The face of the world's "new anti-Semitism"?
The face of the world's "new anti-Semitism"?Reuters

Anti-Semitism in Canada reached an all-time high in 2014, B'nai Brith Canada's recently published annual audit revealed. 

The Jewish human rights agency, which has been documenting anti-Semitism levels in the country for over 30 years, found a record 1,627 incidents of recorded anti-Semitism in 2014. 

That number is a 28% increase over recorded incidents in 2013, consistent with a reported 21% increase of anti-Semitic incidents globally, and a significant rise from the previous record of 1,345 incidents in 2012. 

According to B'nai Brith, most cases of anti-Semitism in 2014 - 1,370 incidents - involved harassment followed by 238 cases of vandalism and 19 reported incidents of violence. 

While the instances of vandalism in 2014 dropped by close to 40 percent, cases of harassment jumped by nearly 30 percent. 

The majority of anti-Semitic incidents occurred in Ontario, the audit found, followed by Quebec and Atlantic Canada, which is "consistent with years past," B'nai Brith reported. 

The audit noted that "dramatic spikes" of anti-Semitic activity took place in July and December, coinciding with Operation Protective Edge in Israel, and white supremacists' annual campaign against Jews around Christmas. 

“When examining the incidents in 2014, a clear pattern emerged," Michael Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada's CEO, stated in a press release on the audit. "It has become too easy to deny anti-Semitism, as long as it is reframed under the legitimizing veil of anti-Zionism."

Still, while, "it would be easy to allow the events of 2014 to convince Canadians that anti-Semitism has become an inevitable and insurmountable problem," Mostyn asserted, the Canadian government is "steadfast" in trying to fight this phenomenon.