Former antisemitism envoy warns abolition of the post could make Canadian Jews less safe

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Canada’s former antisemitism envoy Irwin Cotler is warning that the abolition of the position by Prime Minister Mark Carney is ill-advised and could make Jews less safe at a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

Mr. Cotler, also a former Liberal justice minister and attorney general, is urging the federal government to revisit the decision to abolish the post of Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, a role he held for three years after it was created in 2020 by former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

On Wednesday, the government announced that Mr. Cotler’s former role and that of Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, are to be replaced by an advisory council aimed at combating hate and promoting national unity.

The role of the antisemitism envoy has been vacant since July, while Amira Elghawaby, the Islamophobia envoy, technically still has a few months left in her term. The heritage department said that details of the transition will be worked out in the coming weeks.

The government hopes the new council, made up of academics, experts and representatives of various faiths and communities, such as Sikhs, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, will also help heal divisions.

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Mr. Cotler, founder and international chair of the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights non-profit, and Canada’s first antisemitism envoy between 2020 and 2023, said the government’s decision to abolish his former post was “however well intentioned .... uninformed, ill-advised and prejudicial, both to its mandates of preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.”

He said the decision had been made “precisely at a time when we are witnessing an unprecedented global explosion of antisemitism, including here in Canada, and rising levels of Holocaust denial, distortion, minimization and inversion.”

Mr. Cotler said in a statement that the new advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion, while valuable, will be no replacement for the envoy role.

“From my experience, such a council, while necessary to combat all forms of hate, tends to marginalize or erase the singularity of anti-Jewish hatred, its globality, and its descent into standing threats of intimidation, harassment, violence and even terrorism,” he said. “This decision will end up, however inadvertently, making Jews in Canada less safe, and feeling less safe.”

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The new advisory council will be overseen by Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller, and it is not known if Ms. Elghawaby, the Islamophobia envoy who still had several months left on her term, will be a member.

Ms. Elghawaby, a former journalist and human-rights advocate, was appointed as Canada’s first Islamophobia envoy in 2023. She has spoken openly about facing harassment and Islamophobia herself. Governor-General Mary Simon awarded her the King Charles III Coronation Medal last year.

In a text message, she did not comment on whether she plans to sit on the new inclusion committee, but said she is proud of the work her office has done over the past three years.

“I’m hopeful that the federal government will continue to build on the strong foundation that has now been built to ensure the safety and dignity of Canadian Muslims, alongside Canadians of all backgrounds,” she said.

Her office conducted a number of campaigns, including celebrating the contributions of Muslim women and girls in Canada. It carried out focus groups with women and girls in Edmonton who were targeted in a series of hate motivated attacks on visibly Muslim women, including those wearing hijabs, in 2020 and 2021.

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Her office also published the first Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia.

The most recent Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, resigned in July before serving her full term, saying the role had become exhausting. She told the Canadian Jewish News she had quit after spending nearly two years “waking up every day to a fight.”

Mark Sandler, chair of the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, a coalition of organizations and individuals, expressed concern in an email about the termination of the envoy position, which had remained vacant for months and its replacement with an advisory committee without a clear mandate.

Mr. Cotler said the antisemitism envoy had played an important international role working with counterparts, including the U.S., Britain, France, on combatting hatred. In addition, the envoy collaborated with the European Commission’s Coordinator on Combatting Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life.

“It is regrettable that Canada will no longer be present to offer its own experience and expertise,” Mr. Cotler said.

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The special envoy used to lead the Canadian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and appointed delegations for international gatherings.

This week, a conference was held in Ottawa on combatting antisemitism, which included meetings with MPs and federal officials and international experts such as Christian Funke, an adviser to the German government’s commissioner on fighting antisemitism. Mr. Funke said his office finds it useful to work in tandem with international counterparts.

Carl Yonker, senior researcher and project manager at the Centre for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, who also attended the events, said his research showed that Canada, like other Western democracies, is seeing sustained levels of antisemitism.

Hermine Landry, a spokesperson for Minister Miller, said “our resolve to combat antisemitism and preserve Holocaust remembrance is unchanged.”

She said the government is taking concrete action and “remains steadfast in preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism.”

“This new Advisory Council reinforces that commitment, bringing communities together to combat hate,” she added in an email.