carrying signs that dehumanize Jews and promote hate-inciting antisemitic rhetoric during the protest

The placards featured a caricature of an emaciated Orthodox Jewish man exiting a cave, asking whether “Iran has stopped” yet, a drawing of a caricatured Jewish man wearing a kippah crying “Help us, Daddy!” into a walkie-talkie covered in an American flag as three missiles rain down in the background, and one of rats crawling in and out of a hole in the ground shaped like the Star of David.

Monday’s news conference comes after B’nai Brith Canada, The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto co-signed an open letter to Chief Dimkew following the protest, in which they called on TPS to “to investigate and lay charges, declare assemblies unlawful when there are activities the promote and incite hate, and make the necessary and critical changes to protect our city.”

The protest came just days after three Toronto synagogues were hit by gunfire in a week .

In the open letter, the organizations addressed the attacks, writing “As synagogues are shattered by gunfire and extremists march through largely Jewish neighbourhoods, it’s clear that the status quo is not only unacceptable — it’s a growing threat to innocent life in our city.”

In Monday’s news conference, Toronto Chief of Police Myron Demkiw said: “Today is an example of what we mean when we say that arrests and charges can come at any time after an incident. Hate has real impacts. Anti-Semitic behaviour like this creates fear, anxiety, and division in our communities.

“Through the tireless work of our Counter Terrorism Security Unit, we investigate thoroughly, gather evidence carefully, and pursue charges where there are reasonable grounds and legal authority to do so.”

• Jewish groups decry signs 'reminiscent of Nazi incitement' at Toronto demonstration
• Police ban anti-Israel protesters from Toronto Jewish neighbourhood

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OTTAWA — Canada’s housing stock would be about 30 per cent larger and prices 10 per cent lower if this country’s building industry had been as responsive to demand as its American counterpart over the last couple of decades, says a new report from the federal housing agency.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) pointed the finger in the report released last week at excessive regulation largely at the municipal level and two other factors — geography and demographics — that are often difficult to influence.

In the U.S., the report said, there are fewer restrictions on zoning and the use of land in many metro areas, whereas many Canadian municipalities have building restrictions that have hindered the supply of homes and contributed to dramatic price hikes. The CMHC report, based on research from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), found that those barriers left the Canadian industry less responsive to increased demand during the 2006-24 period of study.

Mathieu Laberge, the CMHC’s chief economist, wrote that there are two other key factors that have slowed the housing supply in Canada. First, many of this country’s major cities, notably Vancouver and Montreal, have mountains and waterways that are natural barriers to the construction of new houses. Second, Canada has fewer large cities than the U.S., leaving urban residents with fewer places they can move to find comparable jobs, thereby triggering new developments.

Paul Smetanin, president of the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis, said international analytical housing models can be misleading because they rest on assumptions, including that the various jurisdictions have comparable regulations and labour pools.

Smetanin, who has been studying the Canadian housing sector for decades, said the Canadian housing market is in crisis largely because of bottlenecks that are hindering construction. The industry will build if the market conditions are favourable, he said.

“Industry is going to do what industry does.”

Canada’s housing crisis is neither new nor a secret. Demand in fact has been on the rise in most urban centres for decades as more Canadians have migrated to cities and immigration has climbed. But supply hasn’t kept pace, pushing prices increasingly higher.

Less than a year ago, the CMHC admitted that the crisis might get worse because housing starts were expected to fall in 2025, 2026 and 2027, leaving production at less than half the 480,000 that the CMHC says Canada needs to add each year over the next decade.

Rising costs are a big part of the problem. The value of land and materials, workers who build homes or install things such flooring and cabinets have all been on the rise, as has the margins of developers and suppliers.

But the biggest cost in the price of a new home (about 36 per cent), according to one recent study, is taxation, making the three levels of government the top beneficiary of the construction of a new home. About 70 per cent of those taxes are for development charges for sewer, water and electricity, land-transfer taxes, and HST. The other 30 per cent is for the indirect income and corporate taxes paid throughout the supply chain, but ultimately passed on to buyers.

Municipalities, in particular, tend to rely heavily on the taxes collected from housing construction and development charges. Some municipalities have started to lower their fees in recent months.

