Canada just 'one intelligence failure away from a mass casualty event' after a deadly year for Jews: report

Antisemitic attacks have reached their deadliest level in more than thirty years, according to an annual report on antisemitism in major Jewish diaspora regions around the world.

In 2025, a combined twenty people were murdered in antisemitic attacks: in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. A record number — since the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, when 84 people were killed.

On May 21, 2025, a gunman killed two young employees of Israel’s U.S. embassy outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The next month, an 82-year-old woman was killed in Boulder, Colo., when Molotov cocktails were thrown at a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages. Two people were killed in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester, U.K., on Oct. 2, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. On Dec. 14, two gunmen killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.

While no Canadians were killed in antisemitic attacks last year, Jews were targeted in 71 per cent of religious hate crimes in the country, according to recent data from Statistics Canada.

“Canada remains one intelligence failure away from a mass casualty event, and that is something the Jewish community is keenly aware” of, said the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in the Canadian portion of the 52-page report that was published on Wednesday. It was the second annual report from the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, representing the seven largest Jewish diaspora countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S.

“We are grateful to our police and security agencies for disrupting at least four ISIS-inspired terror plots since October 7, 2023. But it should not take a Bondi Beach on Canadian soil before leaders at every level respond with the urgency this threat demands,” CIJA CEO Noah Shack told National Post.

The J7 Annual Report on Antisemitism for 2025 documented more than 23,000 Jew-hatred incidents across its member regions, which comprise more than nine-tenths of the Jewish diaspora.

The report notes “the deadly reality of antisemitism that Jewish communities worldwide confront at levels unprecedented since World War Two,” adding that the “picture that emerges from this report is both sobering and urgent.”

Every J7 country’s antisemitic incidents remain dramatically above pre-October 7 levels. Australia saw the sharpest rise of antisemitic incidents since 2021 (+270 per cent), followed by Germany (+215 per cent), the United States (+131 per cent), and France (+124 per cent).

Germany has the highest rate per Jewish capita: nearly 70 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents in 2025 – about five times Australia’s rate, six times the U.K.’s rate, and nearly 70 times the rate in the United States.

Canada’s levels dropped 16 per cent to 788 incidents (about two reported incidents per thousand Jewish residents) from 943 incidents the year before. However, antisemitic incidents were still 50 per cent higher than 2022.

Between 2022 and 2025, J7 countries recorded a combined total of more than 91,000 antisemitic incidents.

“Extremists are targeting Jews in every aspect of society, from Jewish camps to allies who stand against hate. Activists across the country are working to push Jewish presence out of public life — from unsuccessful attempts to exclude Jews from participating in Pride celebrations, to the deliberate targeting, harassment, and violence against our community members at schools, summer camps, community centers, in our workplaces and in unions,” CIJA says in the report.

Campuses harbour a “persistent toxic environment” and public school classrooms can be “hostile” with “inadequate institutional responses,” the advocacy group wrote.

A point of action CIJA is calling for is a new criminal offence to punish the willful promotion, or glorification, of terrorism, and “consistent enforcement of Canada’s existing laws.”

“Canada has made important progress by investing in community security and strengthening hate laws. Those are important steps. While we strengthen our defence, we also need to go on the offence against violent extremism. That means getting tough on terrorism, deepening intelligence partnerships with our allies, giving police and security agencies the resources they need, and confronting the extremists who radicalize and incite violence here at home,” Shack told the Post.

CIJA contends that “hate‑motivated criminals” most often are released on bail, or never charged.

The J7 as a whole urges legislators and police agencies to shift toward proactive measures that safeguard Jewish communities, before incidents take place, rather than responding only after harm has occurred. It also calls for tightening legislative gaps that currently permit antisemitic rhetoric — particularly when framed as anti-Zionism — to evade accountability.

The report found that anti-Zionism or anti-Israel activism were used as a “vehicle for antisemitic expression” in a sizable numbers of incidents: 48 per cent in the U.K., 45 per cent in the U.S. and 23 per cent in Germany. “More than 53 per cent of all incidents referenced Israel, Gaza, the war or October 7,” the report states.

The Task Force is also pressing technology platforms to enhance their oversight of hateful content, improve transparency and to address evolving risks.

“Antisemitism in our seven countries is no longer a surge; it is our new normal,” said the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism in a joint statement. “Governments must stop reacting after Jews are attacked and start acting before, with real security funding, stronger laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules.”

• 'Canada’s antisemitism crisis': Jews targeted in 71 per cent of religious hate crimes, StatCan says
• Nearly a third of Canadians believe antisemitism has become more acceptable: survey

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