Montreal city hall unveiled its updated roadmap to combat racism and racial profiling on Oct. 29. But instead of kudos for their accomplishments thus far, they got an earful.
Criticism came from members of the Jewish community—which has long contended Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration has been tone-deaf to realities since Oct. 7, 2023.
The joint public session of the committees on Social Development and Diversity and Public Safety heard comments on the Plante administration’s “accelerate change” plan to combat racial profiling and discrimination.
Citizens were invited to pose questions and address the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) officials, city and suburban mayors and councillors, and anti-racism commissioner Bochra Manaï.
Sonny Moroz, the only Jewish city councillor in Montreal—and a member of the committee—criticized the fact that there was no antisemitism action plan “despite it being finally recognized that there has been an exponential rise this year.” Not having a specific plan while simultaneously recognizing such an increase is very unfortunate, he told The CJN, “as there have been attempts to encourage a different approach and requests to collaborate more on this file.”
The most outspoken elected critic of the city’s response to rising antisemitism, Moroz addressed the issue directly: “Since taking public positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ms. Manaï has of course lost the trust of part of the Jewish community here in Montreal. She has also lost all credibility to carry out her role. Such a strategic position must be held by a unifying person who demonstrates prudence and neutrality in these statements and in her public behavior. Will Ms. Manaïl leave her position in 2025?”
Manaï responded that the city’s recognition of racism and systemic discrimination in 2020 “obviously involves all forms of racism,” including antisemitism, and spoke of accompanying the Jewish community “in its great diversity” over the last year.
“I have already said everything in an open letter published in November 2023, almost a year ago. My position then was to say that I only did what I consider to be a humanitarian duty, and my position was a position for peace,” she responded.
Manaï faced repeated calls for dismissal from Jewish organizations last year, after it was discovered she promoted events on her private social media account where aggressively anti-Israel rhetoric and symbolism were displayed.
She also attended a downtown gathering in October, 2023, where Imam Adil Charkaoui loudly called for God to “exterminate” Zionists, and made other threats.
(Charkaoui’s acts were investigated by Montreal police and the RCMP—but Quebec prosecutors declined to lay charges for lack of confidence in proving guilt of inciting hatred beyond a reasonable doubt.)
As commissioner, Manaï was silent when Jewish schools, a community centre and synagogue were shot at and firebombed, among other incidents.
The action-plan draft penned last year by seven west-end elected officials—including Mount-Royal MP Anthony Housefather, who is now Ottawa’s special advisor on Jewish community relations and antisemitism—also recommended her dismissal
Manaï refused to step down, defending her actions as individual and peaceful gestures. Plante supported her colleague, agreeing she should have shown more discretion, but pledged that efforts were being made to build bridges with all communities.
Manaï is officially tasked with ridding the city administration of racism and discrimination. CDN/NDG mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa oversees combatting racism in Montreal.
The consensus of many participants was disappointment that the word ‘antisemitism’ is found nowhere in the 57-page report, which outlines plans of engagement and achievements to date—from holding workshops with various groups, police meetings with communities affected by the Middle East conflict, implementing Intersectional Gender Analysis, as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Dida Berku, a Côte Saint-Luc city councillor for 34 years, told the panel “Montreal has become the epicentre of violent and hateful acts against Jews in Canada,” and said 212 hate incidents since Oct. 7, 2023, “culminated in acts that clearly aim to terrorize and intimidate the community as a whole… We are no longer safe in Montreal… And many of our residents who have lived and worked in Montreal for generations no longer recognize our city.
“We have a 57-page report, a dramatic increase in hate incidents and hate crimes against the Jewish community,” and despite that says Berku, “we never use the word ‘Jewish’. We talk about Arab, we talk about Sikh, we talk about Black, we talk about gay, we talk about all kinds of minority communities, and we don’t dare, (use the word antisemitism).”
Berku acknowledged the SPVM’s efforts at reconciliation, but said Montreal “has reached a point of no return,” and questioned whether Manaï’s role may be too narrowly focused. Katahwa replied that any recommendations put forward will be considered and encouraged Berku to reach out directly to her, as one elected official to another.
More interesting than what was in the report, said CIJA’s Quebec director of government relations Yannis Harrouche, “is what is not in it,” as he shared his own figures with the panel: “212 is the number of hate crimes and incidents against the Jewish community that have been recorded by the SPVM from Oct. 7, 2023, to mid-September 2024; 120 is the specific number of hate crimes against the Jewish community; three times more than any other community affected; 19 percent is the proportion (of all hate crimes) according to Statistics Canada, and one is the percentage the Jewish community represents among the Canadian population.
“It hurts me to say all these numbers,” Harrouche continued, “but the one that hurts me the most is zero, the number of times the words Jew, antisemite, antisemitism, is foundin the 56 pages of the commissioner’s report.”
When the community is facing a meteoric rise in antisemitism “like we haven’t seen in generations” he asked Katahwa, “how can we continue to have confidence in the current commissioner to combat systemic racism, given the actions she has taken, especially since she hasn’t taken any in the last year? And how can your administration continue to have confidence in her?”
Katahwa did not respond about Manaïbut instead said she spoke with “several people, members of the Jewish community… And I have a lot of empathy, and I understand in fact, because people come to share with me what they experience and the fear in their gut that they have in certain situations.”
She said it’s understandable that the absence of the term “could give the impression that in fact we don’t want to fight antisemitism at all,” but insisted the objective of the city’s commitments “is to combat all systemic discrimination and all forms of racism. So that also includes combating antisemitism.”
Katahwa cited the SPVM’s expanded hate incident and crimes module and additional officer training in specific boroughs. “We must not make a connection between the fact that the word ‘antisemitism’ is not used here today in this report and the fact that the city of Montreal is not taking any action… that is absolutely not it.”
Montreal director-general Benoit Dagenais agreed, saying the SPVM in particular has taken much action in this regard—the force held 25 community workshops addressing the topic during the past year.
“The words you mention are not there, that’s true. But when we talk about action connected to the context of the Middle East conflict, that’s what we’re talking about, condemning antisemitism and any other form of discrimination and racism.”
If groups lack confidence in the commissioner said Dagenais, “the invitation to the discussion is extended to meet with these groups that want to continue the discussion outside of these walls.”
That response didn’t cut it for resident Phil Nussbaum who attended the hearing, and said he found it puzzling that antisemitism “is the scourge of the world and not mentioned once in your report.” After reminding the panel about the Oct. 26 shooting of a Jewish man in Chicago by an assailant allegedly yelling Allahu Akbar (God is great), Nussbaum asked Manaï: “Are you prepared to condemn the call for ‘Global Intifada’ before it takes further hold in Montreal?”
Manaïdid not respond. Katahwa said the city of Montreal and council “denounce any hate crime, any hate speech” calling Montreal “a city of peace.” She continued to recall council motions denouncing “the terrorist attack by Hamas and all the killings happening in Gaza,” and “the situation that started already in Lebanon.”
Deputy police chief Vincent Richer told Nussbaum that the SPVM sought legal advice on the use of specific slogans “to see if we could act legally against these terms and the legal counsel was very clear… we can not.” He said the SPVM meets with police chiefs across the country every two weeks to discuss ongoing demonstrations and related issues, and said other forces face similar restrictions.
“They received the same legal counsel, and came to the same conclusion that we can’t act on these terms.” He insisted however, that “when there are criminal acts, we do arrest,” adding since October 2023 there have been more than 360 protests and over 100 arrests for different types of crimes.
