VZCZCXRO0940
PP RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHMT RUEHPOD
RUEHQU RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0273/01 0962044
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 062044Z APR 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9309
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNOSC/ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN EUROPE PRIORITY
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 1492
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 0526
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 0139
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1323

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 000273 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL/IRF, WHA/CAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI CA
SUBJECT: CANADA FIGHTING ANTI-SEMITISM WHILE INCIDENTS 
RISING AT HOME 
 
REF: A. 08 OTTAWA 497 
     ¶B. 08 OTTAWA 123 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Summary:  According to B'nai Brith Canada, white 
supremacists, radical Muslims, and far leftists are uniting 
to promote anti-Semitic propaganda in Canada.  A recent B'nai 
Brith report claimed that the current economic crisis had 
spurred an upsurge in anti-Semitic incidents over the last 
four months of 2008.  Callers reported 1,135 incidents of 
assault, vandalism, and harassment to the B'nai Brith hotline 
in 2008, an 8.9 pct increase from 2007.  Police laid charges 
in fifteen cases.  Universities have become increasingly 
hostile environments for Jewish students, according to 
community leaders.  Government officials have underscored 
that Canada is at the forefront of international efforts to 
fight anti-Semitism, and sent a large delegation led by 
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to the February 
Interparliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism 
(ICCA) conference in London.  End summary. 
 
ECONOMIC CRISIS FUELS UPSURGE IN INCIDENTS 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (U) On March 31, B'nai Brith Canada's League for Human 
Rights released its 2008 Audit of anti-Semitic Incidents and 
separately presented a copy of the report to the Charge. 
B'nai Brith Canada's hotline fielded 1,135 reports of 
anti-Semitic incidents in 2008, an increase of 8.9 pct from 
2007 (ref a).  Victims reported more than one-quarter of 
these incidents to the police, who laid  charges in fifteen 
cases.  The 2008 incidents included physical assault 
(Sainte-Agathe, Quebec), vandalism of  Jewish community 
centers and synagogues (Edmonton, Toronto,  Kelowna, Regina, 
Montreal, Saskatoon), graffiti calling for  killing Jews 
(Winnipeg), and chants of "death to Jews" at public rallies 
(McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario).   B'nai Brith 
officials commented that, with the Jewish community making up 
 less than 1 pct of the total Canadian population (according 
to the 2006 Census), there is a disproportionate  targeting 
of the Jewish community.  (B'nai Brith has used  the same 
definitions of acts of anti-Semitic violence,  vandalism and 
harassment for the past 27 years.) 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  According to B'nai Brith, almost half the 
incidents took place in the last four months of 2008, which 
it attributed to the economic recession and widespread 
coverage of the Bernard Madoff financial scandal.  B'nai 
Brith Executive Vice President Frank Dimant told the Charge 
that white supremacists, radical Muslims, and far leftists 
are uniting behind an anti-Semitic banner.  Dimant suggested 
that by late December 2008, the economic crisis and war in 
Gaza had provided a "perfect storm" for promoting  hatred of 
Jews, with university campuses becoming a hostile 
environment for Jewish students.  There was widespread media 
coverage of an incident on February 11 at York  University in 
Toronto, where a mob chanting anti-Jewish slogans blockaded 
students at the campus Hillel. 
 
CANADA LEADING THE FIGHT AT HOME AND ABROAD 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U)  Jewish leaders have praised Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper and his government for speaking out forcefully about 
anti-Semitism.  Minister for Citizenship, Immigration, and 
Multiculturalism Jason Kenney led a twelve-member Canadian 
delegation to the February 2009 Interparliamentary Coalition 
Qdelegation to the February 2009 Interparliamentary Coalition 
to Combat Anti-Semitism (ICCA) conference in  London, where 
Kenney announced that Canada would host the  next ICCA 
gathering in 2010.  Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a  former 
Minister of Justice and Attorney General, served on  the 
conference's steering committee.  Also attending were 
Liberal MPs Bob Rae (Foreign Affairs "critic"), Anita 
Neville, Carolyn Bennett,  Raymonde Folco, Hedy Fry, and 
Joyce Murray; Conservative  MPs Randy Hoback, James Lunney, 
and Scott Reid; and Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Canada has applied to become a full member of the 
International Task Force on Holocaust Research, Education, 
and Commemoration.  The government's Community Historical 
Recognition Program (CHRP) has included a C$2.5 million 
commemorative fund to educate future generations about 
Canada's refusal to accept hundreds of Jewish European 
refugees aboard the SS St.Louis as it arrived in Halifax 
 
OTTAWA 00000273  002 OF 003 
 
 
harbor in 1938. 
 
¶6.  (U)  In January 2008, Canada was the first  country to 
announce it would not attend the 2009 UN Durban Review 
Conference on Racism (Durban II), noting that the 2001 
Conference had degenerated into an anti-Semitic hate-fest 
(ref b). 
 
