Mark Carney labeling the assassination of two Israeli diplomats “antisemitism” highlights how unhinged from reality discussion of the subject is. Canadian politicians and the media constantly reference antisemitism but are unwilling to discuss the standing of the Jewish community.
In response to two Israeli diplomats being killed in Washington Wednesday evening Prime Minister Mark Carney declared, “This was a targeted attack against the Jewish community — a violent act of antisemitism.…. We cannot look away from the power of antisemitism and its radicalization. We must act to keep Jewish Canadians safe.”
To call killing diplomats of a state committing a holocaust “antisemitism” is to reduce the term to meaning ‘anything bad that happens to a Jewish person’. (One of the diplomats killed, Yaron Lischinsky, was born to a German Jewish father and Christian mother and is reportedly part of the messianic group Jews for Jesus.) If an American diplomat is killed is that an act of racism? An Iranian? A Brit? A Russian? A Ukrainian? Is there any other state on the planet whose diplomats work for a religion/ethnicity, not a government?
Over the past nineteen months Canadian party leaders have denounced antisemitism dozens of times on X and other social media. In a search of the Major Canadian Dailies database since October 7, 2023, the word “antisemitism” came up 4806 times while “anti-Semitism” was referenced 251 times. And a recent Israeli government report even labeled Canada the “champion of antisemitism”.
Amidst this outburst of interest, it’s unclear if a single major media outlet or political leader has discussed the actual state of Canadian Jewry. A superficial assessment of the subject suggests the claim of widespread racism against Jews is absurd.
According to a recent Canadian Jewish News article, “Mark Carney’s new cabinet features 2 Jewish ministers”. As such, Jewish representation in the 28-member cabinet is seven times the community’s 1% share of Canada’s population.
Overrepresentation on the most powerful body in the country isn’t an aberration. The article discusses recent Jewish cabinet ministers — Karina Gould, Ya’ara Saks and Rachel Bendayan — who Carney failed to select (Saks was defeated in the election). The Canadian Jewish News story also mentioned two other longstanding Jewish Liberal MPs — Anthony Housefather and Ben Carr — who were passed over for cabinet posts. If these six represent the totality of Jewish MPs in the Liberal caucus that’s more than three times the community’s proportion of the overall population.
Under/over representation in cabinet or the House of Commons undercuts the antisemitism frenzy. It suggests non-Jewish voters don’t know/care/prefer Jewish candidates. That’s not the case for Muslims who are significantly underrepresented in Parliament and cabinet. It’s also not the case for the 1 million member Filipino community, which only has one MP. Or the 1.5 million strong Black community, which saw a record number of members elected but is still underrepresented in Parliament and cabinet.
Under/over representation in Parliament is easily quantifiable. Straightforward numbers are more complicated in other positions of influence. Take the op-ed page of the most influential papers in the country. Marsha Lederman and Robyn Urback, who write regularly about being Jewish and Zionist, often make up two thirds of the Globe and Mail opinion page. The dynamic is not dissimilar at the National Post and Toronto Star. Jewish columnists Jesse Kline, Howard Levitt, Martin Regg Cohn, Emma Teitel, Michael Levitt, etc. suggest an over representation of Jewish columnists at those papers.
The generally well-paid medical profession is another example of overrepresentation. In November 2023, 555 doctors at the University of Toronto signed an Open Statement to the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine from Jewish Physician Faculty. While the statement claimed anti-Jewishness was a problem in the faculty, the large number of Jewish signatories suggests overrepresentation in the prestigious field.
Jews are also overrepresented among Canada’s billionaire class. According to Forbes Israel’s list of The World’s Jewish Billionaires 2025, there are nine Canadian Jewish billionaires. The broader Forbes billionaire list says there are 77 Canadian billionaires. As such, Jews would be overrepresented by 13 times among the billionaire class.
In the “champion of antisemitism” Jews are significantly overrepresented in positions of wealth and influence.
A near universal, if undeclared, rule when discussing antisemitism in Canada is that one can only cite a single sociological indicator for status/oppression. Of the twenty most employed categories in discussions of racism — income levels, incarceration rates, educational attainment, life expectancy, home ownership, positions on corporate boards, etc. — hate crime data is the only indicator one can mention. It’s no coincidence that hate crimes is the only widely used indicator of discrimination in which the Jewish community fares poorly. While the genocide lobby exaggerates the scope of the problem, Canadian Jews are substantially overrepresented as victims of hate crimes. But they fare better than other groups on the other indicators commonly employed to identify status/oppression.
A broader discussion of the community’s standing doesn’t excuse acts of hate or prejudice against Jews, but it does relativize the impact of antisemitism in Canada. This is important when the genocide lobby explicitly conflates antisemitism with opposition to Israel’s holocaust in Gaza.
The nature of antisemitic acts also needs to be contextualized. A recent Canadian Jewish News article headlined “She was the victim of a ‘disgusting’ antisemitic assault. A year later, she’s angrier than ever” highlights the point. According to the story, “Tilda Roll was rattled when a man spat on her, hurled Nazi threats and made a Heil Hitler salute in Jan. 2024.” Assuming the facts of the case are as presented — which considering the highly politicized nature of the subject isn’t guaranteed — the word “disgusting” to describe the incident is appropriate.
But the fact it’s reported sixteen months later as a significant incident is telling. (In 2014 a member of the Jewish Defence League hate group walked 50 metres around a barricade at Queen’s Park in Toronto to where I was standing alone chanting at a pro-war rally and spat on me three times.) Amidst the discussion of antisemitism, how many Canadian Jewshave been hospitalized due to a racist attack? Is there a single person?
This is not to excuse a racist outburst. One spitting or Nazi salute incident is one too many. So is a swastika or middle of the night shooting at a school. But let’s also be real. To the extent there has been a rise of anti-Jewish sentiment it’s the outgrowth of a self-declared Jewish state, backed aggressively by most Canadian Jewish organizations, promoting mass slaughter and starvation in Gaza.
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