The leader of the Canadian town of Hampstead has told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be gone because he is no help in stemming the country’s rising tide of antisemitism.
Mayor Jeremy Levi heads the small, close-knit Quebec community. He made his thoughts clear on X – formerly known as Twitter – saying: “We prefer to stand alone than stand with you. You’ve become a hindrance in our battle against antisemitism. Please step aside.”
That came in direct response to Trudeau’s own claim to be standing with members of the nation’s persecuted Jewish community.
This is not the first time Levi and the township – an English-speaking municipality of 8,000 with some 75 percent of whom identified as Jewish in the last census, which was in 2021 – have been a focus in the fight against antisemitism.
As Breitbart News reported, an outbreak of antisemitic incidents hit the Montreal area in November last year in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
On that occasion two Jewish schools in Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges neighborhood were targeted at night by gunfire — twice in one case — and a synagogue firebombed a few days earlier in the suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
Soon after an antisemitic mob targeted a pro-Israel event at a Holocaust Museum in Montreal with members of the crowd chanting “Death to Israel! Death to the Jews!”, according to Jewish community leaders.
“It is surprising” to see such aggressive acts in Canada, local rabbi Moishe New said at the time. “We didn’t expect it.”
Montreal police counted more antisemitic acts last November than in all of 2022.
The same trend has been observed elsewhere in the world, including in several European countries.
“We haven’t seen this level of anti-Semitism in Montreal, ever,” said Levi.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said, “And, there’s nothing being done about it.”
“The time for words is over. We need to see action before things get out of control,” he added, decrying weak statements against antisemitism by politicians and a stepped-up police presence that Levi said has fallen short of expectations.
On the evidence, nothing has changed in the interim and the lack of faith in Trudeau is growing not diminishing.