TORONTO โ Have you noticed the change in car flags driving around Toronto over the last three weeks? The older Iranian flag featuring a sword-holding lion with the sun behind it has become the flag du jour, largely replacing Palestinian flags, likely only temporarily. This is the old flag of Iran, flown by diaspora Persians in response to the current war and in hopes of regime change.
With the Iranian war taking center stage in both the United States and Canada, especially as drivers grumble about paying over $1.70 per liter, the media seems to have shifted its focus away from the war between Israel and Gaza.
Maybe this explains why there have been no recent shooting incidents, specifically the three synagogues in Toronto and Vaughan that were riddled with bullet holes by some fine neighbors and residents of Canada. And of course, Al-Quds Day has come and gone, for this year at least. From Al-Quds Day, Toronto moved straight into St. Patrickโs Day celebrations the next day, a fun-filled reclaiming of streets that had been filled with hatred only hours earlier.
This brief respite gives politicians an opportunity. They can focus on crime, or the lack thereof, the price at the pump, the economy, housing, and they also have a chance to come up with some new phrases before the next antisemitic event, for it is a given that there will be one. When it comes, it would be refreshing if politicians could offer new language rather than relying on the same tired playbook, such as:
ยท This is not Canada
ยท This is not who we are
ยท Antisemitism has no place in Canada
ยท Hate has no place here
ยท This is unacceptable in Canada
ยท We condemn all forms of hate
The overall sentiment may once have offered comfort, but like the words used to convey it, it has suffered from overuse and underperformance. This is a formula for turning new expressions into tired, meaningless clichรฉs. These have become automated responses from politicians who are now associated with a cynical lack of sincerity.
Contrary to the boilerplate claim that โantisemitism and hate have no place in Canada,โ the record shows that antisemitism has a very real and thriving presence in Canada. The seeds of hatred have found fertile soil in the โtrue north strong and free,โ growing faster than spring weeds in untended gardens. With neither suppression nor removal at the root, antisemitic hatred has spread across city streets and neighborhoods.
This rhetoric is easily challenged by Statistics Canada, as presented by Bโnai Brith. From 2023 to 2024, Canada saw a 7.4 percent increase in reported incidents. โReportedโ suggests that additional incidents went unreported, meaning the actual numbers are likely higher. Even the reported figures alone totaled more than 6,200 antisemitic incidents in 2024. That translates to over seventeen incidents of Jewish hatred every day in a country where hate is said to have no place.
In that same year, Jewish Canadians, who comprise about 1 percent of the population, were 25 times more likely to experience a hate crime than any other demographic group. As Juliet says to her mother in Romeo and Juliet, โIt is an honour that I dream not of.โ For Jewish citizens, it is more of a nightmare than a dream.
Although there are no statistics available yet for 2025 or 2026, the Bโnai Brith summary states that incidents have remained โperilous,โ with synagogues, schools, and community centers in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa targeted with firebombings, vandalism, and gunfire. After last monthโs shootings, this should not come as a surprise.
Unfortunately, despite the empty statements from politicians, or perhaps partly because of them, Canadian society remains fertile ground for the growth of antisemitism. It has become a bumper crop. And if there is ever a shortage, just as Canada imports nitrogen for agriculture, more can be brought in.
To end on a more constructive note, here is a suggestion for politicians and officials. Finding a new language is not easy, so consider this as a starting point:
This is not Canadaโฆ or perhaps it is in our post-modern Canada. We cannot be sure, because we do not clearly understand what post-modern Canada represents. It appears to allow hatred, though it is not labeled as such because it is considered protected speech. We value freedom of expression and the right to protest, even when it contradicts what we claim Canada stands for.
So why is it that the hatred that has no place in Canada continues to have a place in Canada?
(TBC)
**Hamasโs Protester Cohorts: How Direct Terrorist Coordination Exposes the โGenocideโ Lie Against Israel [Pallyweid]**
The false accusation that Israel is committing โgenocideโ in Gaza is not a grassroots cry for justiceโit is a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign directed by the very genocidal terrorists who started the war. Since Hamasโs barbaric October 7, 2023 massacreโwhen its fighters slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, raped women, burned families alive, and took 251 hostagesโthe terrorist group has openly coordinated with, financed, and celebrated the anti-Israel protest movement in the United States. This unholy alliance dismantles the โgenocideโ libel once and for all. If the protests were truly about stopping civilian deaths, Hamasโthe group whose founding charter calls for the annihilation of Jews and who deliberately embeds its military infrastructure in civilian areasโwould not be cheering, funding, and directing them. Instead, Hamas is using its Western useful idiots to shield itself from defeat and to invert reality: the actual perpetrators of genocide are posing as its victims.
[Besides the point: If the protests were truly about stopping civilian deaths, Hamas โ the group whose founding charter calls for the annihilation of Jews and who deliberately embeds its military infrastructure in civilian areas โ would not be cheering, funding, and directing them].
