With Canada’s April 28 federal election just days away, Jewish Canadians are sounding the alarm over coordinated efforts to inject anti-Israel activism into the heart of the national political conversation.
A campaign called “Vote Palestine,” backed by a coalition of anti-Israel advocacy groups, is pressuring political parties and candidates to support boycotts, arms embargoes, and recognition of a Palestinian state. It also calls for “protection” of anti-Israel speech, including rallies and slogans that have regularly crossed the line into open antisemitism and incitement.
Meanwhile, B’nai Brith Canada is pushing back hard. Its newly launched 2025 Election Centre is arming Jewish voters with facts, party responses, and a platform that demands concrete action: a full ban on hate-fueled demonstrations like the annual Al-Quds Day, which the group notes has long served as a stage for “spreading antisemitic rhetoric and extremist views.”
“These rallies were originally promoted by foreign regimes hostile to Israel and Canada,” B’nai Brith said in its appeal to federal leaders. “They often cross the line from political discourse into raw hatred.”
The stakes are high. With anti-Israel protests erupting across Canadian campuses and cities, and with public spaces increasingly becoming battlegrounds for pro-Hamas messaging, B’nai Brith is urging lawmakers to reject the normalization of hate masquerading as activism.
While the Liberal Party acknowledged a concerning rise in antisemitism since October 7, the day Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, the Conservatives took a firmer stance. In their response to B’nai Brith, they vowed to “stand firm against terrorism” and “support our democratic ally, the State of Israel.”
The Green Party also warned against rallies backing “terror entities and sanctioned regimes,” while pledging to strengthen laws against extremist gatherings.
In contrast, Vote Palestine’s platform calls for a two-way arms embargo on Israel, bans on Canadian financial involvement in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and full endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a campaign widely condemned as antisemitic by democratic governments around the world.
The group is mobilizing activists nationwide to pressure MPs and parties into accepting their “Palestine Platform,” accusing Canada of “complicity in genocide,” an accusation intended to delegitimize Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’s terror assault.
This federal election is no longer just about domestic policy. For Jewish Canadians and their allies, it is now a referendum on whether Canada will continue to stand with the world’s only Jewish state, or cave to pressure from anti-Israel extremists.