‘If we can’t build peace in Ontario, where can we build it?’ Leaders speak out against rising antisemitism at Holocaust remembrance event

Party leaders and MPPs at Queen's Park held a ceremony to mark Yom Hashoah Tuesday and spoke out against rising antisemitism

Leaders from all four elected parties at Queen’s Park took part in a ceremony Tuesday to mark Yom Hashoah, a day to remember the Holocaust, and took the occasion to speak out against increasingly violent acts of antisemitism.

“Never again is a demand, but it is also a responsibility that we carry every single day,” NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.

“We remember the six million Jewish lives stolen during the Holocaust. We remember the atrocities, the unspeakable loss, the families destroyed. We also remember and acknowledge that the fight is not over, that rising antisemitism right here in Ontario is a crisis that we absolutely have to confront.”

The event, organized by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, comes amid a rising tide of antisemitism in the province, including multiple shooting attacks on GTA synagogues. While no injuries have been reported as a result of the gunfire attacks, bullets have pierced doors and windows, in some cases while there were people inside the building.

“You go to the synagogue and you see the holes in the window, holes in the door—they’re out to kill people. It’s beyond antisemitism, and I’m just sick and tired of it. We need to stand united,” Premier Doug Ford said.

He noted that “people are taught racism, they’re taught antisemitism” and said the province has been providing funding for antisemitism education to counter hatred.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner noted that he is working to help open a Jewish daycare in his riding and said it “pains” him to know that the facility will likely need police protection, as a local synagogue in his riding already does.

“It pains me to know that they have to be there, and so let’s never forget, and let’s stand in unity to say that regardless of any wars and conflict anywhere in the world, especially in the Middle East, that we in Ontario are going to bring people together – Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, all people – to build peace, to work across our differences.

“Because if we can’t build peace in Ontario, where can we build peace? And if we can’t figure out how we’re all going to work together to end hate, where can we end hate?”

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser called Yom Hashoah, which also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, “a day to reflect on and educate.”

Holocaust Survivor Renate Krakauer addressed the group and said the recent incidents have been troubling.

“My parents used to say, ‘Canada has been good to us.’ I agree. I’ve had a good life,” Krakauer said. “But there’s one major cloud on my horizon, and that is the burgeoning antisemitism in our society. The Holocaust was the worst case of antisemitism in the history of the Jewish people. It hurts me to see the scourge rising in a place that my parents and I came to for refuge.”

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who is Jewish, recalled growing up and wondering why there were no relatives on his father’s side.

“While I was blessed to have both of my grandparents come to Toronto in 1930, the rest of the Kerzner family stayed behind. They were all murdered by the Nazis,” Kerzner said.

He added “our job today is to not only remember those lives lost but to understand that the threat of antisemitism is real.”

Antisemitic incidents have risen sharply in the years since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Some of the incidents worldwide have been fatal, including a shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, that left 15 people dead in December.

The same month, the RCMP announced terror charges against a Toronto man in connection with alleged plans targeting the Jewish community. Those charges have not yet been tested in court.

A federal intelligence assessment at the time said there was a “realistic possibility” of attacks targeting the Jewish community in Canada.