O’Canada! ‘51st state’ no haven for Jews
Jews who might think of trading antisemitism and chaos in the United States for peace and tranquility in the Great White North (in what President Trump has dubbed America’s 51st state) might want to reconsider.
Jews first landed in Canada in the 1740s, along with the earliest French and English soldiers and émigrés, settling in the Maritime provinces, according to Sheldon Godfrey, Canada’s pre-eminent scholar of Canadian Jewish history.
Jews continued to immigrate to British-ruled Lower Canada (to the southern portion of present-day Quebec and to the Labrador region), especially to Quebec City and Montreal. They came decades before the ancestors of Canadian leaders like Louis St. Laurent, Justin Trudeau or Jean Chrétien.
Among the Jews who arrived with British troops in 1760 was Aaron Hart, who settled in Trois Rivières (Three Rivers). His son, Ezekiel Hart, was elected by the people of Three Rivers to the Assembly of Lower Canada in 1807 — only to be barred because he was Jewish. He was re-elected again in 1809 — only to be barred again. Although he never sat in the Assembly, he was the first Jew elected in the British Empire.
Finally, in 1832, the Quebec Assembly, led by Joseph Louis Papineau, passed the Emancipation Act allowing Jews to hold public office.
In the 1880s, Jews began to move across western Canada, establishing several Jewish agricultural settlements in Saskatchewan through free land grants that accompanied Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald’s expansionist policies. Some Jews became civic leaders and elected mayors in small urban centers in the West.
While Jewish life flourished, it was sometimes met with hate.
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An early outbreak of violence against Jews happened in Quebec City in March 1910 following an antisemitic speech by Jacques-Édouard Plamondom, a political leader of that province.
Antisemitic views were espoused by people like Goldwin Smith, a former Oxford University professor and writer, and Jules-Paul Tardivel, a writer and activist in Quebec. This hate reached the House of Commons where member Henri Bourassa urged shutting down Jewish immigration. However, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, at the turn of the 20th century, became a staunch supporter of Jews in Canada, especially when violence and pogroms against Jews broke out in Russia.
From their first arrival in Toronto before the turn of the 20th century, Jews were prohibited from living north of Bloor Street, instead settling around Kensington Market, like my maternal grandparents. Until the 1950s, areas east of Spadina Road and Rosedale in North Toronto were also restricted against Jews.
In 1934, a violent anti-Jewish riot broke out at Christie Pitts, a playground in the lower center of Toronto where Jewish baseball teams flourished. My late father-in-law, Harry Sniderman, one of Canada’s outstanding baseball players, fought back in that riot.
Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his government held antisemitic attitudes and limited Jewish immigration to Canada from the 1930s until after World War II.
It took until 1955, seven years after Israel was established, for Canada to finally recognize Israel.
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Mount Sinai Hospital, the first Jewish hospital in Toronto, was established in 1917 on Yorkville Avenue, at a time when Jewish doctors were restricted from practicing in Toronto hospitals. The Jewish General Hospital was established in 1934 in Montreal for the same reason. Private clubs in Toronto barred Jewish memberships until the 1960s.
Slowly, these restrictions were lifted against Jews in cities across Canada as Jews began to play influential roles in the artistic, literary, scientific, medical, musical, poetic, educational, business, philanthropic and political pursuits of society. Five of 28 Canadian Nobel Prize winners were Jewish. And for the last few decades, antisemitism across Canada lingered in the subsurface of Canadian society but was manageable.
Today, in the aftermath of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, anti-Jewish hate incidents are rampant across Canada, substantially outnumbering all other hate incidents. Violent incidents continue to impact Jewish restaurants, schools and synagogues; even Mount Sinai Hospital has not been immune.
Toronto continues to have a record-breaking number of antisemitic incidents. These violent outrages are met by sporadic police arrests. Masks worn by protestors of these overt actions are rarely removed, allowing them to hide their identity.
Canada’s highest institutions have failed to maintain their mandates, creating a wasteland of Canadian intolerance.
Waves of violent antisemitism behavior have unnerved many Canadians, yet it flourishes across the country in plain sight. Police, to be fair, cannot keep up the demand for arrests as they are overwhelmed by rising crime and drugs.
In Toronto and Montreal, mayors refuse to unleash the full force of law. The Toronto public transit system has not curbed antisemitic incidents even when requests for help are publicly made to the mayor.
This new Nazism could be stopped if officials followed the Canadian Constitution, especially the Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, few principled leaders can be found in our vast, growing Canadian wasteland, bereft of principles.
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Why are Canadian institutions — in education, business and culture — eroding before our eyes?
As a proud Canadian, a lifelong Liberal, I live in high expectation that this venal cycle will be replaced by a virtuous cycle that most Canadians wish for: A land of peace, order and good governance.
The question remains: Is antisemitism a comma in Canadian history or a forerunner of Canadian redemption? The answer to these questions is up to each Canadian.
Jerry Grafstein is a retired lawyer and former Liberal senator in the Canadian parliament. Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
