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Dokument #2111839
USDOS – US Department of State (Autor)
The constitution provides for freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, expression, and the right to equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination based on religion. The federal government does not require religious groups to register, but registered groups may receive tax-exempt status. The law criminalizes Holocaust denial and prohibits the communication of statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust.
In September, a Quebec court sentenced Gabriel Sohier Chaput to 15 months in prison and three years’ probation for “incitement of hateful discourse,” and for willfully promoting hatred against the Jewish people. The Quebec Court of Appeal released Chaput on bail in October, pending his appeal. In June, two unknown individuals shot and killed Canadian citizen and prominent activist for the creation of an independent Sikh state in northern India Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside of a Sikh temple in British Columbia. The Prime Minister stated that there were “credible allegations” Nijjar was killed by agents of the Indian government. An Alberta Court of Justice dismissed Public Health Act charges against the Pastor of Grace Life Church, who had refused in 2021 to comply with COVID-19 masking rules and capacity limits on worship services. A teacher at Londonderry Jr. High in Edmonton, Alberta, was recorded criticizing Muslim students for not participating in school Pride celebrations. In response, the school principal sent a message to the community condemning the views of the teacher and emphasizing that the school values diversity, acceptance, and inclusion. In January, the federal government announced the appointment of Amira Elghawaby as the first special representative on combating Islamophobia. Elghawaby advises the government regarding combatting discrimination and anti-Muslim hatred. Multiple provinces announced that they would incorporate mandatory Holocaust education into their curriculum starting in the 2025-26 school year. Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville issued a directive prohibiting prayer rooms or spaces in publicly funded schools in Quebec, in accordance with the province’s secularism law. The directive did not apply to private schools.
Throughout the year, there were multiple reports of individuals in several cities committing hate crimes against Jews and Muslims. In January, two students were charged with public incitement of hatred, mischief, and criminal harassment for engaging in antisemitic behavior at a high school. In March, a VIA Rail security guard told a Muslim man that he could not pray in the Toronto train station. In March, the Jewish community reported that swastikas were spray painted on a synagogue in Montreal. In March, a group of young men attacked a Sikh student in Kelowna, British Columbia. Many additional incidents involving possible antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred were under investigation by police at year’s end. In March, an Ontario court found Guilherme “William” Von Neutgem to be not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder for the 2020 murder of Mohamed Aslim Zafis. In July, Mohammed Moiz Omar, a former Muslim, was sentenced to eight years in prison for violent behavior towards worshippers at an Islamic Center in Ontario.
U.S. embassy and consulate general officers and other U.S. government officials emphasized with national and provincial governments the need for respect for religious freedom and diversity and reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to addressing discrimination and exclusion through the Roadmap for Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership. Embassy and other U.S. government officials met frequently with representatives from Global Affairs Canada to discuss issues of religious freedom in the country. Embassy and consular officers met with Muslim and Jewish groups, and in December, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and the Ambassador gave interviews and held joint events to communicate the U.S. government’s policy on the Israel-Hamas conflict and on antisemitism.
The U.S. government estimates the total population to be 38.5 million (mid-year 2023). As of October, the Canadian government estimated the population is 40.5 million. According to its most recent census in 2021, 63.2 percent of the population self-identifies as Christian, 26.3 percent state no religion or identify as secular, 3.7 percent Muslim, 1.7 percent Hindu, 1.2 percent Sikh, 1.4 percent Buddhist, 1.2 percent other religions, and 1.0 percent Jewish. According to the census, Roman Catholics constitute the largest Christian group (29.9 percent of the total population), followed by the United Church of Canada (3.3 percent), and Anglicans (3.1 percent). Baptists, Christian Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Pentecostal groups each constitute less than 2 percent of the population. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints estimates its membership at 200,000. The Hutterites, or Hutterite Brethren, numbering approximately 35,000, are an Anabaptist ethnoreligious group living primarily in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan provinces. Other religious and spiritual traditions together constitute less than 1.2 percent of the population. According to the 2021 census, approximately 18,000 persons (0.2 percent) practice traditional Indigenous spirituality; 90.2 percent of these are First Nations peoples. Nearly 47 percent of the country’s Indigenous population report having no religious affiliation.
