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Oct. 7 anniversary marks three years of threats on Jews living in Canada

Canadian Jews face a surge in antisemitic attacks, including firebombings and shootings classified as hate crimes, prompting institutions across Canada to adopt heightened security measures like mandatory identification and bag searches.
Religiously motivated violent extremism has "increased significantly since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict," according to spy agency CSIS, fuelling extremist narratives despite Jewish Canadians representing less than one per cent of Canada's population.
Rabbi Lisa Grushcow of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal said the community feels "there's this feeling of a world that's really been turned upside down." Jewish residents report fear about wearing visible symbols of identity in public.
Ruby Sahota, secretary of state for combating crime, told the House of Commons that recent synagogue shootings involved hiring by a "foreign entity." The federal government has boosted security funding and expanded hate-speech laws.
Grushcow warns society has lost skills for "dialogue across difference," urging recognition that "we have to stop saying this isn't who we are" to address normalized intolerance and restore civic engagement.

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