Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, who was reelected with about 54% of the vote on Monday, has ignored multiple requests to meet formally with B’nai Brith Canada, the country’s oldest human rights organization, the nonprofit said.
“This is her chance to demonstrate genuine leadership, because the status quo that Toronto’s Jewish community has been living with for the last three years under her watch is not acceptable,” Simon Wolle, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, told JNS.
Chow, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” won a second term in Toronto’s municipal election on Monday. Wolle said the mayor should consider it “a renewed opportunity to make things right with the Jewish community.”
The mayor “needs to recognize that her failure to stand up for the Jewish community and her failure to engage properly with the Jewish community have been factors in her failures to date in this area,” he told JNS.
“She has to reverse course,” Wolle said. “She has to be the one showing up. She has to be the one taking active steps to restore the trust of Toronto’s Jewish community.”
The Greater Toronto area is home to about 190,000 Jews. The 2021 Canadian census recorded about 99,000 Jews in the city proper. In 2025, there were 81 anti-Jewish hate crimes in Toronto, which was 35% of all reported hate crimes in the city. Jews make up less than 3% of the population.
The mayor should strengthen policing, condemn Jew-hatred more than she has, admit her failures in this area and work directly with Jewish organizations to develop practical solutions, according to Wolle.
“She has to stand up vocally, verbally, openly and transparently against the normalization that has been allowed to fester under her leadership,” he told JNS. “We expect that the Jewish community will not have to fund its own protection, that this is a fundamental responsibility of government.”
“Right now, we have laws in place that allow for armed protection of bags of money,” he said. “We ask our elected officials if they’re prepared to take a position that clearly states that the lives of Jews in this city and in this country are worth the same or more as bags of money traveling around our cities and streets.”
Wolle said that B’nai Brith Canada has repeatedly sought a meeting with Chow, including during brief encounters at public events.
“She has refused to act on or respond to those requests in any meaningful way,” he said.
B’nai Brith Canada would be willing to meet with the mayor, according to its executive.
“We would look forward to having these hard conversations and addressing the challenges facing them head on in terms of what Torontonians are experiencing and talking through the surge in antisemitism and extremism with her,” Wolle said.
B’nai Brith Canada is also prepared to discuss “the tactical and practical and actionable steps she can take to affect the required change, and really protect human rights for everyone in the city and not leave the Jewish community on the editing room floor,” he said.
Wolle cited Chow’s post-election pledge to “be a mayor for all the people of Toronto.”
“It’s time for her to prove that she includes Toronto’s Jewish community as the people of Toronto that she’s referring to,” he said.
Josh Landau, senior director of government relations in Ontario for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, told JNS that CIJA has “formally met” with Chow.
“CIJA regularly meets with elected officials at all levels of government,” Landau said. “We will continue to advocate directly for concrete actions to restore safety, order and dignity for Toronto’s Jewish community and every resident of the city.”