The constitution provides for freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, and expression. Every individual is equal under the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination based on religion. The law imposes “reasonable limits” on the exercise of these religious rights only where such restrictions can be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” The law permits individuals to sue the government for violations of religious freedom. Federal and provincial human rights laws prohibit discrimination based on religious belief. Civil remedies include compensation and changes to the policy or practice responsible for the discrimination. The law criminalizes Holocaust denial and prohibits the communication of statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust.
The law does not require religious groups to register, but the federal government grants tax-exempt status to religious groups that register as nonprofit organizations with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency. Nonprofit status provides such organizations with federal and provincial sales tax reductions, rebates, and exemptions. To gain and retain tax-exempt status, a group must be nonpolitical and undergo periodic audits. Charitable status also grants members of the clergy various federal benefits, including a housing deduction under the tax code and expedited processing through the immigration system. The term “clergy” includes persons whose communities have licensed, ordained, or otherwise formally recognized them for their religious leadership and authority to perform spiritual duties and services within their religious organization. Individual citizens who donate to tax-exempt religious groups receive a federal tax receipt entitling them to federal income tax deductions.
A Quebec provincial law passed in 2019 on secularism, known as Bill 21, prohibits certain provincial government employees from wearing religious symbols when publicly exercising their official functions. The law defines a religious symbol as “any object including clothing, a symbol, jewelry, an adornment, an accessory, or headwear that is worn in connection with a religious conviction or belief or is reasonably considered as referring to a religious affiliation.” Classes of individuals and offices covered by the law include the president and vice presidents of the provincial National Assembly; administrative justices of the peace; certain municipal court employees; police, sheriffs, and deputy sheriffs; certain prosecutors and criminal lawyers; and certain principals, vice principals, and teachers, among others. The law also requires anyone seeking certain provincial government services to do so with “face uncovered.” The law invokes the “notwithstanding clause” of the federal constitution, which permits a province to override specific constitutional protections for a period of five years to prevent citizens from bringing challenges to the law based on the federal constitution. The law is subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms after the five-year period if the exemption is not renewed. The law exempts employees working for the provincial government prior to 2019 when the law took effect, although they lose their right to wear religious symbols on the job upon changing jobs or receiving a promotion.
Government policy and practices regarding education, including regulation of religious schools, fall under the purview of the provincial, rather than federal, governments. Six of the 10 provinces provide full or partial funding to some religious schools.
Catholic and Protestant schools in Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan retain the federal constitutionally protected right to public funding they gained when those provinces joined the federation. Other provinces either had no legally recognized denominational schools that qualified for such protection at the time of federation or accession, or they subsequently secured a federal constitutional amendment allowing them to terminate religious education funding rights and introduce an exclusively secular publicly funded education system. Federal statutory protection for Catholic and Protestant publicly funded minority education exists in the Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories, which do not have provincial status. Constitutional or federal statutory protection for public funding of religious education does not extend to schools of other religious groups, although British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec offer partial funding to religious schools of any faith that meet provincial scholastic criteria. The laws permit parents to homeschool their children or enroll them in private schools for religious reasons.
The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In September, a Quebec court sentenced Gabriel Sohier Chaput to 15 months in prison and three-years’ probation – one of the harshest sentences to date for the charge of “incitement of hateful discourse.” The court found he engaged in willful promotion of hatred against the Jewish people, including calling for “non-stop Nazism everywhere,” including in an article he wrote for the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. The Quebec Court of Appeal released Sohier Chaput on bail in October, pending his appeal on the grounds that the lower court erred in rejecting the lesser joint sentencing recommendation from the prosecution and the defense. The Supreme Court had ruled in 2016 that joint sentencing recommendations should only be set aside in instances “where the proposed sentence would be viewed by reasonable and informed persons as a breakdown in the proper functioning of the justice system.” The appeal remained pending at year’s end.
