The mayor of Canada’s most Jewish municipality plead guilty to a complaint regarding his racist, genocidal statements. Hampstead mayor Jeremy Levi offers a fascinating window into supremacism masquerading as victimhood.
During a hearing before the Quebec Chartered Accountants’ disciplinary body on Thursday Levi plead guilty to professional misconduct. The registered accountant agreed to pay $30,000, some legal costs and do a mandatory training course.
Quite active on X until stopping a year ago, Levi is also facing an outstanding defamation suit brought against him by Montreal city councillor Alex Norris. Levi spuriously labeled Norris the “leading antisemite among Montreal’s elected officials.”
The details of the Quebec Chartered Accountants’ decision/agreement have yet to be made public by its disciplinary committee but, reported La Presse, the complaint was related to Levi’s social media comments on Gaza. As Palestinians were being starved to death in the most egregious crime of this century, the mayor of the inner Montreal suburb of 7,500 repeatedly called for Israel to fulfill its maximalist extermination/cleansing aims in Gaza. Levi posted, “Israel must strike first and strike hard, eradicating every security threat with relentless force. The mission must be relentless and unyielding until every adversary, including the civilian supporters, fully grasps the magnitude of their defeat.”
Another post noted, “If the rumours are true, then good — it’s about time. Israel should move forward with full occupation and annexation of Gaza. It’s been nearly two years, and if the Palestinians truly wanted peace, they would’ve handed over the hostages long ago. But they haven’t — because they choose war. Israel has every right to act decisively. No more half-measures. No more waiting. The world needs to understand: no more arguing, no more explanations. Full throttle. No apologies.”
The mayor echoed Israeli politicians calling to wipe out everyone in Gaza. In a clip that went viral, two months into the genocide in Gaza Levi told me he’d back Israel killing 100,000 children because “good needs to prevail over evil”.
Of course, Levi also expressed open racism. In May 2024, he posted, “Given the recent behavior of the pro-Palestinian group, Canada should reconsider its immigration plan for Gazans. Their values seem incompatible with ours, and I have no desire to welcome more hatred into our country.”
Levi clearly believes the life of a Jewish person is worth that of many thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians and others. Despite 150-year-old family roots in Canada, Levi suggested he viewed himself as part of a “Jewish nation” engaged in a sort of messianic war against Palestinians, Iranians and others.
Swimming in privilege, Levi reflects the views of many in the municipality of 7,500. The inner Montreal suburb adopted a slew of measures to promote genocide, including flying an Israeli flag, adopting a new fine for tearing down posters of Israeli hostages and calling to move Canada’s embassy to Jerusalem. In November the Hampstead council voted unanimously to cover Levi’s legal defence costs.
The anti-Palestinian municipality is a wealthy, ethnically segregated, enclave. It traces its roots to Britain’s late-1800s Garden City movement, which was a move by London’s elite to move out of the city centre. Just west of Montréal, Hampstead was established by some of the wealthiest Canadians in 1914. The municipality doesn’t allow retail shops or industrial land in its boundaries and is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Québec. Until after the Second World War, it was almost entirely WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Today over three-quarters of Hampstead’s 7,500 residents are Jewish and it is one of the most ethnically homogeneous areas in greater Montreal. The median income of the 2,500 households was $150,000 per year in 2021 (almost twice the Montreal-wide median).
Levi describes himself as a third-generation “Hampsteader”. A 2025 Chabad interview noted, “a third-generation ‘Hampsteader,’ Levi grew up in a household that respected traditional Jewish values and attended Jewish day school.”
Not only did he grow up in a Jewish bubble, Levi attended Solomon Schechter Academy (SSA) elementary school. A November 2024 post on its website notes, “SSA is proud to have created Israel corners in every Main Campus classroom! As a proud Zionist school, learning about Israel is a vital part of our school curriculum. Our goal is to help students create deep and lasting connections to Israel, and feel its vibrant spirit in their lives. These corners serve as an important daily reminder.”
A year into the genocide in Gaza the school boasted about getting four-year-old pre-Kindergarten students to write letters to soldiers slaughtering Palestinians of their age. They noted, “SSA’s Pre-K B and Grade 4ABE students joined together in a meaningful initiative, writing heartfelt letters to Israeli soldiers. Through their words, they shared gratitude, hope, and support, and each group asked the soldiers three thoughtful questions. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Indoctrinating kids in this way is despicable, but unfortunately not uncommon. B’nai Brith reports that “some 7,000 [Montreal] children attend Jewish day schools, over 50% of the total Jewish school age population.”
Mayor Levi is a caricature. The warmongering supremacist fanatic representing a wealthy cloistered enclave claims to be a victim while calling for the killing of anyone who gets in the way of a foreign state.
It’s good he was punished by the Quebec Chartered Accountants.
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