There’s no quick fix, however, to a housing shortage. Analysts say there’s often a lag of a dozen years or more from when a plot of land has been identified for a new home, subdivision or apartment building to when people are living there. It can take even longer when roads and key services — sewer, water, electricity — need to be added.

Governments at all three levels have in recent years tried to address the crisis.

During last year’s federal election campaign, the Liberals promised that 500,000 homes would be built annually over the next 10 years, triggering a level of residential construction not seen since the years following World War II.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has since promised a new Crown corporation called Build Canada Homes to provide about $25 billion in public financing for prefab and “affordable” housing, plus $10 billion in low-rate capital. Build Canada Homes would take responsibility for some programs now under CMHC and the new organization would rely on some public land for new builds.

The Liberals also launched the Build Communities Strong Fund, a 10-year, $51-billion program to help support the construction of water, sewage, transit and road infrastructure. The Carney government also promised to eliminate the GST on new homes that sell for less than $1 million to first-time buyers and, along with Ontario, cut in half the significant municipal development charges for multi-unit residential construction.

Economists point out that an increase in housing construction carries significant benefits beyond the creation of new homes: downward pressure on housing prices, economic activity and jobs through construction and the adjacent purchases of furniture and other items that new homeowners typically make. New buildings also mean a windfall for government coffers at all three levels.

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Dozens of commercial ships have reportedly passed through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, even as Iran heavily restricts traffic amid the ongoing war.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, has guided close to 70 commercial ships through the narrow strait over three weeks, the New York Times reported on Sunday, quoting U.S. officials . That’s about three ships a day. Normally, more than 100 ships make the daily passage.

The vessels had their transponders turned off to avoid detection and hewed close to the Omani coast, according to the paper.

“Though U.S. forces are not escorting, we continue to communicate and coordinate with commercial ships seeking to freely and safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international corridor for regional and global economies,” Capt. Tim Hawkins of Central Command said in a statement to the Times.

Iran has restricted traffic in the strait, which carries more than a fifth of global oil flows, after Israel-U.S. bombing raids decapitated Iran’s leadership and destroyed the country’s nuclear and military sites in late February.

Tehran has enforced its blockade by laying sea mines, boarding ships and attacking non-allied vessels attempting passage. More than a thousand ships and some 20,000 seafarers have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

Many ships continue to venture close to Iran’s coasts, suggesting that deals are being made with Tehran to gain access to the strait, the Times reported. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), a new agency set up by Iran, has enacted a tiered access system, charging some tankers while letting other ships cross for free.

The money is passed onto the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the U.S. Treasury department, which has forbidden anyone from making deals with Iran to sail through the strait. Earlier media reports said that Iran was typically charging about US$1 per barrel of oil for ships with ties to the U.S. or Israel.

“Regardless of whether a payment is made, U.S. persons are prohibited from receiving services from the Government of Iran, including services related to a guarantee of safe passage,” the department said in a statement on May 29.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control has warned that making financial arrangements with Iran to ensure safe passage would carry sanction risks.

“These demands may include several payment options, including fiat currency, digital assets, offsets, informal swaps, or other in-kind payments, such as nominally charitable donations made to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Bonyad Mostazafan, or Iranian embassy accounts,” the office said in May.

Last week, a Bloomberg analysis found that more than 109 large oil tankers trapped in the Persian Gulf have managed to slip out of the Strait of Hormuz. That represented roughly one-quarter of the non-Iranian tankers capable of carrying 700,000 barrels or more.

Some ships tried to slip through undetected under the cover of darkness. In one instance, U.S. helicopters showed up “suddenly” and successfully deterred Iranian fast boats approaching a group of vessels attempting to make the dangerous crossing, according to Bloomberg.

Media reports have catalogued dozens of ships that have been met with Iranian fire, while some have been captured or sunk in the attempt to leave the channel. United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations has recorded 44 incidents involving vessels in the Middle East maritime region since March 1. At least 10 people have died.