In September, addressing the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India” and the killing on Canadian soil of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was a Sikh leader in British Columbia and prominent activist for the creation of an independent Sikh state in northern India called Khalistan. Two unknown assailants shot and killed him on June 18 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a city southeast of Vancouver.
In April, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville issued a directive prohibiting prayer rooms or designated prayer spaces in publicly funded schools, in accordance with the province’s secularism law. The directive did not apply to private schools. Drainville said, “School is not a place of prayer. A person should not be able to use a classroom as a prayer room,” and added that students would still be allowed to pray “discreetly and silently.” In June, a Quebec court denied the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Council of Canadian Muslims an injunction to suspend the ban, ruling these groups failed to prove an urgent need to stay the ban while they challenged the directive in court.
While all temporary government restrictions that limited the number of persons permitted to gather to stem the transmission of COVID-19 were lifted in 2022, several cases that asserted these restrictions had infringed on constitutional rights to freedoms of religion, expression, and peaceful assembly continued to work their way through the courts.
In August, the Vancouver Sun reported the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal brought by three British Columbia churches in which they alleged provincial COVID-19 restrictions that banned indoor religious services had violated their constitutional rights.
In August, the Edmonton Journal reported the Alberta Court of Justice dismissed Public Health Act charges against James Coates, Pastor of the Grace Life Church. Authorities jailed Coates for 35 days in 2021 for refusing to agree with bail conditions requiring him to comply with COVID-19 masking rules and capacity limits on worship services. The court dismissed the charges after another court case, Ingram vs. Alberta, found some public health orders and restrictions were invalid because politicians had given the final approval for them instead of the then chief medical officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, as required by law.
In September, the Winnipeg Press reported a group of five Manitoba churches filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, to a June 2022 decision by the Manitoba Court of Appeal that upheld a lower-court ruling affirming the constitutionality of COVID-19 public health orders that restricted gatherings and limited the number of people permitted to attend in-person church services. The churches said these pandemic restrictions had infringed on their freedom of religious expression and peaceful assembly. The Supreme Court had not determined whether to hear the appeal at year’s end.
In August, Global News reported that Harvest Ministries International, a prolife nongovernmental organization, was suing the Quebec government because Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx canceled its “Faith, Fire, and Freedom” conference. Proulx deemed it would “promote antiabortion views [that] are contrary to the core values of Quebec.” The group requested CAD 200,000 ($151,000) in compensation “for moral and material loss, and for punitive damages.” It also wanted an admission that its rights “were unjustly interfered with.”
Quebec’s law on secularism continued to prohibit certain provincial employees in positions of authority, including teachers, police officers, prison guards, justices of the peace, and other public sector employees from wearing religious symbols, dress, and paraphernalia while providing public services.
In June, the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin reported that the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board appointed its first Jewish Equity Coach after unanimously passing a motion to create the position in January. The Jewish Equity Coach served as the point of contact in the district for monitoring and recording antisemitic incidents, as well as creating lesson plans designed to combat antisemitism.
In June, the National Post reported a teacher at Londonderry Jr. High in Edmonton, Alberta, was recorded criticizing Muslim students for not participating in school Pride celebrations. On the recording, the teacher is heard saying, “It goes two ways. If you want to be respected for who you are, if you don’t want to suffer prejudice for your religion and color of skin, your whatever, then you better give it back to people who are different than you.” The teacher said this in the context of the school’s previous Ramadan celebrations. She added, “We believe in freedom, we believe that people can marry whomever they want, that is in the law, and if you don’t think that should be law, you can’t be Canadian. You don’t belong here, and I mean it.” Edmonton Public Schools confirmed the authenticity of the tape and said it was taking steps to address the situation. Soon after the incident occurred, Londonderry Principal Ed Charpentier sent a message to the community condemning the views of the teacher and emphasizing that the school values diversity, acceptance, and inclusion.
