There has been a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada following Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented Tuesday.
“Since this conflict broke out, there has been a very scary rise of antisemitism here at home,” far-left Trudeau said at a conference on fighting antisemitism, Reuters reports.
Even prior to the ongoing conflict, he said, there had been a “steady rise” in antisemitism.
Trudeau spoke just hours before an antisemitism conference in Ottawa was besieged by protesters.
Trudeau listed reports of a possible hate crime at a Jewish high school in Toronto last week, fears among some of visiting synagogues due to a possibility of being attacked, and heated online rhetoric, as examples of the rising antisemitism in Canada, the Reuters report sets out.
Police in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, said they arrested three men last Thursday after they made threats at the Community Hebrew Academy.
The Toronto Sun reports a man and two teenage boys face charges for allegedly threatening students at a private Jewish high school in North York around midday.
Police have increased patrols in Jewish cultural centers and synagogues as well as other places of worship.
The Canadian prime minister also condemned Hamas and said he supported Israel’s right to self-defense, while drawing a strong line between Hamas and pro-Palestinian voices.
“Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, nor their legitimate aspirations. They do not speak for Muslim or Arab communities, and they do not represent the better futures that Palestinians or their children deserve,” Trudeau said.
A Hamas Oct. 7 rampage of mass rape, torture and slaughter of civilians on southern Israeli communities left 1,300 people dead, and around 200 were taken into Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as hostages.