The coordination began immediately. Just days after the October 7 atrocities, Hamas explicitly called for a worldwide โday of protest,โ forcing U.S. cities to bolster security out of fear of violence. Former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal openly praised the โstudent floodโ on American campuses, declaring, โWe want constant rage.โ Senior Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq hailed the demonstrators as โthe leaders of tomorrow,โ while Hamas released videos praising the campus unrest and even using an American-Israeli hostage in propaganda timed to coincide with the protests.
The organizational ties are not coincidental. USA Today investigations revealed that key organizers of the campus encampments had documented past ties to Hamas support networks. The George Washington University Program on Extremism documented Hamasโs direct influence on U.S. campuses, noting actors tied to the terror group (and even Iran) posing as activists to stoke unrest. The Treasury Department designated Samidounโa group deeply involved in organizing the protestsโas a โsham charityโ and pro-Hamas front; one of its co-founders had publicly called the October 7 massacre โa brave and heroic operation.โ
Most damning of all is the direct operational collaboration confirmed by the terroristsโ own captives. Rescued hostage Shlomi Ziv was told by his Hamas captors that the group provided financial support to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and the Columbia AMP/NSJP affiliates that ran the encampments. A lawsuit filed by three former hostages in February 2025 alleges that a Hamas member who held them captive boasted of working with โalliesโ at American universities and in the media. Even more concrete: a Columbia University student actively involved in the protestsโarrested for assaulting Jewish studentsโwas discovered to have been in direct contact with a Hamas spokesperson via group chat.
These are not โpro-Palestinianโ activists exercising free speech. These are Hamas cohortsโwitting or unwittingโadvancing the terror groupโs strategic goal: to force Israel into a premature ceasefire so Hamas can rearm, repeat October 7, and ultimately wipe the Jewish state off the map. The same Hamas that diverts humanitarian aid to build tunnels and rockets, that executes Gazans who dare criticize it, and that proudly films its own atrocities is now the puppet master behind chants of โglobalize the intifadaโ and โfrom the river to the sea.โ
The โgenocideโ lie collapses under this evidence. Israel is not targeting Palestinians for extermination; it is dismantling a genocidal death cult that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and whose explicit aim is Jewish extermination. Every civilian death in Gaza is a tragedy Israel works to minimizeโthrough warnings, evacuation corridors, and precision strikesโwhile Hamas maximizes them for propaganda. The real genocide is Hamasโs: its October 7 massacre, its charter, its use of human shields, and its refusal to release hostages or accept any peace that leaves Israel standing.
When Hamas leaders praise โconstant rageโ on American campuses, when their captors brag about funding Columbia encampments, and when their proxies organize โprotestsโ that glorify October 7, the mask slips. The โgenocideโ narrative is not moral outrageโit is terrorist strategy. The American public should recognize these protests for what they are: an extension of Hamasโs war, not a campaign for peace. Supporting them does not help Palestinians; it empowers the butchers who keep them in misery and who dream of finishing what they started on October 7.
**References**
1. U.S. Cities Bolster Security After Hamas Calls for Day of Protest. The New York Times, October 13, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/world/middleeast/us-israel-hamas-protests-security.html
2. Former Hamas leader cheers ‘student flood’ at US colleges: ‘We want constant rage’. The National Desk, May 21, 2024. https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/former-hamas-leader-cheers-student-flood-at-us-colleges-we-want-constant-rage-former-hamas-leader-khaled-mashal-praised-student-protesters-at-american-universities-last-week-anti-israel-and-anti-american-sentiment
3. Amid campus protests, organizers with past ties to Hamas support also emerge. USA Today, May 22, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/05/22/gaza-student-protests-american-muslims-for-palestine/73775372007/
4. Hamas responds to protests on college campuses in the US. NewsNation Now, April 25, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYItdbAb7RU
5. Senior Hamas Official Praises Anti-Israel Demonstrations Across U.S. MEMRI, April 25, 2024. https://www.memri.org/jttm/senior-hamas-official-praises-anti-israel-demonstrations-across-us-todays-students-are-leaders
6. Pro-Hamas group that helped organize college protests is a ‘sham charity,’ Treasury says. NBC News, October 15, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-hamas-group-helped-organize-college-protests-sham-charity-treasury-sa-rcna175529
7. Hamas’s Influence on US Campuses. George Washington University Program on Extremism, November 2024. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2024-11/Pamphlet_compressed.pdf
8. Columbia activists worked with Hamas, captors told rescued hostage Shlomi Ziv. The Jerusalem Post, March 25, 2025. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-847516
9. Gaza captor told hostages that Hamas collaborates with US campus protesters, lawsuit alleges. The Times of Israel, February 22, 2025. https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-captor-told-hostages-that-hamas-collaborates-with-us-campus-protesters-lawsuit-alleges/
10. Anti-Israel protester reportedly had contact with Hamas. Fox News, June 4, 2025. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6373864059112
Why bother “illustrating” this piece with a fake AI-generated photograph-looking illustration? The purpose isn’t to mislead people, I hope?