In October, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center reported that British Columbia Premier David Eby said the province would make Holocaust education mandatory starting in the tenth grade, beginning in the 2025-26 school year. Eby said, “It is critical that when we’re talking about injustices – when we’re teaching kids about injustices and history in Grade 10 – that they learn about the Holocaust.”
In November, the Minister of Education Jeanie McLean announced that the Yukon Territory, which follows the British Columbia curriculum, will adopt mandatory Holocaust education and it would be part of the curriculum for all students in the territory beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.
In November, CBC reported Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced Ontario would introduce mandatory Holocaust education starting in the tenth grade, beginning with the 2025-26 school year. The new curriculum would include information regarding the contemporary impacts of rising antisemitism. Lecce stated that the rising tide of antisemitism in Canada could be partially traced to Holocaust denial and distortion, and that young people were particularly vulnerable to this misinformation.
In November, the Saskatchewan government announced Holocaust education would be a compulsory component of tenth grade education and a provincial graduation requirement. Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said, “Antisemitism, unfortunately, is a prejudice that remains a problem in Canada. Knowledge of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust is important for our youth, as it helps reduce hate and discrimination in society.”
In January, the federal government announced the appointment of Amira Elghawaby as the country’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia. The special representative advises the government on combatting discrimination against the Muslim community, engages with the Muslim community and other community stakeholders, and promotes education and awareness to combat anti-Muslim hate.
In January, Prime Minister Trudeau issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day stating, “Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I join Canadians in honoring the memory of the more than six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. We remember the many Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, Two-Spirit and LGBTQI+ people, Black people, Slavic people, political opponents, and Jehovah’s Witnesses who were also persecuted and killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. We also honor the survivors and the people who gave their own lives to save the lives of others during the Holocaust.”
In May, B’nai Brith reported that the province of Newfoundland and Labrador adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, becoming the seventh province to do so. Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of Immigration, Population Growth, and Skills Gerry Byrne said, “We remain unwavering in our commitment to always challenge antisemitism, wherever and whenever it occurs. This historic proclamation builds further upon the strong and collaborative relationship between the Jewish community and the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. This definition of antisemitism is being adopted along with a pledge to continue support of the Jewish community.”
In November, Prime Minister Trudeau strongly condemned incidents in which gun shots were fired at the facades of Jewish schools in Montreal. There were no injuries. The Prime Minister called the attacks “acts of terrorism” in a press interview with Quebec television station Noovo.
In November, a Senate committee of the federal parliament issued a report titled Combatting Hate: Islamophobia and its Impact on Muslims in Canada that concluded Islamophobia was present in Canadian society and in many of its institutions. The report made 13 nonbinding recommendations to ensure that Muslims were empowered to live, work, and pray in safety and on an equal basis with all citizens.
In November, the Vancouver Sun reported that British Columbia offered a specific anti-hate community support fund for organizations affected by acts of hate, including vandalism, and launched a racist incident helpline. The support funds were provided to places of worship, cultural community centers, and at-risk groups for security equipment, graffiti removal, and repairs to damaged property as part of community efforts to respond to hate-motivated crimes.
In December, the CBC reported that the Moncton city council in New Brunswick reversed its decision, made a week earlier, to end a 20-year practice of displaying a Hanukkah menorah and nativity scenes outside city hall. The council voted unanimously to reverse itself after Jewish community leaders pointed out that Christmas decorations depicting religious symbols remained on display. A federal cabinet minister from the province and federal politicians also criticized the council’s initial decision. The council had justified the initial decision to end the displays as an attempt to “to be more inclusive” toward all faith groups. Critics of the reversal claimed the council reversed itself and reinstated the Hannukah display in response to accusations of antisemitism.
Communities across the country held menorah lighting ceremonies over Hannukah with dignitaries and elected politicians at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels in attendance.
