B’nai Brith Canada (BB) recently introduced a “Seven-Point Plan to Combat Antisemitism.” This roadmap for politicians, police and others should disturb anyone who cares about stopping Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
If that sounds like you, then there’s a good chance BB and the broader Israel lobby wants you suspended from your school, fired from your place of employment, cut off from any funding you enjoy or even imprisoned. This sounds dramatic, but a close review of the plan reveals that it’s true, and worse, that much of what the group wants to happen is already in motion.
The lobby isn’t solely or even necessarily primarily responsible for the pro-Israel actions that governments and others end up taking. Still, the groups that make up the lobby — such as BB, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) — typically have been the first in Canada to call for these things to happen. Politicians follow the lobby’s lead, not the other way around, in part because the lobby uses its vast resources to take MPs on trips to “Israel” and lobby them incessantly.
Davide Mastracci
With this in mind, BB’s plan shouldn’t be written off or ignored. To make things worse, the next party likely to be in charge federally, with a strong majority — the Pierre Poilievre-led Conservatives, boasting Canada’s most unhinged Zionist MP as its deputy leader — is promising to do even more for Israel.
Here’s a closer look at all seven steps of BB’s plan, which if implemented to the fullest extent could effectively erase pro-Palestine free speech, assembly and protest.
“All of Government Approach to the Implementation and Application of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism”
BB lists four separate actions that should be taken to achieve the widespread adoption and application of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) problematic definition of antisemitism.
First, they call on all levels of government, as well as public institutions, to adopt the definition. This is something they’ve been focused on for years, and are well along the way to accomplishing, with the federal government, eight of Canada’s 10 provinces, as well as some municipalities, having done so since 2019.
Dalya Al Masri
The next three steps recommended by BB include creating a “national monitoring system” to ensure the definition is being implemented properly and training various agents of the state (including police, public servants, and teachers) to become the eyes and ears of the Israel lobby to “ensure antisemitic incidents are recognized and addressed appropriately.”
This definition has already been used by a range of actors to justify their firing of employees, funding cuts, and other measures taken to punish those who express support for Palestine. In addition, the Toronto Police Service has been urged to adopt the IHRA definition. It has not yet done so, but its current chief is friendly with Israel lobby groups and has taken actions consistent with how IHRA defines antisemitism.
Davide Mastracci
A particularly shocking example of this took place in November 2023, when Toronto police raided the homes of several people alleged to have vandalized an Indigo store in an operation a police expert told The Breach is “usually reserved for ‘gun or drug’ busts.”
The 11 accused were charged with mischief and in one case hate-motivated mischief, with a Toronto police spokesperson saying their act was a potential hate crime “because the victim was specifically targeted because they are [or are perceived to be] Jewish.” In reality, the store was targeted because Indigo CEO Heather Reisman is behind the HESEG Foundation, which offers a range of perks to so-called “lone soldiers” who travel to Israel from abroad to join the army.
Regardless, the misleading framing was pushed by several Israel lobby groups in the lead up to the arrests, which were then celebrated by them.
“Ban Al-Quds Day Rallies and Rallies That Support Terror Entities and Sanctioned Regimes”
The banning of pro-Palestine protests has long been a goal of the Israel lobby, and it has had some success recently, with a few municipalities in Ontario and Quebec prohibiting rallies in certain public places.
BB’s current plan, however, goes much further, calling for the federal government to impose a “national ban on all rallies that promote hate speech, violence, and extremism,” and for police to monitor and intervene at protests “where hate speech and incitement to violence are likely” to ensure that there are legal consequences.
In effect, the group is calling for a preemptive ban on pro-Palestine rallies throughout Canada given how little it takes for them to categorize any such protests as promoting hate. BB, for example, has labelled the phrase, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ as a “call for genocide.”
Davide Mastracci
In addition, the group equates “terror entities” with “sanctioned regimes,” a subtle way to expand the prohibition on supporting the former to include the latter. This would mean expressing verbal support for 23 internationally recognized states would be prohibited.
It’s no coincidence that the entirety of the Axis of Resistance, the only collection of groups and states offering a military response to Israel, is contained in this list. BB is effectively calling for the criminalization of vocal support for any foreign state that has a truly adversarial stance toward Israel.
“Comprehensive Listing of Terrorist Organizations”
The Israel lobby is well on its way to getting all of the groups it wants listed as terror organizations.
For years the lobby was obsessed with having Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian army, and Samidoun, an international prisoner solidarity network, added to Canada’s list of terrorist entities. They got their wish on both groups over the past few months. The Samidoun designation is particularly disturbing given that it operates domestically and no proof has been offered that its inclusion is warranted.
Davide Mastracci
In a letter calling on the government to retract the designation, Canadians For Justice And Peace In The Middle East wrote, “We are deeply disturbed that Canada appears to be criminalizing what is essentially political speech, motivated by a concern to shield Israel from criticism.” The terrorist entity list as a whole, according to the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, is “an arbitrary political tool that undermines freedom of association, freedom of expression and due process in the courts.”
With this in mind, it’s likely that the Israel lobby will now attempt to push for other groups, at home and abroad, to be added to the terrorist entity list. In fact, they’ve already shifted to trying to get Ansarallah (the Houthis) listed.
