Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow at a press conference last week.Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters
There is a moment when tragedy starts to turn to dark farce in a mass shooting in the United States, that moment when a politician utters the phrase “Thoughts and prayers.”
Saying that phrase evokes ersatz empathy, but obviates the need to ask any difficult questions. Questions such as, why did this this shooting happen? What could have been done to prevent it? And what action can government take to help to head off the next attack?
“Thoughts and prayers” is all that needs to be said, or done. There are Canadian equivalents, sadly, used for each fresh act of violence against Canada’s Jewish community. This is not who we are, political leaders intone. Such acts are unacceptable, they say.
Saying those phrases evokes empathy, but also obviates the need to ask any difficult questions. Questions such as, why did this antisemitic attack happen? What could have been done to prevent it? And what action can government take to help to head off the next attack?
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Those unanswered questions have grown increasingly urgent. From 2014 to 2022, police-reported antisemitic hate crimes rose by 147 per cent, nearly double the increase for religious-motivated hate crimes as a whole, according to Statistics Canada. By 2020, antisemitic hate crimes reported to police accounted for more than half of all such crimes with religion as a motivation.
Then came Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and then the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic hate crimes soared even more, jumping 82 per cent in 2023. There was a slight decline from those red-alarm levels in 2024 and 2025. But so far, 2026 is seeing an unwelcome rebound: Antisemitic hate crimes rose 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with 2025, according to Statscan’s preliminary figures.
Synagogues targeted with arson and gunfire. An elderly Jewish woman stabbed in an Ottawa grocery store. Jewish-owned businesses attacked. That list is a recounting not just of hate, but of official failure.
And that list continues to grow. Two locations of a Jewish-owned restaurant chain in Toronto, Kiva’s Bagel Bakery, were vandalized, one by gunfire, on July 24. Toronto police are investigating those incidents as hate crimes.
Over the weekend, a kosher restaurant in Montreal, Nöam, was gutted by fire. No motivation has been established for that incident, being investigated as an arson. But it would be anything but surprising for that crime to be added to the tally of antisemitic hate.
So how to turn back this growing tide of hatred? As we have argued before, that effort has to begin with understanding, and speaking, the truth: Antizionism is fuelling the rise in antisemitism. The rejection of Israel, of its very right to exist, has become the growth medium for the contagion of antisemitism. The test of courage for any political leader is whether they are willing to speak this truth. Prime Minister Mark Carney failed that test in June, even as he tried to provide comfort to the Jewish-Canadian community.
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Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has failed even more spectacularly. In fairness, Ms. Chow has spoken out against anti-Israel protests being staged in the heart of the Jewish-Canadian neighbourhood near Bathurst and Sheppard in north Toronto. And, of course, she has offered her thoughts and prayers, Canadian style, in condemnation of incidents such as the attack on Kiva’s.
But Ms. Chow has, through her actions, shown where her sympathies lie. The mayor refused to attend a flag-raising ceremony for Israel’s national day in May, 2024, saying such an event was “divisive.” She also declined to take part in the annual Walk for Israel in June of this year.
Yet, the mayor had no problem with blurting out “Free Palestine” – the rallying slogan of those antizionist rallies – during the Pride Parade in late June.
The mayor’s office did not respond when asked last week why the flag-raising event was divisive, but reciting the Free Palestine slogan is not a problem. Ms. Chow owes Torontonians, particularly Jewish Torontonians, an explanation.
Does she, for instance, support the right of Israel to exist? Or is she in line with the hate-infused catechism (recited most weeks near Bathurst and Sheppard) that deems Israel a pariah state?
Until she does clarify, her thoughts and prayers will ring hollow.