The country is a member of the IHRA.
Although year-end data was unavailable, police reported the country experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate incidents following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Toronto police reported antisemitic incidents comprised 53 percent of all reported hate incidents in the city between October 7 and year’s end, and there were 37 reported anti-Muslim hate incidents, up from 14 incidents in 2022. Ottawa police reported 128 hate incidents and hate crimes between October 7 and year’s end, an increase compared to the same time period in 2022. The Ottawa police said antisemitic incidents comprised 27 percent of all reported hate incidents in 2023. Montreal police reported that since October 7, the city experienced 131 antisemitic hate incidents including gunfire that targeted Jewish schools and Molotov cocktails that were thrown at Jewish synagogues. Montreal also experienced several incidents of anti-Muslim hate, including vandalism of a mosque.
Prior to the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and the subsequent Israeli operation in Gaza, there were reports that instances of physical violence, vandalism, hate speech, and harassment directed at religious groups, particularly Jews and Muslims, was on a downward trend. The most recent figures released by Statistics Canada for 2022 showed a 15 percent decrease in the number of police-reported, religiously motivated hate crimes from 886 in 2021 to 750 in 2022. According to Statistics Canada, Jews, who comprise approximately 1 percent of the population, were the targets of 18 percent of all hate crimes in the country and remained the country’s most targeted religious group.
In 2022, the most recent year for which there were statistics, the B’nai Brith Canada League for Human Rights reported 2,769 antisemitic hate incidents compared with 2,799 in 2021, a 7.2 percent decrease. Violent incidents decreased by 66.7 percent from 74 in 2021 to 25 in 2022. There were 404 reports of vandalism, including the painting of swastikas, damage to religious buildings, and the desecration of cemeteries and synagogues, compared with 264 in 2021. B’nai Brith also received 2,340 reports of harassment in 2022, compared with 2,460 in 2021. The number of in-person harassment cases declined from 367 in 2021 to 284 in 2022, while incidents of online hate also decreased from 2,093 in 2021 to 2,056 in 2022, accounting for 74 percent of all harassment cases.
In terms of geographic distribution, Ontario, the country’s most populous province, experienced a rise in reported cases of antisemitic hate incidents from 821 in 2021 to 1,353 in 2022. According to Statistics Canada, Ontario is home to nearly 60 percent of the country’s Jewish population, and it logged 49 percent of all reported incidents targeting Jews. Quebec, with a quarter of the country’s Jewish population, reported a decrease in cases from 828 in 2021 to 722 in 2022, accounting for 26 percent of all incidents. There were also decreases of antisemitic acts in reports from the western provinces. British Columbia, which comprises 8 percent of the country’s total Jewish population, recorded 242 incidents in 2022, down from 409 in 2021. Alberta and the Northwest Territories’ cases decreased by 18.9 percent, while Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Nunavut collectively had decreases from 228 to 67 cases, or a 70.6 percent annual decrease. All three provinces combined have slightly more than 6 percent of the national Jewish population. The Atlantic provinces experienced a decrease in cases from 80 in 2021 to 56 in 2022. The Atlantic provinces have 2 percent of the country’s Jewish population.
Throughout the year, media reported religious minorities continued to encounter discrimination, hate, and aggression since the passage of Quebec’s secularism law in 2019, which bars certain civil servants from wearing religious symbols – such as hijabs, crucifixes, or turbans – while at work.
In February, Tribune India reported unknown individuals vandalized the Komagata Maru Memorial in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the third time in the last three years. The memorial is dedicated to 376 Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu passengers aboard the ship Komagata Maru whom officials denied entry to the country in 1914 under exclusion laws and forced to return to India. A police investigation into the incident was ongoing at the end of the year.
In March, CBC reported a court found Guilherme “William” Von Neutgem not criminally responsible due to mental disorder for the murder in 2020 of Mohamed Aslim Zafis in the parking lot of the International Muslim Organization Mosque in Rexdale, a suburb of Toronto, Ontario.