¶7.  (U)  The Department of Public Safety is providing C$3 
million for a pilot program to enhance security  for Jewish 
community institutions in the  wake of an increase in 
vandalism and threats in recent  years.  In 2008, almost 
twenty Jewish institutions received funding under this 
program.  In the 2008 election  campaign, the opposition 
Liberal Party pledged C$75 million for a similar program if 
it formed the next government. 
 
NEW TECHNIQUES 
-------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The B'nai Brith report also noted a 30 pct 
increase in Internet and electronic-based hate involving new 
media such as social blogs, social networking sites, online 
videos, and text messaging. The report also noted new forms 
of bigotry "masquerading" as anti-Zionism.  December 2008, 
which coincided with Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, 
saw the highest volume of incidents.  The March 2009 "Israeli 
Apartheid Week" (IAW) poster depicted  an Israeli helicopter 
deliberately targeting a Palestinian child holding a teddy 
bear.  (Note: Both Carleton University and Ottawa University 
prohibited the poster  noting that it infringed their own 
human rights policy and the Ontario Human Rights Code.  End 
note.)  IAW began in Toronto in 2005 and has since spread to 
over two dozen cities around the world.  B'nai Brith 
officials  told Charge that IAW is spreading to high schools, 
and  expressed concern that Muslim groups with whom they have 
worked  in the past, such as the Canadian Arab Federation 
(CAF), are increasingly radicalized.  Community leaders have 
called for greater attention to universities, claiming that 
events such as IAW have  contributed to a climate where 
students are afraid to identify themselves as Jewish or to 
express their opinions for fear of physical and verbal 
assault. 
 
MOST INCIDENTS IN ONTARIO 
------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U)  Ontario's 682 anti-Semitic incidents represented 60 
pct of all incidents reported in Canada, a 17 pct  increase 
from 2007, according to the B'nai Brith report.   The Greater 
Toronto Area (GTA) alone accounted for 538  incidents. 
According to the report, the Toronto Police recorded 153 
hate-related incidents in 2008,  with Jews the most targeted 
group (45 incidents).  The number of incidents reported in 
the Toronto suburb of  Thornhill, an area with a significant 
Jewish population, more than doubled from the 25 cases in 
¶2007. 
 
CONVICTIONS IN QUEBEC 
---------------------- 
 
¶10.  (U)  Quebec experienced a 72 pct increase in reported 
vandalism from the 44 cases in 2007, according to B'nai 
Brith. A quarter of the incidents occurred in July and August 
¶2008.  B'nai Brith explained this in part as prejudice 
against members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish  community who 
vacation in the countryside each summer.  In October 2008, an 
assailant threw bricks through the windows of a Montreal 
synagogue.  In February 2009, Omar Bulphred, one of two 
individuals charged in connection with the firebombing of  a 
Montreal Jewish school in September 2006 and Jewish 
community center in April 2007, received a seven-year 
Qcommunity center in April 2007, received a seven-year 
sentence after pleading guilty.  In November 2008, his 
co-conspirator, Azim Ibragimov, had received a four-year 
sentence. 
 
EPISODES IN WESTERN CANADA 
-------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) In July 2008, Mustafa Taj received a one year jail 
sentence  (with credit for time served) for his 2006 Calgary 
attack on a Jewish teenager and her three friends, one of 
whom he pushed from a station platform onto train tracks. 
 
OTTAWA 00000273  003 OF 003 
 
 
According to media reports, the 21-year old Taj shouted "I'm 
Muslim and hate Jews" while assaulting his victims.  The 
report also noted an increased presence of white supremacist 
groups on the streets of Calgary, including a  "White Pride" 
march in the city's downtown in March 2008. 
 
¶12.  (U)  British Columbia continued an upward five-year 
trend in incidents, with 80 reported anti-Semitic incidents, 
a 31 pct increase from 2007, according to the B'nai Brith 
report.  In February 2008, the British Columbia Supreme 
Court convicted Bill Noble of Internet hate crimes, the 
province's second ever conviction for this offense.  Noble 
was accused of "willfully promoting hatred against 
identifiable groups, namely Jews, Blacks, homosexual or gay 
persons, non-whites and persons of mixed race or ethnic 
origin," and received a sentence of six months imprisonment, 
followed by three years probation. 
 
¶13.  (U) In February 2009, a Saskatchewan provincial court 
acquitted former aboriginal leader David Ahenakew of a hate 
crime charge following comments he made in a 2002 speech and 
interview that Hitler was right when he "fried six  million 
of those guys."  The provincial court judge ruled that 
Ahenakew may not have intended to incite hatred since  his 
comments appeared spontaneous.  The Crown will not appeal the 
acquittal, according to media reports. 
 
COMMENT: "RESPECT CANADIAN VALUES" 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU)  The Canadian government has vigorously condemned 
anti-Semitism at home and abroad, and brought the 
perpetrators of the 2006-2007 Montreal Jewish community 
firebombings to justice.  The government's decision to host 
the 2010 ICCA gathering, and its domestic pilot program to 
improve security at Jewish institutions, show its 
understanding of the threat.  Minister Kenney has 
consistently called for all residents to respect "traditional 
Canadian values" of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. 
 
Visit Canada,s North American partnership community at 
http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
 
BREESE