“Combat the Importation and Exportation of Hate and Terror”
This is the most dangerous of the seven steps in the plan.
BB is calling for: “stricter immigration controls [...] with respect to extremism and radicalization”; “enhanced monitoring of foreign influence,” meaning police and intelligence agencies working together to spy on “foreign actors”; “deportation of extremists,” which they claim is “critical for dismantling networks that threaten Canadian communities, particularly the Jewish community”; stricter laws and penalties to make it easier for people to face “deportation or long-term imprisonment.”
Israel lobby groups have opposed the government’s plan for allowing Gazans to come to Canada, even though just around 200 of them have done so compared to nearly 300,000 Ukrainians
Nora Loreto
In August, CIJA sent a letter to Canada’s immigration minister saying that the safety of the Jewish community should be the government’s paramount responsibility, and as such they were “deeply troubled” by the decision to offer visas to Gazans. They added, “We urge the government to reassess and significantly strengthen its immigration screening processes.” In October, BB made a submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security expressing similar concerns.
This pressure has helped prompt a government approach that has already led to the deaths of Gazans. As of March, at least 13 Palestinian families in Canada had 39 family members total killed while they waited for approval to come here. At least one of them starved to death.
“Proactively Confront Antisemitism on Campuses”
BB has dedicated a portion of its plan to attacking free speech on university campuses, calling for: making governments force universities to create strategies for dealing with supposed antisemitism; teaching the lobby’s interpretation of antisemitism; mandatory training based on this conception of antisemitism for faculty, staff, and students to turn them into Israel lobby monitors; a system for reporting antisemitism and mandatory annual reports on it; the cutting of government funding for universities that don’t abide by these guidelines.
These steps are all well under way, and there have been some significant examples of what they look like in the past year alone. At McGill, the student union revoked the status of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights after being threatened with funding cuts from the administration, an anonymous student with a BB lawyer sued the student union in an attempt to halt a BDS motion and the university threatened to cut funding to the student union for passing the motion.
However, the BB plan attempts to take things further by using government funding as a weapon to wield against universities to force them into quashing dissent against Israel wherever possible. This is particularly significant given that 46 per cent of university revenue in Canada comes from government funding, far more than any other source.
Poilievre is friendly with the Israel lobby, and has already suggested university funds should be cut for ideological reasons, so it’s not alarmist to believe these sorts of attacks on post-secondary institutions could become a reality.
Alex Cosh
“Proactively Confront Antisemitism Within the Education Sector”
BB has not limited these efforts to universities and colleges, as its plan advocates for: reforming curricula at all levels to smear anti-Zionism; training teachers to become the eyes and ears of the lobby; ensuring students accused of antisemitism face “swift disciplinary measures”; punishing schools that don’t abide by these rules.
In December 2023, the CBC reported that two employees at the FSWC said they and others who give workshops on antisemitism and the Holocaust in schools “have been instructed to report students who make comments critical of Israel to the organization.” The employees said these commands were made by management, and that, “The idea is to contact the school, inform the school they have an antisemitism problem and pressure the school to shut down the Palestinian support [by] accusing them of antisemitism, encouraging more pro-Zionist workshops or lessons.”
This is a particularly malicious step given that polls consistently show youth are more likely to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza than other Canadians.
“Amend The Criminal Code to Better Assist in the Combating of Hate”
BB and other Israel lobby groups have pushed for and cheered on the heightened crackdown on pro-Palestine speech and activity since Oct. 7, 2023. However, these arrests and charges haven’t generally led to convictions.
And so, the seventh step on BB’s plan is a clear indicator that they aren’t content with merely encouraging legal harassment. Instead, they want to ensure those targeted are actually locked up. To do so, they want to alter the Criminal Code and other laws directly.
Their plan states:
- “The federal government should introduce amendments to the Criminal Code to increase penalties for hate-motivated crimes”;
- “The federal and provincial governments should introduce legislation that prohibits the wearing of masks or face coverings at protests”;
- “Amend the Criminal Code to broaden the definition of hate speech to include modern forms of online and digital harassment, which are often used to target minority communities, including the Jewish community”;
- “Amend the Criminal Code to include a provision outlawing the display of the Flags and Emblems of Listed Terror entities”;
- “Law enforcement agencies should ensure the effective enforcement of these laws by imposing fines or other penalties on individuals who violate hate crime legislation or the prohibition on mask-wearing at protests.”
Some of these points directly address cases where someone was arrested but later had the charges against them dropped, such as a man charged with public incitement of hatred for allegedly waving a PFLP flag at a Toronto protest. Others address ongoing cases.
Earlier this month, two men were arrested and charged by Toronto police with public incitement of hatred for allegedly waving Hezbollah flags at a rally. Also this month, two people were arrested and charged for wearing medical masks during a protest in Toronto in March. Announcing one of the arrests, Toronto police said, “Charges can be laid at any time—whether it’s hours, days, or even weeks after an incident, including those that take place at demonstrations.”
This seems like a threat, and should be concerning to anyone who cares about the right to protest in Canada. For the Israel lobby, however, it’s an encouraging sign of what is to come.
Member discussion