All evidence suggests the arson attack on a Jewish-owned deli and store in Toronto is a terrifying hate crime.
But last week’s attack didn’t happen in isolation. It marks a dangerous escalation in a string of recent attacks on Jewish institutions that underscore an ugly rise in antisemitism.
Jewish schools threatened, businesses vandalized. And now the International Delicatessen Foods, on Steeles Avenue West near Petrolia Road, set afire, its windows smashed and “Free Palestine” spray-painted on a wall.
Staff Supt. Pauline Gray, of the Toronto Police Service, called Wednesday’s deli fire a “tipping point” and said it was being investigated as a hate-motivated crime. “This isn’t lawful protest protected by Constitutional rights. It’s criminal. It’s violent, targeted and organized. We’ll use all resources available to investigate, arrest and prosecute those who are responsible for this,” she said.
Mike Colle, deputy mayor for north Toronto, said the damage caused by fire, smoke and water means the shop will likely be out of business for months. And he said the attack has understandably put others on edge. “Every Jewish business owner is frightened they will be next. Will they be the next target? This has a huge impact on their sense of safety,” Colle told the Star.
Burnt storefronts have a very distinct painful place in Jewish memory. So does the deliberate targeting of Jewish businesses and places of worship.
Some demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza have held repeated protests at Avenue Road and Highway 401, including one on Saturday that again shut down access to the highway. There's nothing that would make the neighbourhood an obvious choice for such a protest. Nothing, except for the fact it has a large Jewish population. Demonstrations that target Jewish-Canadians because of actions of the Israeli government, that target the neighbourhoods where they live and businesses where they work are more than wrong-headed. It's intimidation. It’s antisemitism. It cannot be tolerated.
There are legitimate places for such protests elsewhere in the city. The demonstrators do their cause no good targeting this neighbourhood.
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The inflamed tensions should worry us all, especially when they spill over into violence. And it falls to all of us to take action to combat the sharp rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia we have seen in the wake of the murderous Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and Israel’s devastating offensive on Palestinians in Gaza that has followed.
Since Oct. 7, Muslims in Canada have also been a target of hate crimes, with individuals assaulted, bomb threats against Islamic institutions and a mosque vandalized with what police described as "hateful" symbols.
Police reported 338 hate crimes by Dec. 17, up 42 per cent from 2022. This includes 147 antisemitic crimes, up from 81, and 37 anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian crimes, up from 14. There’s been a sharp increase in such incidents after Oct. 7, more than twice as many over the previous year.
The Israel-Hamas war has understandably caused deep distress in communities here in Toronto and across the country. In many cases, Jewish and Muslims families have felt firsthand the human toll of the Hamas attack and Israel’s military response in Gaza. It is a tragedy that continues to play out.
It is understandable then that people want to speak out, to demonstrate, to press governments to take action, like the calls for a ceasefire. But targeting communities here won’t bring about a solution. It only sows division, deepen divides and risks spurring violence, as we saw with the attack on the Toronto deli.
Political leaders have a special responsibility to work to defuse these tensions. Statements condemning hate crimes and hateful rhetoric are welcome and necessary. But they are not enough.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, for example, should convene local faith leaders, Jews and Muslims with prominent voices, to speak out together about the troubling spike in hate and pledge action. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be doing the same. In fact, it is long past time that all our leaders stood together to say in a unified voice that it cannot be tolerated.
Of course it is highly unlikely that an anti-hate coalition of prominent faith leaders and politicians will dissuade the criminals who commit hateful violence.
But such a coalition wouldn’t be for the bad actors. It would be a symbol of solidarity with the decent majority, the Canadians who refuse to resort to hate to vent their grievances.
When the headlines are consumed with the worst of us, it is incumbent on our leaders to give voice to the best of us.