In March, CTV news reported a VIA Rail Canada security guard approached a Muslim man and told him that he could not pray in the Ottawa train station. The Muslim said the guard told him, “Don’t pray in here. We don’t want you praying here. You’re bothering our other customer, okay.” VIA Rail Canada said the company was investigating the incident and would take appropriate actions pending the outcome of the investigation. VIA Rail Canada also apologized to the Muslim man and “the entire Muslim community.” VIA Rail Canada said it would work with the National Council of Canadian Muslims to improve its diversity training following the incident. It committed to sharing its diversity and inclusion policies and training program with the council “to help prevent these incidents in the future.”
In March, CTV news reported that unknown individuals spray painted swastikas on the Bagg Street Synagogue in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood in Montreal. Montreal mayor Valerie Plante expressed her support for the city’s Jewish community after the incident and said, “There’s no place in Montreal for discrimination and racism.” The Montreal Police Hate Crimes Division’s investigation remained ongoing at year’s end.
In March, Tribune India reported an unidentified group of 12-15 young men in Kelowna, British Columbia attacked a Sikh student, Gagandeep Singh. The assailants ripped off Singh’s turban, beat him, and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair. A police investigation was ongoing at year’s end.
In March, CP24 reported a man armed with a knife threatened a woman wearing a hijab on the Toronto transit system. Toronto police were reportedly investigating the incident at year’s end.
An Angus Reid poll released in March found 36 percent of Canadians outside of Quebec held an unfavorable view of Islam, while 56 percent of Quebecers held negative opinions of Islam.
In April, CTV news reported that Montreal police investigated two hate crimes involving assaults on members of the Hasidic Jewish community. Police said both assaults happened less than an hour apart in the Outremont neighborhood. The suspect, who was a minor, turned himself in a day after the attacks, and was released with conditions to appear in court. Judicial proceedings in this case remained ongoing at year’s end.
In April, the National Post reported a man in Halifax, Nova Scotia approached a woman wearing a hijab and threatened her. Police arrested the man and charged him with uttering threats. Investigators indicated they believed “the threats were motivated by hate based on religion.” Judicial proceedings remained ongoing at year’s end.
In April, the National Post reported a 47-year-old man blocked the entrance to a mosque in Markham, Ontario, yelled slurs at worshipers, and assaulted several persons who had gathered in the area before driving away. York Regional Police arrested the man and charged him with three counts of assault and one count of mischief. Judicial proceedings remained ongoing at year’s end.
In April, CP24 reported that Sharan Karunakaran drove to a mosque in Markham, Ontario, yelled anti-Muslim slurs, threatened to burn down the mosque, and attempted to run over congregants with his vehicle. York Regional Police arrested him and charged him with assault with a weapon, uttering threats, and dangerous driving; he was subsequently released. In May, Karunakaran attempted to hit worshipers with his vehicle at two mosques in Scarborough, Ontario, before proceeding to Scarborough Town Center where he allegedly harassed and threatened several customers with anti-Muslim and derogatory comments. Police in the incident charged Karunakaran with multiple counts of criminal harassment, “dangerous operation of a conveyance,” assault with a weapon, uttering threats of bodily harm, assault, indecent exhibition in a public place, and committing an indecent act with intent to insult/offend another. Judicial proceedings remained ongoing at year’s end.
In April, CBC reported a man pointed a gun at two Muslim women as they drove home from early morning prayers at a mosque in Waterloo, Ontario, during Ramadan. Waterloo Regional Police were still investigating the case at year’s end.
In April, CTV news reported police arrested Cody Anderson and charged him with assault with a weapon, mischief, and forcible confinement in two separate incidents during the same week at the Al-Omah Al-Islamiah Mosque in Montreal, Quebec. Anderson allegedly smashed the glass door of the mosque with a shovel and threatened a man outside the mosque; he proceeded to chase the worshipper and tried to hit him with an object. Judicial proceedings in this case remained ongoing at year’s end.