While a modest amount of oil is also diverting the strait via alternative pipelines used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, these outflows are a trickle compared to the roughly 130 ships that passed through the strait every day before the conflict started.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, but both sides have continued to push for control of the strait. As of June 1, U.S. Central Command said it had redirected 121 commercial vessels near Hormuz since starting its own naval blockade to limit Iran’s shipments on April 13.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his optimism about reaching a deal, but a peace plan has proven elusive. While full details of the current talks are not known, they include a 60-day ceasefire extension while a larger framework for Iran to remove its enriched uranium is worked out and its toll system dismantled.

Iran has said Israel’s expansion of its incursion into Lebanon has stalled negotiations. Trump said on Monday on Truth Social that “all shooting will stop” between Israel and Hezbollah.

“There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump said, adding that he also spoken to leaders of Hezbollah. “Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” he added.

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A tip to police that a missing Toronto girl had been spotted in a Walmart led to her eventual discovery in the basement of a home in Rexdale, a neighbourhood within Toronto’s Etobicoke region.

According to the Toronto Sun , which spoke to a resident in the area, the 14-year-old was seen at a Walmart at the corner of Rexdale Blvd. and Islington Ave. She was then believed to have walked into a nearby residential neighbourhood.

The resident told the paper’s Joe Warmington that police “went up and down the street to check to see if neighbours had security video.”

The resident said that several officers and police then converged on one house. “They brought out a white man of about 30 and put him in a police car,” said the witness. The 14-year-old followed. “She was wearing a black hoodie and a jacket and seemed to be walking fine. They put her in a police car as well and then left.”

This was at about 1 p.m. Thursday.

“She has been taken to hospital to be examined both physically as well as for medical staff to assess what emotional toll the situation may have caused her,” Superintendent Don Belanger said at a press conference about two hours later, near the command centre that had been set up to aid in the search.

“Our investigation will now turn to whether or not there is any evidence of criminality associated to her prolonged disappearance. It is for this reason, along with (the teen’s) and her family’s obvious right to privacy, that I will not be able to comment further at this time.”

The Sun learned that the house where the 14-year-old was found is owned by a man named Devon, who said he has a tenant, Duffy, in the basement.

That man was at a Toronto Police division Thursday night, though police have not indicated if they have laid any charges.

Belanger said of the 14-year-old’s parents: “I think they’re relieved. We’re all extremely relieved. No one’s more relieved than her parents, but I haven’t had any direct contact with them today.”

In a statement released on Thursday afternoon, the 14-year-old’s parents expressed joy at her return and gratitude for those who helped look for her.

“There are no words to describe the relief we are feeling knowing that Esti has been found safe. For the first time in days, we can hug our daughter and breathe again,” the statement says.

“To the thousands of people who carried our family through this nightmare — thank you will never feel big enough,” it adds.

“There are not enough words to thank the overwhelming support from the Jewish community and every resident of Toronto and the GTA who searched for Esti as if she was their own daughter.”

Joyous messages on social media included comments from B’nai Brith Canada , Toronto politician Brad Bradford and MP Anthony Housefather .

Asked about numerous reports of missing posters being torn down, Belanger said: “I can’t think of anything more unethical than that type of behaviour. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Any effort to disrupt our attempts to locate the teen, nobody can ever justify that.”

He thanked the investigative teams that had worked on the case, adding: “Last but truly not least, I must offer a special thank-you to the community. The manner in which this community came together to support this investigation and the teen’s family was nothing short of remarkable. This was more than a police search and a police investigation. It was truly a combined police and community effort, including the numerous tips we received daily, and for that we’re extremely grateful.”

Family spokesperson Maureen Leshem spoke briefly at the press conference. Asked how she felt when she heard the news, she replied: “Immense relief, just an extraordinary sigh of relief. We can breathe again.”

She added her thanks. “Thousands of people came out to help from all walks of life, not just from our community, but from the entire community, people as far as Hamilton, people as far as Mississauga, we had old people, young people, children … Everybody was willing to do what they needed to do to bring a child home, regardless of whether they knew the teen or not.”

The 14-year-old was reported missing on Friday, May 15, in the area of Earl Bales Park , a large green space located at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West in the northern part of the city.

Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who had added his voice to the growing chorus of outrage over the tearing down of posters that have been put up to aid in the search for the missing 14-year-old, was among the first to comment on X after she was found.

“What a blessed relief for her loved ones,” he posted.

American commentators and international media had been taking notice of the events in Ontario’s capital.

“‘Cruel’ vandals rip down posters for missing Jewish teen girl who vanished in Toronto,” reads a headline in the New York Post . The article added, over the image of a partially torn-down poster: “The bungling yobs even left behind evidence by not even fully removing the posters.”

“This is one of the sickest things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Jeff Feldman, a debt advisory consultant based in New York, wrote on X in response to a story in Britain’s Daily Mail. “Pure evil. Humanity is in a sad place.”

Texas politician Cameron Carlisle added: “The Jewish people are literally under attack around the world. It’s time to start speaking up & taking action against this vile & antisemitic behavior!”

“Hey, Canada. What’s wrong with you?” posted Montreal/New York-based X account LGBT for Israel . “Has this level of hate always been here, just dormant? Did we simply miss it all these years? Or is this what humans so often do when given a cheap, socially approved scapegoat … one that’s easy and safe to attack?”

“This is shocking and disappointing,” the embassy of Israel in Canada wrote in a post on X. “Jew-hate is getting in the way of a missing girl being brought to safety. In Canada. In 2026. May Esti come home as soon as possible.”

Poilievre’s and the embassy’s reactions were in response to a widely shared post that alleged the woman photographed started to tear down some posters before she was stopped. The original post appears to have come from a Toronto resident posting on Facebook under the name Shana Ti. National Post has reached out to her for comments.

“I just stopped this woman from tearing off one of the posters of the 14-year-old at Christie and Dupont. She said. ‘Stop looking for her’ And started tearing off the poster. And I said ‘don’t tear off that poster’ and she said ‘why are you talking to me stranger?’ and I said ‘that is a poster of a missing 14-year-old girl do not remove it’ and she walked away and I took these photos.” said the post on Facebook on Thursday.

Last week, Toronto police said they have elevated the search for the 14-year-old to Priority 1 status, the highest level of response and one that mobilizes extensive resources like specialized K-9 units, drones, mounted officers and large-scale ground searches, in addition to community outreach.

The 14-year-old’s family also announced a $25,000 reward for any information leading to her “safe return.”

Editor’s note:The missing girl has been found. We have removed her name and photo from this story to protect her privacy.

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Toronto Police have released an additional image of the 14-year-old in hopes it will help find the Jewish girl who has been missing since Friday, May 15. The latest release also adds that she was last seen on May 16 at 12:01 a.m., in the Bathurst Street and Hotspur Road area.

On the weekend, Michael Levitt, President-CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Canada, shared an image of a torn poster on X and told whoever had done it to stop.

“As volunteers search desperately for a missing 14-year-old Jewish girl, posters meant to help bring her home are being ripped down across Toronto,” posted Combat Antisemitism Movement on X on Monday as they reshared a video by Dan Levy. “Not political posters. Not protest signs. A missing child.”

The parents said on Thursday that their daughter has been diagnosed before as being on the autism spectrum, CP24 reports. The parents added that the “only reason we’re okay saying it now because she’s still missing.” Her mother said, “ It’s like her medical information that she should have the right to disclose when she chooses to.”

Last week, Toronto police said they have elevated the search for the 14-year-old to Priority 1 status and on Thursday announced that they have launched a dedicated phone line for tips about her disappearance, committing all available resources as community volunteers join in the effort to find her.

A Priority 1 or Level 1 search is the highest level of response from the police, and mobilizes extensive resources like specialized K-9 units, drones, mounted officers and large-scale ground searches, in addition to community outreach.

The 14-year-old was last seen on Friday, May 15, in the area of Earl Bales Park , a large green space located at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue West in northern Toronto.

She is described as 5-foot-2, medium build, with brown hair, and was last seen wearing grey sweatpants, a green shirt and no shoes.

“It was Friday night,” her mother, Shira, told Global News. “It was cold outside and she left, and it was dark and she didn’t have her shoes. Both of her pairs of shoes are by the door. And she doesn’t have her phone. Her phone is in the house.”

