A growing number of cultural community leaders are urging the federal government to act quickly against antisemitism, which they say has reached a disturbing level in Canada.

Over 25 Montreal organizations, predominantly representing racialized minorities, signed on to a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his antisemitism envoy Irwin Cotler urging the government to follow through on the pledge made by Trudeau at an international conference in Sweden in October.

The open letter was initiated by former Montreal city councillor Marvin Rotrand, who became national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights after he left office in November.

Rotrand said several other groups have since indicated they also want to endorse the letter dated Dec. 2, which refers to the Malmo International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism.

“We invite the government and special envoy to ensure that there be legislation, funding and action in the short term to transform the welcome Malmo promises into concrete gains to push back antisemitism,” the letter states.

Noting the rise in hate crimes against certain minorities in the country during the pandemic, the signers say the Jewish community has been particularly targeted.

“The scenes of violence and vandalism against Jews and their institutions that we witnessed this past spring are unacceptable and need to be confronted. We agree with the prime minister’s words that it is not only for the Jewish community to confront antisemitism.”

Among the recommendations are:

• Making the office of special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, created in November 2020 and to which Cotler was reappointed for another one-year mandate, permanent and funded
• Encouraging adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism by all levels of government and across civil society, and providing the resources for its implementation
• Ensuring that international development aid does not enable antisemitism, especially in education, and that funding to non-governmental organizations is conditional upon their adherence to the IHRA definition

Signatories represent Filipino, Chinese, Caribbean and South Asian organizations;  activists Fo Niemi, head of the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations, and Marlene Jennings, president of the Quebec Community Groups Network and a former Liberal MP; Kyle Matthews, director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies; and elected officials, mostly municipal, such as Luis Miranda, mayor of the Montreal borough of Anjou, and D’Arcy McGee MNA David Birnbaum.

Other individuals, mainly from the Jewish community, also put their names to the letter.

Several organizations have contacted B’nai Brith in the past week to indicate they wish to add their names, said Rotrand, who was councillor for the Snowdon district for 39 years.

“The response has been so favourable that we now intend to enlarge the effort to other provinces and to promote a similar letter with signatories from outside Quebec.” He hopes to convene a national call in January or February with that goal.

“The reason we started in Quebec was to leverage my relationships built up over several decades. I have worked with many of these organizations in the past and they were eager to respond to my invitation to denounce antisemitism and to lend their weight to the Malmo pledge,” he said.

Rotrand was particularly vocal at Montreal council this past year on the need to address anti-Asian racism and to strengthen the police department’s hate crimes unit.

Rotrand is keen on building alliances. “I don’t see much outreach from the Jewish community to others, but it is in everyone’s interest to unite against hate be it targeting Jews or any other identifiable group.”

Ramon Vicente, president of Filipino Family Services of Montreal, stated, “We appreciate the Jewish community standing with us in the face of a terrible surge in anti-Asian racism during the pandemic. With the epidemic of mushrooming hate crimes this year, in which the Jewish community is disproportionately targeted, it is equally important for us to stand in solidarity with them.”

Meanwhile, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) responded to the Quebec government’s progress report on the first anniversary of its action plan on racism and discrimination.

CIJA Quebec vice-president Eta Yudin said there has been a “troubling” increase in antisemitic incidents this year and almost as many hate crimes reported in the first half of 2021 as in all of 2020.

CIJA is asking the government to conduct a study into the rise in antisemitism “as has been done for other forms of hate.” It also urges improved police training in the identification of hate crimes and adequate resources to follow up on reported incidents.

In June, the Coalition Avenir Québec government adopted the IHRA antisemitism definition.