In May, Global News reported unknown individuals distributed antisemitic pamphlets in Peterborough, Ontario, over a two-day period. Peterborough police continued to investigate the incident at year’s end.
In July, British Broadcasting Company reported a court sentenced Mohammed Moiz Omar to eight years in prison for discharging bear spray at congregants and brandishing a hatchet at the Dar Al Tawheed Islamic Center in Mississauga, Ontario during morning prayers in 2022. Omar, a former Muslim who referred to himself as an atheist, said he was motivated by a hatred for Muslims and had intended to perpetrate a mass casualty event.
In July, CBC reported Montreal police arrested a man who allegedly threw large pieces of cement through several windows of the Imam Warch Mosque. While no congregants were injured, City Councilor for Montreal Nord Abdelhaq Sari published photos of the vandalized mosque on social media and released a statement condemning the act. Judicial proceedings remained ongoing at year’s end.
In August, the CBC reported unknown individuals spray-painted a series of hate related messages towards the Jewish and Muslim communities on an underpass in Winnipeg. The city government sent out a crew the same day to clean up the graffiti. Winnipeg police said its hate crimes co-coordinator was notified about the incident. No arrest had been made at year’s end.
In October, the CBC reported graffiti was spray-painted on a wall near the Badr Islamic Center in the Saint-Leonard neighborhood of Montreal. The graffiti included a swastika, a message reading “Kill all Musulman bastard (sic)” and another line reading “pigs” and a misspelling of the word Israel. Montreal police were investigating at year’s end.
In October, the National Post reported Adil Charkaoui, a self-proclaimed imam, delivered a prayer featuring antisemitic content at a pro-Palestinian protest in Montreal. In his remarks, Charkaoui called for the extermination of “Zionist aggressors” and for Allah not to “spare any of them.” Quebec politicians condemned the speech, including Quebec Premier Francois Legault, who called on Montreal police to investigate the incident. A criminal complaint against Charkaoui was filed.
In October in Ontario, the CBC reported a library employee circulated an email at the request of the Markham Public Library CEO Catherine Biss and an unnamed city councilor suggesting the city’s libraries remove their Islamic Heritage Month displays due to the situation in the Middle East. Biss later released a statement stating, “the email is inaccurate” and “the Markham Public Library regrets this occurred, and we apologize for any confusion or hurt this has caused the community.”
In November, the Suburban reported an unknown individual threw a Molotov cocktail at Montreal’s Congregation Beth Tikvah during the early hours of the morning, burning the front doors of the synagogue. Remnants of another Molotov cocktail were also found at the doors of the Jewish organization Federation CJA’s West Island offices the same day. No one was injured in either incident. Montreal police continued to investigate the two incidents as of year’s end. In response to these attacks, Prime Minister Trudeau posted on X (formerly twitter), “These continued acts of antisemitic violence are deplorable and unacceptable – and must stop immediately. We must all stand united against such vile, hateful acts.”
In November, the Toronto Sun reported Toronto police charged Chandler Marshall with 17 assault-related offenses for a series of incidents in which he allegedly yelled anti-Muslim slurs, threw rocks at worshipers at a mosque, and assaulted one with a bicycle chain. In separate incidents, he sprayed an unknown substance in the faces of a Muslim taxi driver and a female pedestrian wearing a hijab.
In November, CBC reported a man hurled anti-Muslim slurs at a Muslim woman, Sarwat Qureshi, in Winnipeg while she was driving her son to school. The man pounded on and kicked her car and tried to enter her vehicle when she slowed down to try to take a photo of him. Qureshi reported the harassment to Winnipeg police and the investigation was ongoing at year’s end.
In November, City News reported police evacuated the Jaffari Community Center, a mosque and Islamic community center in Vaughan, Ontario, due to a bomb threat. They conducted a search but found no explosive device. The York Regional Police were investigating the incident at year’s end.