The mother added that the 14-year-old had left her home before but always returned.

Police have released an image of the 14-year-old, as well as several blurry security camera images, which have been widely shared on social media.

“I don’t know who else she might have contact with,” her mother said. “I really hope that she’s OK and maybe she’s just scared to come home and she has friends or someone helping her.”

Volunteers in the search include many from Toronto’s large Jewish community, including Shomrim Safety Patrol , an organization founded in 2021 and committed to ensuring the safety and security of Jewish communities across the Greater Toronto Area.

A command centre is operating from the nearby Petah Tikvah Synagogue parking lot. Police say they have deployed a drone as well as marine, canine and mounted units in the search.

Duty Inspector Peter Wallace said in an update: “We are currently appealing to the public to please check your backyard if you reside in this area, your sheds and also your surveillance camera.”

At that time, the mother also delivered a direct appeal to her daughter.

“(The 14-year-old), my love, if you are watching this, please come home,” she said. “We love you so very much. We miss you terribly. Your family, here, across the country, and around the world, are searching and praying for you every minute. Your friends, classmates, neighbours, and community are all worried about you and hoping to see you safe.”

In a brief press conference on Thursday afternoon, TPS had no new information to provide, but announced a new dedicated phone line of 647-355-4148 for anyone with information that could assist their search. They can also call 911, TPS directly at 416-808-3200, or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com .

“Anyone with information, no matter how small, please come forward,” Inspector Jon Rose said.

“ We do know and we deeply appreciate how concerning this is to the community and to the family when a young person goes missing, especially for this length of time. We would very much like to find (the teen) and get her home safely to her family.

Police have also created a QR code which people can scan and upload any video which may assist the investigation.

Editor’s note:The missing girl has been found. We have removed her name and photo from this story to protect her privacy.

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Security will be tight at the Maccabi Games, an athletic competition bringing together Jewish youth from around the world, returning to Toronto for the first time in four decades this summer.

The Maccabi Games were created in 1982 and serve to “empower Jewish teenagers through transformative experiences” and “inspire Jewish pride,” according to a press release. Event will take place across Toronto, Vaughan and Markham between Aug. 2 and 7 and is distinct from the Maccabiah Games, also known as the “ Jewish Olympic Games ,” held every four years in Israel.

Alan Perlis, a Prosserman JCC board of directors member, said organizers have dealt with many concerns, particularly from American Jewish communities, who fear visiting Toronto because of recent media headlines about antisemitism in the city.

“They think they’re gonna show up here and the amount of antisemitism and security risks is massive,” Perlis told National Post. “The way people view Toronto, Canada, this community, is sad.”

Perlis and Andrew Levy, the executive director of Toronto’s Prosserman JCC, underscored that the Maccabi Games will feature ample security protections and that a committee had been assembled to coordinate with local police and Jewish community safety experts. Perlis said that the costs associated with the security budget for the tournament “could be the same size as some games’ budgets.”

While security remains “a significant element … in the games in every community,” Levy feels that the general awareness around safety has grown in recent years following high-profile antisemitic incidents.

Levy spoke about the importance of the Maccabi Games against the backdrop of concerns over rising antisemitism, particularly in Toronto, since the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, 2023. He stressed the importance of building community resilience and instilling pride in Jewish youth, which has made the tournament even more timely.

“The greatest way we believe at the JCC to respond to that is by strengthening Jewish life and by building allyship with the broader community,” Levy said. “And there’s nothing better to do that than sports.”

“ The perception from the broader community of the rise in antisemitism in our country has actually made us consider security both from the practical implementation level and from the communication perspective so that people feel comfortable in participating,” Levy said.

The JCC executive said there would be roughly “2,500 teen athletes from 85 communities all over the world” participating during the event and that they anticipate “about 15,000 spectators” to attend. The athletes “are all between 13 and 17,” Levy added, and will be competing in roughly a dozen different sports ranging from baseball and basketball to golf and track.

This year’s event will include a pilot session for female hockey, Levy said.

“There’s a real opportunity for us to unify our community,” Levy said. “For us, it’s more than the sports.”

