Montreal, Quebec's largest borough denounced anti-Semitism and the recent wave of attacks against Jews in the Canadian city on Monday night, reported The Suburban weekly newspaper.
At a Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce council meeting, councillors Christian Arseneault and Lionel Perez asked the borough to “strongly denounce anti-Semitism, threats and acts of hatred, incitement to the hatred and intimidation directed at Jewish Montrealers during recent weeks and commits to ensure their safety against these practices on its territory.”
The multicultural Côte-des-Neiges neigbhorhood has a significant Jewish population.
The councillors cited the Quebec and Canadian charter of rights and freedoms in their motion which noted that “the Jewish community is part of Montreal’s DNA and has been present on its territory for more than 250 years.”
In addition, they wrote: “In recent weeks the conflict between Israel and Gaza has brought an increase in incidents against Jewish Montrealers who have been the victims of threats, violence, acts of aggression, harassment and racist insults which will never be tolerable in our society… A foreign conflict cannot be used as a pretext to justify or tolerate anti-Semitism or any other manifestation of hatred.”
They also noted that Montreal police have made arrests in connection with violent threats and incitement against the Jewish community during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Most significant was the arrest of a group that openly broadcast on social media, to great popularity, their plans to travel to areas of Montreal with large Jewish populations, such as Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Outremont, Hampstead and Côte Saint-Luc. Once there, they planned on zoning in on Jewish homes to harass Jews, tear down Israeli flags and humiliate Jewish women.
Perez said that people need to “shout from the highest rooftops” to denounce acts of Jew hate to counter not only anti-Semites but also appeasers who dismiss the incidents.
He added that a friend of his was attacked due to his kippah while he was reading on his patio by men who yelled “Death to Jews” at him. He has also been told that many Jews in Montreal removed the mezuzahs from their front doors so their homes could not be identified as Jewish by roaming attackers.
The resolution was seconded by Marvin Rotrand and adopted unanimously.
At the end of May, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion condemning the sharp uptick in anti-Semitic incidents targeting members of the province’s Jewish community.