In November, CBC reported representatives from Winnipeg-based Jewish organizations reported that unknown individuals sprayed antisemitic graffiti in a pedestrian underpass in the city, including swastikas, an SS insignia, and a Star of David with a line through it. The city government dispatched cleaning crews to remove the graffiti and a police investigation into the vandalism was ongoing at year’s end.
In November, American Broadcasting Company News (ABC) reported unknown individual twice in one week shot at the Jewish school Yeshiva Gedola in Montreal. The facade of the school suffered damaged but the building was empty at the time of the shootings and no one was injured. Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante condemned the shootings and said, “The Jewish community in Montreal is currently under attack.” Montreal police opened an investigation; no arrest had been made at year’s end.
In November, CBC reported a jury convicted Nathaniel Veltman of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the religiously motivated killing of four members of a Muslim family in a 2021 vehicle attack in London, Ontario. Veltman was also separately charged with terrorism. On the homicide and attempted homicide charges, he faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without eligibility for parole for 25 years. The court was scheduled to hear legal arguments on the terrorism charge in January 2024. If convicted, the terrorism charge would not add to the life sentence without eligibility for parole for 25 years, the legal maximum, but would be considered an aggravating factor and taken into account by the Parole Board if and when Veltman applied for parole at the expiration of his mandatory 25-year sentence.
In December, Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported they arrested and charged two Ontario men, Matthew Althorpe and Kristoffer Nippak, with hate crimes and terrorism for allegedly participating in the creation of Terrorgram Collective manifestos and Atomwaffen Division recruiting videos in support of far-right extremism and the neo-Nazi terrorist movement. Atomwaffen Division is a listed terrorist entity in the country. Judicial proceedings remained ongoing at year’s end.
In December, CBC reported police charged an individual in Ottawa with three counts of terrorism and two counts of possession of explosives related to a potential attack on Jewish people and property in the city. No further details were available as the accused was a minor.
Embassy, consulate general, and other U.S. government officials emphasized with the national and provincial governments the need for respect for religious freedom and diversity and reaffirmed the U.S. government’s commitment to addressing discrimination and exclusion through the Roadmap for Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership, a strategic document of shared policy priorities. Embassy officers and other U.S. government officials met frequently with representatives from Global Affairs Canada to discuss issues of religious freedom in the country, including religious expression, inclusion, and respect for religious diversity. Throughout the year, the embassy and consulates general used social media to amplify religious freedom messaging from senior Department of State officials.
During the visit of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism in December, the Special Envoy and the Ambassador gave interviews and held joint events to communicate the U.S. government’s policy on the Israel-Hamas conflict and on antisemitism.
The embassy promoted religious freedom using traditional and social media, efforts that reaching more than five million viewers; individual meetings with religious organizations; Ambassador-led initiatives; and U.S.-hosted leadership roundtables.
The embassy supported and attended Holocaust education events across the country as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to religious freedom and inclusivity. The Ambassador and Prime Minister Trudeau addressed more than 125 attendees at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration in Ottawa. The U.S. Consul General in Vancouver gave remarks at a Menorah lighting ceremony, joined by the Premier of British Columbia and the mayor of Vancouver. Approximately 2,000 persons attended the ceremony. In his speech, which local media covered, the Consul General reiterated the U.S. government’s commitment to combat antisemitism.
The embassy held discussions with Muslim organizations in Toronto and interfaith dialogues in Quebec City. The U.S. Consul General in Quebec City held meetings with leaders from the Quebec City Muslim community to discuss Quebec’s secularism law. She also met with the Quebec minister responsible for the province’s “Fight Against Racism” campaign to discuss the province’s measures to combat racism and promote diversity and inclusion. In Ottawa, the Ambassador met with Jewish leaders and young adults and emphasized the U.S. government’s commitment to combatting antisemitism.
The embassy used social media to amplified the Secretary of State’s messages regarding Hanukkah, Ramadan, Diwali, and other cultural and religious festivals.
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