The outpouring of support from the Toronto Jewish community at a moment of heightened tensions has been heartening, Levy and Perlis both noted. More than 600 local families have volunteered to host athletes competing in the games from places including “Israel, Ukraine, Argentina, Hungary, Great Britain and Mexico.” Still, their goal is to get even more locals to open their doors to strangers and help accommodate the remaining athletes.

“I think that’s something that’s unique about these games,” Levy said.

Perlis recalled fondly growing up in Thornhill, Ont., in 1986 when his parents hosted athletes from Pittsburgh during the last Maccabi Games in Toronto. After 40 years, he feels that the time is ripe for Toronto to host the games again.

“It is something that we’ve been looking to bring back to Toronto, which is one of the largest but really most thriving, affiliated communities in North America. For us not to have the games for 40 years was pretty sad,” he said.

“It’s all about the bonding and the experience.”

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New data from Statistics Canada has revealed how much Canadians earn on average per week, along with average earnings across each province and territory.

The findings, which use data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), show that the average weekly earnings in Canada reached $1,333 in March 2026, up by 3.5 per cent compared to March 2025. This follows 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in February.

StatCan noted that, “Growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects.”

In March, Canadians worked an average of 33.4 hours per week, remaining relatively unchanged month-over-month while declining 0.3 per cent year over year.

The StatCan data also revealed the average earnings in March 2026 for each province and territory.

At the top of the list for earnings is Nunavut, where residents earned an average of $1,874.95 per week — an increase of 7.8 per cent year-over-year.

This is followed by Northwest Territories ($1,741.07), Yukon ($1,520.39), Alberta ($1,371.07), Ontario ($1,368.71), British Columbia ($1,348.36), Newfoundland and Labrador ($1,290.53), Saskatchewan ($1,288.82), Quebec ($1,283.60), New Brunswick ($1,231.77), Manitoba ($1,214.49), and Nova Scotia ($1,210.83).

At the bottom of the list is Prince Edward Island, where residents earned an average of $1,177.97 per week in March 2026 — an increase of 7.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2025, but nearly $700 less than Nunavut’s average.

All provinces recorded wage increases between March 2025 and March 2026. Nunavut’s wages increased the most, by 7.8 per cent, while Newfoundland and Labrador saw the smallest increase, at 1.2 per cent.

But despite these increased average wages, Canadians continue to feel the pinch.

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.8 per cent in April, Statistics Canada said earlier this month, up from an increase of 2.4 per cent in March.

Much of the increase was attributed to higher gas prices, which were driven in part by the conflict in Iran.

This comes as documents recently obtained by National Post show that Canadian trucking and delivery companies have passed increased fuel costs on to customers, which economists say ultimately raises consumer prices.

Meanwhile, a recent TD survey revealed that more than one in three Canadians (35 per cent) plan to spend less this summer, with 44 per cent citing fuel costs as the reason they’ll be cutting back on travel.

The survey also found that Canadians are adapting to cost pressures through practices like redeeming loyalty points (66 per cent) and choosing lower-cost options like second-hand or DIY (36 per cent).

Elsewhere, the StatCan data revealed that job vacancies held steady at 500,300 in March 2026. This marks a 3.2 per cent decline when compared with the same month in 2025, though the report notes that this is significantly lower than the decline from March 2024 to March 2025, when job vacancies fell by 13.7 per cent. It was also the smallest year-over-year decline since September 2019.

There were three unemployed persons for every job vacancy in March 2026, according to the data, down by 0.1 persons from the previous month and unchanged on a year-over-year basis.

Areas where job vacancies had increased in March 2026 include administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (17.7 per cent), information and cultural industries (38.2 per cent) and utilities (28.4 per cent).

Meanwhile, vacancies were down in other services (except public administration) by 14.6 per cent, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation (-18.2 per cent) in March 2026.

Saskatchewan was the only province or territory to record a month-to-month increase in job vacancies (the first vacancy increase in this province since May 2024), but StatCan notes that “across provinces and territories, the job vacancy rate has stabilized or has declined at a slower rate in the 12-month period ending in March 2026 compared with the previous 12-month period.”

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