Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow came under fire on Wednesday after she failed to attend a memorial and vigil organized by the Jewish community on Monday on the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 massacre.
Chow began a news conference before Wednesday’s city council meeting with a statement in which she “acknowledged the deep pain and anguish in our city.”
“Monday was a difficult day for so many people,” she said in the statement, as quoted by CityNews. “It was the grim anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel which claimed the lives of 1,200 people and the abduction of over 200, many of whom are still held hostage. For Toronto’s Jewish community, it was a deeply painful day.”
Asked by a journalist why she was just making a statement now, days after the anniversary, Chow shot back that she actually released a statement on Friday, days before the anniversary.
“It’s a very extensive statement,” she said, adding, “There’s a lot of grieving and emotions are very high and I regret that I missed the Jewish memorial, the anniversary … I think there was some miscommunication from my office and the organizers. But that’s in the past.”
Chow said she is hoping to meet with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, which organized Monday’s vigil, in an effort to smooth things over.
Asked to elaborate on what she meant by “miscommunication”, Chow replied, “I don’t know the details but my office did not get the email (about the event) that was sent to us.”
Chow said the City’s IT department was looking into it, but did not provide further detail when asked.
Earlier in the day, Chow gave an interview to Newstalk 1010 radio in Toronto, in which she claimed that she had not attended Monday’s vigil because she was “exhausted” after a meeting about bike lanes that went late into the day.
In a statement, CIJA criticized Chow and called her excuses “embarrassing exercises in avoiding accountability for her and her staff who disappointed thousands and thousands of members of Toronto’s Jewish community.”
“After giving her the benefit of the doubt about missing three separate invitations and being asked personally by councillors about her attendance, her interview today made clear that her absence was not the result of not receiving an invitation, but that she ‘got caught up in the long discussion on bike lanes over Kingsway area where emotions were very high and the meeting went quite long and by the time I was done, I was exhausted’ and that she ‘didn’t even know precisely what time the event was’ – an indication that, after denying it, she did in fact know there was a commemoration scheduled,” said CIJA’s Ontario Vice President, Michelle Stock.
“As exhausting as discussing bike lanes may be for the Mayor, we assure her the Jewish community is more exhausted. Over the last year, Toronto’s Jewish community has had to justify their right to exist as Jews, feeling unsafe as constituents in the city Mayor Chow is purported to lead. Although she claims she wants her city to be safe and inclusive for everyone, her persistent inaction says otherwise,” added Stock.
Stock also noted in her statement Chow’s comment during Wednesday’s press conference that she had accepted an invitation by Toronto Councillor James Pasternak to attend a Rosh Hashanah event.
“Let me be clear, showing up to a Rosh Hashanah event to celebrate the Jewish New Year is not the same as paying respects to the 1,200 lives lost and the 101 hostages remaining in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Mayor Chow has had a year to direct police to end the rampage of protests in our streets, but she has failed to do so. If the Mayor bothered to show up at the October 7 vigil, she would have witnessed firsthand the significant security and police presence required just to ensure the Jewish community could mourn safely in our city,” said Stock.
“It is unacceptable. ‘Sorry’ should not be the hardest word for her to say. We’re demanding an apology, and, if she is truthful about her regret, we hope she will agree to meet with CIJA without delay to discuss ways she can protect our community from the hate we’re facing today, as we have been over the last year,” she concluded.